Finding 4
Deaths from excessive force
Alabama prison guards used excessive force against dozens of people between 2019-2024, often causing serious injury.
In at least five cases, the victims died.
Rubyn James Murray
Victor Russo
Steven Edward Smith
Steven Davis
Michael Smith
ADOC’s own internal data shows a 76 percent increase in uses of force over the last decade, even as the prison population dropped by 4000 people.
After a four year investigation, the Department of Justice concluded that ADOC officers frequently use excessive force, “sometimes for the sole purpose of inflicting pain.” But the state continues to deny the findings and fight the DOJ in court, spending over $50 million defending the prison system and abusive officers.
ADOC provides legal defense for officers if they are sued for misconduct, and has paid settlements to end 94 excessive force lawsuits in the last five years.
Some officers have been named in multiple excessive force complaints, but faced no internal consequences. At least five officers currently working for ADOC were promoted after being named in an excessive force lawsuit that resulted in a large paid settlement to the victim.
Mohammad Jenkins was one such officer until 2022. Despite a long record of abuse and at least 16 excessive force lawsuits filed against him, the agency promoted him through the ranks until he beat a man, Victor Russo, who died a week later.
Vistor Russo
Excessive force
Victor Russo was beaten by prison supervisor Lt. Mohammad Jenkins. A week later he died, but not before blowing the whistle on the assault, complicating the prison’s narrative about what happened.
Victor Russo died at 60 years old, one week after Lt. Mohammad Jenkins violently beat him while he was handcuffed to a bench in the gym of Donaldson prison.
The beating was captured on prison surveillance cameras.
It showed Jenkins, over 6 feet tall and 280 pounds, punching, kicking and slapping Victor, who was 5 feet 10 inches tall, 162 pounds.
After the assault, Victor wrote a letter to the prison warden detailing the attack, and citing the specific surveillance cameras that captured the beating
He mailed a copy of the letter to his mother, Rosemary, a day before he became unresponsive and was sent by ambulance to a local hospital.
Victor died a week after the assault from an inoperable brain bleed caused by blunt force injuries to his head.
An investigator with Alabama’s prison system told the medical examiner who performed the autopsy that Victor injured his head “most likely sustained in a fall” that occurred after the assault. Based on that information, the medical examiner ruled that Victor’s death was an accident.
