Prison guard accused of assaulting handcuffed inmates in Alabama gets prison time

A former Alabama prison guard who pleaded guilty to assaulting inmates in 2019 has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years of prison, federal prosecutors said.

In February, 2019, Ulysses Oliver Jr., then a sergeant at the Alabama Department of Corrections Elmore Correctional Facility, pulled a handcuffed inmate from an observation room into a hallway, where he struck the victim with his fists and feet and hit him with his collapsible baton around 19 times, according to court documents.

He then pulled a second handcuffed inmate from the observation room to the hallway and struck the victim around 10 times with his baton, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Alabama..

Oliver later shoved the tip of his baton into one of the victim’s faces, cutting the victim, the news release says.

The inmates were handcuffed behind their backs, did not resist and “posed no threat” during the assaults.

“Oliver assaulted the victims as punishment because he believed that the victims had brought contraband into the facility,” court documents stated, according to the release. “Oliver assaulted the victims in the presence of, or within earshot of, other (Alabama Department of Corrections) correctional officers, who did not intervene to prevent the assaults.”

Two other former corrections officers, Bryanna Mosley and Leon Williams, pleaded guilty in 2019 for failing to intervene, the news release says. A third former corrections officer, Willie Burks, who was serving as the shift commander when the assaults occurred, was convicted in 2021 of failing to intervene to stop the assault on the second inmate.

The Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment, which includes malicious uses of force by correctional officers,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division said in the release. “The Department of Justice will hold to account officers who brutalize incarcerated persons.”

In 2020, the Department of Justice issued a notice letter to the Alabama Department of Corrections alleging excessive use of force by prison staff against inmates.

The department’s investigation identified frequent use of excessive force in 12 of the 13 Alabama prisons it reviewed. In the final months of 2019, two prisoners at two different facilities died following uses of force, according to the investigation.

“The (Alabama Department of Corrections) has zero tolerance for violence within its facilities, including excessive use-of-force by staff...” Chief Law Enforcement Officer Arnaldo Mercado of the Alabama Department of Corrections Law Enforcement Services Division said in the release.

After Oliver’s two-and-a-half year sentence, he will be subject to three years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Prison guard accused of assaulting handcuffed inmates in Alabama gets prison time."