The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that a former Mississippi Department of Corrections officer has been sentenced to prison after she assaulted an inmate back in 2016. Chief U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan II was the one to sentence Shelley Griffith, 29, to 70 months in prison. The former correctional officer along with two other guards were accused of applying excessive force against Leon Hayes.
Fox News says that the officers “kicked, stomped, and punched” the inmate.
The Clarion Ledger reported that after Griffith, Reginald Brown, and Sharalyn McClain injured Hayes with a dangerous weapon, they all three plead guilty to excessive force allegations on December 14, 2017. While Brown was sentenced to 60 months in prison, McClain’s sentencing date has been set for some time in March. Griffith is the second of the three officers to receive their sentence.
Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division made a statement regarding the incident and this is what he had to say, “This type of behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated by the Department of Justice. The Civil Rights Division is committed to prosecuting those who violate the civil rights of others.” Special agent Michelle Sutphin, who is in charge of the FBI’s Jackson division said that “Violating a person’s civil rights, whether the person is incarcerated or not, is a serious offense and only damages the already delicate relationship between corrections officers and inmates.”
Did a Jackson, MS correctional officer harm you while you were incarcerated?
One of the biggest misconceptions many individuals often have is that once a person is incarcerated, they lose all of their rights. While an inmate does lose certain privileges and their ability to interact with the outside world, that doesn’t mean they are stripped of their basic human rights and can be treated in any type of way by the probation officers who are assigned to monitor them. Many of the laws that govern what a police officer can and cannot do also apply to correctional officers and probation officers. This includes applying excessive force.
Police officers, whether they are patrolling the streets or monitoring the halls of a jail, are prohibited from applying excessive force. To clarify, excessive force is defined as a level of force that exceeds what is considered reasonably necessary. Therefore, if you were injured by a correctional officer while incarcerated in Jackson, MS, you are encouraged to contact Malouf & Malouf, P.L.L.C. at 601-522-2222 to speak with a Jackson, MS police brutality attorney. Whether you are looking to press charges against the officer(s) or file a personal injury lawsuit, the lawyers at this firm are more than qualified to help you do this.