Overview

• Six Walker County jail employees were indicted on July 28 in federal court on charges of depriving detainees of their rights, conspiring against those rights and obstructing justice.
• Prosecutors allege the jail captain and officers enlisted an inmate as an “enforcer,” rewarding him with free-world food and a false character letter to assault other detainees.
• The indictment describes assaults between September 2022 and February 2023, including slamming a handcuffed inmate’s head into a cell floor, punching a restrained detainee and beating an escapee.
• This latest round of charges brings to nearly 20 the number of jail staff and medical workers charged or convicted in the multi-year investigation into systemic abuse at Walker County Jail.
• Tony Mitchell’s January 2023 death was ruled a homicide from hypothermia and sepsis after he spent two weeks in a cold cell without adequate food, clothing or medical care.