According to reporting from 1819 News, deputies who seriously injured a man in their custody at the Jefferson County Jail in 2023 were given 35 days off work—and got paid for all but five of those days.
1819 News reported last week that it obtained personnel documents, an incident report, and video of the June 11, 2023, beating. Reporters said the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office refused to answer questions, but the Jefferson County Personnel Board sent employee disciplinary files after a public records request, and other deputies who expressed shock at the how the disciplinary proceedings were handled provided reporters with surveillance video.
Information was released showing that a man who allegedly flooded his cell by stuffing the toilet with paper was pepper sprayed, tased, struck nearly 100 times with batons, and kicked while on the ground by at least three deputies. 1819 News reported:
Deputies had to leave the room and come back three times because they were overwhelmed with pepper spray. On the third time, they reported the inmate tried to bite one of the deputies, so they tased him.
The inmate was finally put into handcuffs, and video shows he appeared to be unconscious while deputies dragged him into a day room with his pants down.
The man was seriously injured and had to be taken to UAB Hospital for treatment, according to news reports.
Only two of the three deputies were disciplined, personnel records showed. 1819 News reported that one deputy, who was accused of striking the incarcerated man 58 times with a baton and kicking him nine times, received a 30-day suspension for use of excessive force and was suspended without pay for just five days for failure to notify a supervisor.
A second deputy received the same punishment for striking the man 25 times with his baton and tasing him.
Other deputies raised questions about the tolerance of such graphic abuse of an incarcerated person. They told 1819 News these two deputies were given special treatment and should have received a more serious punishment.
“If you look at others that have done things, you will see people get dismissed or fired for these things,” a deputy told 1819 News. “One deputy got fired right off the bat for slapping an inmate. There are inconsistencies with discipline. This should have been felony indictments.”
Like jails across the country, the vast majority of people in the Jefferson County Jail have not been convicted of a crime. At midyear 2023, 70% of the jail population nationwide was unconvicted and awaiting court action on a current charge or being held in jail for other reasons, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.