Here’s what happens when prison guards go completely wrong!
9 - El Chapo Pleased Over the border in Mexico City, nine prison guards
were arrested for their involvement in the escape of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzman's finance chief,
"El Vic," in addition to other inmates. Victor "El Vic" Manuel, Luis Fernando, and Yael Osuna escaped
from Reclusorio Sur jail during an inmate transfer. They were in a van driven by
prison employees... corrupt prison employees. All three were supposed to be extradited to the
US on drug charges. However, they wanted to escape before their American sentencing. The
prison employees waited nearly three hours before reporting them as "missing." Sadly,
we can't really blame the guards in this one. Roberto Barenque Medina, one of the guards,
apparently offered another inmate in the van $10,600
to stay quiet about the escapees. He told the inmate to pretend to be asleep in the van while
being taken to a doctor's appointment. Or else he would send a hitman to hurt the inmate's family.
A month before, Medina himself was contacted by the Sinaloa Cartel,
who threatened his family if he didn't help El Vic escape. He went ahead with the cartel's plan,
leaving the inmates' cells unlocked and giving them officer uniforms. Conveniently,
another guard didn't check the vehicle before driving the sick prisoner to his
doctor's appointment. The three escapees were dropped off and chauffeured to a getaway car.
8 - El Chapo Not Pleased As the ringleader of the Sinaloa Cartel,
El Chapo was used to living a life of luxury. But he got angry when someone tried to sell him
long johns for $500,000. His son was serving a three-year money-laundering sentence at a
maximum-security prison and requested some thermal clothing to keep him warm in his cold cell.
El Chapo asked one of his traffickers to bribe prison officials to sneak in the long
underwear for his son. The guard charged $100,000, but two other soldiers involved asked El Chapo for
a total of $500,000. El Chapo hesitantly agreed and later sent out a hitman to take care of the
two greedy soldiers. El Chapo's son was released from prison, but his other son was mortally
wounded a while later when two of his men mistook him for someone else. Surprisingly, El Chapo was
more upset about the $500,000 long-johns than he was about his other son's death.
7 - Jailhouse Smugglers Some prisoners keep breaking the law,
even when they're behind bars. At Cuyahoga County Jail in Cleveland, Ohio, Lamar Speights
texted his brother from a smuggled cell phone about the contraband he was about to hide inside
water balloons. The drugs came from corrections officer Marvella Sullivan. In fact, this is just
one case of officer-prisoner collaboration at the Cuyahoga County Jail. Several inmates previously
sweet-talked and bribed their way into smuggling cell phones, vapes, and drugs into the jail.
Sullivan's fellow guard, Stephen Thomas, was connected to the overdoses of two
inmates and was a crucial player in the smuggling ring at the facility. Thomas hid
the drugs in a glove, went to the inmates' cell for a "search," and then left the glove behind
that contained the illegal substances. Another inmate's girlfriend sent Thomas
$1,000 on CashApp in exchange for his services. Thomas pleaded guilty on two counts of bribery,
one count of theft, and one count of illegally bringing a phone into the facility.
Sullivan pleaded guilty to attempted bribery and trafficking. She struck a deal with law
enforcement because she agreed to testify against Thomas. Investigations revealed that she received
flirty texts from inmates, which encouraged her to help them smuggle things into the prison.
In another case of guards smuggling contraband beyond prison walls, four deputies in Richmond
County, Georgia, were fired for smuggling phones, weapons, tobacco, and drugs to inmates at Charles
B. Webster Detention Center. The guards' job description said they were supposed to "protect
and serve." Instead, they betrayed the law and civilians' trust by sneaking contraband
into the facility. They received several charges related to obstruction, drugs, weapons, and more.
6 - Roughed Up Sometimes, the charges don't come
from prisoner-guard collaborations but rather altercations. In Boston, Seth Bourget and Joe
Lavorato were arrested after roughing up an inmate who couldn't fight back because he was handcuffed.
Bourget severely injured the inmate who was living in the mental health housing unit.
Both officers failed to report the extent of the inmate's injuries. They then destroyed the
video evidence while claiming the camera wasn't working to cover up the crime.
Both officers were arrested for the incident and faced charges including deprivation of civil
rights and obstruction of an official proceeding. Put simply; they beat up a guy in handcuffs.
5 - Networked In November 2016, 49 people were arrested for
using their law enforcement badges to protect drug dealers in Atlanta, Georgia. Many charges were
filed for smuggling contraband into prisons and protecting drug dealers outside of prison walls.
In several cases, the officers agreed to accompany traffickers to their deliveries.
They believed if the dealers were stopped by law enforcement, they would not be searched because
they had a corrections officer in the car with them. Officers at another prison helped inmates
trick civilians into paying fake fines after failing to appear for jury duty.
Guards at several other facilities were charged for smuggling contraband,
which inmates then used for wire fraud, money laundering, identity theft, and drug
trafficking. The state faced a serious problem because of its understaffed prison facilities.
Georgia did not have the funds to conduct thorough background checks and was forced to hire
unqualified persons at low wages. They resorted to bribery from inmates to supplement their income.
4 - Prison Break At Dannemora's Clinton Correctional Facility
in New York, prison guard Gene Palmer brought two inmates frozen dinners that contained tools for
their escape. However, these weren't ordinary prisoners. Richard Matt and David Sweat were
serving life sentences for taking innocent lives. Palmer's lawyer initially argued that he didn't
know there were tools inside the meat or that the prisoners were trying to escape. He later
pleaded guilty to allowing them access to an internal prison passage in exchange for
paintings and intel on other illegal acts happening with other inmates.
He also wrongfully allowed them to cook in their cells and burn evidence. Another prison employee,
Joyce Mitchell, was charged for helping them escape by putting tools into the meat,
which Palmer delivered to the inmates. Sweat and Matt cut through the steel walls
at the back of their cells, crawled down a catwalk, broke through a brick wall,
cut into and out of a steam pipe, then sliced through the chain and lock on a manhole cover.
Teams of dogs and helicopters were deployed to find the escapees, but after 19 days,
there was still no evidence of their whereabouts. Finally, almost three weeks after they escaped,
police caught up with them. Matt was shot in an altercation with police and passed away.
Sweat was taken into custody. 3 - Cellmate Secrets
Joyce Mitchell also played a role in helping Matt and Sweat escape from Dannemora. Her story is so
wild, it was featured in the Lifetime series, "Cellmate Secrets," documenting
her role in helping them escape in 2015. The story was also the subject of a Showtime
miniseries, "Escape at Dannemora." Mitchell was affectionately called "Tillie" by the inmates,
and she treated them with more respect than other prison employees. One prisoner
even said she flirted with some of the inmates, bringing them coffee and donuts and encouraging
romantic attention. She developed a suspiciously close bond with Sweat.
During his time in prison, Sweat worked on his artwork and kept to himself. But he and
Mitchell would leave together for hours at a time. She denied any intimate contact but
admitted to sending him lude notes and photos. Prison officials were suspicious of their
relationship, but Mitchell denied any romantic involvement. Matt also developed a strangely
close bond with Mitchell, and she admitted performing certain favors for him. In June 2015,
Sweat and Matt escaped the prison using the tools provided to them in their prison meal.
Mitchell was supposed to drive the getaway car but backed out at the last minute when she had
a panic attack after the escapees threatened to hurt her husband. When another inmate turned on
the television and saw Sweat and Matt had escaped, he knew they had internal help. There was no way
they could have done it on their own. The search lasted for three weeks and cost New York state
$23 million. Mitchell confessed to aiding the escapees and served four years at Bedford Hills
Correctional Facility. She was denied parole but approved for conditional release in 2020
for good behavior. 2 - Lustful Ladies
California police arrested female corrections officer Tina Gonzalez for overstepping her
boundaries with an inmate at the Fresno County Jail. Eleven inmates witnessed her cut a hole in
her pants to get freaky with one of the other inmates. Her boss, Steve McComas, said he saw
some "pretty disgusting things," but this was by far the most shocking. After Gonzalez was arrested
and forced to quit her job, police searched the jail for evidence. They found she'd given
razors and a phone to the same inmate she was sleeping with, which he stored in his jail cell.
Before she got in trouble, she warned him when guards planned to search his cell. Yet,
Gonzalez didn't show any remorse. She continued to call the jail to maintain her relationship
with the male inmate and pleaded no contest to the charges brought against her. While her boss
hoped she would get the maximum sentence of three years and eight months, the judge only gave her
seven months with two years probation due to her early plea and lack of criminal history.
Savannah Dean was another guard sent to jail for her relationship with an inmate after exchanging
intimate texts with a prisoner at Parc Prison in South Wales. Police searched
the convict's cell and found lude notes and photos from Dean. She pleaded guilty
to misconduct and received a suspended sentence at Cardiff crown court.In a separate incident,
North Wales prison officer Emily Watson met with an inmate on Christmas day for an "extra
Christmas present." The investigation showed the pair were interacting through Instagram on
an iPhone hidden behind a PlayStation in his cell. Wait, UK prisoners get PlayStation? She also sent
him erotic pictures. Watson just got out of a long-term relationship, so the judge believed
she was encouraged by the flattery the inmate gave her during an emotionally vulnerable time.
Watson pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office and was sentenced to 12 months in jail.
In another tale of forbidden love, Melissa Goodwin faced jail time for her affair with one
of the inmates at a jail in Western Sydney. The relationship lasted several months, with at least
five acts happening in the prison. Another inmate claimed Goodwin snuck contraband such as tobacco,
lighters, and chewing gum for her convicted lover. She pleaded guilty to misconduct in
public office. Her prison boyfriend was transferred to a different facility.
1 - Escape Help In another case of
a female prison employee aiding male inmates, Sarina Dodson was arrested for helping three
inmates escape from Curry County Detention Center in New Mexico. The prisoners fled
in white t-shirts and boxers while covering their heads to shield their identities. Shortly after
the incident, Dodson devised her escape but was later found 100 miles from the prison in Texas.
SWAT teams caught up with the escapees in an apartment complex near a high school.
After a two-and-a-half-hour standoff, police finally took the three men into custody.
Escaping prisoners at Curry County Detention Center is nothing new. They've
had over a dozen escapes in recent history. Click to watch one of these next videos!