Alabama corrections supervisor convicted of beating prisoners and trying to cover it up

Published 12:18 pm Thursday, April 20, 2023

A former Alabama prison supervisor was convicted of federal civil rights charges for the 2020 beating of three prisoners and writing a false report to cover up the beatings, federal prosecutors said.

Court records show that a federal jury on Tuesday convicted Lorenzo Mills of three counts of violating the prisoners rights and one count of falsifying an official report, the Department of Justice said Wednesday in a news release.

The DOJ said trial evidence and testimony showed one man suffered a broken arm and the two others suffered injuries such as pain and bruising after being beaten with a baton. Mills then wrote a report where he denied using any force against the victims, the department said.

Mills was a sergeant at Draper Correctional Facility in Elmore, Alabama.

“This verdict shows that our community members agree that no person is above the law,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Constitution protects the rights of all people, including those in our jails and prisons.”

The Department of Justice said that Mills faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for the civil rights charges and 20 years in prison for the obstruction of justice offense.