Sealed video shows Connecticut inmate's violent death in custody

Redacted footage shows correctional officers striking, restraining and pepper-spraying J’Allen Jones before he died at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown. The video, sealed since 2019, was ordered released by Hartford Superior Court Judge Claudia Baio after his family spent years fighting for access to the record of his death.

Jones was 31, Black and serving a 10-year sentence for armed robbery when the March 25, 2018 confrontation unfolded inside the Connecticut prison. The footage shows officers trying to move him to a medical unit during a mental health crisis, then using force after he refused a strip search. He was hearing things and speaking incoherently, and court records show a schizophrenic episode.

Connecticut’s chief medical examiner ruled Jones’ death a homicide. The medical examiner’s findings cited restraint, chest compressions, pepper spray exposure, asthma and blunt trauma. Hypersensitive cardiovascular disease also figured in the medical findings. The state’s attorney declined to file criminal charges, while a 2018 Connecticut State Police investigation found no criminal wrongdoing. An internal Department of Correction review concluded staff did not violate use-of-force policy but failed to recognize that Jones was in medical distress for more than seven minutes.

Jones’ family filed suit in August 2018 against the Department of Correction, eight officers and a prison nurse. The ACLU of Connecticut and local NAACP leaders backed the release fight, arguing that secrecy only deepened suspicion and that the public had a right to see what happened inside the prison. The Department of Correction opposed disclosure, saying the video could reveal the physical layout of Garner and staffing patterns.

Baio ordered the release in October 2025 after finding that the department had not sufficiently shown that its safety concerns outweighed the public interest in disclosure. The footage emerged after months of redaction negotiations.

Jones’ lawyer compared the footage to the video of George Floyd’s death, saying the prison images were in some ways even worse.