Three correctional officers at William Donaldson Correctional Facility in western Jefferson County were arrested this week on misdemeanor charges after they allegedly ignored a warning that Bloods gang members were about to attack an inmate inside the prison. The assault happened anyway, on Oct. 25, though authorities say the inmate was not seriously injured.
Devontay Tashion Jackson, a 30-year-old correctional officer from Calera; Neicko Lestonia White, a 50-year-old correctional officer from Hoover; and Michael Gwayne Underwood, a 30-year-old correctional officer from Center Point, were all arrested on a misdemeanor charge of failure of duty or violation of law by a guard or person in charge of convicts, according to AL.com. All three worked as correctional officers at Donaldson, the outlet reported.
Charging documents say the officers received notice from another corrections officer that Bloods gang members were preparing to assault the inmate, but failed to take reasonable action to protect him. The warning reportedly went unheeded, and the assault took place inside the prison as predicted.
Warrants Came More Than a Week Later
The Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff District Attorney's Office issued arrest warrants for the three officers on Nov. 2, more than a week after the alleged assault. Bond for each officer was set at $3,000, per the same account.
Underwood was booked into the county jail Friday at 4:55 p.m. and released roughly a half hour later, at 5:29 p.m. White and Jackson were booked together the day before, Thursday, at about 2 p.m., and were both released by about 3 p.m. As of the report, efforts to reach officials with the Alabama Department of Corrections about the officers' current employment status were not immediately successful.
Not the First Donaldson Case This Year
This is not the only case this year tying a Donaldson officer's alleged inaction to violence behind its walls. In September, former officer Melvin Ledarrius Thomas, 35, of Birmingham, was charged with manslaughter and failure of duty in connection with the 2025 stabbing death of 45-year-old inmate Antwion Webb, according to AL.com. Thomas's indictment alleged he recklessly returned Webb to the general population after learning Webb had been stabbed, and that he failed to provide medical care. Thomas's employment with ADOC had already ended on Sept. 20, 2025, and he was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on Aug. 26 this year, released the same day after posting $20,000 bond.
Separately, in July, a Jefferson County sheriff's deputy, 24-year-old Nicholas Chaz Austin, was charged with second-degree assault after an incident involving an inmate. AL.com reported that Austin was arrested on July 15 and placed on leave pending the outcome of that case.
A Facility Already Under Scrutiny
Donaldson's troubles are not new. A CBS 42 special report found that 23 people had died at the prison as of October 2024, following 28 deaths the year before, which the station described as a facility record, according to CBS 42. That same report cited Department of Justice findings from 2019 and 2020 describing correctional officers' routine failures to provide safe conditions, pointing to severe overcrowding and understaffing as contributing factors.
Statewide numbers point to a similar strain. Alabama prisons logged 916 inmate fights from October 2023 through Aug. 31, a roughly 13% jump over the 811 recorded the year before, and assaults on staff rose to 479 cases over the same stretch, up from 453, according to Alabama Daily News. Inmate-on-inmate assaults actually fell more than 14% during that window, from 1,444 to 1,234, the outlet noted, even as staffing has lagged roughly 2,000 correctional officers short of where it should be since 2017.
No outcome has been reported yet in the case against Jackson, White or Underwood, and the Donaldson case remains one of several pending matters testing how Alabama holds its own corrections staff accountable when warnings about violence inside its prisons go unanswered.
