A video of the death of J’Allen Jones, a 31-year-old Black man, was released on June 27, 2026, by order of the Hartford Superior Court. Jones died in prison in March 2018 while experiencing a mental health crisis. According to the video, correctional officers struck him multiple times, stripped him naked, placed a hood or spit bag over his head, and pepper-sprayed him. The state medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, citing struggle involving pepper spray, restraint, chest compressions, asthma, and blunt trauma as causes. Jones was seen on the video wheezing and begging for water before becoming unresponsive. Nurses and correctional officers then began performing CPR.

The Connecticut Department of Correction sought to keep the video sealed since 2019, arguing that its release could present security problems due to exposure of prison layout and staffing patterns, according to inkl.com. The state’s attorney declined to move forward with criminal charges, according to ctmirror.org.

Jones’s family filed a lawsuit against the Connecticut Department of Correction in August 2018. According to courant.com, as many as 10 correctional officers were involved in the incident. Hassan Foster, who knew Jones while both were incarcerated at Garner Correctional Institution in 2015, described Jones as calm and peaceful. Foster said he had seen Jones struggle with mental health episodes but that his medication seemed to relieve the symptoms. Foster added he had never seen Jones get angry or swear and that they went to church together and talked about spirituality. Foster learned of Jones’s death in 2018 after being transferred to MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution and expressed emotional distress upon learning of it.