Video shows corrections officer assaulted for minutes at Arizona's Morey Unit

A leaked surveillance video from July 28 records a corrections officer being sucker-punched and repeatedly struck for about three minutes and 35 seconds at the Morey Unit of the Lewis prison complex. The assailant, Martin Franco, who is serving time for aggravated assault and has a history of violence against staff, is seen confronting the officer while another inmate remains visible nearby. Garcia, leader of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association, reported that the officer still suffers from the assault and warned that the incident underscores longstanding safety failures in Arizona prisons.

The Arizona Department of Corrections described the episode as an isolated, one-on-one attack and noted that other inmates were locked in their cells, a claim contradicted by the video. Statistics released by the department show a rise in both inmate-on-inmate and staff assaults over recent fiscal years, and staff injuries have more than doubled in the same period.