Former Officer Sentenced for Inmate Beating Cover-Up

0:00It's April 1st, Birmingham News. Today starts now, AI-powered and ready. A former Alabama corrections officer named Betty Jo Cooley just started her 20-month federal prison stint for faking records to hide an inmate, beating. The 59-year-old from Walker County pleaded guilty and reported to FCI pecan in Illinois back in late March. She got hit with the sentence on February 10th, 2026, after a judge bumped up her deal from just 10 months. Cooley watched jail worker Joshua Jones smash an inmate's face with a pepper spray can in 2024, hard enough to snap the trigger. Then signed off on a report that lied about it. The judge wasn't having it, calling out how folks in power can't just trample rights like that and stuck to the tougher guidelines of 27-2, 33 months. Cooley only copped to the cover-up, not the actual assault. She's got three years of supervised release waiting after her projected out date of August 23rd, 2027. This mess stands alone, with no ties to that separate Walker

1:05County jail death probe that's nabbed two dozen others. Cases like this keep shining a light on jail accountability, pushing for real change where trust gets broken.