Michael Pack

Introduction

Michael Pack is a former correctional officer at the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver, West Virginia, who was sentenced to 24 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy in which he and other correctional officers used unreasonable and unjustified force against inmates, including pretrial detainees, as a form of punishment and retaliation. Pack, 40, pleaded guilty on March 30 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar J. Aboulhosn to one count of violating 18 U.S.C. § 371, the federal conspiracy statute. Court records show he admitted taking inmates to “blind spots” outside the reach of surveillance cameras so force could be used on them without being recorded, and then putting false reports on paper to keep the violence hidden from investigators. The Justice Department announced the sentence on October 30, 2026.

Background Information

The Justice Department’s account of Pack, set out in an October 30, 2026 release from the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia, is confined to his work at the Southern Regional Jail and the conspiracy he joined there. According to court records, Pack admitted that he and his co-conspirators would strike, assault, and harm inmates they believed or perceived to have engaged in misconduct. The defining method of the conspiracy was concealment: Pack and his co-conspirators would bring inmates to known “blind spots” — areas of the jail that were not captured on surveillance cameras — so that they could use unreasonable and unjustified force against the inmates without being recorded and thus avoid being held accountable for their actions. The same habit of concealment extended to paperwork, with the officers preparing false reports that denied their uses of force and left inmates’ injuries undocumented.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Pack admitted that he and his co-conspirators repeatedly struck a pretrial detainee, and sprayed him with OC spray, to punish him for kicking his cell door. On another occasion, he admitted, he and his co-conspirators brought a second pretrial detainee to an interview room not captured on surveillance cameras; while the detainee was handcuffed and not a threat, Pack’s co-conspirators struck and assaulted him using unreasonable and unjustified force, and Pack did not intervene during the assault despite having an opportunity to do so.

The conspiracy’s paper trail was as deliberate as its violence. Pack further admitted that he and his co-conspirators would prepare false reports denying their unreasonable uses of force against inmates and failing to document injuries that inmates sustained during use of force incidents, so that the conspirators would not be investigated or held accountable for their actions. Specifically, Pack admitted that he was present when his co-conspirators used force against a pretrial detainee in a blind spot interview room. He wrote a false report omitting that he and his co-conspirators had brought the detainee to that room, and he falsely reported that the detainee did not sustain injuries from the incident — despite being present after the assault, when the detainee was escorted from the interview room while handcuffed and bleeding from the head.

Public Reaction and Consequences

“Michael Pack conspired with other correctional officers to illegally assault and punish inmates in his custody,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “While we recognize that the great majority of law enforcement officers discharge their duties with integrity, this defendant abused his authority and has received an appropriate measure of accountability.” Dhillon and U.S. Attorney Moore Capito for the Southern District of West Virginia made the announcement. The FBI Pittsburgh Field Office, Charleston Resident Agency, investigated the case. Trial Attorney Tenette Smith, former Deputy Chief Christine M. Siscaretti, and former Trial Attorney Sam Kuhn of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division prosecuted the case in partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia.

Current Status

Pack pleaded guilty on March 30, 2026, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar J. Aboulhosn to one count of violating 18 U.S.C. § 371, and on October 30, 2026, he was sentenced to 24 months in prison for his role in the conspiracy. The conviction and sentence resolve the federal case against him as described in the Justice Department’s announcement, which was issued as Press Release Number 26-1294. His admissions — the repeated strikes and OC spray used to punish one pretrial detainee, the assault on a handcuffed detainee that he watched without intervening, and the false report about a detainee bleeding from the head — stand as the court record of what the conspiracy did.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Pack’s career in corrections is over, and his name is now attached to a federal civil rights prosecution rather than a badge. The 24-month sentence puts a man whose job was to guard a jail into a federal prison, and his admissions — assaulting detainees in camera blind spots, standing by while a handcuffed detainee was beaten, and writing a report that omitted the blind-spot transfer and denied injuries to a detainee bleeding from the head — are permanent parts of the court record. The Civil Rights Division’s statement tied his conviction to a broader principle: that the great majority of officers discharge their duties with integrity, and that those who abuse their authority will be held accountable for it.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, “Former Correctional Officer Sentenced on Federal Civil Rights Charges in Connection with Conspiracy to Violate Inmates’ Rights at West Virginia Jail” — source