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(WASHINGTON) — In the weeks since President Donald Trump has assumed office, more than 200,000 federal workers at more than a dozen agencies have had their roles eliminated.

The mass culling stems in large part from efforts by Elon Musk and the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, which has sought to dismantle large swaths of the federal government.

Many of those fired have been classified as probationary employees, a status unrelated to job performance. While probationary employees can be recent hires — typically having served in their roles for under one or two years — the status can also apply to long-serving government employees who’ve changed roles or agencies.

In addition to those who’ve been fired, 75,000 federal workers have accepted buyouts.

Here are the agencies where workers are facing termination:

Department of Education

Dozens of “probationary employees” were let go from the Department of Education on Feb. 12, according to two sources familiar with the firings.

Dismantling the Department of Education was one of Trump’s key campaign promises. He has slammed the department as a “con job” that should be “closed immediately,” and has directed Musk to investigate the agency.

The Department of Education is the smallest cabinet-level agency with 4,400 employees. Another 1,400 employees work in the agency’s office of Federal Student Aid.

Department of Homeland Security

More than 400 employees at the Department of Homeland Security have had their positions eliminated, officials said. About half of the cuts were in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which saw over 200 dismissed.

The firings at FEMA came after Musk slammed federal spending on what he misleadingly called “luxury hotels” for undocumented immigrants.

In addition to the cuts at FEMA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) lost 130 staffers, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and DHS Science and Technology had smaller degrees of cuts.

Additionally, 12 Coast Guard members who work on diversity, equity and inclusion were affected by the reduction in force, with an offer to support border security efforts at the southwestern border.

Department of Energy

Roughly 2,000 people have been fired from the Department of Energy, including at the National Nuclear Security Administration.

One of the terminated employees, Krzan Matta, told ABC News the firings were conducted in a “haphazard” and “arbitrary” manner.

“There’s no consideration for the mission. There’s no consideration for whether or not this position is critical,” he said.

United States Agency for International Development

As part of Trump and Musk’s stated objective of shuttering the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), more than 10,000 staffers have been placed on leave, multiple sources told ABC News.

Roughly 600 USAID workers remain in their roles.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has also been targeted by Trump and Musk, who have said they plan to gut the 1,700-employee consumer watchdog agency.

On Feb. 14, government lawyers representing the agency’s acting director reached an agreement to temporarily hold off on firing CFPB workers while a lawsuit challenging the dismantling of the agency makes its way through court.

Department of Veterans Affairs

More than 1,000 Department of Veterans Affairs employees have been dismissed from their roles, the agency said on Feb. 13.

In a statement, the department said the cuts were part of the “government-wide Trump Administration effort to make agencies more efficient, effective and responsive to the American People.”

Department of Agriculture

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has also faced significant cuts — including to the U.S. Forest Service, which manages wildfire response and prevention.

Among those who lost their jobs was Carly Arata, who told ABC News she had been a probationary employee at the Natural Resources Conservation Service since September, but worked as a contractor in the role for a year before that.

Arata developed conservation plans for farmers in Georgia and helped them get federal funding.

“These poor farmers. … It’s like I abandoned them, and that’s not the case at all,” Arata said. “They were amazing and cared so much about their land, and I wanted to help them preserve that.”

Environmental Protection Agency

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fired 388 probationary employees, the agency confirmed on Feb. 20.

Another 171 staffers are now on administrative leave from the EPA teams responsible for diversity, equity and inclusion and environmental justice.

Department of Health and Human Services

The Department of Health and Human Services has also lost thousands of employees, including at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to the Associated Press.

About 700 workers were fired from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), multiple sources told ABC News.

At least 16 of the CDC cuts were to members of the World Trade Center Health Program, which critics said could put the health of 9/11 first responders at risk.

Department of the Interior

About 2,300 people have been fired from the Department of the Interior, according to Reuters.

Approximately 800 of those terminations were reportedly from the Bureau of Land Management.

Another 1,000 workers were fired from the National Park Service, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.

Office of Personnel Management

The Office of Personnel Management — which serves as the federal government’s HR agency, and has been overseeing the mass reductions process — has also faced cuts of its own staff.

About 200 probationary employees were told they were being fired in a prerecorded message that instructed them to “gather your personal belongings and exit the premises,” according to an audio recording of the call obtained by ABC News.

General Services Administration

The General Services Administration has also had its staff reduced, with Reuters reporting more than 100 people were laid off.

Small Business Administration

About 720 employees at the Small Business Administration have lost their jobs, Politico reported, reducing its headcount by about 20%.

Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service began laying off more than 6,000 new and newly-promoted employees across the country on Feb. 20, sources familiar with the planning told ABC News.

These layoffs, impacting roughly 6-7% of the agency’s 100,000-person workforce, began midday on Feb. 20 primarily outside the DC area, with thousands of employees facing layoffs at offices in Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Tennessee, New York and other states, sources told ABC News.

Department of Defense

The Pentagon announced on Feb. 21 that it will “release” some 5,400 civilian probationary workers beginning the following week and freeze hiring in the first wave of what could amount to more than 70,000 fired.

“We expect approximately 5,400 probationary workers will be released beginning next week as part of this initial effort, after which we will implement a hiring freeze while we conduct a further analysis of our personnel needs, complying as always with all applicable laws,” Darin Selnick, acting secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a statement on Feb. 21.

The statement said 5-8% of the Department of Defense’s civilian workforce will be cut in total, which would amount to 43,900 to 70,240 individuals removed. This upper bound is higher than the total number of the department’s probationary employees, which is roughly 55,000 worldwide, implying the cuts could reach deeper than the probationary workforce.

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(WASHINGTON) — A member of the DOGE team assigned to work at the IRS will not be granted broad access to Americans’ personal tax information, according to an agreement obtained by ABC News that heads off a request that had sparked concern within the IRS.

As ABC News previously reported, DOGE had sought broad access to an IRS system that contains the personal tax information of millions of Americans, a move that would have given them visibility into personal information including taxpayer names and addresses, social security numbers, details on how much individuals earn and owe, property information, and even details related to child custody agreements.

The terms of the DOGE employee’s temporary assignment at the IRS was laid out in a five-page memorandum of agreement between the Office of Personnel Management and the Internal Revenue Service. The memo states that the DOGE employee, Gavin Kliger, will be assigned to the IRS for a term of 120 days with the possibility of an additional 120-day extension.

In bold letters, the agreement states that “it is not the intention of this assignment for the Detailee to be provided or gain access to returns or return information … including any personally identifiable information associated with such taxpayer records.”

Instead, any information viewed will remain anonymous, the agreement said.

“Should access to IRS systems that contain returns or return information become necessary as part of the Detailee’s duties under this agreement, that access shall only be provided if it is anonymized in a manner that cannot be associated with, directly or indirectly, any taxpayer,” the agreement states.

Kliger has a host of duties while at the IRS, according to the memo. They include “surveying IRS software,” “identifying opportunities to modernize IRS technology and software,” and “implementing safeguards to prevent fraud.”

Kliger, who is technically an employee of the Office of Personnel Management, is also working across other agencies including OPM, USAID, and the State Department, sources told ABC News.

An IRS spokesperson did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment. A spokesperson for OPM declined to comment.

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(LOS ANGELES) Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said he’s asked the court to deny the Menendez brothers’ habeas corpus petition, which aims to get a new trial or the case tossed out.

Erik and Lyle Menendez filed the habeas corpus petition in 2023 for a review of new evidence not presented at trial.

Two new pieces of evidence are at the center of the petition.

One is a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin Andy Cano eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father. The cousin testified about the alleged abuse at trial, but the letter — which would have corroborated the cousin’s testimony — wasn’t found until several years ago, according to the brothers’ attorney.

The second piece is allegations from a former member of the boy band Menudo, Roy Rossello, who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by the brothers’ father, Jose Menendez.

Hochman explained that the standard for a successful habeas petition has multiple requirements: You must show that it’s new evidence; you must show thats it’s timely and the evidence could not be discovered at the time of the trial; you must show you didn’t engage in a delay by the time you learned of the evidence and brought your motion; the evidence must be credible; and the evidence must be admissible.

Hochman argues the letter to Cano is not credible evidence.

“If this letter truly existed, the defense counsel would have absolutely used it at the trial because it would help corroborate” testimony from Cano and Erik Menendez, Hochman said.

Erik Menendez at his second trial testified for seven days about graphic descriptions of his sexual abuse from ages of 6 to 18 and also talked about the sexual abuse his brother experienced from their father, the district attorney said.

Asked who he disclosed to, Erik Menendez said he told Cano when he was 12 or 13 years old.

Cano — who died in 2003 — testified in the 1990s and relayed that same information: that Erik Menendez mentioned abuse six years before the murders and that was the only communication they had about the sexual abuse, the district attorney said.

That letter was never discussed at either of the two trials, Hochman said.

Erik Menendez claimed he didn’t know about the letter until a 2015 Barbara Walters special published it, but this habeas motion was not filed until 2023, Hochman said.

The defense in this habeas motion argued that to resolve this case jurors had to decide if the brothers were sexually molested by their father — but the jury never had to resolve that question, Hochman said. Instead, the jury had to determine if the brothers conspired to kill their parents, if they killed them, what their state of mind was, and if they did so, if they acted in self-defense, Hochman said.

Hochman said Rossello’s claims fail the admissibility standard for the habeas petition because the brothers didn’t know about Rossello’s allegations until recent years, so it couldn’t have influenced their state of mind during the crime and “couldn’t play a role in self-defense or premeditated murder.”

The brothers were convicted in 1996 of the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.

Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were 21 and 18, respectively, at the time, admitted to gunning down their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills home. The defense claimed the brothers acted in self-defense after enduring years of sexual abuse by their father, but prosecutors alleged they killed for money.

Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole.

Besides the habeas corpus petition, the brothers have been pursuing two other paths to freedom.

One other path is through resentencing, which Hochman said his office will deal with in the coming weeks.

In October, then-LA County District Attorney George Gascón announced that he was recommending the brothers’ sentence of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence.

The DA’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.

Weeks after Gascón’s announcement, he lost his race for reelection to Hochman.

Hochman said in January that he was still reviewing the facts of the case and hadn’t yet decided if he’s in support of the brothers’ bid for freedom. He said he was reviewing thousands of pages of confidential prison records, trial transcripts and court filing, as well as speaking to all the prosecutors and defense attorneys involved.

The brothers’ next resentencing hearing is on March 20 and 21.

The third path to freedom is through clemency.

The brothers submitted a request for clemency to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In November, Newsom said he’d defer to Hochman’s “review and analysis of the Menendez case prior to making any clemency decisions.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

 

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(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Three people were shot and killed in a parking lot outside a driver’s licensing office in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday, police said.

A male victim died at the scene while two female victims died at a hospital, Louisville police said.

No suspect is in custody, police said. Witnesses said the suspect appeared to flee the scene, according to police.

“There does not seem to be a public threat,” police said at a news conference.

Authorities didn’t discuss any potential connection between the victims.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley has been removed by Mayor Karen Bass in the wake of the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires that killed dozens and destroyed hundreds of homes.

Bass said on Friday that she removed Crowley because firefighters were sent home instead of being used when the fires broke out last month.

“We know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke out were instead sent home on Chief Crowley’s watch,” Bass said in a statement. “Furthermore, a necessary step to an investigation was the President of the Fire Commission telling Chief Crowley to do an after action report on the fires. The Chief refused. These require her removal.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

 

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(MAYVILLE, N.Y.) — A jury has convicted a New Jersey man for attempted murder in the 2022 stabbing attack on author Salman Rushdie while the author was on stage at a speaking event in upstate New York.

Hadi Matar was found guilty of second-degree attempted murder and assault in connection with the attack at the Chautauqua Institution in southwestern New York.

The jury began deliberating around midday Friday before reaching their verdict within two hours.

Jurors heard starkly different accounts of the assault, which occurred on Aug. 12, 2022, while Rushdie was speaking before an audience at the education center.

District Attorney Jason Schmidt played slow-motion video showing Matar emerging from the audience, sprinting toward Rushdie, and launching a violent attack. Schmidt described the stabbing as a deliberate, targeted act, arguing that striking someone 10 to 15 times in the face and neck made death a foreseeable outcome. A trauma surgeon testified that Rushdie would have died without immediate medical intervention.

The defense, led by Andrew Brautigan, countered that prosecutors failed to prove Matar intended to kill Rushdie. The defense characterized the incident as a chaotic, noisy outburst rather than a calculated murder attempt. Public defender Nathaniel Barone argued that Matar was overcharged due to Rushdie’s celebrity, noting that he used knives rather than a gun or bomb and that Rushdie’s vital organs were not harmed.

Rushdie, 77, took the stand during the trial, vividly describing the attack that blinded him in one eye. He described his attacker’s eyes as “very ferocious” as he approached, before “hitting and slashing” him in his chest, torso, waist and eye as he struggled to get away, according to The Associated Press.

“It occurred to me that I was dying. That was my predominant thought,” Rushdie said, according to the AP.

Rushdie recounted the attack in his book, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” which was published last year.

Henry Reese, who was moderating the event and was wounded in the attack, also took the stand during the trial.

Reese told jurors he initially thought someone was running toward Rushdie as “a prank” but “at some point it became real, and I got up and tried to stop the attacker,” according to the AP.

The assailant was tackled by bystanders and pinned to the stage.

Matar did not testify and the defense called no witnesses during the two-week trial.

He rejected a plea deal ahead of the trial.

Matar still faces federal terrorism charges in connection with the attack. He was indicted by a grand jury on three counts, including attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and providing material support to terrorists. The indictment alleges that he “knowingly did attempt to provide material support and resources” to Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and “had engaged, and was engaging, in terrorism.”

Matar was also charged with an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries for the attack against Rushdie. The indictment alleges that he “did knowingly attempt to kill, and did knowingly maim, commit an assault resulting in serious bodily injury, and assault with a dangerous weapon.”

He has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.

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(NEW YORK) — The Maui Police Department in Hawaii is investigating what led to a gas grill explosion at a Kaanapali Beach condo Thursday evening that left seven people injured.

The victims’ ages range from 18 to 74, the Maui Police Department said.

Three were listed in critical condition, police said.

In livestream video obtained by ABC News, the explosion seemingly takes place in one of the middle floors of the condominium complex with beachgoers and other witnesses rushing toward the scene to help in the immediate aftermath.

The cause of the explosion remains under investigation.

“Preliminary investigations suggest that the explosion may have involved liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which supplies common area BBQs,” police said in a statement. “Witness statements indicate a possible grill malfunction before the incident.”

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge temporarily blocked the deportation of eight asylum seekers on Thursday, but the move was too late for one woman who her lawyers believe has already been deported by the Trump administration.

Despite seeking asylum in the United States to escape a violent former partner, according to her legal team, the woman was sent back to Ecuador this week — just hours before a court blocked her deportation — where her lawyers fear she might be killed.

“Plaintiff N.S. fled Ecuador to escape horrific violence and kidnapping by her former partner—a police officer who called her anti-indigenous slurs while raping her, beating her, and holding his gun to her head—and fears that he will kill her if she is removed,” her lawyers wrote in a filing to the court, adding that the woman was held captive by her former partner.

Her rapid removal comes as immigrant advocates raise concerns that the Trump administration is hastily carrying out deportations of migrants while disregarding their asylum claims and in spite of active litigation to stop their removals.

According to court records, the woman entered the U.S. around Jan. 26 and asked for asylum after turning herself in to immigration officials. But as of Wednesday, court records show she had not received a “credible fear” interview, one of the first steps in determining eligibility for asylum.

Her lawyer Keren Zwick, a litigation director at National Immigrant Justice Center, said she has not made contact with the woman since Wednesday evening ahead of the court hearing and believes she is en route to or back in Ecuador where her life is in danger.

“I’m very worried about her wellbeing. She fled because she is facing domestic violence, and she fled a partner who threatened to kill her and held her captive and went looking for her when she tried to escape,” said Zwick “I feel sure that he will continue to do that and if he learns that she’s back in the country I think her life is in danger.”

During Thursday’s hearing, lawyers with the Department of Justice told the court that one of the asylum seekers may have already been in deportation proceedings, Zwick said.

Zwick said that the Department of Homeland Security has been unwilling to provide information about the state of her clients removal or intervene to stop the deportation.

“Their agency is not being helpful,” she said. “We haven’t been able to get clear information.”

DHS declined to comment or confirm if N.S. was deported to Ecuador.

A DOJ attorney representing the case did not respond to a request for comment.

As the Trump administration rapidly scales up deportation efforts, immigration advocates have criticized the administration for steamrolling removals with little regard for pending lawsuits or attempts to claim asylum.

In a separate case last week, the Trump administration deported three men to Venezuela just one day after a court order blocked their transfer to Guantanamo Bay. In other legal cases, the Trump administration has been accused of intentionally violating court orders.

“If we’re living in a world where the U.S. government thinks it’s okay to remove a person and asylum seekers … without giving them any opportunity to pursue protection, that’s just a complete subversion of our asylum,” Zwick said.

While today’s court order came too late to prevent what Zwick and her team say is a deportation, lawyers for asylum seekers will return to court next week to fight against their imminent removal to countries including Afghanistan, Ecuador, Brazil, and Egypt where their lawyers say they fear they’ll face persecution or violence.

The request to block the deportation of the eight asylum seekers is linked to an ongoing lawsuit the ACLU and other groups filed against the Trump administration earlier this month, challenging the president’s invocation of a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that authorizes the president to “suspend the entry of all aliens” when their entry “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”

The eight asylum seekers who brought the case come from different home countries but each fear the same outcome if they are removed from the U.S.

According to court records, two plaintiffs fled Afghanistan due to fears that the Taliban might persecute them over their support for the United States. One plaintiff said they suffered kidnapping, rape and torture by the hands of a Ecuadorian cartel before fleeing to the United States. Another said they were jailed and tortured in Egypt due to their pro-democracy views.

“There is no legitimate governmental or public interest in the unlawful removal of the Individual Plaintiffs to countries where they face persecution or torture,” lawyers for the asylum seekers argued.

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(NEW YORK) — Nineteen states from Nebraska to Florida are facing cold weather alerts on Friday morning as a relentless Arctic blast persists — but a warmup is finally on the way.

Friday marks the fourth morning in a row of record-low temperatures across the central U.S.

Cities across the Plains and the South broke or tied their record-low temperatures on Friday: Lincoln, Nebraska, at negative 17 degrees; Kansas City, Missouri, at negative 5 degrees; Memphis, Tennessee, at 15 degrees; and Birmingham, Alabama, at 17 degrees.

The warmup will begin this weekend across the Heartland and the South, with temperatures climbing to the 50s in Kansas City and 60s in Austin by Sunday. By next week, Kansas City will reach the 60s and Austin will warm up to the 70s.

The mild weather will even reach the north.

By Monday, Chicago could warm up to close to 50 degrees. By Tuesday, New York City could climb to 50 degrees and Washington, D.C., could rise to the balmy 60s.

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(NEW YORK) — Ten former prison guards were indicted for the killing of Robert Brooks, a prisoner incarcerated at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Marcy, New York, who was fatally beaten at the prison in December.

A grand jury indicted six officers — Nicholas Anzalone, David Kingsley, Anthony Farina, Christopher Walrath, Mathew Galliher and an unnamed defendant — on felony second degree murder and first degree manslaughter.

The nine defendants charged in the indictment appeared in court on Thursday and all pled not guilty to the charges brought against them. A tenth, unnamed defendant was unavailable to surrender on Thursday and is expected to be arraigned soon. He is not believed to be a flight risk.

The officers are accused of acting with other correctional officers in conduct that “created a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby caused the death of Robert Brooks,” according to a criminal indictment.

Brooks was transferred from the Mohawk Correctional Facility to the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9, 2024.

Excerpts of body-worn camera footage from four corrections officers were released Dec. 27 by the New York Attorney General’s Office showing the in-custody beating of the 43-year-old inmate.

In the footage reviewed by ABC News, multiple officers can be seen holding Brooks upright on an exam table, with his arms restrained, punching and kicking him in the face, torso and genitals. The beating was described in a deposition by an investigator for the New York Department of Corrections Office of Special Investigations.

Brooks was pronounced dead at a local hospital the day after the beating, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office is investigating the incident.

The deposition detailed that two sergeants and a nurse watched the attack and neglected to intervene. They were among the 14 prison staffers whom New York Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered to be terminated by the state.

The indictment Thursday said Brooks was allegedly assaulted on two occasions when he arrived at the infirmary by Anzalone, Walrath and the unnamed defendant — despite being restrained.

Upon arriving to the emergency room of the infirmary, Brooks was “restrained, beaten, choked, gagged, forcibly moved and kicked, all with minimal resistance on the part of Mr. Brooks and with no legitimate law enforcement purpose,” the indictment alleges.

Beating and assaults were carried out by the defendants while acting in concert together, the indictment said.

“In addition to the beatings, defendants with depraved indifference, did nothing to restrain each other, did nothing to stop the beatings and failed to immediately order medical assistance for Mr. Brooks,” the indictment said.

Brooks suffered injuries to his head, neck, hyoid bone, thyroid cartilage, torso, liver, spleen and testicles, his air passages were restricted and he chocked on his own blood, resulting in his death, according to the indictment.

Michael Mashaw, Michael Fisher and David Walters were indicted on felony second degree manslaughter. Nicholas Gentile was charged with tampering with physical evidence.

Walrath and the unnamed defendant were also indicted on felony second degree gang assault.

Mashaw, who was the ranking corrections officer in the infirmary, is accused in the indictment of failing to order the beatings to stop and not getting Brooks medical assistance until it was too late to save him.

Fisher and Walters are accused of having a clear line of sight to Brooks, but failing to attempt to stop the beatings or shield him. Walters also allegedly instructed a nurse no not enter the emergency room where Brooks was, the indictment said.

Anzalone and the unnamed defendant are accused of offering a false statement with intent to defraud the state. They wrongfully reported that all force against Brooks ceased when he entered the emergency room of the infirmary, the indictment alleges. The defendants were not aware that their actions were being recorded, according to the indictment.

“Nothing can bring him back to us. Nothing can return to us what these men have taken away. Still, these indictments are a necessary and important step toward accountability. These men killed my father, on camera. All the world could see what happened. Waiting for these charges has been incredibly hard,” Robert Brooks, Jr., the son of Brooks, said in a statement Thursday.

“These men must be fully prosecuted and convicted for what they have done. But even the convictions of these corrections officers for the murder of my father will not be enough. Every person in authority who allowed this system of violence and abuse to exist and continue for so long must also be held accountable,” he said.

The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association issued a statement in December reading, “What we witnessed is incomprehensible to say the least and is certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day… This incident has the potential to make our correctional facilities even more violent, hostile, and unpredictable than ever before.”

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