Exhibit A: What Is The DOC Hiding?

09/11/25

Release the J’Allen Jones Video

A LETTER FROM AMERICAN JUSTICE PROJECT

American Justice Project was founded on a simple conviction: the public has a right to the truth, and government must be held accountable when it fails to uphold justice.

That principle is at stake right now in Connecticut, where Attorney General William Tong and the Department of Correction are fighting to keep hidden Exhibit A – a video that shows the harrowing final moments of 31-year-old J’Allen Jones at Garner Correctional Institution.

Jones’s 2018 death was ruled a homicide by the state’s chief medical examiner. He was shackled, pepper-sprayed, beaten, and left to die. Yet the public has never seen the full video evidence. Instead, we are shown only a still frame – the image of a young Black man brutalized in state custody.

What Tong and The DOC Don’t Want You to See

AG Tong claims that releasing the video would somehow teach other prisoners how to escape. This argument is absurd. J’Allen Jones was not escaping. He was a human being subjected to lethal force by state officers. The video is not a security manual, it is evidence of state violence.

Corrections Ombudsman DeVaughn Ward recently called Tong’s position “an affront to government transparency and accountability”, noting that it “undermines trust in our institutions and denies the public the ability to learn from tragedy.”

DOC officials have long tried to minimize the Jones case. They now want to bury the evidence, pretending this homicide never happened. Ward put it plainly: “The people of Connecticut deserve to know how J’Allen Jones died.”

Transparency vs. Cover-Up

This is not about one prison, or one family’s grief. It is about whether the State of Connecticut is accountable to its people – or whether the walls of secrecy around its prisons will prevent its people from learning the truth. To bury Exhibit A is to bury justice itself.

Our Call to Action

American Justice Project calls on Attorney General William Tong:

Release Exhibit A. The people have a right to know.
Stop hiding behind false security claims. Transparency is not a threat; secrecy is.
Honor J’Allen Jones’s life by ensuring his death leads to accountability and reform.

Anything less is a cover-up. Anything less says that in Connecticut, some lives don’t count, and some homicides don’t matter.

We refuse that verdict.

Decide for Yourself

For nearly a year, AG Tong has fought in court to block release of this evidence. CLICK HERE to read the plaintiff’s full Motion to Release Exhibit A, and judge for yourself what justice demands.