A video obtained by Mississippi Today confirms oral and documented accounts that a guard at the Rankin County Adult Detention Center punched an inmate so hard that he broke the inmate’s jaw.
The video, captured by security cameras inside the Rankin County jail, shows guard Jordan McQueary striking an inmate, Dustin Rives, during his 2022 stay in the jail. Medical records show that Rives, whose jaw was fractured, did not receive treatment until 25 days after the incident, by which time he had developed a deep infection that required surgery.
Mississippi Today and The New York Times previously uncovered allegations of widespread violence in the jail involving the use of favored inmates, known as “trusties,” as enforcers, and a culture of brutality condoned and encouraged by top officials.
The Justice Department has been investigating the patterns and practices of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jail, since its deputies’ 2023 shooting of a Black man. Mississippi Today and The Times documented a reign of terror by deputies for nearly 20 years.
When the publications asked the department for this video in August, they responded, “The requested date is beyond the record retention date for videos and, upon best information and belief, such video is not available for production.” It was one of 10 videos the publications requested in 2025 and did not receive. The department did not respond to multiple requests for its retention schedule.
“There is a public interest in prosecuting crimes, and there is a public interest in purging people who commit crimes from their jobs,” said Matt Steffey, a professor of criminal law and evidence at the Mississippi College School of Law. In the absence of a criminal investigation or a lawsuit, while there may not be a legal requirement for the department to retain video evidence beyond their retention schedule, “They should, as a matter of sensible administration of a public body,” Steffey said.
Mississippi Today obtained the video from Rives’ family, who acquired it through an attorney’s office.
Jason Dare, the attorney for the sheriff’s department, said McQueary’s “single slap in response to Rives (1) calling a female jailer a “b****”, (2) threatened to punch her, then (3) raising his right fist to follow through with his threats” appeared to be constitutionally permissible, and that Rives received medical attention within five minutes of the incident and was X-rayed within 24 hours.
Rives’ complaint acknowledged that a nurse had checked his vitals soon after the incident, and that he had been X-rayed. A report written 17 days after the incident by a nurse in the jail says Rives was being given Naproxen, which is used to manage pain. Medical records show that he was not taken to the hospital until 25 days after the incident.
McQueary, the guard in the video who is seen punching Rives, has been named in complaints or federal lawsuits by at least nine inmates who allege he assaulted them. He is still employed by the department and was honored in 2024 for his “outstanding” work in the jail. McQueary declined to comment and redirected reporters to the department’s attorney.
While being held in the male detox cell on July 18, 2022, Rives began “yelling and screaming that he wanted his medicine,” McQueary wrote in his report.
Rives wrote in a complaint he filed a month later that when he went to the restroom, he was urinating blood. “I yelled for help and officers and trustees came cursing and threatening me,” he wrote. “I turned to point at blood.” Rives said the medication he was asking for included his antidepressants, antibiotics and pain medicine.
The video shows a group of guards and a trusty rushing to the cell. A shouting match ensues.
McQueary quoted Rives as saying to a female guard, “Shut up, bitch, before I punch you in the face.” Rives admitted to using that language, but said it was directed at the male trusty who accompanied the guards, not the female guard.
McQueary then lunges and punches Rives in the face, knocking him to the ground.
On reviewing the incident, David Fathi, the director of the National Prison Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, said punching a detainee could only be justified in self-defense, which was not the case according to the guard’s own report.
“There is no indication that when the incident started, the detainee was doing anything other than yelling and screaming,” Fathi said. “Putting aside the way he was expressing himself, asking for medicine is a reasonable and appropriate request. They could have had someone from medical talk to him, or they could have just left him alone. Instead, the officers escalated the situation into what ended up being a very dangerous use of force.”
About a minute and a half after punching Rives, McQueary can be seen escorting him away with his hands behind his back. Rives’ pants have been pulled down, exposing his genitals. “I was begging them to pull up my pants,” Rives wrote. “They laughed and said they wouldn’t.”
“If his pants had been pulled down, they should have pulled them back up before parading him through the jail in front of other people,” said Fathi. “That kind of gratuitous humiliation is completely unjustifiable.”
Jail incident reports show that instead of being taken to a hospital, Rives, whose jaw was fractured, was strapped into a restraint chair overnight and then locked in an isolation cell for 25 days. “I got real sick,” he said.
By the time he was hospitalized, medical records show, his jaw was infected and required surgery, including the removal of a tooth.
Rives was one of eight inmates who filed grievances in the jail between 2018 to 2022, describing assaults by guards or trusties.
Rives’ grievance file shows that a supervisor closed his complaint three days after he filed it, saying the department had provided a “satisfactory response,” which included scheduling a medical appointment for Rives and informing him of his right to press criminal charges against McQueary after he was released from the jail. The report does not indicate whether McQueary was disciplined or questioned about the incident.
Rives said the department never contacted him again.
He also said his broken jaw never fully healed. “They’re still hurting people,” Rives said. “I just want to make sure that can’t happen again.”
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