Inmate Sentenced To 97 Months In Prison For Slashing Federal Corrections Officer

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced that MARIO POWELL was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan to 97 months in prison for assaulting a corrections officer with a contraband weapon on May 30, 2020, while incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York (“MCC”).  In September 2025, POWELL was convicted of assaulting a corrections officer with a deadly and dangerous weapon and possession of prison contraband following a five-day trial before Judge Cronan.

“Mario Powell brazenly ambushed a corrections officer at the Metropolitan Correction Center in New York City, trying to slit his throat,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton.  “This sentence shows that violence in our corrections facilities will trigger meaningful consequences.”

According to the allegations contained in the Indictment and the evidence presented during the trial:

On May 30, 2020, at the MCC, POWELL forcibly assaulted a corrections officer with a deadly and dangerous weapon and, in doing so, lacerated the officer’s neck.  In order to commit the attack, POWELL obtained and possessed a weapon made of razor blades.

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In addition to the prison term, POWELL, 34, of the Bronx, New York, was sentenced to three years of supervised release.

Mr. Clayton thanked former MCC staff for their assistance and praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This case is being handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas John Wright, Henry L. Ross, and Leslie B. Arffa are in charge of the prosecution.