The prisoner was already under heavy restrictions for killing a cellmate, but that didn’t stop him from stabbing two Western Maryland correctional officers last fall, according to authorities.

More than two years ago, Daniel Myers, 28, who was behind bars on an assault conviction, stabbed to death 27-year-old Nicholas Delfosse after warning a prison official that he would kill anyone they put in his cell at Jessup Correctional Institution.

In May 2023, Myers pleaded guilty to the murder of Delfosse, who had been in prison for about two months for violating his probation on an earlier charge.

After his sentencing for 50 years more in prison, Myers was transferred to the state’s most restrictive prison: North Branch Correctional Institution, a so-called hyper-max facility in Western Maryland sometimes referred to as the “end of the line” by its prisoners and staff.

Even in that setting, authorities say Myers was able to fashion two shanks, including an 8-inch “piece of metal, sharpened to a point on one end with a cloth wrapped handle on the other,” according to an Allegany County indictment.

On Nov. 8 last year, Myers used the weapons in an attack against two correctional officers, court records say. The indictment against him did not describe the mid-morning stabbing in detail, which ended in serious but non-life-threatening injuries, according to reports.

Myers was charged with two attempted murder charges, assault charges, and various weapons-related charges, and the case is still pending. Myers’ attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

The stabbing of the two correctional officers come amid a number of challenges inside state prisons, including a rising tide of contraband and increasingly frequent violence.

The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said in a statement this week that Myers has been kept in restrictive housing, at the highest security level, throughout his time at North Branch. He was able to craft the weapons inside the prison despite regular checks and random searches, the department said.

The department “remains committed to maintaining a secure correctional environment and continuously reviews and reinforces its procedures to address evolving safety and operational needs,” the statement said. The correctional officers who were attacked last year no longer work at the prison, the department said.

AFSCME Council 3, the union representing correctional officers that has been vocal about its safety concerns in state-run prisons, said that the officers “deserve to be safe and to be protected, and that isn’t happening.”

“The level of violence in our state prisons is out of control and dangerous,” said Stuart Katzenberg, the union’s director of collective bargaining and growth. “We have seen our members assaulted at higher and higher rates, and being targets of gangs throughout the state of Maryland system.”

In the wake of the two officers’ stabbings, North Branch officially heavily restricted movement of inmates at the prison, resulting in a deluge of prisoner complaints, according to records reviewed by The Baltimore Banner.

One complained that he was put on a restricted status despite having not received an infraction in the last decade. A prison administrator responded to the complaint, saying that he was placed on that status because he was either a documented member of the Aryan Brotherhood gang “or an associate,” according to the November 2024 document.

In response to questions from The Banner, the corrections department said that a connection between the attack on the two officers and the Aryan Brotherhood has “not been confirmed.”