WHITE DEER, PA - An ISIS-inspired terrorist already serving a 40-year sentence for plotting mass-casualty attacks in New York City has received another 50 years in federal prison for a brutal assault on two correctional officers in Pennsylvania, the New York Post reports.
Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 28, of Ontario, Canada, was sentenced this week for the 2020 attack at U.S. Penitentiary Allenwood. The new prison term will run consecutively to his existing sentence, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
On December 7, 2020, El Bahnasawy stabbed a correctional officer in the head and face. When a second officer intervened to help, he stabbed her in the hand. The first officer ultimately lost his right eye. The violence shows both the vulnerability of officers working inside secure institutions and the risks taken by colleagues who respond when another officer is in danger.
After El Bahnasawy was restrained, investigators discovered a note in his sock identifying the assault as an attack for the Islamic State. They also found a pledge of allegiance to ISIS taped inside a locker door in his cell, federal authorities said.
El Bahnasawy pleaded guilty in November 2025 to offenses including assault, assault with intent to commit murder, possessing contraband in prison, and providing material support to ISIS.
“Today’s sentence will further ensure that Bahnasawy remains in prison, where he can do much less harm, for a very long time,” Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg recently said.
The defendant was already incarcerated for participating in a separate plot targeting crowded locations in New York City. In 2016, he and two co-conspirators planned bombings and shootings during Ramadan. An undercover FBI agent infiltrated the conspiracy, and authorities arrested El Bahnasawy after he traveled from Canada to the New York area that May.
Corrections: A Dangerous Profession
Correctional officers are a critical part of the law enforcement profession. Their duties require close contact with people convicted of serious crimes, often in confined settings where an improvised weapon and a moment of surprise can have devastating consequences.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, federal prisoners physically assaulted Bureau of Prisons employees 934 times during 2024. That averages roughly 2.6 reported assaults per day across federal facilities, many of them violent assaults.
Those numbers show the risks of maintaining security inside prisons. The Allenwood assault also highlights the courage of officers who move toward danger to help an injured colleague, often without the public visibility afforded to law enforcement outside prison walls.
The second officer’s intervention is also a reminder that responding to a colleague in distress can mean moving directly toward danger. The actions and injuries described by prosecutors deserve attention beyond the sentencing headline. For the officer who lost an eye, the consequences of a shift at work will last far longer than the court proceedings.
El Bahnasawy’s attorney, Andy Frisch, has argued that his client suffered from serious mental illness and that shortcomings in psychiatric care contributed to the assault, according to the New York Post.
Correctional officers rarely receive the public recognition afforded to other first responders. This case is a stark example of the hazards they confront and the importance of treating attacks on correctional personnel as serious acts of violence.
We at Law Enforcement Today thank all correctional officers for their service!
Writer Eddie Molina has over 25 years of combined LEO/military experience and is now the host of The Veteran Experience Show, available on YouTube and Spotify.
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