Dennis Zaleswki

Dennis Zalewski is a prison guard at Shawshank State Prison. he is disgusted at the way the prison is run and how the other corrections officers treat the prisoner. After the suicide of Warden Dale Lacy, Dennis finds a mysterious prisoner in a cage built into a water cistern beneath a disused section of the prison.

Dennis Zalewski works at Shawshank State Prison as a corrections officer. He is not fond of the job, remarking that if there was a Walmart within twenty miles then he would be working there instead. he is reluctant to do anything that would endanger his job. However, he is disturbed about the way the rest of the prison staff treat the inmates at Shawshank.

After Warden Dale Lacy's suicide, Dennis is on duty when the new warden, Theresa Porter, arrives. Porter is looking for more space to house inmates; the prison is now owned by Northeast Correctional and they are looking to turn a profit with more prisoners. Dennis informs her that the gym is already being used to house prisoners, and there is no more space – apart from the disused Block F which has been closed since the 1980s due to a fire that killed a lot of prisoners. Porter sends Dennis and Boyd to Block F to count the beds.

Entering Block F, Dennis finds signs that someone has been in the disused block recently and follows a trail of footprints in the dust. He finds a hatch to a water cistern, and inside there is a cage with a mysterious prisoner inside. The prisoner is completely unknown to the prison – apparently Warden Lacy was keeping him prisoner for his own reasons. The prisoner says only one thing: a name, "Henry Matthew Deaver."

On duty in the monitor room, Dennis watches as the Kid seemingly escapes his cell and starts leaving dead bodies in his wake. Dennis raises the alarm and arms himself, heading to the prison floor. Nothing is amiss, and Dennis almost shoots Boyd. The Kid, meanwhile, is still in his cell.