By Jason Renard Walker

Since March of 2021, ten former Texas prisoners were reported to have died while incarcerated at the Alfred Hughes Unit, in Gatesville, Texas.

According to custodial death reports, Carlos Martinez died April 1, 2022, from what witnesses say was a suicide by hanging, following a verbal altercation with guards who’d been interrogating Martinez about contraband cell phones.

On April 14, 2022, Philip Henry Freeman was found hanging inside of a small holding cage, located right in front of the 12 Building supervisor’s office. Witnesses say he was stripped of all clothing except a pair of boxers and taken to the cage, following a verbal altercation with guards, concerning a female guard Freeman supposedly exposed his genitals to.

At the time of Freeman’s death, he was housed in 12-Building’s solitary confinement mental health diversions program. At the time of Martinez’s death, he was housed in a solitary confinement cell in another part of the prison.

An in-house TDCJ-inspired investigation determined that both Martinez and Freeman committed suicide, with the Office of Inspectors General (OIG) conducting an investigation of their own.

By coincidence, on the morning of Feb 14 2022, I crossed paths with, and briefly spoke to, Freeman, just before he was found dead in the exact spot I’d last seen him.

Directly across from the supervisor’s office, Freeman stood in the small, cage-like holding enclosure, with only a pair of boxers on. We briefly looked at each other and he nodded “what’s up” as if nothing was wrong. This is the same type of punishment cage I complained about to the San Francisco Bay View during my stay at Ellis Unit, which is often used to hold prisoners for hours without food or restroom breaks.

When I was escorted from the supervisor’s office, Freeman was still in the cage, this time demanding the rationale as to why he couldn’t return to his cell. His inquiry was met with indifference by passing staff.

On Feb 17, 2022, prisoners living on 12-Building C-Pod complained to me that a black inmate (Freeman) was stripped of his clothing, removed from his C-Pod cell, to never return. A staff-instigated rumor claims that the inmate who had lived in that cell hung himself in the dog cage, which is indoors and in constant view of various staff and prisoners, not to mention surveillance cameras.

Not only is such a feat impossible to accomplish without some form of staff awareness, the boxers Freeman wore wouldn’t hold up long enough to strangle him to death, given his height and size.

And before a prisoner is removed from their cell, in response to suicidal tendencies, measures are used to ensure the prisoner isn’t in possession of anything that can be used for cutting or strangling, including socks and boxers. And they remain in view of qualified staff.

If Freeman did manage to hang himself, it couldn’t have been done without the direct knowledge and consent of one or more staff. It wouldn’t surprise me if surveillance footage that proves the former and latter just happen to malfunction on that day.

In my 14 years’ stay in Texas prisons, I’ve noticed a consistent pattern of prisoners found dead or injured, following altercations with staff or accusations of exposing their genitals to female staff. I’ve also seen that TDCJ’s million dollar hi-tech surveillance equipment seems to “malfunction” during incidents where a ranking staff member commits a criminal act.

Jason Renard Walker has engaged in investigative journalism since 2015. Many of his past and present exposes can be read in his book: “Reports from Within the Belly of the Beast – Torture and Injustice inside Texas Department of Criminal Justice”.

Please visit his website for radio interviews, essays, artwork, and a short look inside prison life videoed beyond guard scrutiny: www.jasonsprisonjournal.com