By Jason Renard Walker

“This guy was just completely unresponsive, I mean, he’s out cold now and they’re just continuing to beat him” -Tim Nixon, Coffield unit prisoner that witnessed a mob of guards try to beat a handcuffed prisoner to death in solitary confinement

The Offices Of Inspectors General (OIG) listed former TDCJ prison guard, Abayomi Ipoola, as a “sole suspect” in the Sept 5 2023 beatdown of Coffield unit prisoner Kiheem Grant, while a dozen other guards involved were either fired or forced to resign.

Following Grant’s confrontation with sergeant Gabriel Kweh, who was reported as being speared with a weapon Grant threw out of his cell door, witnessing prisoners state that a 9 man goon squad, in body armor, responded with a supervisor and portable video camera. Despite it being routine for a five man team to respond to the same, or more hostile situations.

According to Nixon, a prisoner housed in Coffield unit’s solitary confinement, the amount of goons and their demeanor suggested someone was going to be seriously beaten. And he was right.

Grant agreed to be placed in arm and leg restraint irons in order to allow the weapon to be retrieved*. He was told to face his cell wall and kneel down. As he complied, the cell door was opened and he was bum rushed from behind and beaten into a coma.

One witness states that a guard removed his protective helmet, raised it high into the air and slammed it on top of Grants head as he lay motionless. The sound reverberating through the cell block like a bat striking a slab of meat.

It would take medical staff twenty minutes to respond as Grants unresponsive and badly beaten body was pinned to the ground by guards, to simulate as if Grant had been and still might be combative.(1) A gossiping supervisor that toggles between working here at Powledge unit and Coffield unit claims the flesh on Grants jaw was beaten off, exposing bone and teeth.

Grant’s mother, Loretta Grant, expressed that she was told he had a 25% chance to awaken from the coma, while her attempts to obtain medical and investigative records from TDCJ weren’t adhered to. Others, like Texas Public Radio,were given the run around when trying to gain records deemed public for a story on the matter.(2)

Though TDCJ may try to justify the need to withhold these records, under the notion that it impedes investigations and invades a prisoners privacy, so too does the unjustified assault of prisoners, the falsification of government records to avoid liability and the lack of being transparent with victims loved ones and the media, following staff criminal deeds.

One thing concerned citizens of the public have to realize is that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is a corrupt penal institution, just as every other state and federal penal institution in the nation.

They rely heavily on mission statements, public ignorance, a prisoners lack of support beyond prison walls and the validation of each others integrity, to do as they please. One example is the process of a use of force investigation.

The unit’s captain, major, regional office and warden all review documents before it is submitted to the OIG, if in fact it is referred. This gives them the clear cut opportunity to forge a favorable outcome, if the staff’s wrongdoing wasn’t too egregious.

Integrity is only used when the records and circumstance leave them no choice. My own assault is evidence of this. Many spokesmen that give press releases, following criminal conduct by an employee, are only reciting wordplay carefully crafted by members in the executive directors office and their ilk.

As far as everyone within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is concerned: the narrative presented is to be taken as true, correct and unrivalled, despite any and all contradicting evidence.

Such gangland style attacks like Grant’s are the social norm. Fixing staff shortages and/or better training have nothing to do with their assaultive behavior. In many respects, it is encouraged by their own supervisors, with understaffing being the reason corruption is given such a long leash.

It is obvious most people have no interest in working in a prison and firing every guard that did something warranting termination, would only worsen the understaffing issues. “All correctional officers receive training on behavioral intervention plans at pre-service and in-service training” says Amanda Hernandez, TDCJ’S Director of Communications.

But what Hernandez might not be aware of is that guards quickly have to unlearn what they were taught during this training in order to execute the unit-established policies, existing at whatever unit they work at. And they soon learn that such training was meaningless, policies are created and violated on an as-need basis that their shift supervisor determines.

Some factors include TDCJ’s recruiting methods. Some are allowed to provide oversight in dangerous environments, despite having obvious mental illnesses, racial animus or medical conditions that prevent them from doing the most basic duties, like walking up stairs. Other factors concern TDCJ’s endeavor at luring droves of guards from Africa and into the United States, with many being unable to speak and understand basic English.

Not only does this form cultural and communication barriers among prisoners and staff. Some have formed on the job clans and tribes, running their shift with an indifferent and dictatorial fist, which is how they’ve invaded units like Coffield in particular. With Coffield being 430 guards short for the majority of the year, it’s no wonder why the system’s recruiting methods are in desperation mode.

BUSINESS AS USUAL

TDCJ units like Bill Clements are among many that often engage in the attempted murders of prisoners. One such staffer, Patricia Flowers, has been at the helm of abusing prisoners for years,despite her diatribe of saving lives and warding off knife-wielding gangsters.

To me, if true, the former and latter is nothing more than her doing what she’s being paid to do. Her job. But the real question is why must she freely abuse and provide oversight on excessive uses of force.

Many I’ve seen her instigate then leave the dirty work to the 5 man goon squad. Her thing is sneakingly overusing chemical agents, to the knowing extent a death could occur(3).

“Flowers is now an administration sergeant that can go anywhere and wields more power than before. I know a TV crew tried to talk to Flowers and they were dismissed,” says a person that claimed to have been contacted and harassed by Flowers and other Clements unit staff via email.

In which an email purported to be from Flowers says in part “just a heads up that there’s actual inmates currently incarcerated that your corresponding via cellphone with since although they have tablets they don’t have TikTok so your no better than things your putting out about others who are dirty.” An inadvertent admission by Flowers perhaps?

One thing’s certain, staff like her still misuse and hold positions of power because stints in jail have no deterrence on sociopaths committed to evil doing. And such individuals are promoted in deeds for their overcommitment to preserve the status quo.

Just as it hasn’t deterred racist guards at Polunsky unit from weaponizing their cell extraction duties and using the given integrity in attempting to kill prisoners. A prisoner by the name of Marquis Kingsbury is an example.

When, on July 22 2021 Sergeant Schwarz, Lieutenant Sliger and several other white guards beat him unconscious in his solitary confinement cell as I listened. Despite having a fractured looking eye socket, his fear of being beaten again, caused him to deny himself much needed medical treatment.

Kingsbury denying himself much needed medical care had nothing to do with him feeling he didn’t need it. It was his fear of being thrown back into the gauntlet of unprovoked brutality. A form of unspoken extortion.(4)

And rightfully so, as Schwarz stands 6’6 well over 300lbs, and his ilk are just as imposing and hateful, with Kingsbury being under 6 feet tall and 150lbs.

At the time of Kingsbury’s beating, a black female, Captain Carter,was the individual that authorized this deadly use of force. At the time, she provided exclusive oversight wherever a solitary cell existed on the unit, regardless of what paperwork says her duties were.

Another black female, Officer Wootley, was the portable camera operator(that partially recorded the beatings)and willing participant in any subsequent official coverups, including Kingsbury’s. With Warden Dickerson and his cronies playing a blind eye, Sergeant Schwarz and his cell extraction goon squad ran amok. Between July 21 2021 and September 2021 they unlawfully beat three prisoners who were assigned a single cell for one reason or another.

Roughly a year before this, they succeeded in beating a man to death, not to include the many beatings that occurred unbeknownst to me. And those by random guards and ranking staff, the unit over.

To thwart the threat of being exposed the beaten prisoner is transferred to another unit far away, like the case of Kingsbury, which we all know will be justified by paperwork holding the wardens and unit classification committee’s signatures.

One reason Polunsky Unit has flown under the microscope is because public officials and the media often frequent beyond the walls to visit and interview the death row prisoners. During these preplanned trips every relevant staff member is on their best behavior that particular day. This makes it very plausible that these successful and routine visits make scrutinizing such a place highly unlikely. And with the lethal mix of illicit drugs and contraband freely flowing here and there, the average prisoner holds the same principles as the abusive staff, as there’s an incentive for them to assist in keeping public scrutiny low.

But underneath the calm surface of what these officials are given access to, is a whirlpool of unnecessary violence, corruption, racism and their coverups.

INMATE CRENSHAW AND JAMAICA

Near the summer of 2010 a Clements unit prisoner known as ‘Jamaica’ was hauled off by staff as he waited in line to make a commissary purchase. The only thing left behind were his shoes. Witnesses state that Jamaica was taken to 11 building (temporary single cell housing) to never been seen again. A guard by the name Officer Green suggested that the official story was that Jamaica had died from erotic asphyxiation (hung himself with his boxers during masturbating). But he knew what really happened.

The real story, or truth everyone knows of, is that Jamaica had been masturbating in his cell while a female guard walked by. Major Clark was called and he formulated a plan to have Jamaica killed as if he’d hung himself with his own boxers. The erotic asphyxiation thing devised to deceive an autopsy report that might mention, or question, the presence of seminal fluid.

Major Clark has a long, verified and rumored track record when it come to prisoners being found dead shortly after masturbating in a female guard’s presence and being stripped of all clothing and personal property in situations where killing is too risky, this extending over the course of his promotion to major.

One such instance is during his supposed stint at Robertson unit. Whether Clark was involved is up for grabs but what is certain is that a prisoner known as inmate Crenshaw was housed at Robertson unit. After a confrontation with guards, residents there said he was found hanging from a basketball rim in the gym during after hours and when it should’ve been locked.

Further observation showed he was assaulted to the extent that his injuries would’ve made it impossible for him to hang onto the rim while he tied the noose around it. Though I’ve heard many present and past Robertson Unit residents point fingers at various staff, including Clark, what gave me clarity that Crenshaw was in fact murdered, is when I happened to be hand cuffed next to his relative, who goes by Rock (same last name), during his transportation from Ferguson Unit to Allred Unit in 2019. And mine from Ellis Unit to Allred Unit.

During transfers to Allred Unit from the Huntsville Unit area, prisoners have to layover at Robertson Unit until the next morning. Rock was concerned that if he wasn’t housed in another location, staff may try to retaliate because his family accused them of murder.

Before he raised his concern, bus guards let him know he would be doing his layover at a neighboring prison due to a Robertson Unit restriction placed in his file. During our ride, I asked questions about what had happened to his relative. He mentioned that guards beat him first, then hung him from the basketball goal to make it look like suicide.

The cases of Crenshaw and Jamaica are two of many that have been resolved in favor of their murderers. But in what America calls justice of the law, they may forever remain unsolved. Hidden beneath the piles of many valid and trumped up cases of prisoner suicides.

They are prime examples of what compels guards to do such atrocious things, the driving force that pacifies a guard’s fear of facing reprisals and their administration’s effort to ensure this deed is met by covering up any detail that can point the finger back at the prison.

Dare To Struggle, Dare To Win. All Power To The People!

Jason Renard Walker 1532092

Powledge Unit

PO Box 660400

Dallas,Tx 75266-0400

Notes

1) Paul Flahive, A Prison Beating By Guards Reflects Staffing And Training Issue,Something Texas Denies: Texas Public Radio.

2) Paul Flahive,Texas Prison System Uses Open Records Laws To Obscure Information In Assault: Texas Public Radio 12-6-23.

3) Abusive Oversight: Surveillance Cameras Show Guards Attempt To kill Black And Brown Prisoner At Discretion Of White Ranking Staff: www.Jasonsprisonjournal.com

4) Jason Renard Walker, Black Texas Prisoner Gassed, Brutalized In Solitary Confinement Cell: www.sfbayview.com\2021\08\black-texas-prisoner-gassed-brutalized-in-solitary-confinement-cell

* Standard protocol compels guards to first attempt to have the prisoner toss out the weapon before attempting to remove him from the cell. Paul Flahive’s article suggests Grant was more than willing to comply with any and all orders, yet no such orders were given. From my experience they never are.