By Jason Renard Walker

The ACLU’s National Prison Project filed the suit in 2002 and their media team released the lawsuit filings to the Associated press. It was picked up by every major newspaper across the country and made the front page.

Roderick Keith Johnson explained in detail the horrors of belonging to a prison gang, but not in the sense of being a member under pressure to further the gang’s criminal activities. More like a low cost prison sex slave, forced to provide sexual favors to whoever for $5- $10 in commissary, or the equivalent in tobacco or cash. The sexual encounters took place from the blind spot on the pod stairwell to the single man shower stalls, inaccessible to surveillance cameras or deliberate scrutiny. This was Johnson upon his arrival at the Allred unit in Iowa Park, Texas in September of 2000. According to Johnson, this abuse would go on for over a year despite numerous complaints to the unit warden and other staff. Complaints that were looked into only resulted in him being placed back into harm’s way, after biased and partially conducted investigations hit a dead end. His constant verbal and written pleas to be placed in safekeeping or protective custody were denied. Johnson says that investigators often questioned the legitimacy of his complaints due to his sexual orientation as a gay black male. Other times Johnson said he was told to either go find a man to protect him, ‘fuck’, or fight. Clear evidence of staff promoting sex slavery in prison.

Johnson explained that after being at the Allred unit for a month, a prison pimp named Hernandez beat him with his fists. Medical records used as evidence in a law suit Johnson filed, show he suffered bruising and swelling on his face following the attack.(1)

Besides being forced to provide oral and anal sex daily, without being able to protect himself from possibly contracting an STD or worse, Johnson was also forced to conduct housemaid duties like cooking and cleaning the cell of whoever claimed him. At one point in time he recalls being sold to another gang for $100 that gave them exclusive rights to use him as their own chattel.

Johnson eventually contacted the ACLU National Prison Project for help. Immediately after the ACLU assisted Johnson with filing a cruel and unusual punishment civil suit in 2002, he was ushered off to a safekeeping building at the Michael unit, where the abuse ended.

When Johnson paroled out in 2003 it became big news. He was bombarded by a wealth of media outlets and TV personalities that would interview him. He eventually saw himself as sort of a beacon for raising awareness to sex slavery. Speaking at various colleges and universities around the country. Including an invitation to sit on various panels, like the Board of National Human Rights.

Within the realm of Johnson’s plight for protection, George W. Bush would sign into law the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003 that affected every jail, prison and penal institution in the U.S., and was designed to educate staff and prisoners on how to report and protect one’s self from abuse, extortion and sexual assaults while incarcerated. The high profile civil suit would go to trial in 2005 under the watchful eye of journalists all over America.

During witness testimony, Johnson’s attorney, Jeffrey Monks asked one of the leaders of the gang, that supposedly claimed ownership over Johnson “was Mr Johnson considered a member of Gangster Disciples?” The witness said ‘no’ under a smirk. “What was he considered?” Monks asked. The witness replied that Johnson was ‘property’ and could be beaten until “you say yes.”(2) According to Johnson the suit was settled out of court for $130,000 during jury deliberations, yet court records suggest that the suit was dismissed by the jury after a finding for the defendants. In 2007 Johnson would return to TDCJ with a 19 year sentence where he was assigned to the safekeeping building at Estelle unit. Following TDCJ receiving evidence that Johnson could suffer more exploitation if housed in the state of Texas, he was ultimately transferred to serve the remainder of his sentence in a New Mexico prison in October 2007.

While there he worked as a law library clerk making just over $1.00 per hour, far more than he’d ever make in Texas, that forces prisoners to work for free. The New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) recommended to TDCJ that Johnson be placed back into the custody of the state of Texas. In August 2011 he was transferred back to Texas and placed in protective safekeeping at the Pack unit.

Officials with the NMCD reported that Johnson had been having problems with other inmates regarding sex trafficking and tried to alleviate it by assigning him to several other New Mexico prisons. Johnson immediately filed a civil law suit against TDCJ alleging that the trauma he suffered as a sex slave was only worsening after being forced to live in a small cell 23 hours a day, with little human contact. The law suit also accused TDCJ of removing Johnson from the NMCD in retaliation for him filing grievances, and denying him psychiatric treatment for his PTSD and depression diagnosis.(3)

Through the course of litigation Johnson would be placed in the Wayne Scott unit mental health facility on several occasions, after his complaints of auditory hallucinations and suicidal thoughts and ideation, with one visit lasting 9 months. He explained that the environment there was far worse than in isolation in protective safekeeping, with psychiatric treatment consisting of being given crossword puzzles daily and little else to alleviate the stress of 24 hour lockup.

The case was eventually dismissed and Johnson was paroled to live with his cousin in Dallas in 2019. While on parole Johnson avoided using drugs, hanging out with the wrong crowds and actually tried to stay grounded by engaging in community activism. “On the outside I receive SSI and created a 501(c)3 org call East Texas votes and the National Network Of Community Advocacy. I served as executive Director and founder.” These organizations consisted of educating minorities, seniors and the youth on the importance of voting. “I organize communities registering youth and seniors to vote, educate the community on those issues that affect them and turn them out to vote.” Johnson explained in a handwritten note.

Following the death of his grandmother in 2021 and the death of his mother (who died in prison) the following year, Johnson’s life, faith and mental stability would take a downward spiral, pushing him back to the margins of society and drug abuse to ease the pain. “I buried my mother and my grandmother last year and the year before that and they were all I had in this world to rely on when I came to prison.”

Johnson would eventually find himself back in prison, yet again, this time on a 3 year sentence for carrying a gun. Between being forced to hunker down in a windowless single cell at the Powledge unit and having no resources or contact to the outside world, Johnson has made several failed attempts to be promoted to the protective safekeeping status that allows him to have limited contact and recreation time with other inmates under the same protection. Each time his request was rejected.

In a recent State Classification Committee hearing, he was given a written explanation that suggested him being a high media profile was reason enough to warrant a denial. But under the microscope, there are a host of inmates allowed to enjoy the privilege that are also high media profiles.

One being Shawn Berry, one of the three white men convicted in the 1998 public lynching of James Byrd Jr., whose headless body was left sprawled in front of a church, after being tied to a truck and unmercifully dragged until it was dismembered. Then there’s Roy Oliver, a white ex-police officer who was convicted for the 2017 shooting death of 15 year old Jordan Edwards, during a house party in Balch Springs Texas. Then there’s Eddie Roy Routh, who was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of Chris Kyle (known for the book and movie American Sniper) and another man. Then lastly Houston based legendary rapper Carlos Coy (known as SPM) who is serving 45 years for perpetually sexually assaulting a nine year old girl, who was a friend of his daughter in 2001. It seems more plausible that those being given privileges in protective safekeeping are the very individuals these environments were designed to protect people like Johnson from.

Yet my own investigations suggest that the one or two black prisoners here are being denied the promotion out of racial animus, while the non-blacks who are there for preying on vulnerable people enjoy frolicking with others that share their skewed belief system. Johnson has contemplated that he has nothing to lose and feels that he isn’t mentally stable enough to serve another multi-year stint in social isolation. The relief he seeks is an opportunity to be removed from 23 hour lock down and placed on regular safekeeping status.

Until something changes he spends his days reading whatever he can get his hands on, playing solitaire on his securus tablet, and hoping that the public officials that helped save him from being a prison sex slave, realize that the trauma and mental health issues that ensued are only worsening everyday he wakes up in a box.

Jason Renard Walker #1532092

Powledge Unit

P.O.Box 660400

Dallas,Tx 75266-0400

1) Johnson v. Johnson,385 F.3d 503(5th circuit)

2) Adam Liptak, New York Times Sept 25 2005: Inmate Was Considered Property Of Gang,Witness Tells Jury In Prison Rape Suit

3) Johnson v. Doe 2013 U.S. Dist lexis 102179