By Jason Renard Walker 

Earlier this month, TDCJ Director Bobby Lumpkin released a statement on our securus tablets, announcing the use of body cameras by TDCJ staff. Starting with the maximum security facilities, these devices will eventually be used in every Texas prison throughout the state. 

At the start of each officers shift the cameras will be turned on, with the exception of them being paused during prisoner strip searches that are non confrontational and a for few other reasons Lumpkin didn’t mention. 

In many ways these cameras will be good at reducing the amount of false disciplinary cases issued to prisoners for things such as threatening staff and assaulting staff. But the cameras will not prevent staff from assaulting prisoners during cell extractions or during the course of confrontations that escalate during a strip search. 

Below are several reasons why concerned citizens of the public should be ready to start complaining about the effectiveness of the body cameras. 

1) Staff have the liberty to turn them off while engaged with a prisoner. We can expect to see a rise in the amount of reported staff and prisoner assaults during strip searches and times body cameras are allowed to be turned off in the presence of prisoners. 

2) These cameras are placed at the center of their chests, making it very possible for paperwork, coffee mugs and hands to block camera view, intentionally and accidentally. There is nothing preventing a staff member from twisting their body away from a prisoner and hitting them. 

3) If portable cameras fail to capture the prisoner during a five man cell extraction, body cameras will do a worse job because each guard will be closely mobbed together blocking their hands and the prisoner from being viewed. 

4) During many critical moments where the footage is needed for reviewing, it will be discovered that staff forgot to turn the camera back on following a strip search or bathroom break. Or a computer glitch prevented the footage from successfully being recorded. 

These aren’t assumptions, you can expect select TDCJ supervisors to figure out loopholes in the use of body cameras and training select staff how to exploit them. What I listed above are the most obvious ways this exploitation can be executed. If you think the introduction of body cameras will deter assaultive TDCJ staff from being assaultive, you are wrong.

Jason Renard Walker 1532092 

Powledge unit 

P.O. Box 660400 

Dallas, TX 75266