Polunsky Unit joins TDCJ body camera policy across max security prisons
AUSTIN, Texas (KBTX) – Body cameras are now required to be worn by all uniformed staff at Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) maximum security prisons. A Polk County unit joins the roll out before the policy is initiated at all Texas prisons.
Right now, all corrections officers at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston will be assigned a camera for their shifts but soon it will be implemented at all 23 sites across the state. TDCJ leadership announced the program kicking off at the beginning of the month and other units will see it roll out over the next year.
This was part of a $4 billion ask to the state legislature for improvements after TDCJ inmate, convicted murderer, and known cartel member Gonzalo Lopez escaped a prison transport bus in 2022. Lopez remained on the run for weeks and killed five people at a home in Centerville.
A report after the incident involving Lopez found flaws inside TDCJ facilities that contributed to the escape, including a lack of video capabilities and equipment failures. The body cameras were a specific request in the department’s request from the state, and something noted in the post-escape report after more than 20 staff and supervisors failed to comply with TDCJ policy, but little was captured on individual cameras.
”We were funded last session for a $23 million body-worn camera program for 23 maximum-security units. That entails 12,000 cameras for uniformed staff on those 23 facilities,” Bobby Lumpkin, the Correctional Institutions Division Director, said. “Body cameras inside our agency are absolutely going to be a tool for transparency, to show what our correctional staff deal with day in and day out but also for investigations.”
Disciplinary action was taken against nearly two dozen staff involved in daily operations when Lopez escaped the transport bus.
