In Letter Opinions OR2002-5411 (9/25/2002) and OR2002-5560 (10/2/2002)
the Office of the Texas Attorney General ruled that USE OF FORCE REPORTS
and USE OF FORCE VIDEOS involving death row prisoners are public
information under the Texas Public Information Act, Chapter 552 of the
Texas Government Code.

If you want to request a USE OF FORCE REPORT or USE OF FORCE VIDEO
involving a death row prisoner, fax or mail your request to Gary
Johnson, TDCJ Executive Director, P.O. Box 99, Huntsville, Texas
77342-009, (fax) (936) 437-2123.

Make your request clear and specific. TDCJ can charge you the cost of
having its personnel copy the tape. I do not know how much it will
charge. Usually the TDCJ advises you of the cost of producing the
materials responsive to your request and requires advance payment before
it will provide the materials.

An example of a Public Information Request is:

"Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, codified at Chapter 552
of the Texas Government Code, please provide me with the following
materials: (1)
the USE OF FORCE REPORTS for uses of force involving ROBERT ROBERTSON
#999123 for the years 2001 and 2002; and (2) the USE OF FORCE VIDEOS for
uses of force involving ROBERT ROBERTSON #999123 for the years 2001 and
2002.

Pursuant to the Act, I am prepared to pay reasonable copying costs."
************************************************** **********
Tapes showing use of force on Texas inmates released
10/18/2002

By WFAA-TV

HUNTSVILLE -- Civil Libertarians are hailing a decision by the Texas
Attorney General's Office ordering the Texas Department of Corrections
to
release videotapes to the public documenting the use of force by guards
against Texas death row inmates.

The tapes -- a portion of which are being broadcast tonight by WFAA-TV
-- graphically show some of Texas' most infamous inmates being pepper
sprayed by guards.

Civil rights groups such as the ACLU want to review the tapes to see if
they will support complaints of excessive force routinely being employed
against death
row inmates. The Texas Department of Corrections -- which initially
opposed releasing the tapes -- denies that its employees use excessive
force and maintain
the tapes will vindicate the agency.

Oct. 18, 2002, 10:47PM

Released tapes give rare look behind prison walls
By DALE LEZON
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
In a rare glimpse of life inside death row, videotapes
released by state prison officials show guards using
force against executed inmate Gary Graham and others.

The tapes show guards restraining apparently
uncooperative inmates. In a tape shown on a television
newscast, the guards restrained Graham three times,
but no punches were thrown.

The American Civil Liberties Union and inmate
advocates said all the videotapes may not necessarily
show guards using excessive force against inmates, but
the tapes now can be used publicly to monitor
treatment of prisoners.

Prison officials said the tapes show guards safely and
effectively restraining inmates who refuse to comply
with orders or prison policies.

"We do not mistreat our inmates," said Michelle Lyons,
a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman.
"The fact that we keep tapes of our use of force
proves we are not hiding anything."

Media representatives requested that the department
release the tapes as public information. The
department referred the request to Attorney General
John Cornyn, who recently issued an opinion allowing
the tapes to be released, Lyons said. They were given
to the media representatives earlier this week, she
added.

Yolanda Torres, litigation director of the ACLU of
Texas Prison and Jail Accountability Project, said
Cornyn's ruling benefits prisoners and their
advocates.

Usually, people must file lawsuits against the
department to require them to release information
about confrontations that required the use of force.
She said all the tapes won't show excessive force but
"there will be some tapes where we will see that the
guards acted inappropriately, violated TDCJ policy and
used unnecessary force."

"It throws light on life behind prison walls," she
added.

Lyons said Cornyn's opinion makes it possible for the
department to release upon request tapes of incidents
when force was used against inmates. She said she
didn't think anyone had ever requested to see the
tapes before.

Some of the tapes released this week show guards
physically restraining Graham, who was executed June
22, 2000, after he had become a cause celebre for
capital punishment foes.

In one video segment, Graham, who vowed to fight being
moved from his cell or transferred to the execution
chamber, is shown pinned on the floor beneath more
than half a dozen prison guards dressed in protective
gear.

One of Graham's appeals attorneys, Houston lawyer Jack
Zimmermann, said his client told him at least once to
view videotapes of guards who "beat him."

"It does not surprise me, and we were told of it,"
Zimmermann said.

Zimmermann hailed the decision to release the tapes
but feared that prison officials could easily conceal
the worst cases of excessive force. Guards may not
videotape them, he said.

Department policies, however, require all excessive
force incidents to be videotaped, Lyons said. She said
when inmates fail to comply with orders or follow
prison policies, guards warn them at least three times
to comply or face restraint, she said.

If the inmates refuse, the use-of-force incident is
recorded, she said.

Lyons said the department records the confrontations
to answer inmate or inmate advocate claims that guards
use excessive force. Department officials can review
the tapes to determine if too much force was used, she
said.

Policy allows guards to use physical force or chemical
agents, such as pepper spray, to subdue prisoners,
Lyons added.

"We're not hiding anything," Lyons said. "There's
nothing to hide."

Excuse me if I don't believe the brutal abuse tapes will find their way to the light of day off the row.. I doubt they are going to give up the tapes of the beatings we all are well aware happen at Polunsky and other prisons..
Good start "BUT"..

I agree! Paul Collela has written that when they are videotaping these incidents the cameraman conveniently is out of direct view of the abuse---they will find a way around this but at leat they are making an attempt to look into things

You'd be surprised, David!

A tape of 6 women being beaten and strip searched by an all-male SWAT TEAM, here at the P4W (Prison For Women) in Kingston, Ontario, did make it's way surreptitiously to the public. It resulted in a HUGE public inquiry, which then resulted in the "ARBOUR REPORT INTO ABUSES AT THE P4W", and FINALLY P4W was shut down forever, in the summer of 1999!

The mere existance of such tapes provides HOPE!

I suspect it was a sympathetic guard who anonymously mailed a copy of that tape to the media! But of course, everyone's lip is buttoned firmly!

DON'T GIVE UP HOPE! It's happened before!

Menolly

Oct. 31, 2002
KHOU-11


Tapes detail violence on Texas' death row

HUNTSVILLE - The recent release of videotapes from Texas' death row has
given a never-before-seen look at the use of force in the violent
environment of prison.

It would seem that seeing the tapes would answer a lot of questions.
Instead, it raises them, according to attorney David O'Neil.

"I can guarantee you that if Candid Camera paid a trip to the prisons, the
people of Texas and around this country would be shocked at the amount of
abuse that goes on in the prison," he says.

"You know, I'm not going to tolerate any type of abuse that I know is
going on - period," says TDCJ Inspector General John Moriarity.

(Also Online -- KHOU-11 video: Nancy Holland reports)

But what do the admittedly violent videos really show? Some of it is
clear. But for those concerned about the potential for excessive use of
force, the tapes are the equivalent of trying to see around a corner.

Some of the video shows Gary Graham agreeing to a strip search, but he
asks that the camera be turned off. It is - then suddenly the camera is
back on.

To Jack Zimmerman, Graham's attorney, it is all about what he doesn't see.
"We don't see what caused him to go to the ground the first time on this
tape," he says. "So this tape doesn't answer the question whether
excessive force was used or not."

In fact, prisoners often make claims of being kicked or punched or
provoked off-camera and that corrections officers know exactly when the
cameras are rolling.

But show a corrections officer the same tape, and he sees something
different. Arlan Foster says if the officers know the camera is there, so
do the inmates.

"Some of them can get an Academy Award," he says. "Whenever the camera
gets there, then quite often they go into their act, and you know they
know."

When it comes to force, there may be nothing more controversial than the
use of chemicals like pepper spray or OC. By any standards it is vile
stuff that almost immediately causes choking, gagging and retching.

Amnesty International has expressed concerns as has the American Civil
Liberties Union.

"The complaints I hear from prisoners are that the officers use too much
gas in a confined situation," says Yolanda Torres of the ACLU. "For
example, the prisoner is in his cell with nothing covering his door and
officers just spray excessive gas."

But the ACLU also agrees with prison officials that if gas is used
sparingly and the prisoners are decontaminated, it can be a preferable
option.

"It is certainly safer, not only from a staff standpoint but also from an
offender standpoint," says Michelle Lyons of the TDCJ.

Regardless of what you think about the video, what the tapes show is that
prison - death row - is a violent place. But no one really doubted that.
What lingers are questions of how to make it less so, and if more cameras
will make it easier or harder to see the truth.

Currently there is a move to install more cameras within the state's
prison system to allow for more constant monitoring.

---------------

By NANCY HOLLAND, KHOU-11

YOU CAN SEE THE WHOLE ARTICLE AND TAPE AT THIS LINK
Online at:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/txcn021031_cm_deathrow.28a3ae5.html