TDCJ’s Bryan Collier Challenged at Public Meeting

Tammica Motley at the TDCJ public meeting (screenshot courtesy of TDCJ)

One after another, the family of Jovian Motley – his father, grandmother, uncle, and cousins – rose and denounced Bryan Collier, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the agency that runs the state’s prison system.

The family members complained – some angrily, some wearily – that it had been 165 days since Motley’s death, but TDCJ still has not adequately explained what happened. The agency has said that Motley, a 27-year-old corrections officer at the Wainwright Unit, joined four other COs on the night of Nov. 13, 2023, to remove an inmate from a pitch-black cell. There was a struggle and Motley died from asphyxiation. Little else has been revealed. Motley’s mother, Tammica, told the Chronicle the family suspects the agency is hiding evidence of misconduct. She has demanded Collier’s resignation.

In a message to the Chronicle, TDCJ offered a list of Collier’s accomplishments and said he has no plans to retire. It also expressed sympathy for the Motley family. “TDCJ acknowledges the profound grief surrounding the tragic passing of Officer Motley,” the message read. “The agency will recognize Officer Motley at the annual Fallen Officer Memorial Ceremony on May 10.” The agency also said it has revised its Behavioral Intervention Plan in response to Jovian Motley’s death.

Tammica Motley expressed doubt that the new protocol would have kept her son safe during the public comment portion of the April 26 meeting of the board that oversees TDCJ, held in the plush meeting room of the Renaissance Hotel in North Austin. After lambasting Collier and demanding his resignation, she turned to the seven members of the board, her loud voice distorting the microphone. “How many other officers have to die before doing something about him,” she said, jabbing her finger at Collier. “His job is to protect and to serve. Who protected my son?”

The chair of the board, Eric Nichols, responded as he had after other incendiary comments, with elaborate consideration, saying, “Mrs. Motley, thank you for being here. We appreciate you being here.” Collier sat beside him straight and unspeaking, his head tilted up, his face red.

In her remarks, Motley said she has received more support from prison advocates and inmates’ families than from TDCJ. Tona Naranjo is one who has offered support. Naranjo’s son, Jon Anthony Southards, died in a cell without air conditioning during last summer’s extreme heat. Since his death, Naranjo has bitterly criticized TDCJ for not admitting that Southards died from heat exposure. She placed a box that she said contained Southard’s ashes on the podium during her remarks. “Death in your prison system is at an all-time high, sir,” she said, staring at Collier. “When does it stop?”

Two dozen others, most of them wives and mothers, also spoke at the 11-hour meeting. Hillary Randall told the story of her husband, who died from complications of Grave’s disease last summer, saying TDCJ could have saved his life if the agency had provided adequate medical care. Ashlen Gaddy spoke about the high numbers of inmates using K2 and other drugs to desensitize themselves to prison conditions, linking the drug use to increasing rates of suicide and assault.

Several prominent prison advocates spoke. Marci Marie Simmons of Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance begged the board members to visit the Lane Murray women's prison, saying that her group is hearing reports of sexual harassment and voyeurism by male guards there. Amite Dominick of Texas Prisons Community Advocates renewed her call to air-condition the prison system as soon as possible. Currently, 85,000 out of approximately 130,000 Texas inmates are housed in cells without AC. Dominick and others believe that at least 40 prisoners died from heat exhaustion last summer. A 2022 report by Brown University estimated that an average of 14 prisoners died from the heat each year between 2001 and 2019. Last week, Dominick and Simmons joined a lawsuit against Collier, asking the federal government to declare TDCJ's prison conditions cruel and unusual punishment.

Morgan Shelburne, an attorney with the Lone Star Defenders Office, described other abysmal conditions in the prisons. Her group represents migrants arrested under Operation Lone Star, the state’s controversial anti-immigrant campaign. Shelburne explained that, upon arrest, migrants are held in three TDCJ prisons – Briscoe, Segovia, and Lopez. She said the conditions in the prisons are so bad that clients often plead guilty to escape them, even when they’re innocent.

“Clients detained in Briscoe have reported a severe rat infestation,” Shelburne said. “Rats freely enter their cells. Sometimes they describe them swarming in their cells. They have described a mold problem as well, that there is visible mold on the ceilings and in their showers. They have reported these things to TDCJ staff, but the conditions have not been improved and they haven’t gotten any response.

“Women in the Lopez Unit report being strip-searched multiple times a day, sometimes three to four times a day, before and after meals and recess periods. In all the units, clients describe abusive guards, who make racist comments towards them. They describe severe delays in responses to urgent medical care requests. And they describe inedible meals – uncooked meat and beans, hard rice, moldy potatoes – that they’re given less than five minutes to eat before their food is taken from them and thrown away.”