UPDATE TO POST: I need to let you know about change since I did this post on June 5th. I saw the Chaplain at our service on Friday, June 9th. He saw that I was using a little speaker with my small speakerless CD player. He informed me that since we last talked he has found out that they won’t allow us to bring in stand-alone speakers anymore. They will be strictly enforcing what’s in the Handbook and only allowing us to bring in CD player with self contained speakers. He said they are sending a memo about this to the staff. So if you want to use music in your service, you will need to use a CD player, or the equipment that’s in the chapel. Of course, you can take a chance, and some DOs may let you through with the speaker, but they may require you to take it back to your car.
This post is for those of you who like to use music at your LBJ service. There has been some confusion with the detention officers (D.O.s) about what music players we are allowed to bring in. I talked to the Chaplain about it, so I thought I’d do a post to let you know what is allowed.
You all received a Handbook when you did your initial training for volunteers at LBJ. The handbook says: “The use of the piano, a guitar or battery operated cassette/CD player under 24 inches in length is allowed”. It seems that the D.O.s are now rigidly enforcing that rule.
The rule is outdated, since most music now is in digital form. For years I brought in an mp3 player (an ancient iPod) with a speaker connected via a wire. Then one day they said that the mp3 player wasn’t allowed. So I bought a small CD player with no speaker, and connected my wired speaker to it. That was OK for several months until last week when they said that I wasn’t allowed to bring in the speaker because it’s a “separate electronic device”.
Recently one of our volunteers was told by the DO at the metal detector that he wasn’t allowed to bring in a CD player. I think that DO misunderstood the rules. The Chaplain told me that a CD player is OK, but that we are not allowed to bring in a separate speaker
If the DO tells you that you can’t bring in your CD player, you can politely tell him that it is allowed by the Handbook, and that the Chaplain recently agreed that it was OK. You can ask them to call the Chaplain about it if they want, or they can check in the handbook, which they have there at the check-in area. In case they can’t get a hold of the Chaplain, he suggested that you bring your handbook to the jail so you can show them that it is allowed. If you don’t have your handbook, there is a digital copy here. The rule about CD players is in Section X paragraph 6.B ‘Group singing and/or special music’. Also, I have copied the page and pasted it below. You can download a copy of that page from here to print and bring with you to your service.
MusicPlayerOne more thing: the chapels on the different levels and dormitories have some audio visual equipment in them which you can use to play music. The problem with the DVD player (not sure if this is true on all levels) is that you need a remote control to select a specific track on the CD. You can get the remote from the Chaplain’s slot where we sign in on the visitation level. The problem is that it’s not guaranteed to be there, since volunteers may forget to return it.
“Come before Him with a joyful song” (Psalm 100:2). God Bless!
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