Marion, IL – A jail inmate accused of beating his 3-month-old son to death was pummeled by a group of inmates inside the facility, but the attack was not captured by the facility’s security cameras because the cameras malfunctioned during the attack.

“We have had trouble over the past couple of months with the surveillance system,” Williamson County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Scott McCabe told WSIL. “We have been working on the issue.”

“They are currently working at this time,” he added.

The cameras were not working in November, when a group of inmates beat 25-year-old Devin O’Daniell to the point that he needed to be hospitalized.

O’Daniell has since been returned to the Williamson County Jail, where he is being held on $1 million bond in connection with the Nov. 26 murder of his infant son, The Southern Illinoisan reported.

He faces initial charges of aggravated battery to a child, aggravated domestic battery, and domestic battery.

Deputy McCabe said he could not provide more information about the assault on O’Daniell due to the ongoing investigation, according to WSIL.

He said that the facility’s surveillance system, which was installed in 2012, is worn out and failing, leaving the county open to liabilities.

The sheriff’s department has asked county officials for funds to overhaul the system, and the county is currently accepting bids, Williamson County Commissioner Ron Ellis told WSIL.

They have received one bid, and are required to get at least two more before the commissioners can award a contract, Ellis explained.

“The people who are in the jail are potentially in harm’s way, and the guards are in harm’s way,” he said.

“Hopefully within the next few days, 10 days, something like that, before Christmas, we can [get] everything secured where it’s at least in the process of being fixed,” Ellis added.