Twenty-three-year-old Jaquaree Simmons was booked into Harris County Jail on February 10, 2021, and he died seven days later. While distributing lunches, detention officers discovered that he was lying in his cell face-down. Life-saving measures were taken, and he was transported to a nearby hospital, where Simmons was pronounced dead.

Anytime there is a custodial death in Texas, the Texas Rangers as well as the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) conduct investigations. A responsibility of the county sheriffs in towns where there are county jails is to handle jail operations according to the minimum jail standards established by TCJS. Many of the requirements for jails are associated with the safety of the inmates. Jail is not supposed to be a place where people are arrested and die, whether as pre-trial detainees or inmates serving time.

Studies have been done which suggest that the death rate for individuals who die of natural causes is essentially the same in jail as it is out of jail. It is difficult to draw factual conclusions about a death based on reading the custodial death report. According to watchdog groups, the space for providing specifics in custodial death reports has been reduced to a maximum of two pages. Previously, many more facts had been included on a routine basis and as needed, additional pages, as well.

Learn more in this ongoing series.

It is the intention of this website that posts serve as informational resources for county jail prisoners in Texas. It is not intended on this site to infer that wrongs on the part of individuals or institutions have occurred.

–Guest Contributor