The custodial death report regarding 23-year-old Jaquaree Simmons, who had been incarcerated at Harris County Jail in Houston, Texas, did not indicate what the cause of death may have been. He had been in jail for a week and detention officers found that he was face-down in his cell on February 17, 2021, which was also the day he died.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) releases jail inspection reports regarding non-compliant county jails in the state. Sometimes the alleged violations reflect that policies intended to keep inmates safe are too often neglected. In matters of supervision, particularly when inmates are potentially suicidal or held in a restraint device, inmates could be endangered by acts of non-compliance. The following is an example of the recent finding of a TCJS inspector with regard to a Texas county jail.

Restraint Log Findings

It is required that inmates in Texas county jails who have been placed in a restraint device must be observed face-to-face by a member of the jail staff every quarter-hour at most. Part of the assessment that must be conducted during this observation check is to make sure circulation to the inmates’ extremities has not been cut off by the restraint device.

• Restraint logs showed that the required 15-minute observation checks of inmates in restraints were exceeded on multiple occasions by anywhere from 1 to 9 minutes.

Controversial restraint devices approved by TCJS include restraint chairs and WRAP restraint devices.

See Part 1 and Part 2 of this three-part series.

This website provides posts for the intended purpose of assisting Texas inmates formerly or currently held in county jails. It is never intended to imply that persons or entities have been involved in wrongs.

–Guest Contributor