A 26-year-old Prisoner Commits Suicide in Harris County Jail
A prisoner died at 12:06 a.m. on Friday, December 1, 2017, in Harris County Jail after hanging himself with a bed sheet. He was a mentally ill prisoner housed in the mental health ward. The records show that he was classified as having serious mental illness on a persistent basis, according to spokesperson for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) Jason Spencer. The Texas Rangers will investigate the custodial death; and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards will conduct a jail inspection, as well.
On Thursday night, November 30, the inmate was discovered by a detention officer who had just found that the window to the cell had been covered with a newspaper. The jail’s medical staff attempted to revive the man, and then he was transported via ambulance to St. Joseph’s Medical Center before being pronounced dead a short time later.
This is the second time in 2017 that a prisoner committed suicide in Harris County Jail. In February, Vincent Dwayne Young, age 32, hanged himself with a bed sheet. In his case, it was allegedly found that the HCSO had failed to comply with minimum jail standards. Jailers allegedly failed to have scheduled observation checks on Young, as the state requires.
In recent months, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez implemented measures intended to prevent jail suicides. Jail activists and top jail officials as well as state legislator Senator John Whitmire, D-Houston, have emphasized the seriousness of the situation in which suicides continue to occur in Texas county jails, calling on the removal of items that prisoners commonly use for that purpose. Whitemire is calling for “zero tolerance” of jail suicides.
As with every post on this website, we are only providing information in this post and do not make any allegation or assertion that anyone acted inappropriately or engaged in misconduct.
–Guest Contributor
smchugh
smchugh