Alexander Jonah McFarland, age 31, was in the custody of the Travis County Correctional Complex when he was discovered hanging in his single-occupancy cell. He had used his bedsheet as a ligature and was nonresponsive. Mr. McFarland was transferred to a hospital, where he died on July 17, 2021, which was two weeks after being booked into the Del Valle, Texas, Travis County jail.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards addresses the crucial issue of custodial suicide with preventative measures included in minimum jail standards for Texas county jails.

Deaths in Texas jails are referred to as “preventable tragedies” in a Texas government document on the topic of reducing mental health-related custodial deaths. The report includes statistics, including that 64% of Texas jail inmates are in the category of “any mental health problem.”

Many counties have had difficulty meeting the challenges associated with an increasingly mentally ill jail population. Coordination of the criminal justice system with behavioral health systems is needed along with staff training on mental health and more.

Included in this report is the death of Sandra Bland in Waller County Jail in Hempstead, Texas, on July 13, 2015–one of at least ten stories on mentally ill Texas inmates who died while incarcerated. Ms. Bland’s death garnered worldwide attention and the state has since adopted a law known as the Sandra Bland Act intended to improve care for and protection of mentally ill inmates.

Learn more in this ongoing series.

This site offers posts as potential sources of helpful information for inmates that are or have been incarcerated in a Texas county jail. There is not an intention on this website to infer wrongs on the part of people or institutions.

–Guest Contributor