After resisting arrest and banging her head on the police car partition at least two times, 32-year-old Veronica Carmona Peranez was placed in a single padded cell inside Brownsville City Jail in Brownsville, Texas, at about 6:13 pm on June 17, 2021. At 10:02 that night, Mrs. Peranez was discovered unresponsive in the padded cell and pronounced dead 15 minutes later.

Texas county jails are governed by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS), and cell checks for at-risk prisoners must occur at least every 30 minutes. These prisoners are either mentally ill, potentially suicidal, or exhibiting bizarre behavior. The requirement to appropriately care for prisoners is also evident when inmates have been placed in restraints. TCJS allows for various types of restraints to be used to prevent inmates from harming themselves or others. However, potential health risks associated with using restraints are recognized. To address such potential health threats, the following are TCJS guidelines.

RULE §273.6 – Restraints

TCJS specifies that restraints, when necessary, must be used in a humane manner. Restraints are not to be used as a punitive measure. More guidelines follow:

• The medical condition of an inmate should be assessed before he or she is placed in a restraint system.
• Restriction of an inmate’s movement should be limited to the degree necessary to stop injurious behavior.
• Whenever viable, use cushioned or soft restraints on inmates
• If a prisoner has any physical infirmities, they must not be restrained in a way or position that worsens those conditions.

Learn more in this ongoing series.

The posts on this website are offered as potentially helpful sources of information for Texas county jail inmates, whether current or former prisoners. There is no intention to imply on this site that persons or institutions have been involved in misdeeds.

–Guest Contributor