The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department at 133 N. Riverfront Blvd. in Dallas TX 75207 filed the custodial death report (CDR) about Willie Florence Love, Jr. on March 13, 2023. It does indicate that the cause of death was natural causes, but specifics are not known. During intake, it was noted that he exhibited medical problems. He was transported to Parkland Memorial Hospital from Dallas County Jail on the day of his death, which was February 22, 2023.

The Texas Health and Human Services foresaw the problem with mentally ill individuals being shuffled to jails due to several dynamics. The psychiatric hospital system had a reduced capacity but increased demand. There have been staff recruitment as well as retention challenges that also contributed to the long waits for beds in psychiatric hospitals. The pressure is on jails, community-based psychiatric hospitals, and emergency rooms.

What the officials who tried to plan for these things did not foresee was the pandemic, which worsened the shortage of mental health workers. It also kept mentally ill people from receiving needed treatments. Experts agree that mentally handicapped people are not more violent than the general population, but they are often arrested for crimes such as loitering.

Because these psychiatric beds are so slow to open up, a brief stay in a jail can easily last months or up to a year before they enter a courtroom.

Learn more in Part 1 and this continuing series.

This website aims to provide resources helpful to Texas inmates detained in county and municipal jails. There is never an intention of insinuating that persons or organizations have been participants in wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor