Kevin Patrick Cantwell was booked into Cooke County Jail on April 9, 2022. He died of unknown causes at age 57 on May 1, 2022, according to a custodial death report filed by the Cooke County Sheriff’s Department. The address of Cooke County Jail is 300 County Road 451 in Gainesville, TX 76240.

Suicide is the leading cause of death in county jails, and many experts in custodial deaths have suggested that most suicides in jails were preventable. Sandra Bland’s suicide in Waller County Jail in 2015 is an example of a custodial suicide that many consider as having been preventable. For instance, although Ms. Bland had indicated that she was depressed and tried to commit suicide the previous year, the jail staff did not place her on suicide watch, which would have increased the level of monitoring with face-to-face observations.

One area in which jails have frequently been cited for being non-compliant in Texas is in conducting face-to-face inmate observations as required. The new jail requirements created through the Sandra Bland Act include making electronic cell checks that are automatically recorded. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) sends inspectors to each county annually for jail inspections. During the inspections, the records from the electronic systems are compared to written documentation, and the scrutiny often reveals that records were altered to cover up a lack of compliance.

Learn more in this ongoing series.

Accusing people or organizations of wrongdoing is never intended on this website. The posts added to this site are meant as helpful sources that could be a benefit to inmates in county jails in Texas.

–Guest Contributor