Kevin Patrick Cantwell entered Cooke County Jail in Gainesville, Texas, on April 9, 2022. He was still an inmate there when he died at age 57 on May 1, 2022. On the day of his death, he was discovered by jail staff laying on the floor of the solitary isolation cell where he was housed. CPR was instigated by jail staff and continued by emergency medical services personnel who transferred him to North Texas Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Sobering Cells

When appropriate, inmates are placed in a sobering cell, where they are monitored in intervals not to exceed every 30 minutes. Face to face observations of inmates in sobering cells are documented in a sobering cell observation log. When an inmate has been placed in a sobering cell, a supervisor must be notified. An evaluation by medical staff must be made within six hours of an inmate being placed in a sobering cell to determine whether the inmate has urgent medical needs.

Restraints

When restraints have been applied to an inmate, jail staff members must initiate intensive observations of the inmate with no more than 15 minutes passing between each personal check. The Watch Commander must approve that the inmate is in restraints, and such approval must be continued or denied every two hours. The observations of inmates held in restraints are documented on a restraint observation log (ROL). A ROL is the document utilized only when an inmate is in restraints. On page 2 of the ROL, a complete narrative must be provided that describes the circumstances necessitating the use of restraints.

Restraints can be utilized only for the purpose of preventing self-harm, harm to others, damage of property, and on occasions approved by the medical and/or mental health personnel at the jail, the facility’s officer in command, or his or her designee.

Learn more in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this continuing series.

Suggesting that a person or organization has engaged in wrongs Is never intended on this website. Helping inmates who are now or have previously been a prisoner in a Texas county jail is the purpose of all of this website’s posts

–Guest Contributor