Anthony Wayne Gray’s death was reported in a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department filing in Beaumont, Texas. The 58-year-old was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on April 13, 2021, and died approximately three weeks later on May 8. The only information about the medical care provided by the jail’s medical staff was that he was given treatment for difficulty breathing during his time in custody.

Complaints against Texas county jails are posted on the Texas Commission for Jail Standards (TCJS) website. Complaints about inmate medical care always outnumber grievances expressed about any other jail-related issues. The facts about matters such as denial of medical care in jails don’t usually become known to the general public except in cases involving a custodial death caused by illness and, allegedly, denial of medical care.

Although most complaints are about inmate health services, issues related to medical care do not come across as blatantly problematic in jail inspection reports. Considering that, there do not seem to be minimum jail standards that inspectors of Texas jails can investigate in a way that exposes denial of medical care. However, the following is an example of non-compliance in the area of jail medical services.

Texas Administrative Code, Title 37, Part 9, Chapter 273.3

This minimum jail standard specifies that the medical instructions of designated physicians must be followed. The following is the note made by the TCJS inspector on a March 2, 2021, jail inspection report:

• The inmate medical log/MARS forms that jailers completed demonstrate that medication is not being administered to inmates by the jailers as ordered by the prescribing doctors.

See Part 1 and Part 2 of this three-part series.

This website provides posts for the purpose of helping current and former prisoners in Texas county jails. There is no intention on this website to infer that people or institutions have engaged in improprieties.

–Guest Contributor