On July 12, 2023, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office filed a custodial death report (CDR) about 53-year-old Darlene Francis. At intake on June 28, 2023, nothing specific pertaining to Ms. Francis is revealed. There are no insights in the report about Ms. Francis’ stay in the jail, either. The summary of the events of how the death occurred provides details of what happened on June 30, 2023,

Reporting Custodial Deaths in Texas

Law enforcement agencies, municipal and county jails, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) are required to report to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) each time an individual dies in their custody. Included in this reporting are deaths during arrest, suicides in local jails and prisons, and deaths by illness, disease, or other natural causes. It can be a criminal offense-a Class B misdemeanor-to fail to report a custodial death.

This requirement to report deaths has existed for decades, but, until 2005, reporting was inconsistent and sporadic. Changes made in 2016 streamlined reporting. The reports began to be made public on a searchable online catalog. Although reports in the data set includes reports dating back to the 1980s, only after 2005 do the custodial death reports represent a complete set.

Texas Bill Attempts to Further Shroud Deaths

The voracity of investigations and reports prepared after custodial deaths in Texas has been called into question by many watchdog groups. Learn more in Part 1 and this ongoing series.

Providing Texas jail detainees and their families with helpful resources is one of the purposes of this website. There is no intention of implicating that individuals or institutions have participated in wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor