The Bexar County Jail deputy who discovered inmate Darlene Francis on her cell floor at 9:07 AM on June 30, 2023, sought a response verbally and by shaking her. A Code 1 (Medical Assistance required) was initiated immediately when she realized Ms. Francis was unresponsive. A registered nurse responded to the area and determined that a Code 1 Blue (Medical Emergency) was needed. A Code 1 Blue was initiated at 9:09 AM.

Texas Bill Attempts to Further Shroud Deaths Continued

Twenty-eight-year-old Sandra Bland told jail guards during intake that she had been feeling depressed and made a suicide attempt in the past year. When the Texas Rangers conducted an investigation of her death, they found evidence that she was not checked on in her cell as often as was shown in the observation records.

The evidence revealed that Ms. Bland was unmonitored for almost 2 hours before she was found hanging by her neck in her cell. She had been in Waller County Jail for three days when she died on July 13, 2015.

Under the Sandra Bland Act, which passed the Texas legislature in 2017, Texas sheriffs are required to commission an independent investigation whenever individuals die in their jail cells. According to a watchdog group, this requirement has helped to bring attention to the dangerous and degrading conditions that often result in avoidable inmate deaths.

Learn more in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, 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