At age 44, Terrance D’Shawn Hammond died 9 hours after entering Brazos County Jail in Bryan, Texas. The custodial death report (CDR) filed with the Office of Attorney General in Texas included the charges against Mr. Hammond in the summary of how his death occurred. The CDR also states that he died in a hospital emergency room after being moved there from the jail.

Continuation of Recent Custodial Deaths Outside Texas

In a county jail outside Texas, six inmates recently died while incarcerated there. Three of those deaths in the Georgia county detention center occurred in May 2022 alone. Two of those have been ruled suicides.

The County Sheriff spoke about innovative actions taken to help prevent custodial deaths. They have adopted the use of technology that monitors the heart rate of the inmate wearing a PASS-5B detainee tag. The sheriff said that the orange-colored tags are tamper-proof. They plan to use the tags on inmates considered to be most at risk. The Georgia jail is the first in the nation to try out this new technology. Each tag costs about $100, but the sheriff said not a dime will be paid by the county unless the detainee tags are effective.

The sheriff also said that the jail offers inmates 24/7 access to psychiatric and psychological services. Such access has been part of their attempt to protect inmates from self-harm and suicide.

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

The purpose of this website is to reach out to current and previous prisoners detained in municipal and county Texas jails. There is never an intention on this site to make allegations of wrongdoing against individuals or institutions.

–Guest Contributor