Forty eight year old Jeanette Marie Pruitt was booked into Galveston County Jail on July 2, 2023, at 10:45 AM. She died 24 hours later at 10:32 AM on July 3. Ms. Pruitt’s cause of death is unknown and pending autopsy results. The address of Galveston County Jail is 5700 Ave H, Galveston, TX 77550. The jail has a 1,187-bed capacity.

Inmate Cause of Death Statistics are Inconclusive

Every year, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has collected data on inmates who died in state prison and detainees who died in local jails. The circumstances surrounding these deaths are also reported under the Deaths in Custody Reporting Program (DCRP).

Response rates have been 100% among all 50 state departments of corrections and 99% among jail jurisdictions, of which there are approximately 2,800. The collection of COD data has been a cause of concern. In 2008, data quality follow up was cut short due to changes in data collection agents. As a result, 21% of the COD information for jail deaths was missing that year, compared to 2% in 2007 and 2009. This data irregularity significantly compromised the ability of BJS to report death trends.

COD data has been collected since 2000, but it unknown to what extent the information is accurately reported, especially in multiple-cause deaths.

Learn more in this continuing series.

This website has as one of its purposes to provide resources helpful to Texas inmates detained in county and city jails. There is never an intention of intimating that individuals or institutions have been involved in wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor