Simon Peter Douglas died on February 10, 2022, a mere 3 hours after he was booked into the Harris County Jail facility. The custodial death report that was prepared by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office regarding the 41-year-old’s death indicates that he exhibited mental health problems. Mr. Douglas committed suicide while in a padded cell.

Inspectors with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) have found that Harris County Jail has been non-compliant on numerous occasions in recent years. In the years 2018, 2020, and 2021, the jail was cited for alleged violation of the following requirement.

Harris County Jail Non-Compliance: Rule §275.1-Regular Observation by Jailers

This around-the-clock requirement is that each jail facility must have the appropriate number of jailers on the site. Face-to-face observations of all inmates must be conducted in intervals no greater than every 60 minutes. In areas of the jail where potentially suicidal, mentally ill, and assaultive inmates as well as those behaving in a bizarre manner are housed, observations must be conducted every 30 minutes. These observations are recorded by electronic sensors or cameras in areas where the high-risk cells or cell groups are located.

• In a Jail Inspection Report dated November 15-17, 2021, the TCJS inspector wrote that documentation on face-to-face inmate observations were not performed by jailers in the required intervals of 60 minutes maximum. The amount of time that passed between observations was anywhere between 90 and 144 minutes.

Learn more in Part 1 of this ongoing series. More details on the Harris County Jail inspection reports are continued in coming installments.

There is no intention on this website to infer misdeeds on persons or entities. Providing beneficial resources for inmates currently or previously detained in a Texas county jail is the purpose of posts on this site.

–Guest Contributor