A minimal amount of information is provided in the custodial death report (CDR) about Duane Audwin Durley, who died on November 12, 2022, at age 62 after being jailed in the Jefferson County Correctional Facility in Beaumont, Texas. His cause of death is unknown and awaiting autopsy results. The answer is “yes,” however, to a question about whether the decedent was under restraint in the time that led up to the death or the events that caused the death. The indication is that he had been in handcuffs.

Jefferson County Jail Allegedly Violates Rule §275.1-Regular Observation by Jailers

The October 17, 2017, Special Inspection Report citing the Jefferson County Jail for violating four minimum jail standards includes an alleged violation against Rule §275.1-Regular Observation by Jailers. This rule is in the chapter addressing the supervision of inmates. The jail inspection report provides details of the rule, such as the requirement to maintain the appropriate number of jailers in the detention center 24 hours per day. Although it is not stated in the rule, inmates are sometimes placed on 15-minute suicide observation, in which they must be observed in staggered intervals every 15 minutes at most.

• The inspector with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) noted that the documentation submitted was carefully reviewed. It was found that “the inmate in question” was on the 15-minute staggered observations. However, the documentation that was reviewed allegedly clearly shows that the face-to-face 15-minute observations were exceeded by anywhere between 5 minutes and 120 minutes prior to “the inmate’s medical emergency.”

Learn more in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of this series.

Local Texas prisoners can find helpful resources they need on this site, whether they were incarcerated in a municipal or county jail. Accusing people or organizations of engaging in misdeeds is never intended on this site.

–Guest Contributor