The Young County Sheriff’s Department directed by Sheriff Robert Babcock sent a custodial death report (CDR) about Brandon Kyle Taylor to the Office of the Attorney General on April 6, 2023. The information about Mr. Taylor’s death, which occurred in the Graham, Texas, jail, was summarized in two sentences. “The Decedent was in a segregation cell. In between floor checks, the Decedent used bedding to hang himself.” Mr. Taylor was pronounced deceased on March 23, 2023, in the single cell he was housed in.

Young County Jail Fails a March 2021 Jail Inspection Continued

Rule §273.2(7)-Health Services Plan

Per Part 7 of the health services plan, prescriptions are to be distributed according to the written instructions from a physician by an appropriate person that the sheriff/jail operator shall designate.

• Medication Administration Records were reviewed, and it was discovered that they failed to show that medications are distributed in accordance with written instructions from a doctor.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards has reported every year that complaints about medical care outnumber all other topics of complaint about county and municipal jails. Providing medication to inmates can be a matter of life or death. Insulin, for example, is essential for people with certain types of diabetes. Watchdog groups sometimes point out that there was no evidence that a person received their insulin when an inmate dies of ketoacidosis. For example, in January 2023, a county jail in the state was called out for not providing insulin to a diabetic inmate who died of ketoacidosis.

Learn more in Part 1 and this ongoing series.

With the continuing goal of helping Texas prisoners held in a local county or municipal jail, this website was created. There is no intention of making accusations against organizations or people on this site.

–Guest Contributor