While he was still being booked into Ector County Jail in Odessa, Texas, 38-year-old Wallace Howell behaved in a manner that threatened the safety of himself and others. Jailers placed him in restraints. Mr. Howell was shortly thereafter found nonresponsive and was pronounced dead within 6 hours of his entry in the jail facility.

Guidelines for using restraint systems are provided for county jails in Texas by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS). The following information continues from Part 1 of this ongoing series in which there was reference to a Jail Inspection Report dated January 25, 2021. Details follow.

Title 37, Part 9, RULE §273.6 (10) – Restraints Continued

The portion of this rule that the county jail was allegedly in non-compliance with states that restraints can be used to minimize the threat of harm or injury. When deemed necessary, restraints are to be used humanely and only to prevent harm. Restraints must never be used as a form of punishment. Every 15 minutes and no longer, a face-to-face observation of an inmate in restraints must be conducted according to specific guidelines and documented. One part of the observation is to assess the security of the restraints and the circulation to the inmate’s extremities.

• The TCJS inspector reported that the restraint chair log was reviewed, and it was found that the timeframe for observation of inmates every 15-minutes was exceeded by 1 to 17 minutes on multiple occasions.

In the next segment, learn about the potential dangers reported by manufacturers of restraint chairs.

Posts on this site are intended as potentially helpful resources for county jail inmates in Texas. There is never any intention in any post or page on this website to infer wrongs on institutions or persons.

–Guest Contributor