At 11:33 pm on September 1, 2021, Patsy Rosas was booked into the city jail in Baytown, Texas, by the Baytown Police Department. The 47-year-old was discovered face-down and bloody at 3:36 am on September 2, 2021. Emergency measures were initiated but she was pronounced dead before another half hour had passed.

The intake process developed by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards was touched upon in Part 1 of this continuing series. The intake process was the topic of an in-depth study conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Corrections (NICIC). The purpose was to discover where improvements might be made. Data from the study suggested that improved integration of the needs assessment, institutional and community risk, and case management planning and processes are needed to achieve the following goals:

• Maximize resources;
• Enhance the security and safety of correctional facilities and surrounding communities;
• More effectively prepare inmates for their release; and
• Provide support to the communities in which inmates are released.

Obstacles to Inmate Intake Assessments

The study about intake procedures also found that the following were areas of the intake process that should be improved:

• Ensure timely access to probation and parole violation data.
• Link data from courts, parole, and probation offices.
• Address the shortage of bed and administrative space.
• Ensure that risk and needs assessment instruments are up-to-date, valid, and currently relevant.

Posts on this website are meant as helpful resources to assist prisoners housed in county jails in Texas. At no time is there an intention to infer that people or entities have engaged in misdeeds.

–Guest Contributor