On July 26, 2023, Sheriff Eddy Lange of the Bell County Sheriff’s Office in Belton, Texas, filed a custodial death report (CDR) about Tyler Thomas Ross. Mr. Ross was 23 years old and had been in Bell County Jail for no more than a few hours when he was found hanging inside a temporary holding cell on July 3, 2023. He was transported to a local hospital and, sadly, died on July 11, 2023, because of the injuries suffered in the suicide attempt.

Are Jails Proactive about Adopting Suicide Prevention Strategies? Continued

In jails, all telephone cords should be at a length that prevents the potential use of them as a ligature. The recommended length of phone cords is no more than eight inches.

• The initial results of the autopsy of an inmate who died in 2022 in a Texas county jail showed that suicide was the cause of death. A 32-year-old man used a phone cord to hang himself. He had been left alone in a recreation room for more than an hour to use the phone. When he was discovered, he was in an unresponsive state and declared deceased 2 hours after he entered the room.

Learn more in Part 1 and this continuing series.

One of this website’s purposes is to provide information to help Texas inmates who are or have been incarcerated in a county or city jail in the state and their families. Insinuating that a person or institution has been involved in misdeeds is never intended.

–Guest Contributor