Bowie County, Texas Jail Fails Inspection – Serious Problems Continue
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (“TCJS”) has now listed the Bowie County jail, in Texarkana, Texas, as being non-compliant pursuant to Texas law. The Bowie County jail has significant issues, and the TCJS inspector found that it violated TCJS standards in several respects.
The TCJS conducted a special inspection on October 15, 2019. During that special inspection, the TCJS inspector noted, after reviewing medical administration records and having discussions with facility administration, that all medical instructions of designated physicians were not being followed. Further, after reviewing medical records and discussions with facility administration, the TCJS inspector noted that a family member of an inmate delivered medications to the jail on behalf of that inmate. However, neither the name of the medication nor the type of medication was noted in the medication records and therefore could not be verified.
The TCJS also conducted a typical inspection of the Bowie County jail on October 15 through 17, 2019. The TCJS inspector found that there were violations of five jail standards. These violations included problems with single cells, as well as training of staff for emergency situations. There were also violations related to failing to review prescriptions for inmates and failing to document distribution of medications. Finally, the TCJS inspector noted that jailers were exceeding the 30-minute observation requirement by as little as one minute and by as many as twenty-seven minutes. Hopefully, the Bowie County jail will remedy these problems quickly.
Dean Malone
Dean Malone