Christy Michelle Slayton was incarcerated on September 10, 2019, at Kaufman County Jail in Kaufman, Texas. Soon after, she was discovered nonresponsive in her cell and received emergency medical care. Although she was moved to a local hospital, she died on September 14, 2019.

A recent study on overdose deaths in lockup facilities shows an increase of more than 600% from 2001 to 2018 in state prisons. The statistic for county jails shows that overdose deaths increased by more than 200% in the same timeframe. Drug and alcohol intoxication custodial deaths have become all too common, but overdose deaths have also increased alarmingly in the general population. This devastating trend is associated with opioids, mainly illegal fentanyl.

According to an inmate advocacy group, a persistent problem is that people in the U.S. are incarcerated with addiction problems and then do not receive adequate treatment.

Data on custodial deaths garnered from Texas statistics as well as four other states shows that the drugs causing the most deaths are opioids (fentanyl in particular), methamphetamine, and K2, which is a synthetic marijuana drug. Although there are various ways that illegal drugs get to inmates inside the jail, incoming prisoners often die because they swallowed drugs just before being apprehended by police or hid the drugs in body cavities.

Learn more in Part 1 and Part 2 of this three-part series.

All posts on this website are intended as helpful resources for inmates in Texas county jails. There are never intentions to infer wrongs on the part of individuals or organizations.

–Guest Contributor