Civil Rights Attorney – Texas Jails Have Been Dodging Scrutiny Related to Custodial Deaths – Part 2
There is video evidence that partially tells the story of the death of the 47-year-old inmate in a Texas county jail mentioned in the first part of this series. Documentation also helps piece together what happened to her after being incarcerated. The following tracks her health and her experience in a Texas jail:
- When booked into the jail, her vital signs were normal; and approximately two months later, she was dead.
- A video recording from the jail shows the inmate four days before being taken to a hospital. She is lying on her side with her head in her hands. A jailer asked her if she wanted to be seen by a physician. After a response that was barely audible, the jailer wrote words she did not speak. What the jailer wrote was that she did not wish to see a doctor. What she whispered, however, was “They don’t never do nothing.”
- Two days later, the inmate was on a mat and was dragged along the floor by a jail guard into a medical observation cell where all she had was the mat on a concrete floor.
- Video records show that the woman crawled around the space with white brick walls and knocked on the windows and door.
- Over the two days in the medical observation cell, she ate only a few bites of food. After struggling to lift a carton of food, the food spilled onto her mat. She lay there with her head in the spilled food.
- She drank only three small cups of water during those two days.
See Part 1 and this continuing series to learn more.
This site seeks to assist Texas inmates and their families. There is no intent on this website to imply that wrongs have occurred on the part of an individual or institution.
–Guest Contributor
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