When Christopher Wayne Cabler committed suicide on May 5, 2019, in Red River County Jail in Clarksville, Texas, he was in a room with a motion-activated camera. His suicide was captured on video, and that is the crux of another complaint against the jail in connection with Cabler’s death. A question being explored in this series is whether or not violations of jail standards could provide insights into complaints against the jail in regard to the suicide.

Each year, county jails in Texas are inspected by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS). When a jail is found to be non-compliant, additional oversight is provided and at least one more inspection is conducted. Since 2017, at least, Red River County Jail has been found non-compliant in inspection after inspection. The following are among the standards violated, according to a jail inspection report dated March 1, 2017.

Supervision of Inmates

Research of county jails throughout the United States has revealed that supervision is the number one deterrent to custodial deaths. It is a cause for concern anytime a jail standard violated in Texas is related to lack of supervision. The following is one of the areas of non-compliance discovered at Red River County Jail:

Inmates confined in a detoxification or holding cell must be observed by jailers every 30 minutes at most. An inspector made the following note with regard to violation of this standard:

• A review of face-to-face observation documentation for detox and holding cells shows that jailers exceeded the 30-minute maximum between observations as established by jail standards. Instead of making observations every half hour, jailers routinely made hourly checks.

The posts on this site are intended to assist current or former inmates in county jails in Texas. There is at no time an intent to infer improprieties on the part of institutions or individuals.

–Guest Contributor