Forty-four-year-old Richard Bendle’s recent death on April 13, 2021, was reported by the Corpus Christi Police Department. The brief report suggests that drugs likely influenced Bendle’s behavior. The medical episode that occurred just as he was entering the Nueces County Jail facility in Corpus Christi, Texas, and that ended with his death is believed to have been caused by an overdose of narcotics.

Inmates and detainees in the custody of police have a right to receive necessary medical care, and drug-related emergencies are common. A recent study of Texas county jails showed that almost half of the inmates in the state’s county jails had drug problems. The prevalence of opioid addictions has resulted in jails in Texas and across the country providing drug-addicted inmates with lifesaving Narcan as they are released.

According to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS), medical care is the topic that gets the most complaints in connection with county jails every year. Minimum jail standards include guidelines for providing health care to inmates, but it seems that medical care deficiencies are difficult to identify during jail inspections because non-compliance issues are rarely related to medical care in jail inspection reports. Oftentimes, details about an alleged incident of denial of medical services only come to light following a tragic health-related custodial death.

Learn more in this continuing series.

With the posts on this website, we hope to provide helpful resources for inmates at county jails in Texas, whether they are currently or previously incarcerated. There is no intention on this site to infer misdeeds on the part of individuals or entities.

–Guest Contributor