County Jails in Texas are Required to Provide Needed Medical Services to Prisoners
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) compiled a report indicating that in 2016, 45% of all prisoner complaints were related to medical services. Prisoners have a right to needed medical care, and county jail in Texas have a duty to provide that care. When jail facilities fail to respond to urgent medical needs, prisoners sometimes die. To avoid health-related custodial deaths, county jails must follow such requirements as those laid out in the Texas Administrative Code in the Health Services chapters under TCJS. When a prisoner is denied medical care and dies, investigations are conducted. Jail documentation, including surveillance video, is examined to determine whether jail staff members acted in a manner consistent with minimum jail standards.
For example, TCJS conducted a special inspection after 58-year-old Robert Gallegos died from health problems while incarcerated in the El Paso County Jail in El Paso, Texas. The commission found evidence that supervision and health-service requirements were allegedly not being met at the time of the prisoner’s death. After the full investigation into the health-related custodial death, two detention officers were arrested and charged with tampering with government documents. The officers allegedly documented prisoner checks on Gallegos that they did not make.
Written records showed that routine 30-minute checks on Gallegos were made. Video records provided evidence that they were not. Other documentation showed that he was not given medication as prescribed by a doctor. Gallegos was discovered in his cell cold, pale, unresponsive, and without a pulse at around 5 a.m. on September 16, 2017. Efforts to revive him failed.
As with every post on this website, we are only providing information in this post and do not make any allegation or assertion that anyone acted inappropriately or engaged in misconduct.
–Guest Contributor
smchugh
smchugh