The Harrison County Jail in Marshall, Texas, allegedly failed a jail inspection conducted by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS), per an October 5, 2022, letter issued by Brandon S. Wood, TCJS Executive Director. Harrison County Jail is now listed as a Non-Compliant Jail on the TCJS website.

Below are the jail standards that Harrison County Jail allegedly failed to comply with, per the October 5, 2022, Notice of Non-Compliance that the jail received. For each, action is required to be completed upon receipt of the notice.

§263.55 –   Inspections, Maintenance, Testing. County jails are required to ensure that qualified persons maintain, inspect, and test all life safety equipment to ensure that the equipment is always secure, safe, and fully operative. The qualified person can be under vendor contract by a private agency or the state or otherwise.

• The TCJS inspector found that, since January 5, 2022, the facility fire panel at the main jail had been red-tagged. Also, the facility fire panel at the Annex Facility was red-tagged on September 22, 2022.

§263.56- Inspections, Maintenance, Testing At least once per week, emergency power equipment shall be tested. Also, the electric load must be transferred to the circuits at least once monthly.

• The weekly generator test for 5 various weeks at the Main Jail and 15 various weeks at the Annex Facility had not been performed since January 1, 2022.

§263.56- Inspections, Maintenance, Testing. At least once per week, emergency power equipment shall be tested. Also, the electric load must be transferred to the circuits at least once monthly.

• Documentation shows that the full load generator tests at the Annex Facility could only be verified as having been conducted for 3 months since January 1, 2022.

Maintaining safety in jails can become a crucial issue that affects the well-being of inmates and staff members. TCJS provides minimum jail standards in order to communicate the base level of responsibility to be upheld by jail operators. In most counties, the County Sheriff is the individual in charge of jail operations.