Violence in Harris County Jails Increases at an Alarming Rate

A January 2022 headline in a Texas publication claims that jailers and prison advocates fear that Harris County violence is creating riot conditions in Houston, Texas, jails. Among the statistics in the story is that Harris County Jail detainees had a 1-in-10 chance of being assault victims at one point in 2021. In late 2019, inmate assaults on guards and detainees increased by 91% in a single month. The rise of violence continued nearly unabated for more than two years. In the same time period, use-of-force incidents resulting in inmate injuries more than doubled.

The latest development at the time the article was published was that a female sergeant in a Harris County detention center was allegedly sexually assaulted by a male inmate.

Overcrowding and staff shortages along with lengthy trial backlogs have increased and worsened the stress on the jail system in Harris County. The sharp increase in assaults that have occurred in Harris County jails cannot reasonably be compared with the other of the largest jail systems in Texas. Between January 2018 and September 2021, the following reflects the months with the most and least assaults for the Texas counties with the largest inmate capacities:

• Harris County in Houston, Texas – The highest number was 861 assaults in November 2021 and the lowest number of assaults was 291 in February 2019
• Bexar County in San Antonio, Texas – The highest number was 177 assaults in May 2021 and the lowest number of assaults was 86 in May 2020.
• Dallas County in Dallas, Texas – The highest number was 19 assaults in March 2021 and the lowest number of assaults was 2 in May 2019.

See Part 1 and this continuing series.

Helping Texas inmates detained in county and municipal jails is the purpose of this website. There is never an intention of suggesting that wrongdoing has occurred on the part of any institution or person.

–Guest Contributor