Before the booking process into Ector County Jail in Odessa, Texas, was completed, 65-year-old Antonio Villa Mendoza committed suicide. Alone in a holding cell, he used his jail-issued uniform to strangle himself. Mr. Mendoza died on February 1, 2020.

In 2017, sweeping changes in a new Texas law were made for the purpose of reducing custodial suicides. A report made two years later found that the changes did nothing to reduce the number of suicides. According to experts on the matter of custodial suicide, the failure of the law was in not addressing a major factor in suicide prevention, that being close supervision of at-risk inmates.

A common issue in county Texas jails is understaffing. Due to a limited number of jailers, an emergency may arise that pulls a staff member away from the task of checking in on prisoners within the allotted time frames.

The highly-publicized custodial suicide of Sandra Bland in 2015 led to protests and debate. A law was enacted that included the following requirements:

• Treatment must be made available to mentally ill inmates.
• Jail deaths must be independently investigated.
• Police must receive de-escalation training.
• All county jails received funding to add cameras or electronic sensors to ensure timely and accurate cell checks.

Learn more in Part 1 and this ongoing series.

Current and former prisoners in county Texas jails could benefit from the posts on this website, and for that purpose, they are added. There is no intention on this site to insinuate that misdeeds have occurred on the part of any entity or person.

–Guest Contributor