At 9:50 am on April 21, 2022, an officer at Bexar County Jail observed that inmate Emmitt Earl Byrd was hanging by his neck from a sheet that was anchored on the hinge of the cell door. The officer gave immediate aid, and personnel with emergency medical services (EMS) were called to the scene. Among those that attempted life-saving measures were EMS personnel with the San Antonio Fire Department. Mr. Byrd was pronounced dead approximately 27 minutes after his suicidal action was discovered.

The Difference Between Inmate Counts and Safety Checks

Inmate observations are carefully logged in county jails in Texas, as required by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS). There are essential differences between inmate counts and face-to-face observations. These are things that jail staff members must understand as part of suicide prevention and handling the responsibility of keeping inmates safe from harm.

Inmate counts serve the purpose of verifying that inmates are present, accounted for, and have not escaped.

The following are among the reasons for inmate safety checks:

• To ensure that inmates are not engaged in acts of criminality, such as making weapons, fighting, gambling, drug usage, etc.;
• To ensure that inmates are not suffering from an attempted suicide, an assault, or any other kind of medical trauma; and
• To ensure that inmates are not in medical distress, such as suffering from a heart attack or asthma attack, etc.

Learn more in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series.

Suggesting that a person or an organization is in participant in misdeeds is never intended on this website. Each post is purposed to provide helpful resources that can be of benefit Texas county jail inmates now or previously incarcerated.

–Guest Contributor