Is Jail Neglect a Widespread Problem in Texas?
When correctional facilities in Texas fail in their duty to protect and care for detainees, jail neglect is a natural outcome. Sadly, jail neglect comes about in many different ways. This is despite the efforts of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS). TCJS establishes the rules by which county and municipal jails must operate. Those minimum jail standards are partly in place to prevent jail neglect.
What Signifies Jail Neglect?
Individuals detained in county and municipal jails may require some type of medication—such as insulin for diabetics. Detainees do not have the freedom to seek out their own treatment for medical issues. They are at the mercy of the jail staff in a very real sense. When a necessary medication is denied, it sometimes costs detainees their lives.
More examples of jail neglect follow:
- Detention officers demonstrate deliberate indifference to a detainee’s medical needs.
- Treatment of a detainee’s medical condition is delayed by the actions of jail staff.
- Prescriptions ordered by a physician are not administered to a detainee.
- Following a serious altercation or violence by a correctional officer or another inmate, the detainee is not provided with medical care.
- Appendicitis is not diagnosed or treated, and it leads to a rupture, which causes life-threatening infections.
A Detainee Dies in Horrific Conditions
Texas is by no means the only state where jail neglect might occur. A detainee in a U.S. county jail tragically died almost a year ago, and details about the cause of his death sent shockwaves throughout the world. The medical examiner found that the man died due to “severe neglect.” He had only been incarcerated for three months in Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail when the unthinkable happened.
Learn more in this continuing series.
Providing municipal and county jail detainees in Texas with helpful resources is one of this website’s purposes. Suggesting that a person or entity has engaged in wrongdoing is never intended.
–Guest Contributor
smchugh
smchugh