As last mentioned in this series, the 33-year-old inmate who was at risk for committing suicide was placed back in a cell where he would receive close observation. A fellow inmate discovered the man in the shower with a bedsheet around his neck about a month later. Attempts were made to resuscitate the inmate, and he was hospitalized. Three days later, he passed away at the hospital. A suicide letter was found in which he expressed his painful misery during daytime hours and said horrible nightmares consumed his nights.

Jail records show that a physician prescribed the inmate various medications to treat psychotic behavior and that on more than 42 occasions, he declined to take the Prozac prescribed to him.

Over the course of his 86 days and the county jail outside Texas, the inmate called his family almost 5,000 times. The inmate’s father claims that the jail staff knew the depth of his son’s mentally ill and suicidal status and failed to protect him. Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office accuses the father of daring his son to commit suicide, not thinking he would do so.

The internal affairs investigation into the man’s death found that medical and jail personnel did nothing wrong. The family disagrees and asserts that the jail was negligent in their actions.

With all of the recent scrutiny of this particular county jail and other problems in the state, a legislator has made known the fact that there is no agency in the state that tracks the number of custodial deaths. He is proposing legislation because the jail deaths are typically investigated by the same sheriff’s office accused of failing to meet minimum jail standards in the care of inmates.

See Part 1 and Part 2 of this ongoing series to learn more.

All posts on this website are provided as helpful resources. It is never intended in any of the site’s posts to make an implication of any kind that an individual or institution has been involved in impropriety.

–Guest Contributor