Fifty-one-year-old Justin Geelan was incarcerated at Johnson County Jail in Cleburne, Texas, beginning on February 10th, 2021. A fellow inmate said that Mr. Geelan was standing and suddenly fell to the floor. Soon after, Mr. Geelan was unresponsive and transported to a hospital, where he died two days later on March 18th, 2021. 

In a county outside of Texas, an 18-year-old woman was arrested on minor charges and was dead 14 hours after being booked into a county jail. The details surrounding her death were originally hidden. As a result of an order to investigate her death, the troubling facts came out.

It was revealed that the woman died of an apparent multiple drug overdose. Investigation results indicate that she was denied medical assistance. Potential treatments that may have saved the woman’s life included administering the drug Naloxone, which counters the effects of methadone. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, intubation, CPR, or ventilation were all options in medical care that were denied but could have prevented the woman’s death.

A watchdog group exposed an account in the same state outside of Texas in which a 19-year-old who was incarcerated suffered a cut and died after it became gangrenous. Another inmate died as a direct result of constipation. The bottom line is that county jails in the state had been dismally neglecting inmates who needed medical care. 

A lack of medical care was the cause of numerous custodial deaths listed in a comprehensive report. Learn more in Part One and this continuing series. 

It is not intended on this website to imply that misdeeds have occurred on the part of persons or institutions. Posts are added on this site to help inmates now or formerly jailed in a Texas county lock-up facility.

–Guest Contributor