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McLennan County Jail Inspection by Texas Commission on Jail Standards

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The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (“TCJS”) recently inspected the Jack Harwell Detention Center in McLennan County.  The inspection occurred on August 13, 2018.

TCJS noted that a jail facility must have an established procedure for documented, face-to-face observation of all inmates by jailers, occurring no less than once every 60 minutes.  Jailers at the jail exceeded this 60-minute observation interval, and found at least one observation that occurred after an observation occurring 1 hour and 35 minutes before. Further, the TCJS noted that observation logs indicated that certain observations were completed, even though video recordings showed that they were not completed.  Thus, jailers were not complying with Texas minimum jail standards.

Moreover, and even more important, jailers exceeded the required 30-minute face-to-face observations in areas in which inmates were known to be potentially suicidal, assaultive, mentally ill, or who had demonstrated bizarre behavior.  In fact, the most lengthy time between such observations in such an area was almost 2 hours.  Further, once again, even though observation logs indicated that observations were completed as required, the video evidence proved that the observation logs were false.

Finally, the TCJS reviewed video related to whether jailers were in their assigned wings.  After such review, the TCJS noted that jailers had not remained in their assigned wings, thus violating a staffing agreement submitted by facility administration on April 10, 2018.

Written By: author avatar Dean Malone
author avatar Dean Malone
Dean Malone is the founder of Law Offices of Dean Malone, P.C., a jail neglect civil rights law firm. Mr. Malone earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Texas at Dallas, graduating summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA, and from Baylor University School of Law with a general civil litigation concentration. Mr. Malone served in several staff positions for the Baylor Law Review, including executive editor. Mr. Malone is an experienced trial lawyer, trying a number of cases to jury verdict and also handling arbitrations through final hearing. He heads the jail neglect section of his law firm, in which lawyers litigate cases involving serious injury and death resulting from jail neglect and abuse. Lawyers frequently refer cases to Mr. Malone due to his focus on this very complicated civil rights practice area.