Polk County, Texas Jail Fails State Inspection – Listed as Non-Compliant

The Polk County jail, in Livingston, Texas, recently failed a Texas Commission on Jail Standards (“TCJS”) inspection.  An important standard set forth by the TCJS is that adequate supervision of prisoners in Texas county jails be provided for those who are mentally disabled and/or potentially suicidal.  The TCJS inspector noted that, with regard to the Polk County jail, after reviewing observation logs of suicidal inmates, jail staff were exceeding the required 15-minute observations from as little as one minute to as much as 16 minutes.  The TCJS inspector also noted that the jail violated the TCJS standard that every Texas county jail have an appropriate number of jailers at the facility, 24-hours every day of the year. 

Moreover, such jails shall have an established procedure to document face-to-face observations of all inmates by jailers no less than once every 60 minutes.  The TCJS inspector noted that the Polk County jail observation logs indicated that jail staff exceeded the 60-minute observations from one minute up to 55 minutes on a continual basis.   Further, jail staff were exceeding the 30-minute observations from one minute up to 17 minutes on a continual basis. The Polk County jail is now listed by the TCJS as being non-compliant.

Written By: Dean Malone

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.