Prisoner Dies in Jasper, Texas Jail

Steven Mitchell Qualls passed away last week when being held in the Jasper, Texas city jail. Mr. Qualls was arrested based on a charge of public intoxication. Apparently, Mr. Qualls was in a detox cell. We anticipate, as is the case with most custodial deaths in Texas, that the Texas Rangers will be conducting an investigation. We will post more as we learn about Mr. Qualls’s death.

While we do not know what happened regarding Mr. Qualls, it is a common occurrence for people who are arrested, and who exhibit signs of intoxication at the time of the arrest, to die as a result of failure to provide proper detoxification treatment. Texas municipal jails, as well as Texas county jails, have obligations under the United States Constitution to provide reasonable medical care to inmates and pre-trial detainee prisoners (those who have not been convicted of any crime).

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.