The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) establishes the minimum jail standards for Texas jails, and those guidelines include the use of restraints in detention facilities. In November 2020, a Texas county jail was found non-compliant with regard to two different restraint regulations.

Restraints Must Be Approved by Qualified Personnel

Restraints can only be applied when the necessity is determined by medical or supervisory personnel.

• According to documentation examined during a jail inspection, detention officers have been making the decision to place inmates in the restraint chair reserved for emergency situations.

Observation Time Frame Exceeded

Another requirement with regard to restraints is that inmates must be personally observed and checked on every 15 minutes at most. During these checks, it must be verified that there is blood circulation to the inmate’s extremities.

• Restraint chair logs indicate that on multiple occasions, the required quarter-hour observations were exceeded by 1 to 15 minutes.

Observation of inmates kept in restraints is an important issue. Among the problems that can occur if strict guidelines are not followed is that an inmate can develop a blood clot that ultimately leads to their death.

See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of this ongoing series. Additional information about non-compliant Texas jails regarding restraints is next.

The posts on this website are meant to provide information that may be of assistance to former and current inmates as well as their families. It is never intended to infer that misdeeds of any sort have occurred on the part of a person or institution.

–Guest Contributor