Texas Commission on Jail Standards Jail Inspection Memorandum

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) issued a technical assistance memorandum on February 15, 2022. The memorandum was to all sheriffs and jail administrators in Texas, and was from Brandon Wood, TCJS Executive Director. The memorandum was regarding the TCJS process to inspect Texas jails.

The TCJS notified Texas sheriffs and jail administrators that the TCJS had gone through the Sunset Review process during the last legislative session. This resulted in TCJS changes, not only internal agency operations but also how the TCJS will conduct on-site inspections of Texas county jails. The TCJS also governs municipal jails that are privately-operated.

Executive Director Wood indicated that changes required by the Sunset Review process are currently underway. He pointed out that one area that the TCJS must change is how re-inspections are conducted. Previously, if a Texas County jail failed its inspection, it would submit a corrective plan of action and then ask for a re-inspection. A majority of those re-inspections were administrative and accomplished through a review of records, while a smaller percentage occurred on-site to ensure that areas of non-compliance had been corrected.

The TCJS is now required to conduct a full inspection on a randomly selected percentage of jails that had requested re-inspection. The TCJS, to test this new approach, set a percentage of 25%. Therefore, one out of every four re-inspections will be a full inspection and not just a review of areas of non-compliance.

Our law firm, handling jail neglect and abuse cases across Texas, is glad to see this change. The TCJS has a very limited budget and does a lot of needed work across the state. Thus, we find that jails can frequently fly “under the radar” and violate minimum jail standards with impunity. Hopefully, this will result in safer Texas jails.

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.