Spotlight on a Large County Jail

Among the jails in the state currently being investigated for high numbers of inmate deaths is one with numerous complaints and an alarming number of custodial deaths. The following are brief glimpses of some of the deaths considered to have been preventable:

• In 2016, a man developed pneumonia after being found incompetent to stand trial. Sheriff’s records show that the inmate did not receive treatment for pneumonia. The report from the coroner stated that the inmate probably could not prevent saliva and food from getting into his airway. He also said that heart disease and heroin use were contributing factors in the death.

• A jail video from 2018 shows a man in jail who was in the midst of an overdose of methamphetamine, and he was screaming in agony. Guards were laughing and cast insults at the inmate rather than taking him to a hospital. The overdose killed the man within two days.

• A man with schizophrenia complained of constipation and, about three weeks later, died from complications of that condition, according to 2019 records. Although there were attempts to save his life at the end, the man’s death was the third to occur at that jail within two weeks.

Factors contributing to these and other deaths have been examined, and one conclusion is that health care received outside of jail is certainly better than what inmates are receiving inside the jail. There have been efforts to lower the population of inmates in state prisons. As a result, longer sentences are being served in county jails. Systematic challenges involving funding and staffing are rampant in the state.

See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and these ongoing posts about custodial deaths that occurred outside of Texas.

This website’s posts are intended to provide information. There is no intention to infer that any person or institution has engaged in wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor