Smith County Jail is in Tyler, Texas 75702 at 206 E Elm Street. The jail’s contact phone number is (903) 590-2800. The Smith County Sheriff runs Smith County Jail, which has an inmate capacity of 1,149. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) sets the guidelines for county jails in Texas. TCJS visits every county jail annually to determine whether the jails meet minimum jail standards. If a jail is non-compliant, it is subjected to increased scrutiny and at least one additional jail inspection.

Restraint Chairs

County jails in Texas can use TCJS-approved restraint devices to gain control of inmates exhibiting behavior that endangers themselves or others. Restraint chairs are among the approved devices, though jurisdictions in places throughout the nation have chosen to ban them. As a result of the efforts of watchdog groups, it has been revealed that certain patterns of abuse are widely associated with restraint chairs, in which individuals are typically restrained at the wrists, ankles, and chest. The following are examples of common disparities between guidelines for using restraint chairs and their actual use:

• Manufacturers of restraint chairs recommend a 2-hour limit for keeping someone strapped in. The average time inmates are kept in restraint chairs is approximately 8 hours. In Texas, adult inmates can be kept in any type of restraint device for 24 hours at most, which includes the restraint chair.
• The only people that are supposed to be placed in a restraint chair are those exhibiting harmful behavior, but jailers often use the chairs for prohibited purposes, such as for punishment or to prevent inmates from committing suicide when they are intoxicated.

This website’s posts are meant as informational resources to help inmates detained in a Texas jail. There is no intention to imply that a person or institution has participated in wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor