Category: City Jails|County Jails|Jail Inspections|Non-Compliant Jails|Observation Records|Restraint Chair|Restraints|Texas Commission on Jail Standards

The Wilson County Jail in Texas is now listed as a Non-Compliant Jail on the TCJS website because of a recently failed jail inspection conducted by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS). An October 21, 2022, jail inspection report issued by TCJS Inspector Martin P. Arnold details the alleged violation of minimum jail standards, as shown below. Wilson County Jail’s address is 800 10th St UNIT 4, Floresville, TX 78114.

TCJS cited Wilson County Jail for non-compliance with § 273.6(3)-Restraints. This rule is under the chapter on Health Services, and it pertains to restraints. Under section (3), which is the specific rule allegedly violated by Wilson County Jail, the following is required:

Any inmate being held in restraints must be observed every 15 minutes, at a minimum, and the observation must be documented. An assessment must be made of the security of the restraints as well as the blood circulation to the inmate’s extremities during each observation.

• The TCJS inspector conducted a review of observation records of inmates who were held in restraints. The review revealed that the amount of time between the required face-to-face observations exceeded 15 minutes on several occasions.

This minimum jail standard regarding restraints encompasses all types of restraints approved by TCJS, including highly restrictive restraint chairs, which immobilize the extremities of a person who is strapped into one. Manufacturers’ instructions for the use of restraint chairs come with a number of “cautions,” and one of the typical warnings they give is to ensure that a person in a restraint chair is checked to ensure that blood circulation has not been cut off by the restraint system, which echoes this minimum jail standard.

At least four Texas county jails were found non-compliant in connection with restraints in recent months. The following is information about one of those jail inspection reports.

Restraint Chair Log Deficiencies

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) listed information about a restraint requirement before providing the specifics about an alleged violation of minimum jail standards. Inmates that demonstrate behavior suggesting a potential danger of self-harm or injuring others must be managed in a way that minimizes the threat of harm or injury. If it is determined by qualified personnel that restraints are necessary, they must be used in a humane way and only for preventing injuries. Restraints must not be used at any time as a type of punishment.

The standard further says that inmates being kept in restraints must be observed every 15 minutes at most, and there must be documentation of the face-to-face observations. Part of the quarter-hour inmate check involves assessing circulation to the inmate’s extremities as well as the security of the restraint system.

• During the jail inspection, it was discovered that the 15-minute maximum between observations of inmates kept in a restraint chair was exceeded on multiple occasions by 1 to 16 minutes.

See Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this ongoing series. Next, learn more about Texas jails found to be non-compliant regarding restraints.

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