Category: Medical Care

The Harris County Sheriff’s Department, in Houston, Texas, filed a report regarding the death of Anne Elizabeth Murphy. Ms. Murphy was 53 years old at the time of her death. We provide in this post information obtained from that report, and we make no allegation of any wrongdoing against anyone.

The summary portion of the report reads in its entirety:

“On December 1, 2021, while security rounds were being performed by a supervisor, inmates advised the decedent appeared to be in medical distress. Additional officers and medical staff arrived, transporting the decedent to the clinic with ongoing CPR. Life-saving measures continued until the arrival of Houston Fire Department paramedics. Paramedics assumed life-saving measures and transported the decedent to St Joseph Hospital. At 6:50 p.m., a medical doctor pronounced the decedent’s death.”

Oddly, in response to the standard questions in the report as to whether Ms. Murphy made suicidal statements, exhibited any mental health problems, and received any medical treatment, the Harris County Sheriff’s Department wrote, “Unknown.”

People in Texas county jails have the right to receive reasonable medical care. This right is provided by The United States Constitution. If jailers fail to provide that care, or if a county has a policy, practice, and or custom which results in such care not being provided, then liability could arise. If a person dies as a result, then certain surviving family members may be able to file claims in a federal lawsuit.

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Department prepared a custodial death report on 45-year-old Lambert Sabrsula, who died on November 28, 2020. Mr. Sabrsula was booked into Bexar County Jail in San Antonio, Texas, on November 13, 2020. The report indicates that he died of natural causes.

One of the rights that inmates have in county jails in Texas is the right to necessary medical care. According to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS), medical care is the topic that gets the most complaints. TCJS is responsible for providing guidelines for the operation of all county jails in the state.

Reportedly, it was partially as a result of one complaint about the treatment of a pregnant inmate in a Texas county jail that HB 1307 was signed into law this year. The Texas Jail Project, a watchdog group, supported the legislation. The gist of the bill is that it requires jails to provide counseling and care for pregnant inmates who then miscarried or were assaulted while incarcerated.

The woman whose experience led to this legislation had repeatedly requested medical care, but it was denied. She ultimately suffered a miscarriage, and it was also determined that she had a urinary tract infection. Such infections, if untreated, are known to sometimes lead to premature labor.

In the Texas Code, RULE §273.2-Health Services Plan provides details on procedures that must be in place for pregnant inmates.

Learn more in this ongoing series.

Implying that an individual or institution has engaged in wrongs is never intended on this website. Providing assistance to inmates now or previously held in county jails in Texas is the purpose of the posts on this site.

–Guest Contributor

Brandon S. Wood, Executive Director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS), sent a memo dated December 2, 2021, to all sheriffs and jail administrators. The memo is in regard to TCOLE #2831 IDD Training for Jailers and 4901 Suicide Prevention for Jailers. The memo advised recipients that HB2831 (87R) mandated TCJS to create a training program to help meet certain requirements related to mentally ill inmates.

More specifically, the training must provide techniques that equip jail personnel with the ability to assess and interact with inmates in county jails who have been determined to have intellectual development disabilities.

The 4-hour class is free of charge to county jails. Any jailer who completes the training course may earn continuing education credits through the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE). It is noted that the credit applies to TCOLE course #2831.

Mr. Wood also states that additional suicide prevention training continues to be made available to county jailers in Texas. This 4-hour course is also free and, he said, should meet the requirements on suicide prevention detailed in each jail’s Mental Disabilities/Suicide Prevention Plan.

Any jurisdiction interested in accommodating TCJS in setting up a regional training for either course is asked to please contact Melvin Bowser, the Mental Health Trainer, whose email address is melvin.bowser@tcjs.state.tx.us.

Asserting that any person or organization has been a participant in wrongdoing is never intended on this website. The purpose of posts is to benefit inmates now or previously incarcerated in a county jail in Texas by way of providing helpful resources.

–Guest Contributor

Adan Ricardo Torres was booked into the Travis County Sheriff’s Office Correctional Complex in Austin, Texas, on October 26, 2021. Less than a month later, on November 19, 2021, the 35-year-old died as a result of suicide.

From the article about suicides referenced at the start of this series, we find the following statistics.

• In the years 2001 through 2019, the number of suicides in local jails in Texas came to 448. This number was followed by Florida with 333 suicides. California had the most, with 615. 

Suicide being the leading cause of custodial deaths, it is an issue that has been explored extensively in recent years. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) has included suicide prevention in the guidelines for the operation of Texas county jails. 

The Sandra Bland Act

The issue of jail suicide in Texas came under great scrutiny back in 2015 following the high-profile death of Sandra Bland. Her death by suicide that followed a controversial arrest caught the world’s attention. The Sandra Bland Act, Senate Bill 1849, was eventually passed. The following are some explanations about part of what is contained in the legislation:

• Officer training has increased for the purpose of general de-escalation as well as de-escalation tactics related to mental health issues. These tactics of de-escalation are designed to help ensure that members of the public and the law enforcement community are both able to safely go home after encounters between police and civilians. 

Learn more in Part 1 and Part 2 of this three-part series.

Suggesting that a person or individual has participated in wrongdoing is not intended on this website. Each post is offered as a resource of benefit to Texas county jail inmates.

–Guest Contributor 

According to a custodial death report filed by the Travis County Sheriff’s Department in Austin, Texas, Adan Ricardo Torres attempted suicide on November 14, 2021. The 35-year-old inmate was resuscitated and transported to a nearby hospital, where he died on November 19, 2021. 

The following continues with information from an article about suicides in jails.

Statistics on Local Jail Suicides 

A report on jail suicides revealed that between 2001 and 2018, suicide was the leading cause of death in jails. Suicide accounted for 30% of all custodial deaths during that time. More than 50% of all suicides that took place in local jails occurred during the first 30 days of incarceration. 

The study also revealed that 77% of the deaths ruled as suicides that occurred in local jails took place among prisoners who had not yet been convicted of a crime. Two-thirds of the local jail suicides were committed within the first 30 days, and 44% happened within the first week of incarceration.

Potential factors that have been causing the increase in suicides were explored in this study. The following are among the factors that are believed to have influenced the high rate of suicides :

• Characteristics of the inmate population
• The experience of incarceration
• Common features of the environment
• Factors that affected inmates prior to incarceration, including substance abuse problems and serious mental health issues

Learn more in Part 1 and this ongoing series.

Suggesting that a person or individual has participated in wrongdoing is not intended on this website. Each post is offered as a resource of benefit to Texas county jail inmates.

–Guest Contributor 

Adan Ricardo Torres was found hanging in his cell at the Travis County Sheriff’s Office Correctional Complex in Austin, Texas, on November 14, 2021. He was cut down, resuscitated, and taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead on November 19, 2021. Mr. Torres was 35 years old.

In a recent publication, an October 2021 story revealed that suicides occurring in jails and prisons have increased by 39% in just the last two decades. This statistic reflects federal data that was used in the research. The story scrutinizes several specific cases of suicide. 

A prominent case spotlighted occurred in Tarrant County, Texas. A man with mental problems committed suicide and died at the age of 50. Allegedly, when the deceased was discovered, the jail staff had been late in performing the most recent observation check. As a result, the jail reportedly lost its state certification for about a week.

An alarming finding was that most of the people who die by suicide in local jails haven’t yet been convicted of any crimes. A watchdog group reports that in Texas in 2020 and so far in 2021, at least 163 people have died by suicide in Texas local jails. 

Learn more about suicide-related statistics from the research in this ongoing series.

Implying that an individual or organization has been a participant in misdeeds is not an intention on this website. Each of the posts is added to provide resources that could benefit inmates in county jails in Texas, whether current or former prisoners.

–Guest Contributor 

A custodial death report was prepared by the Brewster County Sheriff’s Office on the death of 27-year-old Evatt Joli Hernandez. The pre-custodial incident resulted in her death on December 9, 2020. Under the summary of how the death occurred, all that is said is that the Texas Rangers are still investigating the incident.

A study was done regarding officer-involved shootings in Texas during the years 2016 through 2019.  A  nonprofit organization that serves as a watchdog group prepared the study. The following are among the findings of the research:

• More than 50% of all police shootings happened in the Texas counties with the largest populations, those being Bexar,  Dallas, Harris, Tarrant,  and Travis. 
• Police-involved shootings in which civilians are shot have increased over the years. 
• The number of civilians who have died as a result of officer-involved shootings has also been increasing.
• The number of civilians who survived after being shot by a law enforcement officer has been decreasing. The cases of officer-involved shootings that were part of the study showed that more than 50% of civilians shot by police died.
• Police officers who are shot in police-involved shooting incidents have twice the survival rate of civilians who are shot by police.
• Most officer-involved shooting reports are filed in a timely manner. There were several extreme cases, however, in which reports were more than a year late.

See Part 1 and Part 2 of this three-part series.

Suggesting that persons or institutions have been engaged in wrongdoing is never intended on this website. The purpose of posts is to provide helpful resources for current and former prisoners held in county jails in Texas. 

–Guest Contributor

The Zapata County jail, in Zapata, Texas, recently failed an inspection by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS). The TCJS inspected the jail on November 23, 2021.

Our Texas jail abuse law firm has monitored Texas county jails for a number of years. We are accustomed to reading TCJS inspection reports. However, we do not recall ever reviewing a report with as extensive a licensure violation as that relating to the Zapata County jail.

The TCJS inspector determined, when reviewing TCOLE licensing records, that nine officers had neither a permanent nor temporary TCOLE-issued jailer’s license. There is no excuse for a jail allowing personnel to deal with inmates without having a license. In fact, in Texas, obtaining a temporary jailer’s license requires no training, no education, and no experience. While we believe that no such licenses should be allowed, unfortunately, Texas law currently allows it. Hopefully, the Zapata County jail will bring itself into compliance and thereby protect inmates in its care.

On November 14, 2021, at approximately 0055 hrs. Travis County Sheriff’s Office Correctional Complex inmate: Adan Ricardo Torres was discovered hanging in his cell during an officer post visual check. Torres was cut down, resuscitated, and transported to the South Austin Medical Center where he was pronounced deceased on November 19, 2021. The report further indicates that Mr. Torres did not make any suicidal statements. However, he did exhibit mental health problems, according to the report.

Texas jails must protect inmates from their own suicidal tendencies. The 14^th Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that right. If a jail fails to protect an inmate, and does so in a deliberately indifferent and/or objectively unreasonable manner, then liability may exist in a lawsuit to be brought by surviving family members.

On December 9, 2020, Evatt Joli Hernandez died in Alpine, Texas. The Brewster County Sheriff’s Department filed the custodial death report on Ms. Hernandez’s death. Instead of providing further details on what happened that tragic night, the report indicates that the incident in which she was shot once in the chest is still being investigated by the Texas Rangers.

The following is more information on findings related to Texas Ranger investigations scrutinized by a newspaper outside Texas.

Claims Regarding Texas Ranger Investigations Continued

• The newspaper found that a Texas Ranger handled a custodial death negligently in 2018. They discovered that the Ranger did not begin his investigation until 11 days after the custodial death of a 36-year-old Texas man. Also, they claim that the Ranger never visited the scene, which allegedly involved an officer holding the deceased by the head and neck due to the suspect’s frantic behavior. In addition, the only interview that the Ranger allegedly conducted in the death was one with a toxicologist. 

• The newspaper claims that the Texas Ranger who investigated the death of a 41-year-old man did not properly handle the investigation. They say he gave attorneys for the Sheriff’s Department video footage before taking their statements. Also, records indicate that the man complained of being unable to breathe before losing consciousness and dying. 

See Part 1 and this ongoing series.

There is no intention on this website to make an inference of wrongdoing having occurred on the part of any individuals or entities. The goal of posting on this site is to help inmates incarcerated in Texas county jails, whether currently or formerly jailed.

–Guest Contributor