Category: Medical Care

Justin Michael Henderson was booked into Harris County Jail in Houston, Texas, on December 9th, 2020. Detention officers were alerted about Mr. Henderson on February 4th, 2021, with fellow inmates saying he had made noises during the night and was unresponsive. The 35-year-old died that day from the toxic effects of heroin, according to the custodial death report.

High-Risk Groups for Suicide

Suicide prevention in jails is very important because suicide is the number one cause of custodial death. Many studies have been done on how to do a better job of preventing suicide. Training is given to members of jail staff for the purpose of identifying inmates who are at risk for suicide. The following are examples of high-risk groups:

• Elderly people, particularly males
• Young males (ages 15-49)
• Indigenous individuals
• Persons with mental illness
• Inmates who abuse alcohol and/or drugs
• People who have made a previous suicide attempt
• Inmates in custody 

Simply being an inmate in custody makes a person vulnerable for suicide. While intake screening is recognized as an important point in which to identify at-risk inmates, jail staff members should be alert at all times to signs of inmates being suicidal.

Another example of a potentially suicidal group is sentenced male prisoners, who have a rate of almost six times the rate of males outside of prison and in the general population in society.

Learn more in this continuing series.

The purpose of providing posts on this website is to help inmates currently and formerly incarcerated in Texas in a county jail. There is no intention on this site to suggest that any person or organization has been a participant in wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor

David Brian Hamilton was incarcerated on January 26th, 2021, at Parker County Jail in Weatherford, Texas. Mr. Hamilton died at the age of 46 on February 8, 2021, as a result of hanging himself in his cell.

Intake Screening for Suicide Prevention

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) requires jails to provide suicide-prevention training to jail staff members. The intake screening process is an essential element in efforts to identify potentially suicidal inmates. The following are from checklists to follow during intake screening for the purpose of identifying inmates who are at risk for committing suicide:

• The prisoner expresses unusually high levels of guilt, shame, and anxiousness over being arrested and incarcerated.
• He or she is under the influence of alcohol or drugs and/or has a history of substance abuse.
• The inmate has previously made one or more suicide attempts.
• He or she admits that suicide is currently considered an acceptable option.
• Facility records show that the prisoner was a suicide risk during a prior confinement.
• The inmate admits to having recent thoughts about suicide.
• The prisoner shows signs of depression–such as lack of emotions, lack of verbal expression, or crying–and expresses that he or she feels hopeless or fearful about the future.
• The arresting officer or transporting officer believes that the inmate is a suicide risk.
• The history of the inmate includes having been previously treated for a mental health issue. 

See Part 1 and Part 2 of this ongoing series.

This website provides posts to help prisoners now and previously incarcerated in a county jail in Texas. There is no intention on this site to imply that individuals or organizations have participated in misdeeds.

–Guest Contributor

On February 8, 2021, 46-year-old David Brian Hamilton died in the custody of Parker County Jail in Weatherford, Texas. Mr. Hamilton hung himself and died from strangulation. 

A report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics revealed that more than 1,000 inmates died in local U.S. jails in the year 2016. The report highlighted the dangers of incarceration. The most disturbing aspect of the report is that of at least half of the 1,000 deaths that were reviewed, more than half were preventable deaths. Suicide was the leading cause of custodial death, the same as current data shows.

Preventable deaths occur in jail systems for various reasons. One is a result of healthcare and jail systems that are inadequate to care for serious health issues that inmates suffer. Another statistic that sheds light on what is happening in our local jails is that jail populations are five times more likely than the general population to have a serious mental health issue. Two-thirds of those inmates also have a substance use disorder.

Jail inmates are also more likely to have infectious diseases and chronic health conditions. The shock of confinement causes many inmates to experience serious mental health crises. In spite of all these facts and figures, a reality is that jails are, in general, not able to provide inmates with effective medical care and mental health care.

See Part 1 and this ongoing series.

The purpose of each post on this website is to help county jail inmates in Texas. There is no intention on this site to make an implication of wrongdoing on the part of any person or institution. 

–Guest Contributor

A custodial death report was filed on 45-year-old Susan Dee Reddick by the Travis County Sheriff’s Department in Austin, Texas. She suffered accidental physical trauma and was moved from Travis County Jail to Dell Seton Medical Center. The report shows that she was pronounced dead on February 26, 2021. 

A reality faced by county sheriffs across the nation is that the jails have become society’s primary drug treatment centers. As many sheriffs have pointed out when speaking on this subject, jails are not built or equipped to operate primarily as medical facilities. More and more county jails offer options that allow inmates to safely detox from opioids and then remain drug-free before and after release.

It is widely estimated that at least two-thirds of the entire jail population in the U.S. is made up of inmates with dependence or drug abuse problems.

Medication-assisted addiction treatment (MAT) that is offered behind bars includes the use of such drugs as buprenorphine and methadone, among others. One drug-addicted inmate was allowed to continue using synthetic opioid substitutes in jail. This tempered his cravings and presumably helps him stay away from more powerful and destructive opioids. He commented that an essential factor that determines success or failure is whether or not an inmate wants to get clean.

Learn more in Part 1 of this ongoing series.

On this website, there is never an intent to infer wrongs on persons or entities. The purpose of posts added to this site is to help inmates now or previously held in county jails in Texas.

–Guest Contributor

David Brian Hamilton was 46 years old when he died of strangulation resulting from suicide. Mr. Hamilton was an inmate of Parker County Jail in Weatherford, Texas, at the time he was declared brain dead on February 8, 2021. The tragic death occurred 12 days after Mr. Hamilton’s arrival at the jail.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) has built suicide prevention into the minimum jail standards for the state’s county jails. One of the requirements is for jail staff members to be trained on how to recognize when a person is potentially suicidal. Research shows that all inmates are potential suicide risks.

Jail Suicides

Studies show that there is some predictability in the timing of suicides. Multiple sources have identified the pattern in which most suicides occur when an inmate is within his or her first 24 hours of incarceration. The second group most at risk are those who have been jailed for two to 14 days.

The following are a few examples of many different warning signs that an inmate may be suicidal, and many are discovered during intake screening.

• Some studies show that suicidal behavior could be transmitted genetically. Therefore, inmates who have a family member that committed suicide could be at a heightened risk.
• If an inmate indicates that he or she has been a victim of same-sex rape during a prior incarceration, this is a warning sign that the person may be at risk for committing suicide.
• When an inmate talks about death, they are providing a warning sign of possible suicide.

Learn more in this continuing series.

On this website, there is no intent to imply that misdeeds have occurred on the part of individuals or institutions. Each post is added as a potential resource to help prisoners now or formerly incarcerated at county jails in Texas. 

–Guest Contributor

Susan Dee Reddick, an inmate of Travis County Jail, suffered an injury that was categorized as an accident in a custodial death report prepared by the Travis County Sheriff’s Department. She was transported to a hospital and underwent a series of surgeries. Tragically, Ms. Reddick died at the age of 45 on February 26th, 2021. 

Suicide prevention is another matter of importance in Texas county jails. There is a strain on many county budgets resulting in a shortage of jail staff. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) requires jails to keep the appropriate number of staff on the job around the clock. An area that tends to be neglected consistently when there is a deficit of jail employees is diligence in supervising inmates. 

The leading cause of death in many jails is suicide, and prevention measures are crucial. It is always alarming to see that non-compliant county jails often fail to provide at-risk inmates with the consistency of frequent observation checks. One example is found in a recent jail inspection report, and details follow.

Jail Inspection Report Dated October 7, 2021

Under Texas RULE §273.6 (3) – Restraints, county jails are required to ensure that jail staff conducts an observation check of inmates being held in a restraint system every 15 minutes.

• An inspector with TCJS noted that documentation related to the restraint chair showed that observation checks exceeded the 15-minute time frame by 1 to 15 minutes on multiple occasions.

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

This website has no intention of suggesting that a person or entity has been a participant in any type of wrongdoing. Posts are provided to help prisoners who are or have been incarcerated in a county jail in Texas.

–Guest Contributor

On February 26, 2021, Susan Dee Reddick died at age 45 in the custody of  Travis County Jail in Austin, Texas. She had been transported to a nearby hospital, where she underwent multiple surgeries. The medical examiner determined that the manner of death was accidental. 

In another incident of the death of an inmate in a county jail, a man’s family began a fight for strengthened standards for the treatment of detoxification in jails. They made claims that the medical care their loved one received was grossly inadequate. About a month before his death, the young man had participated in a nine-day rapid opioid regimen for detoxification. The state was petitioned for drug withdrawal reform in county jails.

In still another county jail, a young man suffered withdrawal symptoms during a visit with his grandfather. The inmate ultimately died during the detoxification process, and the family has been seeking answers. Records at the jail reflect that the young man had requested help to detox. He made six sick call requests after he was taken off of methadone in the detox regimen. The inmate stated in most of the requests that he was suffering severe pain. Another clue of the state of his health was that his handwriting on the inmate medical care requests was increasingly wobbly.

It is never an intention on this website to suggest that any individual or institution has been involved in wrongdoing of any sort. This site provides posts for the purpose of benefiting inmates currently or formerly held in Texas county jails.

–Guest Contributor

The Coryell County jail, in Gatesville, Texas, failed a special inspection by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (“TCJS”), occurring on or about October 25, 2021.  The Coryell County jail is now listed as being non-compliant by the TCJS. 

The TCJS inspector, after reviewing documentation, determined that Coryell County had been housing inmates over its rated capacity on multiple days.  Those days were September 12, 2021 and October 13 and 17-25, 2021.  It appears that the Coryell County jail continues to have issues.  While we make no allegation of any wrongdoing regarding death of Castlee Noble, as of our September 3, 2021 post regarding his August 26, 2021 death, his death was still under investigation.  He had been moved to a detox cell in the Coryell County jail. 

Moreover, we have been representing the family of Kelli Page, who died in the Coryell County jail.  That case is on appeal, and we are waiting for an opinion from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  Regardless, hopefully, the Coryell County jail will bring itself into compliance with Texas minimum jail standards.

At 12:22 PM on March 16, 2021, 45-year-old Heather Renee Rodriguez was found without a pulse in her cell at Kerr County Jail in Kerrville, Texas. Jail staff started CPR and continued until the arrival of Emergency Medical Services. In spite of efforts to revive her, Ms. Rodriguez died that same night.

Jail inspection reports in which jails are found to be non-compliant frequently show that potentially life-saving activities are neglected. On April 18th, 2018, a jail inspection report on a Texas county jail reflects that an inspector with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) identified the following areas of noncompliance.

Training

Members of each jail staff involved in classification must be trained for at least 4 hours on how to classify inmates. This job includes learning procedures, principles, and instruments for making classification assessments, housing assignments, reassessment, and inmate needs.

• An inspector with TCJS found that jailers were classifying inmates without having gone through the required 4 hours of objective jail classification training.

Identification

It is required by minimum jail standards that a magistrate be notified when an inmate has been identified as one who is mentally disabled or potentially suicidal. 

• During an annual jail inspection, it was found that magistrate notification was not always being conducted by jail staff as required by minimum jail standards. 

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

It is never an intention on this website to suggest that persons or organizations are participants in misdeeds. Posts are added to this website for the purpose of helping inmates now and previously detained in county jails in Texas.

–Guest Contributor

Heather Renee Rodriguez died at the age of 45 in Kerrville, Texas, on March 16th, 2021. She had been incarcerated in Kerr County Jail since March 11th, 2021. Ms. Rodriguez died of chronic seizure disorder, according to the medical examiner.

An inspector with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) found that a county jail in Texas was non-compliant in at least two areas that can potentially affect the health and welfare of inmates. The following are details from a jail inspection report dated May 8th, 2020.

Health Services Non-Compliance

RULE §273.2 (12) states that, as soon as possible, any prescription medication an inmate is taking when they are brought into custody must be reviewed by a qualified medical professional. 

• The TCJS inspector wrote that medical procedures were reviewed, and it was discovered that no one other than a pharmacist was reviewing medications for the jail. The position of pharmacist does not meet the standard as far as who is reviewing the prescriptions.

RULE §273.5 (b) states that a screening instrument to address inmates with mental disabilities and potentially suicidal inmates must be immediately completed as inmates are booked into county jail facilities.

• The TCJS inspector reviewed medical files and found that members of the jail staff are not filling out the screening form for suicide and medical/mental/developmental impairments in its entirety.

Learn more in Part 1 and this ongoing series. 

There is never an intent to imply on this website that a person or entity has been a participant in wrongdoing. The posts added to this site are intended as resources for the benefit of Texas inmates detained in county jails.

–Guest Contributor