Category: Medical Care

Anthony Wayne Gray was experiencing breathing problems due to pre-existing conditions after he was booked into the Jefferson County Jail in Beaumont, Texas, on April 13, 2021. Records show that he received medical treatment from the medical staff. However, he died on May 8, 2021, after being moved to a Beaumont hospital.

The following are details about health service plan requirements for Texas county jails as established by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS).

Texas Administrative Code, Title 37, Part 9, Chapter 273

RULE §273.2 — Health Services Plan

All Texas county jails must establish and implement a written health services plan that has been approved by TCJS. Each plan must include procedures for ensuring the following:

• Inmates have access to regularly scheduled sick calls;
• Referrals can be made for inmates to receive dental, medical, and mental services;
• In emergency and acute situations, inmates will receive prompt, efficient medical care;
• Disabled inmates must receive necessary convalescent and long-term care;
• Prescriptions are properly controlled, distributed, securely stored, and inventoried;
• Needles, prescriptions, and syringes must be disposed of in hazardous waste containers;
• Treatments, examinations, and other procedures involved in the health care of inmates must be performed in a reasonable and dignified way and location; and
• Inmates must be given access to a mental health professional 24 hours every day, whether in the jail or via a telemental health service.

See Part 1 of this continuing series.

The purpose of this website’s posts is to help Texas county jail inmates, whether they are now in jail or were previously incarcerated. No posts on this website are intended to denote that people or organizations have been engaged in wrongs.

–Guest Contributor

Anthony Wayne Gray was booked into Jefferson County Jail in Beaumont, Texas, on April 13, 2021. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office filed a report with the state about the custodial death of Gray. The 58-year-old was transferred to the Baptist Hospital on College Street in Beaumont and died after suffering severe medical distress and being moved to Intensive Care on May 8, 2021.

Texas jails are required to provide reasonable medical care to every prisoner. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) dictates the guidelines by which jails must operate. Those guidelines include a provision for health services. Rules for health services are detailed under the following categories and further below more information is provided:

• Health Services
• A Health Services Plan
• Health Instructions
• Health Records
• Mental Disabilities/Suicide Prevention Plan
• Restraints
• Tuberculosis Screening Plan
• Memorandum of Understanding

Texas Administrative Code, Title 37, Part 9, Chapter 273

RULE §273.1 — Health Services

Medical, dental, and mental health services must be provided by the operator of each jail in keeping with that facility’s approved health services plan. The services of a hospital, licensed physician, allied health personnel, and similar services may be included, though the plan is not limited to these options.

RULE §273.2 — Health Services Plan

Many details about what must be included in a health services plan are provided in this particular rule in the Texas Administrative Code. Specifics will be included in the next segment of this ongoing series.

This and every post on this website is intended to help county jail prisoners now or previously incarcerated in a Texas jail. No post or page on this site intends to infer misdeeds on the part of people or entities.

–Guest Contributor

Matthew Tyler Fox went through intake screening when he was booked into Val Verde County Jail on December 16, 2018. It was determined that he was an addict of drugs or alcohol going through withdrawals and was sent to a medical observation tank. In spite of being under heightened watch, with face-to-face checks by jailers required every 25 minutes at most in the Del Rio, Texas, jail, Fox was discovered to be deceased from hanging himself on December 18th, two days after his arrival.

An inspector with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards prepared a Special Inspection Report after an inspection of a Texas county jail in 2017 instigated by the death of an inmate. The findings potentially illustrate how vitally important inmate supervision can be. The inspector found a violation of the following requirement, as detailed further on in this post.

Texas Administrative Code, Title 37, Part 9, Chapter 275, RULE §275.1 — Regular Observation by Jailers

Inmates must be observed face-to-face on a routine basis. In the general population, jailers must check on the prisoners every hour at most. In areas where inmates have demonstrated bizarre behavior or have been recognized as mentally ill, assaultive, or potentially suicidal, the observations must take place every 30 minutes at most.

• The inspector said that video evidence, as well as documentation, showed that there were no face-to-face observations for approximately 5 hours leading up to the discovery that an inmate was deceased.

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

The purpose of posts on this website is to provide help for prisoners in county jails in Texas, whether they are now or formerly incarcerated. This site never intends to infer that persons or institutions have been involved in improprieties.

–Guest Contributor

Soon after 35-year-old Matthew Tyler Fox was incarcerated in the Val Verde County Jail in Del Rio, Texas, on December 16, 2018, he was placed in a medical observation tank. In withdrawal due to a drug or alcohol addiction, Fox was at risk for suicide. During an observation check two days after being booked into the Paris, Texas, jail, Fox was found to have committed suicide.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) determines minimum jail standards, and procedures for suicide prevention are included. The following is one of the suicide prevention measures:

Texas Administrative Code, Title 37, Part 9, Chapter 273, RULE §273.5(1) — Mental Disabilities/Suicide Prevention Plan

A jail’s suicide prevention plan must include specifics on the training of jailers regarding procedures for recognizing, supervising, handling, and documenting prisoners who are potentially suicidal or mentally disabled. The staff members who are responsible for conducting intake screening must have supplemental training, as well.

A Jail Inspection Report for a Texas county jail dated January 29, 2021, reflects non-compliance in the rule cited above. The following is the information conveyed by the TCJS inspector:

• Documentation of training rosters could not be provided by the administration to indicate that jailers were provided with the required suicide prevention training in accordance with the operational plan for preventing inmate suicide that had been approved for the jail.

See Part 1 of this continuing series.

Posts are provided on this website to help inmates now or previously incarcerated in Texas county jails. It is not intended on this site to infer improprieties on organizations or persons.

–Guest Contributor

Matthew Tyler Fox died at age 35 on December 18, 2018, two days after being booked into the Val Verde County Jail in Del Rio, Texas. Fox had been placed in a medical observation tank because he was going through withdrawal from an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Although jailers were doing face-to-face observation checks every 25 minutes, Fox committed suicide using a sheet to hang himself.

Studies have revealed that the propensity toward suicidal behavior increases when an addicted person is going through withdrawal while incarcerated. The link between addiction and suicide is strong among individuals who are not behind bars. The combination of substance abuse and depression often leads to suicide.

Warning Signs that an Inmate May Be Suicidal

All jailers in Texas county jails are required to have sufficient training to recognize signs of potentially suicidal behavior. Addiction is just one of numerous reasons people are more prone to commit suicide while in jail. Other common reasons are fear of other inmates and loss of relationships. The following have been identified as warning signs that an inmate may be at risk for suicide:

• If an inmate’s family member or a loved one committed suicide
• If the inmate is a victim of same-sex rape
• Terminal illness or significant health problems
• Past incarceration
• After sentencing, faces a long imprisonment
• Speaks about death or inability to go on
• Feels severe shame or guilt
• Displays aggressive or agitated behavior

Learn more in this continuing series.

Posts are provided on this website to help inmates now or previously incarcerated in Texas county jails. It is not intended on this site to infer improprieties on organizations or persons.

–Guest Contributor

The Harris County Sheriff’s Department, in Houston, Texas, recently submitted a custodial death report regarding the death of Jeremy Alan Renkel. Mr. Renkel was only 41 years old at the time of his death. We provide information obtained from that report, and we make no allegation of any wrongdoing against anyone.

Mr. Renkel was apparently initially incarcerated in the Harris County, Texas jail on May 7, 2020. He passed away on May 30, 2021. The summary portion of the report reads in its entirety:

“On May 30, 2021, the decedent was found unresponsive on the floor in his cell by detention staff, during security rounds. Officers determined the decedent was pulseless and started CPR. Medical personnel responded, continued CPR, and transported the decedent to the clinic with ongoing life-saving measures. HFD (Houston Fire Department) was contacted and responded to the clinic. HFD personnel arrived and assumed care of the decedent. HFD continued life-saving measures and transported the decedent to St Joseph Hospital. At approximately 10:47 a.m., Dr. Shin pronounced death.”

Thus, Mr. Renkel was apparently in the Harris County jail for over a year prior to the time of his death. We have no information as to what Mr. Renkel’s charges were, or what medical care he had been receiving, if any, before he was found unresponsive.

Texas jail inmates are entitled to receive reasonable medical care. When jailers are deliberately indifferent to the needs of a Texas jail detainee, and the detainee dies as a result, certain surviving family members might have legal claims. Those claims are usually filed in federal court.

On April 23, 2021, Brian Christopher Jenkins died in Paris, Texas, at the age of 40 in Lamar County Jail. He had been designated as a potentially suicidal inmate. Although he was given suicide watch clothing, he was also provided with a mattress cover, which he used to hang himself.

Jailers in Texas must be trained in how to identify, supervise, handle, and document potentially suicidal inmates. The guidelines are included in the Mental Disabilities/Suicide Prevention Plan section of the Texas Administrative Code. Other aspects of the suicide prevention plan include placing at-risk inmates in appropriate housing. Because suicide is a very real threat among Texas inmates, jailers are also trained regarding intervention and emergency treatment. The procedures include actions to take prior to an occurrence of a suicide attempt and during an attempt at suicide.

Inmate supervision is an essential component in Texas county jail plans to prevent suicide. Prisoners who are identified as potentially suicidal are checked in face-to-face observations by jailers every half hour whereas inmates among the general population of Texas jails must be checked every hour at most.

In a Jail Inspection Report dated April 12, 2021, a TCJS inspector indicates that the required 30-minute-at-most face-to-face checks of potentially suicidal inmates were not being conducted as required. The inspector noted that jailers exceeded the 30-minute time frame for observing inmates at risk for suicide.

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

This website provides posts as helpful resources for prisoners currently or previously detained in a Texas county jail. There is no intent on this site to suggest that individuals or organizations have been involved in improprieties.

–Guest Contributor

During the booking process at Lamar County Jail on April 21, 2021, jailers recognized that Brian Christopher Jenkins was potentially suicidal. He received clothing that cannot be used to cause self-harm, but he was also issued a mattress cover. Jail staff found Jenkins dead as a result of hanging himself with the mattress cover.

As shared in the first installment of this series, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) has put various suicide prevention measures in the guidelines all Texas county jails are required to follow. What good can minimum jail standards do, however, if jails do not comply with requirements of operation?

Inspectors with TCJS conduct a jail inspection of the 241 county jails in Texas each year. There are currently only four inspectors to do the work, and the size of the workload has been used to suggest that jail inspections are not given adequate attention. Such speculation has been tied to evidence that jails in which a higher-than-usual number of inmates died had all been deemed compliant with minimum jail standards following their recent jail inspections.

A jail inspection report released in May 2021 provides an example of an issue of noncompliance that could understandably place some inmates at a higher level of risk than is necessary.

Noncompliance: RULE §271.1(a)(4) – Objective Classification Plan

It is stated in Rule §271.1(a)(4) of the Texas Code that separate housing should be provided for inmates at minimum and maximum custody levels. All other custody level inmates must be housed separately. Only when inmates are under direct, visual supervision can inmates of varying custody levels participate in program and work activities simultaneously.

• The inspector noted that the classification records were reviewed and showed that inmates in minimum and maximum custody levels had been housed together as a result of errors in the classification process.

See Part 1 of this continuing series.

With the aim of providing help to current and former prisoners in Texas county jails, this website adds informational posts. There is no intention of implying that persons or entities engaged in misdeeds.

–Guest Contributor

The Cooke County jail, in Gainesville, Texas, failed an inspection by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (“TCJS”). The inspection occurred on May 19, 2021. The Cooke County, Texas jail is now listed as being non-compliant by the TCJS.

The TCJS inspector, after reviewing classification records, found that minimum and maximum custody level inmates were housed together. This could result in serious injury to inmates, as a maximum custody level inmate could be more likely to assault a minimum level custody inmate. Moreover, the inspector noted that inmate workers in the kitchen were preparing food without any immediate staff supervision. Hopefully, the Cooke County jail will remedy its non-compliance.

Forty-year-old Brian Christopher Jenkins was recognized as a suicide risk when he was booked into Lamar County Jail in Paris, Texas, on April 21, 2021. He was placed on a “clothed suicide watch” yet given a mattress cover. He was discovered deceased in his cell on April 23, 2021, having hung himself using a mattress cover fashioned into a ligature.

Suicide prevention is one of the responsibilities of Texas county jails. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards provides mandatory guidelines that include the issue of preventing inmates from committing suicide. The process of ensuring that inmates are protected from suffering a custodial death begins with screening during the booking process.

All jailers must be trained to recognize signs that an individual is at risk of committing suicide. The jailers responsible for intake screening and involvement in the booking process require additional training along those lines.  The training equips employees to recognize, supervise, document, and handle potentially suicidal inmates as well as those who are mentally disabled.

Intervention and emergency treatment are addressed so that staff members know procedures for suicide prevention and intervention before a suicide occurs. Their training also includes procedures during a suicide attempt-in-progress and for dealing with the serious deterioration of an inmate’s mental condition.

The Texas Code mandates that an approved screening instrument for identifying potentially suicidal inmates must be completed immediately as inmates are booked into a jail.

Learn more in this ongoing series.

This website provides posts to assist Texas county jail inmates, both current and past. It is never intended to imply that individuals or organizations have engaged in wrongs.

–Guest Contributor