Category: Medical Care

The custodial death report issued by the Corpus Christi Police Department for Richard Bendle shows that when officers first encountered him, they called emergency medical services. There was evidence that Bendle may have been under the influence of narcotics. EMS released Bendle at the scene, but he had a fatal health issue a short time later just before being booked into Nueces County Jail.

Suspects who are under the influence of drugs frequently have encounters with the police and end up being transported to a hospital on the way to the local jail.

Police Encounter a Woman Influenced by Drugs

In the case of one woman who was obviously under the influence of drugs and was attempting to enter another person’s home, police struggled with her until EMS could arrive. The woman continued being uncooperative with the medical personnel who arrived on the scene. She was handcuffed to the gurney and transported to a nearby hospital. While en route, she went into cardiac arrest. The woman was admitted to the hospital, where she died the next day.

Various Texas county jails have been in the news in recent years as they have adopted different approaches to addressing the serious issue of drug-addicted inmates. For example, in 2020, Bexar County tested a drug treatment for county jail prisoners that had a price tag of $1,000 per dose. Members of the Joint Opioid Task Force believed the cost would be worth the expense. The medication would block the effects of opioids, preventing users from getting the usual high.

Ultimately, expenses involved with treating drug-addicted prisoners as well as mentally ill prisoners often far exceed county budgets, which sometimes results in preventable custodial deaths.

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

This website purposes to assist current and former inmates of county jails in Texas. There is never an intention on this site to suggest that persons, organizations, or governmental agencies have engaged in wrongs.

–Guest Contributor

The Lubbock County Sheriff’s office, in Texas, filed a report regarding the jail death of Chad Douglas Farmer. Mr. Farmer was only 45 years of age at the time of his death. We provide information we 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 05/03/2021, Inmate Chad Douglas Farmer was received into the Lubbock County Detention Center and went through the Booking process. At approximately 0930 on 05/04/2021, Inmate Farmer was moved to the Medical Center housing area of the Lubbock County Detention Center. Inmate Farmer was housed in cell MC-07. At approximately 2115, Inmate Farmer was discovered unresponsive, laying in his bunk, by the officer assigned to the area. There were no visible signs of trauma or injury. Medical personnel and Officers responded to the area. Detention staff initiated CPR and the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and Emergency Medical Services were called. EMS personnel arrived at approximately 2130. EMT-P Sawyer Heugatter with EMS directed responding officers to stop CPR and the AED. EMT-P Heugatter pronounced Inmate Farmer to be deceased and announced the time of death as 2130. The Lubbock Police Department Metropolitan Unit was notified and responded for death investigation. They notified Miller Mortuary to transport the body to the morgue.”

Thus, the report provides virtually no information regarding what caused Mr. Farmer to become unresponsive and/or what caused his death. The report also provides no information about whether Mr. Farmer was being appropriately monitored and/or had received any medical treatment.

It is a constitutional right for pre-trial detainees in Texas jails to receive reasonable medical care. If an inmate does not receive medical care, and jailers are deliberately indifferent to that inmate’s known medical needs, then jailers can be liable for any injuries or death that occur as a result.

Corpus Christi police officers were moments from getting 44-year-old Richard Bendle into the booking process at Nueces County Jail in Corpus Christi, Texas, when he suffered a health issue indicative of a likely overdose of narcotics. Bendle was transported to a medical facility but died on the same day as his arrest, April 13, 2021.

To continue from the previous installment of this series, the following are details shared about the death of an inmate who was allegedly denied medical care and died several days later.

Witnesses Claim an Inmate’s Death was Preventable

An inmate began to vomit continuously, and fellow inmates have said that no medical assistance was provided at that time. The inmate died five days later.

The inmate’s custodial death report stated that he died of natural causes. It further says that on an unspecified date, the inmate was discovered to be unresponsive in his cell. Members of the jail medical staff and detention officers provided emergency care until emergency medical services could arrive. At first, he had no pulse and was not breathing. Medical personnel performed CPR, which got the heart working again. The inmate was transported to a hospital, where, on the following day, he was removed from life support by the hospital staff.

See Part 1 and this continuing series.

The aim of this website’s posts is to provide information that may be of help to current and previous inmates at Texas county jails. It is never intended on the site to suggest that individuals or entities have engaged in misdeeds.

–Guest Contributor

Forty-four-year-old Richard Bendle’s recent death on April 13, 2021, was reported by the Corpus Christi Police Department. The brief report suggests that drugs likely influenced Bendle’s behavior. The medical episode that occurred just as he was entering the Nueces County Jail facility in Corpus Christi, Texas, and that ended with his death is believed to have been caused by an overdose of narcotics.

Inmates and detainees in the custody of police have a right to receive necessary medical care, and drug-related emergencies are common. A recent study of Texas county jails showed that almost half of the inmates in the state’s county jails had drug problems. The prevalence of opioid addictions has resulted in jails in Texas and across the country providing drug-addicted inmates with lifesaving Narcan as they are released.

According to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS), medical care is the topic that gets the most complaints in connection with county jails every year. Minimum jail standards include guidelines for providing health care to inmates, but it seems that medical care deficiencies are difficult to identify during jail inspections because non-compliance issues are rarely related to medical care in jail inspection reports. Oftentimes, details about an alleged incident of denial of medical services only come to light following a tragic health-related custodial death.

Learn more in this continuing series.

With the posts on this website, we hope to provide helpful resources for inmates at county jails in Texas, whether they are currently or previously incarcerated. There is no intention on this site to infer misdeeds on the part of individuals or entities.

–Guest Contributor

Anderson Howard was 25 years old when he was arrested in Dallas County and later died on the same day, October 9, 2021. He had been pursued and arrested by the Rowlett Police Department in Rowlett, Texas, and was subsequently placed in the local jail.

A significant portion of Texas county jail inmates has drug problems. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for prisoners to die of overdoses not long after being arrested. Combatting opioid overdoses is a topic that is gaining ground in jails across the nation. Harris County, Texas, for instance, was in the news in 2019 because a grant of $2 million was awarded for the purpose of expanding access to treatment and medication for inmates struggling with substance abuse. A study of custodial deaths in Harris County showed that nearly half of the overdose deaths in the county involved opioids.

Narcan is given to opioid-addicted inmates as they are released from jail in jurisdictions across the nation, including some county jails in Texas. According to a Texas sheriff, addressing the opioid problem with inmates helps to prevent crimes committed for the purpose of supporting drug habits.

A physician making a statement on the topic pointed out that not enough healthcare providers in the nation are trained in treating people with opioid abuse. A sad reality today is that jails are the most prominent places where drug-addicted individuals end up.

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

This website purposes to assist Texas county jail prisoners, whether current or former. There is no intent to imply that individuals or institutions have engaged in improprieties.

–Guest Contributor

The Travis County Sheriff’s Department, in Austin, Texas filed a custodial death report regarding the in-custody death of Nicholas Orion Vanwyhe.  Mr. Vanwyhe was only 39 years old at the time of his death.  We provide information obtained from that report, and make no allegation of any wrong doing against anyone.

Mr. Vanwyhe was incarcerated in the Travis County jail at the time of his death.  The summary portion of the report reads in its entirety:

“The inmate, Nicholas Vanwyhe, hanged himself inside his cell using his bed sheet as a ligature. The unit in which Vanwyhe was housed had the inmates in single cells, and post visuals were conducted hourly. The post officer, Officer Guzman, conducted a post visual on April 30, 2021 at 21:33 start time, and ended at 21:37. During that post visual Officer Guzman observed Vanwyhe laying down on his bunk. The next post visual Officer Guzman conducted was at 21:59 start time. Officer Guzman discovered Vanwyhe had hanged himself inside his cell at 22:05, and hit his stat alarm button. Other officers arrived to cut the ligature and then began life saving measures until relieved by Austin EMS, but attempts to revive Vanwyhe were unsuccessful. Van Wyne was pronounced deceased at 2301 on April 30, 2021 by Doctor Abrehan.”

We have no other information regarding what happened to Mr. Vanwyhe, including whether he was on appropriate periodic checks, or whether he was on suicide watch at the time of his death.  The report does indicate that Mr. Vanwyhe made suicidal statements.  Thus, at least at some point during his incarceration, he should have been, in our opinion as a civil rights law firm handling jail suicide cases in Texas, on continuous monitoring.  Anything short of continuous monitoring of a person with suicidal tendencies is insufficient.  It takes only approximately 5 minutes to commit suicide. 

The 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right of pre-trial detainees to be protected from themselves and others.  If those rights are violated, and a person dies as a result, certain surviving family members may have claims related to the death.

The Lamar County Sheriff’s Department, in Paris, Texas, filed a custodial death report regarding the death of Brian Christopher Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins was only 40 years old at the time of his death. We provide in this post information we obtained from that report, and we do make any allegation of any wrongdoing against anyone related to Mr. Jenkins’ death.

The summary portion of the Lamar County Sheriff’s Department report reads in its entirety:

“On 04/21/2021 at or around 10:00 a.m., Brian Jenkins was arrested on a Violation of Parole warrant, where he was booked in to Lamar County Jail at 11:58 p.m. the same day and placed in a single cell. Due to answers on screening form regarding past attempted suicide history, Jenkins was placed on a clothed suicide watch. On 04/23/2021 at 11:20 p.m., LCSO officers found Brian Jenkins deceased hanging by a noose fashioned from a mattress cover. The Texas Rangers are investigating this incident.”

Our Texas civil rights law firm reviews jail death reports on a frequent basis. Clearly, the summary above provides very little information. It indicates that Mr. Jenkins was a known suicide risk, but was “placed on a clothed suicide watch.” Suicide prevention clothing, sometimes referred to as a suicide smock, is commonly used in county jails. Such clothing is resistant to being used as a ligature. However, even if such clothing was used with regard to Mr. Jenkins, if he was a suicide risk, he should not have had a mattress cover in his cell.

The 14^th Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the rights of pre-trial detainees, as the 8^th Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the right of convicted inmates, to receive reasonable medical care and to be protected from themselves and others. This protection includes protection from known self-harm, or suicidal, tendencies. If jailers are aware of suicidal tendencies, and they act unreasonably and/or in a deliberately indifferently manner, and a person dies as a result, then they can be liable to certain surviving family members. Likewise, if a county jail has a policy, practice, and/or custom which leads to such a death, then the county may be liable to certain surviving family members. These lawsuits are typically filed in federal court, and they are filed pursuant to a federal statute: 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

It is typical for the Texas Rangers to investigate custodial deaths in small-to-medium sized counties in Texas. The Texas Rangers only investigate whether they believe a crime occurred related to a death. The Texas Rangers do not investigate whether they believe a constitutional violation occurred. Likewise, in incidents such as that involving Mr. Jenkins, in addition to the Sheriff’s Department conducting an investigation, the District Attorney’s office may conduct its own independent investigation.

Our law firm has filed a number of jail suicide cases in Texas federal courts. Unfortunately, Texas jails continue to put suicidal inmates into cells and allow them to have access to items with which they can form ligatures. Using a ligature is the most common manner of suicide in Texas. Texas jails need to do a better job regarding suicidal inmates and prevent known harm.

A custodial death report was released about Daniel Lee Blankenship, who was an inmate at Johnson County Jail in Cleburne, Texas, when he tried to commit suicide. Unfortunately, his attempt succeeded because he died on February 12, 2021, a few days after being found unresponsive in his cell.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) has established procedures for intake screening as part of the suicide prevention plan. Texas county jails are often cited for noncompliance in areas related to preventing inmate suicide, and the following are examples.

Non-compliance in Intake Screening

A standard violated was section 273 paragraph .5(2), which requires that referrals be made to available mental health officials when an inmate is known or observed to be potentially suicidal or mentally disabled.

• In a report released on April 8, 2021, the TCJS inspector found that the jail was not consistently notifying a magistrate within 12 hours as required, nor were they notifying mental health.

Non-Compliance in Supervision

Inmates who are known to be potentially suicidal and other at-risk inmates must be observed every 30 minutes at most. Supervision is known to be one of the most effective deterrents against inmate suicide.

• In a Jail Inspection Report dated April 12, 2021, the TCJS inspector found that jailers exceeded the 30-minute time frame for making face-to-face observations of inmates.

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

The posts provided on this website purpose to help current and past inmates at county jails in Texas. There is at no time an intention to suggest that persons or institutions have been engaged in improprieties.

–Guest Contributor

The Freestone County jail, in Fairfield, Texas, failed an inspection by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (“TCJS”). The inspection occurred on April 27, 2021. The Freestone County jail is now therefore listed as being non-compliant by the TCJS.

The TCJS inspector determined that the Freestone County jail’s annual internal audit of classification was not conducted. Therefore, appropriate records were not available for TCJS review.

Moreover, the Freestone County jail violated a serious standard. The TCJS inspector noted, while reviewing medical inmate files, that jail staff were not completing the Screening Form for Suicide and Medical/Mental/Developmental Impairments in its entirety. This is an extremely important standard, because a jail may not properly screen inmates for suicidal tendencies, and other self-harm issues, without completing the TCJS-required form.

The TCJS inspector also noted, while reviewing Freestone County jail staff licensing, that a staff member did not even possess a valid TCOLE jailers license. Surprisingly, that staff member was not only on duty, but he or she was actively supervising inmates.

Finally, the TCJS inspector noted that an annual inspection by health authorities had not been conducted since March 3, 2020. Therefore, that inspection was overdue by two months.

Daniel Lee Blankenship died on February 12, 2021, while in the custody of Johnson County Jail in Cleburne, Texas. Several days prior, he was found unresponsive in his cell, having apparently attempted suicide.

The prevention of inmate suicide is addressed by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) under the Health Services chapter in RULE §273.5 – Mental Disabilities/Suicide Prevention Plan. County jails in Texas are required to uphold minimum jail standards. The requirements related to suicide involve measures known to help with the prevention of custodial suicides, and it is concerning that, many times, jails are non-compliant in areas associated with keeping inmates safe.

The following are examples taken from a 2021 Jail Inspection Report in Texas that reflect non-compliance under the above-cited procedures for suicide prevention.

Non-Compliance in Staff Training

Under paragraph .5(a)(1), staff training is required with regard to procedures for recognizing, supervising, documenting, and handling potentially suicidal prisoners. Among the staff members whose duties include intake screening, supplemental training is also required.

• The TCJS inspector did not find any sort of verification that jailers had been through suicide prevention training for the past 15 months.

Non-Compliance Regarding Intake Screening

Under paragraph .5(a)(2), certain intake screening procedures must be followed in order to identify inmates who are known to be potentially suicidal.

• The inspection report shows that the procedures for complying with the identification of inmates through intake screening were not followed.

See Part 1 and this ongoing series.

This website’s posts are intended as resources that could potentially be of help to current and former inmates in Texas county jails. It is not intended at any time to suggest that individuals or entities have engaged in misdeeds.

–Guest Contributor