A sweeping Texas law is failing in its aim to reduce suicides behind bars through better screening and monitoring. Experts blame factors including a lack of staffing.
In a county jail in central Texas, an inmate on suicide watch begins strangling himself with a phone cord. The guard watching him does not rush in because of security rules that prohibit him from going into a cell alone, leading to an agonizing 10-minute wait before another staffer arrives to provide backup.
In a joint reporting effort, the Associated Press and the University of Maryland’s Capital News Service compiled a database of more than 400 lawsuits in the last five years alleging mistreatment of inmates in U.S. prisons and jails. Close to 40% involved suicides in local jails — 135 deaths and 30 attempts. All but eight involved allegations of neglect by the staff.“It’s not always maliciousness,” Claitor added. “We’re talking about people who are doing a very tough job.
But critics note that the law had no requirement or money for additional guards, and jailhouse suicides remain a stubborn problem in Texas. The 22 suicides in the state’s jails this year through November already surpass the 17 in all of last year, a nearly 30% increase.Since the Sandra Bland Act went into effect in September 2017, state figures show staffing levels at Texas’ 239 local jails have remained largely unchanged at around 25,000 jailers.
Brandon Wood, executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, said another staffing-related challenge for jails is failing to carry out face-to-face checks of suicidal inmates every 30 minutes — the standard set by Texas administrative code even before the Bland Act. Sheriff R. Glenn Smith said the 30-minute check violation was caused by an error in the software system the jail used to track jailer rounds and had no bearing on Parker’s death.
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