Tarrant taxpayers deserve full accounting of spike in deaths at county jail
When a 44-year-old woman recently became the latest Tarrant County Jail detainee to die this year, alarms understandably went off.
The deaths have mostly been from varying natural causes, with the glaring exception of a suicide. If there’s a specific systemic issue, it’s unclear so far.
But each death is lamentable and should undergo thorough investigation to determine whether any malfeasance occurred or different procedures could have prevented it. Those inquiries are done by the Texas Rangers and the state Commission on Jail Standards, along with internal reviews of procedures. And the problem is acute enough that the public deserves a better account of what’s happening in the jail.
Tarrant County officials stress that the jail is not out of step with its peers. County Judge Glen Whitley acknowledged there’s been a spike this year; the nine deaths are more than in the previous three years combined (when there were eight total).
Across Sheriff Bill Waybourn’s first term, which ends in December, the 17 deaths compares favorably with other large, urban Texas counties. Dallas has seen 22 in that period, Whitley said, while Bexar has had 30.
“While nine is certainly a higher number than we’re used to, when you look overall, we seem to be faring better than counties of similar size and larger,” he said.
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There have been other signs of trouble as well, though. A detention officer was charged with badly beating an inmate, and eariler, an inmate gave birth without officers realizing.
So, it’s best if officials at all levels step up to ensure that problems don’t get any worse and to promote public transparency about what happens in the taxpayers’ jail.
Inmates often come to the jail with complicated medical issues, often including mental illness and substance abuse. Waybourn said that over the four years of his term, the share of inmates with mental health or developmental issues has jumped from about 25 percent to about 45 percent, and the share needing medical attention has jumped, too.
Waybourn said he’s on the hunt for technology that can improve inmate monitoring, too. A new system coming online will better track when deputies check on inmates. And the sheriff said he has his eye on new systems such as one, not yet available in the U.S., that tracks inmates’ locations and vital signs through a wristband and alerts deputies to a problem.
The sheriff said that when a death occurs, his staff briefs Whitley and County Administrator G.K. Maenius, who inform the rest of the Commissioners Court. We’d like to see the full court demand more transparency, including a public briefing from Waybourn on the circumstances of the deaths.
Waybourn is often hamstrung about what he can say in the immediate aftermath of a case, when Texas Rangers quickly step in. He wants to be careful not to provide incomplete information or violate privacy rules. That’s fair, but enough time has passed on several cases that a fuller public account is in order.
The Commissioners Court, of course, doesn’t run the jail. The sheriff is an elected official accountable to the voters. But as Whitley notes, “we’re the ones who get to write the checks.” Waybourn said he wants to be transparent, within the limitations he faces. Commissioners should hold him to it.
What no one wants is an ongoing problem that requires tremendous attention and expense to fix. That’s just what could occur if the jail loses its state certification, as Dallas County did for years a decade ago. Tarrant County’s jail lost its certification for a few days this year after the inmate suicide, and while it was quickly restored, it’s not a situation anyone should want to repeat.
Waybourn faces his bosses, the voters, in a matter of weeks, as the Republican seeks a second four-year term. He should be forthcoming about any problems in the jail and detail how he’s dealt with the deaths.
“I’m confident we have performed as well as can be expected under these circumstances,” he said. “When there have been deficiencies, we have taken action.”