Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it has initiated civil rights investigations into the deaths of two inmates at the Harris County Jail in Houston, Texas.
The FBI has stated that it will investigate the deaths of Jaquaree Simmons in February 2021 and Jacoby Pillow in January.
Texas Families Search Deceased Inmates
After holding a press conference on Monday in Houston with Dallas-based lawyer Paul Grinke and civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who is representing several families of those who died in the Harris County Jail, the announcement was made shortly after.
Families spoke about their frustrations following the deaths of their loved ones, and Crump called for greater transparency surrounding custodial deaths.
Over the past two years, there have been more deaths in jail in Harris County. According to Angelique Myers, a spokeswoman for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, there have been four of these deaths so far this year. Myers reported that there were 21 fatalities in jail in 2021 and 27 deaths in 2022.
According to Andrea Armstrong, a Loyola University law professor and the founder of IncarcerationTransparency.org, which commemorates people who have died in prison or on the job, families who are looking for information about loved ones who have passed away in Texas custody can access reports.
One of the few states with a requirement for in-custody death reporting is Texas. According to Armstrong, the state attorney general, who keeps custody death incident reports, must receive a report from law enforcement within 30 days of any death that occurs while someone is being held in a jail or prison.
Some people are not as fortunate, and the problem is particularly serious in prisons. In the US, there are 3,300 prisons, the majority of which are run locally and are only answerable to the local government.
According to Armstrong, they are frequently run by an elected sheriff who may or may not have experience in corrections.
Civil Rights Activists Urge For Changes
This may result in a lack of transparency regarding fatalities in jails or prisons, she said. The federal government published statistics in 2021 showing that 1,200 people passed away in jails in 2019, a 5% increase from the year before.
However, authorities concur that these figures are probably underestimated. Nearly 1,000 in-custody deaths in 2021 were undercounted, according to a bipartisan Senate report.
At the Harris County Jail on Baker Street in the heart of Houston, there have long been complaints of overcrowding, protracted jail stays, and understaffing.
Following the deaths of four prisoners in January and 27 prisoners in 2022, civil rights activists last week used the jail as the backdrop for their demands for reforms and increased government oversight.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez talked about recent inmate deaths, other problems at the county jail, and his future plans in a one-on-one interview with KPRC 2 on Wednesday.
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