Scary to hear how Texas county sheriff’s offices will cut corners and put somebody in charge of inmates’ medical care who isn’t even close to being qualified. It takes a lawsuit, as usual, to expose the wrongdoers and hold those in charge accountable.
Now it turns out that this jail has a record–of neglect and bad medical care. For example, look at the federal case filed after the tragic death of Jason Brown in 2004. His estate sued the previous Sheriff, Thomas Callahan, for failure to train and supervise the jail’s medical employees and for maintaining an unconstitutional policy of deliberate indifference to detainees’ serious medical needs.
Are there others who have suffered serious injuries and trauma while in the Wichita County jail?

“I would just like to tell everyone out there that there is hope and we can change things if we stand up and never give up, no matter if it takes awhile and with alot of determination, it can be done. I have fought corruption in Taylor County and we did get JUSTICE, not only for my son but others that were in the Taylor County Jail. It was a long and hard fight, but with the determination that I had and the help of someone who is a hero to me, Lance Voorhees, we saw justice.And thanks to Texas Jail Project! They came to Abilene when I contacted Diana. She and a group if TJP members drove up here and talked to citizens of Taylor County.”

Our request for records from the Bexar County Jail revealed how a jail can gouge when it comes to the price of public information. TJP’s director describes the situation. “The whole point of getting this information was to help a family find out what happened to their son in the last hours of his life,” Claitor, who heads the nonprofit reform-minded Texas Jail Project, told the Current. “Essentially, it felt like a way of blocking the release of this information.”

Maurice Chammah’s story tells how the family has gone to the courts for justice after the death of a greatly beloved 29-year-old son in Corpus Christi. This lawsuit will, we hope, shine a light on the horrible neglect that Greg Cheek suffered while in the Nueces County Jail. Despite training and safeguards, jailers there failed to see past mental illness and blue paint covering Greg, and they ignored his symptoms for days and days.
Click on “Continue Reading” to see the Texas Tribune story. Go to the Inmate Stories section of our website to see tributes to Greg that we posted when we found out about his death back in 2011: http://www.texasjailproject.org/category/inmate_stories/

By Celinda Emison, May 24, 2011, Abilene Reporter News A  class-action lawsuit targeting Taylor County Sheriff Les Bruce and other jail employees has been filed in federal court by several former inmates and the families of two inmates who died at the county jail. The suit alleges that inmates were routinely denied medical treatment and

The two men worked hard and they had saved up their money to buy a car–the American way, right? But back in 2011, the Hill County sheriff just saw them as prey.
“A Texas sheriff threw two Latino men into jail for 39 days ‘with no charges, no hearing, and no probable cause’ and seized the $14,000 they had saved up to buy a new car, the men claim in Federal Court.”
Now Roberto Moreno-Gutierrez and Jaime Moreno-Gutierrez are suing Hill County, the Hill County Sheriff’s Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety—seeking damaages for civil rights violations, false imprisonment, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent supervision, training and retention.
I bet that they get better treatment in the federal court than they did in Hill County.

Texas Jail Project has heard from family members with inmates in the Galveston jail who are unable to receive books ordered from publishers – even in one case, a Bible. Worst case scenario was a wonderful young woman named Ana facing childbirth for the first time, alone and without comfort or advice as her mother was living and working in Europe. Ana’s mother ordered a book shipped to help Ana understand some of the physical changes, pain and problems she was having, but the jail would not allow her to have it!
So it’s very satisfying to see that a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court against Galveston County, Sheriff Freddie Poor, former Sheriff Gean Leonard and a Sheriff’s lieutenant. The suit alleges unconstitutional censorship at the county jail in violation of the First Amendment. Read about it here. . . .

Educator Gail Hanson is a valuable volunteer with Texas Jail Project; we congratulate her and her hard-working legal team for this settlement that restores her right to be a chaplain and to help the women in the Cameron County Jail.

Forced to Give Birth in Taylor County Jail CellPress Release from Taylor County Juvenile Justice Center Abilene, Texas, November 1, 2010: The Honorable Sam R. Cummings, an Article III federal judge, refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Lance Hunter Voorhees, a former volunteer chaplain for the Taylor County Detention Center. Sheriff Bruce’s challenge of

The parents of Michael Dick today filed a lawsuit against Potter County, several jailers and medical staff claiming they’re responsible for their son’s death while he was incarcerated last year. They claim their son, who was 33 at the time of his death, was denied proper medical care.