Fort Worth Report: North Texas lawmakers want to reform how jail deaths are investigated. Here’s how

A yearslong spike of in-custody deaths in the Tarrant County Jail could come under scrutiny by the Texas Legislature with a bipartisan pair of bills filed by Tarrant County House members Nicole Collier and David Lowe.

Collier, a seven-term Fort Worth Democrat, and Lowe, a freshman North Richlands Hills Republican, said they were taking legislative action in response to public concern over dozens of custodial deaths in the downtown jail under Sheriff Bill Waybourn, who was reelected to a third term in November. 

The lawmakers unveiled the measures in advance of a Friday deadline for bill filings and within the same week that the sheriff’s department said it was late in reporting the Feb. 8 death of Charles Stephen Johnson due to a clerical error. 

Current policy requires jail officials to notify the Texas Commission on Jail Standards when a death occurs, and mandates the commission to bring in outside law enforcement, such as the Texas Rangers or local police, to conduct an independent investigation. 

Collier’s bill, House Bill 3841, would embed the requirement into state law, mandating “the commission to appoint a law enforcement agency other than the law enforcement agency that operates the county jail.” The inmate’s death would also be posted on the commission’s website for at least two years.

Lowe’s bill calls for the creation of an 11-member advisory committee that would include a family member of a person who died in jail, a jail expert with no association to a law enforcement agency, a criminal defense attorney, a medical examiner and three other appointees. The Commission on Jail Standards would appoint the committee no later than Oct. 1.

The Texas Jail Project, which spotlighted the alleged reporting violations, worked with Collier to help advance her bill. 

“It’s a huge deal,” said Krishnaveni Gundu, co-founder and executive director of the justice advocacy project, stressing her support of the legislation.