I remember a female warden of a Texas county jail telling me how much more difficult–”moody and emotional” –women were and that she’d rather deal with male inmates any day. She might consider this study by the Center for Gender and Justice that shows a huge percentage–75%–of the women in county jails having mental disorders.

April was 36 years old and 22 weeks along in her pregnancy when she was arrested and taken to the Bosque County Jail, on May 2nd. She died there May 4th. Even though her death has been ruled a suicide, her sister and other family and friendshave questions about how this could happen. As in all similar jail deaths, the Texas Rangers are investigating, but Texas Jail Project has concerns about that investigation. Please email diana@texasjailproject.org if you have any information.

The young nurse working at the Montague County jail was recently charged with fraternizing with an inmate and smuggling tobacco to him. She works for a private contractor named Southern Health Partners: it’s a good bet that the pay from the contractor is low and the hours long. She isn’t working in ideal conditions and her patients aren’t always easy to deal with.
Now let’s look at the company: Southern Health Partners was contracted to provide medical care for the people held here. Since January 1, 2012 to last week, I counted 77 lawsuits filed against them, in states across the south. While nurses have to be held accountable, let’s hope that the county and the people of the county also keep a very close watch on how well this medical provider does their job in Montague County.

Chelsi Moy published a wonderful story in the Missoulian about a beautiful woman who killed herself in the Uvalde jail. Read all of it here.

Patulla Williams had been dead for several hours before anyone thought to check on her. The 29-year-old was found d dead in a Texas jail cell, a television cord wrapped around her neck. Her death in December placed a tragic period at the end of a life plagued by trouble, a life that began in a foster home in western Montana.

Williams had struggled for decades with abuse from her early life, but she disguised it well, the hurt hidden behind a smile radiant enough to stop strangers in their tracks wherever she went. And Williams went a lot of places.

Travis County Jail has developed model programs to help inmates turn their lives around. One reason for that is that Sheriff Hamilton makes this a priority, and another reason is that the people of Travis county fund, through their taxes, several important positions at the jail–employees who create and coordinate classes and training for inmates. This is a smart use of tax dollars that will save all of us money in the long run, while helping preserve families and lower recidivism rates. The PRIDE program* for non-violent women prisoners has to be one of the best. Here is a brief description and below that is a link to a page about all their programs.

A Texas Ranger investigation actually finds a jail and its staff responsible for the death of a person in their custody, due to lack of medical care! This outcome is rare and Texas Jail Project is relieved to see it happen. Even more importantly, the Nacogdoches Commissioners Court took steps to prevent other deaths by creating a new position who will advise jailers on procedures and practices to follow when dealing with ill or injured inmates. We hope that people in Nacogdoches County will let us know if there is any improvement in the medical care in that jail.

From Lucy G’s account of what happened to her a little more than a year ago:: “Lew Sterrett Jail is in a very rough, bad part of downtown Dallas. I was released from there just after 2:30 AM with no cash on me and a dead cell phone. I was forced to go outside by the DPD, and I had to try and figure out a way home. No buses, no cabs, no trains, and many drug dealers and other unsavory people hanging out.”

Journalist Leonard Sipes Jr. cites revealing numbers about women inmates in Texas jails, in his report about incarcerated women.”In Texas, women were more likely than men to be clinically depressed, to have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder and to be diagnosed with lung disease and sexually transmitted diseases. “

Homeland Security is running detention centers where women of color are often neglected or even abused, according to reports coming in from northern Arizona. It may be connected to an openly racist and hostile law enforcement culture there, but some say Texas immigration facilities are treating pregnant inmates the same way.

Read this new story about the way many jails release people in the middle of the night, into dangerous situations. This is an issue that Texas Jail Project helped bring to the attention of lawmakers and the sheriffs and the public . . . .

HOUSTON — It was 1 a.m. when Acy Williams, a slight, 53-year-old homeless man, walked out of the Harris County Jail and onto the dark, desolate streets of downtown Houston. He wore plastic flip-flops, dingy scrubs and a black fedora. He had no money and no phone, and the Houston Metro buses ran infrequently at that late hour. He decided he would just have to walk several miles across the city to the spot in South Houston where he hoped his belongings were still safely stowed.