Advocacy Spotlight: Texas Jail Project

How one small organization in Texas is fighting to get answers for families of people who die in jails and forcing accountability from the jails they die in.

by Emmett Sanders, August 6, 2024

Across the country, people are dying in jails. Often, these deaths are used as the basis of arguments to spend millions or even billions of dollars on jail construction. As our research has shown, however, a new jail is by no means a guarantee that jail deaths won’t continue or even increase. Meanwhile, far less scrutiny is being paid to whether all jail deaths are even being reported. Some jails have implemented policies of not reporting deaths to media outlets, intentionally obscuring transparency. Many jails do not adhere to rules requiring jail death reporting; one report found that at least 990 in-custody deaths went unreported to the federal government in 2021 alone.

Texas, which saw at least 95 reported in-custody jail deaths in 2019, has a dark history of disguising deaths in custody and failing to report them, leaving the public and families without answers. Texas Jail Project, a small non-profit largely made up of advocates who have had family members incarcerated in the state’s county jails, has been working tirelessly to find who is missing from the in-custody death reports, and to compel accountability from jails.

About Texas Jail Project

Texas Jail Project, whose work Prison Policy Initiative’s advocacy department is proud to support, is a tiny, women-of-color-led organization whose impact is far larger than its team of four full-time employees. For more than 17 years, Texas Jail Project has worked to inform, educate, empower, and liberate communities and people impacted by incarceration in 244 county jails across the state of Texas. Under the guidance of Executive Director Krish Gundu, their goal is not only to, as one of their clients phrased it, “end the investment in death-making facilities such as jails” but to “redirect that investment into life-affirming” community-based resources. Responsivity to the needs of the community they serve has led them to tackle a wide range of issues from opposing the shackling of pregnant women in jail while giving birth, to advocating for people in jail with disabilities or who have mental health or substance use needs, to providing a wide array of direct aid to individuals in jails and their families. For years, they have also been relentless champions for those whose deaths in Texas’ county jails have gone unreported.

The Problem: A strategic lack of accountability

Although Texas has a detailed statute surrounding the reporting of jail deaths in the state, many deaths in jails go unreported. When the system is working as it should, deaths are supposed to be reported to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards within 24 hours. This triggers a third-party investigation, and a custodial death report from that investigation must be filed with the Attorney General’s Office within 30 days. This process is vital not only for public accountability but for families and loved ones – these reports are sometimes the only source of information about the circumstances of jail deaths.

However, through their work directly with families of people incarcerated in jails, Texas Jail Project learned that this process is not being consistently followed. Although some failures to report are an administrative oversight, not all lack of reporting is accidental. Places like Harris County have a record of issuing personal recognizance bonds to critically ill people in their custody and releasing them shortly before they die to avoid being responsible for their deaths. This practice of issuing “medical bonds” is often a way for jails to get off the hook for the costs associated with treating those who are in their care, and happens in many counties in Texas. Texas Jail Project discovered that in Ellis County, for example, two women had died in a period of just two weeks, both shortly after having been issued medical bonds.

In addition, some counties in Texas regularly ship people in their custody to jails in other states, citing overcrowding concerns. Once there, if the person dies, the jail that sent them will often claim to have no responsibility to report their deaths, as the deceased is no longer in their custody.

How Texas Jail Project is making a difference

Texas Jail Project developed a strategy for finding and correcting failures to report jail deaths. By scouring the list of in-custody deaths submitted to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards and comparing them to the Attorney General’s records, the organization began to identify missing cases. They then issued letters of notification to the jails that had failed to report these deaths, copying both the Commission on Jail Standards and the Attorney General, and citing the jail’s violation of state law. Often, this simple act of notification alone was enough to have the person added to the list and provide families with information they’d been denied. Since 2023, Texas Jail Project has discovered 18 unreported jail deaths and has successfully forced reports to be issued in 14 of them.

In one of these cases, a woman named Ruby McPeters died in Hood County Jail from complications following a C-section she underwent while in custody. Her death went unreported for nearly 5 years due to simple clerical error before Texas Jail Project discovered the omission. After Texas Jail Project contacted the jail, Ms. McPeters was added to the Office of the Attorney General’s list of in-custody deaths that very day. Making sure that deaths like Ms. McPeters’ are reported is vital to exposing medical maltreatment in jails and forcing changes.

The organization has also worked tirelessly to correct the problem of unreported out-of-state deaths. Harris County, for instance, regularly outsources its incarceration to jails in other states, such as LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, and when someone dies while being held there, Harris County has steadfastly refused to acknowledge responsibility for their death. Texas Jail Project is making progress in holding Harris County accountable; The Texas Commission on Jail Standards is holding a session on August 8th and has put the issue on their agenda.

Although reporting requirements for jail deaths vary by state, advocates throughout the country can follow Texas Jail Project’s lead to ensure jail deaths are more consistently and thoroughly reported. The first step is to develop a deep understanding of what the reporting requirements are for jail deaths, and, if there are gaps in that accountability framework, to lobby regulatory bodies and state legislatures to impose additional requirements. When it comes to making sure the laws on the books are actually followed, Texas Jail Project’s work shows how publicly and consistently informing jails of their oversight responsibilities can be highly effective in forcing jails to actually follow the rules.

Deep Impacts

For the family members of those who die in pretrial detention in Texas jails who have sometimes waited years to learn what happened to their loved ones, Texas Jail Project’s work is profound. Lack of transparency can bring a lack of resolution that can devastate families. Krish Gundu recalls one mother whose 32-year-old son died just six days after being arrested during a mental health crisis and who was “stonewalled” for answers for months. “It nearly killed her,” Gundu notes. In another instance, a family member was so visibly upset over the lack of transparency that they were nearly escorted out of a public meeting with the Jail Commissioners before Texas Jail Project intervened. Texas Jail Project not only compels people in positions of power to follow the statutes, but their efforts provide relief for grieving families and ensure people are not forgotten. As Gundu notes, “This is an essential piece of history that needs to be written.”

Learn More

See more of Texas Jail Project’s work and find out how you can support their efforts here.

Visit our work on jails and jail deaths, and resources for advocates in counties considering jail expansion. You can also use our toolkit to learn how to respond when officials try to avoid transparency by citing HIPAA laws and get better information about jail deaths in your county.