Sharon Steinmann
The Harris County Jail has finally passed a state safety inspection — the jail’s first passing grade in nearly two years. However, state officials provided “technical assistance” during the inspection, leading some advocates to question whether the passing grade was warranted.
Inspectors with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) conducted the unannounced assessment from August 12-15. The inspection included 24 areas of review, including the jail’s admission and release process, medical care and frequency of observations.
However, the state’s inspection report acknowledges two areas where “technical assistance” was provided: supervision and life safety. Brandon Wood, the executive director of the commission, explained that the assistance provided during the inspection was equivalent to providing “clarification” in order to rectify deficiencies that “could become a huge issue, if not addressed.”
“We wanted to make sure that everybody was on the same page and had a clear understanding of what would be expected,” Wood said. “We do this in order to make sure that it is documented that they’ve been provided guidance.”
The commission’s inspection team found two malfunctioning fire alarm control panels, although one appeared to “perform and respond within normal parameters” and the other was seemingly fixed after being reset.
It was also discovered that jail administrators were calculating a state-mandated staffing ratio differently from what’s outlined by Texas law, which requires one guard for every 48 people held in the jail. However, the law requires those guards to supervise prisoners, while Harris County was counting staff who were “instructed to respond in emergencies” and those who “were leaving the floor to transport inmates to the court-holding area,” according to the report.
Additionally, the inspection team reviewed more than 15,500 observational rounds and found 15 that were late anywhere from two minutes and seven minutes due to “staff handling other emergencies” and “officer error.” State law requires detention officers to check on prisoners once per hour, and once every half hour for those "known to be assaultive, potentially suicidal, mentally ill, or who have demonstrated bizarre behavior are confined."
These areas will need to be addressed within 30 days, Wood added. But according to Krishnaveni Gundu, the executive director of Texas Jail Project, the passing grade was undeserved.
“Inspectors tell you what you’re doing wrong and how you need to do it right, but they still passed the jail,” Gundu said. “These were minimum standards that had to do with supervision and life safety, and supervision is the reason we’ve been failing inspections.”
The rising death toll
On August 12, as state inspectors began their work inside the county jail, 41-year-old Hugo Mota had an apparent “medical emergency” in his cellblock and was transported to the jail's clinic where "life-saving measures were initiated," according to the sheriff's office. He died later that day.
Mota is among at least seven people who have reportedly died while in the custody of the sheriff’s office this year. The most recent death, 49-year-old Mark Mills, came about a week later — once the jail had already passed the inspection.
According to court documents, Mills was booked into the jail in June after allegedly assaulting a family member and violating a protective order. Last Tuesday, as he waited for his day in court, Mills experienced “an apparent medical emergency” in his cellblock and was brought to the jail’s clinic, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. He was eventually brought to Ben Taub Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on Thursday at 3:50 p.m.
Gundu believes the state’s oversight of the Harris County Jail is ineffective and points to the sheer amount of medical emergencies that occur within the facility. Notably, while state law requires a certain amount of guards to supervise prisoners, Texas jails aren’t required to have a certain amount of medical staff within the facility.
“The jail commission has no authority over that,” Gundu said. “They have no power.”
Last year, at least 19 people died while in custody. This followed a record number of in-custody deaths in 2022, when at least 27 people lost their lives — the highest number in nearly two decades, according to county records and data from the Texas Justice Initiative.
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Over the course of nearly two years, the jail repeatedly failed safety inspections due to understaffing and medical neglect, among other issues. This eventually led to the state’s reduction of bed capacity in an effort to bring the facility in line with the state’s staffing ratio.
Still, a persistent shortage of guards continues to plague the jail. As of August 19, there were about 139 open positions in the jail, according to the sheriff’s office.
This comes as the number of lawsuits against the county continues to pile up. Just two weeks ago, two more federal lawsuits were filed on behalf of three people who died while in custody and five formerly incarcerated people, accusing county officials of perpetuating an abusive culture inside the jail and depriving prisoners of their constitutional rights while being detained.
Additionally, the county is facing another federal lawsuit filed earlier this year by a woman who had a miscarriage after a detention officer and other prisoners allegedly assaulted her while in the jail.
Read the Harris County’s most recent inspection report below:
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