Prisoner deaths in Texas raise concerns

AUSTIN — When Sandra Bland was found hanging in a Waller County jail cell in July 2015, an outcry erupted in Texas and nationally over the treatment of prisoners.

A new website shows that Bland, whose death following a traffic stop was ruled a suicide, was among more than 1,900 people who had not been convicted of crimes when they died in custody from 2005 through 2015 in Texas.

Amanda Woog, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, said those prisoners were effectively given life sentences when they died in jail.

The website, called the Texas Justice Initiative, records a total of 6,913 deaths.

Those include 1,111 deaths in jails, 4,684 deaths in state prisons, and another 1,118 deaths of people in the custody of police and other law enforcement agencies.

The latter catedory include suicide deaths and justifiable homicides. Last year, the number included a dozen people who died in police-related shootings, 10 who died after being handcuffed, and seven who died after being shocked by a taser.

Jennifer Laurin, an expert in civil rights and criminal law at the University of Texas School of Law, said the numbers “should concern us.”

“Some were never charged with a crime,” she said of those who died in custody. “The result of their encounter with police was their death. That’s an outcome that’s difficult to justify.”

The website notes that more than 3 of 4 who died in jail had not been convicted of the crime for which they were held.

Latinos represent 28 percent of the deaths in custody. African-Americans represent 30 percent.

Leading causes of death for everyone were illness or natural causes (70 percent); suicide (11 percent); and justifiable homicide (8 percent).

Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, noted that the mortality rate in Texas jails and prisons is slightly higher the national average.

Texas jails and prisons reported 266 deaths per 100,000 people from 2000 to 2013.

The national average during the same period was 255 deaths per 100,000.

But, Clark said, fewer deaths in Texas were related to violent acts.

“The health and welfare of the offender population is fundamental to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice mission,” he said.

The department and state’s Correctional Managed Health Care system have “numerous policies related to offender health and safety that are routinely reviewed and revised as appropriate,” he said.

Last September, for example, the agency increased staff training for crisis interventions and response to mental health situations.

The death of Bland, 28, came before she was ever sent to state prison, however. 

Trooper Brian Encinia, who arrested her in Prairie View, was later charged with perjury over his account of the incident and fired.

A dashboard camera recorded the arrest in which Encinia reportedly said he would “light (Bland) up” with a Taser after she refused to put out a cigarette.

A bystander’s video also captured part of the incident.

Cannon Lambert, a Chicago lawyer who represents Bland’s mother, said in-custody deaths are some of the “most concerning and most egregious.”

Access to the kind of data provided by the new website is “a great idea,” Lambert said.

“It lets us see whether you have a problem that’s singular and unique — versus a continuing, systemic problem that, though known, does not get addressed,” Lambert said during an interview.

Nationally the number of inmates who’ve died in state prisons and local jails has increased, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The bureau reported 4,446 deaths in 2013 — the most in seven years.

Laurin said law enforcement “should be looking hard and asking if some of these deaths were avoidable.”

In Texas, the state Code of Criminal Procedure requires a prison warden or jail-keeper to file a four-page report within 30 days of a death.

Laurin said the website, which makes that information accessible, is “on the vanguard of law-enforcement data collection.” 

Woog hopes to update the site — launched last week by the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis at the University of Texas — and flesh out information on each death with media reports and narratives from loved ones.

“Close to 7,000 is a lot of individual cases to investigate,” she said. “… There are so many questions that come up. The more people looking into the data, the better.” 

John Austin covers the Texas Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jaustin@cnhi.com.