Texas law fails to make dent in jail suicides

In a county jail in central Texas, an inmate on suicide watch begins strangling himself with a phone cord. The guard watching him does not rush in because of security rules that prohibit him from going into a cell alone, leading to an agonizing 10-minute wait before another staffer arrives to provide backup.

Derrek Monroe, who died the next day in a hospital, was among the first of 48 jail suicides since the 2017 launch of a sweeping Texas law aimed at reducing such deaths through better screening and monitoring. That law hasn’t made a dent in the number of suicides, and experts blame its failure to address one of the most significant factors: the lack of staff to watch troubled inmates.

“Jails are understaffed and often very understaffed,” said Diana Claitor, executive director of the Texas Jail Project, which advocates for inmates and their families. “You know you have to check a suicidal inmate, but at the same time, another crisis or fight occurs down the hall, and you have to go there. If you don’t have any extra personnel because someone is sick, you’re doing everything alone.”

In a joint reporting effort, The Associated Press and the University of Maryland’s Capital News Service compiled a database of more than 400 lawsuits in the last five years alleging mistreatment of inmates in U.S. prisons and jails. Close to 40 percent involved suicides in local jails — 135 deaths and 30 attempts. All but eight involved allegations of neglect by the staff.

Texas became a national flashpoint in the debate over jailhouse suicides and treatment of mentally ill inmates after the highly publicized 2015 case of Sandra Bland, a black activist who killed herself in a county jail three days after her arrest in a contentious traffic stop.

Her death led to protests, debate and ultimately an ambitious law in her name that sought to be a national model. It included policy changes that required mentally ill inmates to be diverted toward treatment, independent investigation of jail deaths, de-escalation training for police, and funding for electronic sensors or cameras for accurate and timely cell checks.

But critics note that the law had no requirement or money for additional guards, and jailhouse suicides remain a stubborn problem in Texas. The 22 suicides in the state’s jails this year through November have already surpassed the 17 in all of last year, a nearly 30 percent increase.