Inmate’s suicide ‘a mess’ for county
Jailers knew she had threatened to kill herself, but no precautions were taken
The woman who killed herself last week in the Harris County Jail while locked up on a theft charge with $1,500 bail had threatened suicide at least once in the days before her death, according to sources familiar with the case.
Debora Lyons had struggled with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder for years before she hanged herself in a common area of the 1200 Baker jail, after her jailers apparently failed to adequately address the warning signs even though they’d been made aware.
“She was a good person, she just had mental issues,” her daughter, Nina, told the Chronicle. “It just got too far.”
It’s still not clear exactly what happened and how the 58-year-old was able to kill herself in a common area, but the second suicide in less than a month raised concerns for advocates and lawmakers.
“I think it deserves further inquiry,” said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston. “We got a mess on our hands.”
The Texas Rangers are investigating Lyons’ death, along with the sheriff’s office and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
This is the second suicide in the county jail in a month that involved an inmate who was known to be a suicide risk. Three weeks before Lyons’ suicide, Navy veteran Eldon Lee Jackson killed himself in solitary confinement in the same jail building.
Lyons had been in and out of the jail repeatedly and the facility knew about her mental health history, sources said. She’d racked up a string of theft charges, a criminal record her daughter attributed to medication issues.
Following her July 21 arrest on the latest felony theft charge — when she allegedly stole clothes and an airbed totaling less than $2,500 — she was jailed with a low bail amount she wasn’t able to pay.
She was housed in a dormitory-style mental health step-down cell block, and sources said the guards were made aware of her intent to harm herself.
But around 6:45 p.m. on Aug. 14, Lyons hanged herself in a common area outside the view of where guards make their rounds as required by state law. She used a bedsheet to form a handmade noose.
The next day, a judge granted her a personal release bond that would have allowed her to go free without paying any money. It’s not clear why the court approved the last-minute bond, and Judge Jim Wallace did not respond to a request for comment.
Lyons died that same day.
“I was feeling like it was the best for her to be in jail because at least I knew where she was at — but then they let her kill herself,” her daughter said.
“But if they would’ve told my momma she was getting out Wednesday, I don’t think my momma would’ve killed herself.”
The Harris County Jail’s suicide rate is less than half the national average for county jails nationally, according to federal data. In recent years, the local lockup has worked to address inmate mental health issues by creating a Bureau of Mental Health and Jail Diversion and launching two programs to help mentally ill inmates stay out of solitary confinement.
Sheriff Ed Gonzalez responded to Lyons’ death in a tweet early Wednesday.
“I am saddened by this tragic loss of life,” he wrote. “The men and women of (the sheriff ’s office) will keep striving to make our jail safer. Meanwhile, our lawmakers must find ways to treat mental illnesses outside the jail.”
But in this case, experts worried the facility had missed potential red flags.
“If the officers had any awareness that this person was potentially suicidal, then they’ve got an obligation to follow up on that,” said Michele Deitch, an attorney and criminal justice consultant who teaches at UT-Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs. “That’s really the whole point of making staff more aware and to be trained on suicide prevention.”
Jay Jenkins, a project attorney with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, framed the death as indicative of larger problems in the criminal justice system.
“Preventable tragedies like Ms. Lyon’s suicide will continue to happen,” he said, “until we’re honest with ourselves about the nature of our criminal justice system and its leaders that continue to insist that long periods of pretrial incarceration for legally innocent humans charged with low-level crimes and suffering from mental health issues are OK.”
Lyons’ suicide was preceded by the death of Navy veteran Jackson, who killed himself in solitary confinement. The 61-yearold was locked up in April after he tried lighting his house on fire as he slashed his own throat. In violation of a protective order, he repeatedly called his wife, harassing her from the jail, sometimes up to 20 times a day.
But when the judge signed an order banning Jackson from phone use, the jail chose to enforce it by placing him in solitary confinement.
The next day, he killed himself by forming the gauze used to treat his burns into a handmade noose. His death, which is still under investigation by the Texas Rangers, marked the jail’s first suicide of 2018.