Calling the Tarrant County Jail a problem spot is something of an understatement. Prisoners die there at a rate of about one a month; almost 70 have died in total since the current Sheriff, Bill Waybourn, assumed his position in 2017. He was most recently reelected in November, which surprised me a little given how much coverage and how many protests there had been over all the deaths in the jail. That said, nothing had gone wrong so far in 2018 until the beginning of February. Now we have two deaths.
The first, during the first week of February, died by suicide. He’d been screened following some questions during his intake but was cleared by the county’s mental health group. He was found and hospitalized and died a couple of days later. The second one was last week, where an inmate was sent to the hospital and died three days later. No cause of death has been released in her case.
Tarrant County is also still dealing with the fallout from deaths in 2024 and preceding years. The most notorious of the cases from last year was the death of Anthony Johnson, Jr., a former Marine who died by homicide in May. Johnson was known to be bipolar and to have schizophrenia, but ended up asphyxiated during a fight with jailers. His family is now suing Tarrant County and 15 of the jailers involved, though last week the judge in the federal court dismissed Tarrant County from the suit on grounds that the jail’s procedures did not cause Johnson’s death. The family has asked to amend their suit with an eye to keeping Tarrant County on the hook. One of the issues is unreleased footage of Johnson’s death, which the court has not seen.
Since 2022, Tarrant County has paid $4.3 million to end jail lawsuits. Sheriff Waybourn claims that most of the people who die in custody die of natural causes.
If you read all the sources, notice the way the Star-Telegram covers these deaths as opposed to the way that KERA and the DMN cover them. Some of the difference is that the DMN isn’t covering hometown power brokers the way the Star-Telegram has to. The rest of it is editorial and stylistic.
- Star-Telegram: Man dies from complications after suicide attempt at Tarrant County Jail, sheriff says. (The first death.)
- DMN: Tarrant County sheriff’s office reports year’s first in-custody jail death Saturday. (The first death.)
- Star-Telegram: 56-year-old Tarrant County Jail inmate dies in JPS Hospital’s intensive care unit. (The second death.)
- DMN: Tarrant County jail inmate died Tuesday under medical care, sheriff’s office says. (The second death.)
- Star-Telegram: Federal judge dismisses Tarrant County from lawsuit in jail death of Anthony Johnson Jr. (February 10)
- KERA: Tarrant County dropped from lawsuit over Anthony Johnson Jr.’s death in custody. (February 10.)
- Star-Telegram: Lawyer in jail death lawsuit asks court to reconsider dropping Tarrant County from case. (February 19.)
- KERA: Anthony Johnson Jr.’s family pushes to keep Tarrant County on jail death lawsuit. (February 21.)