Dallas County to Settle Two Jail Inmate Lawsuits

Dallas County commissioners voted Tuesday to settle two federal jail neglect lawsuits for close to a half-million dollars.

County officials say the lawsuits are the last major legal claims related to prior conditions in the jail system, which were described a few years ago by federal investigators as being dangerous to inmates’ well-being.

Sims, 60, who was mentally ill, died in the Dallas County jail in 2005.

Her family filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claiming she died of pneumonia after guards and a nurse refused to take her to the infirmary.

Sims, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, spent more than a year and a half in the jail awaiting trial before her death.

She didn’t receive medical treatment or “even a routine physical examination” during that time, according to the lawsuit. The guards found Ms. Sims lying on the floor in her own waste after she collapsed in her cell but didn’t take her to be examined, the suit said.

The story of Sims’ lifelong struggle with schizophrenia and her treatment while in custody were told in a series of articles in The Dallas Morning News in 2006.