Non-Compliant Jails – Reports
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) has four inspectors who are required to conduct at least a yearly inspection of the 247 county jails in our state to ensure that they are in compliance with the Texas Minimum Jail Standards.* When jails are found to be out of compliance, the commission files a report which is used as the basis for inquiry at the quarterly hearings–attended by the Sheriffs–of the TCJS on the State Capitol.
These reports are also available on the TCJS website http://www.tcjs.state.tx.us/index.php?linkID=340 but only for a short time. Once they’re taken off, it takes an expensive FOIA request to acquire them. We are working on getting as many of these reports as possible. Our hope is to track the jails that are repeat offenders and find a pattern of neglect, abuse and/ deaths in custody.
*As codified in the Texas Administrative Code, Title 37, Part 9.
