HARRS COUNTY, Texas – Community activists with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats met with Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez on Thursday to discuss the issues plaguing the county’s jail.
The meeting was scheduled days after a former Harris County Jail detention officer was charged in connection to the death of an inmate from 2021, and several families of inmates who died in custody publicly condemned law enforcement leadership and officials for those inmate deaths.
Civil rights activist Quanell X said during the meeting with Sheriff Gonzalez, he learned that the biggest issue is that the sheriff does not have the ability to fulfill any of the community’s wishes and desires.
“Under the current situation with his staffing crisis and budget situation, the resources are not there to give the inmates in this jail their true human and constitutional protections that they still deserve in this jail,” Quanell X said.
The community activist blamed the commissioner’s court for the budget shortage, saying that the jail is understaffed by 500 officers.
“We believe that a lot of this abuse would cease to a great level -- I don’t think it will all end because there are bad apples everywhere -- but at the level that it is right now, it will not be if the man (Sheriff Gonzalez) had the staffing that he needs and the budget to hire those employees that he has not been given by the commissioner’s court,” Quanell X said.
He also added that several inmates are not receiving the medical attention they need due to it not being enough guards to export nurses to inmates and vice versa.
“Today, there are more than 250 inmates in our jail on the state hospital waitlist. These people have not been convicted of a crime, yet are sitting in jail waiting to be sent to a state hospital to hopefully have their mental competency restored,” HCSO chief deputy Mike Lee said.
An hour before activists met with the sheriff, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo held a news conference announcing the expansion of the Harris Center’s Jail-Based Competency Restoration Program, which will be part of an effort to reduce the jail population and cut criminal case backlogs.
“The Harris County Jail is the largest provider of mental health services in the state. That is not okay,” Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo added that the program, along with the alternative responder’s program, youth diversions program and investment in counselors program, seems to be working but more funding could help it go even further.
“So far, we’ve put in over $40 million in the American Rescue Program funds to tackle the backlog. There’s been a 28% reduction in backlog cases last year,” Hidalgo said.
The following topics were addressed in the meeting:
1.) Adequate staffing in Harris County Jail.
2.) Adequate notification, according to state and federal law, of when loved ones are to be notified and how to be notified when an inmate dies.
3.) Calling for an outside agency to be contracted by Harris County Commissioner’s Court to investigate the allegations of abuse, wrongdoing and murder in the Harris County Jail.
Previous inmate deaths: