Death before Sentencing by Andrew R. Klein & JESSICA L. KLEIN

Author:Andrew R. Klein & JESSICA L. KLEIN
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2022-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

STATE REVIEW OF JAILS TEPID AND IGNORED

Twenty-four states have government bodies that have some regulatory power over jails and may review jail deaths. After the death of Sandra Bland, for example, the Texas legislature enacted the Sandra Bland Act in 2017, forcing jails to appoint third-party investigators, often the Texas Rangers, to look into all in-custody deaths. However, with some recent exceptions, these reviews, including those conducted by the Texas Rangers, traditionally haven’t amounted to much. They result in toothless admonishments or are turned over and ignored by county prosecutors.

Many states either do not take their oversight responsibility of local jails seriously or lack the authority to enforce their standards. Even if they took their responsibility seriously and had the authority to require compliance, the standards are generally minimal. In at least six states, there is no authority to enforce the standards.53

In Pennsylvania, state law, for example, requires “all inmates admitted to [county jails] receive a health care screening performed and recorded by a person with health care training within 24 hours of admission.” According to the state Department of Corrections charged with inspecting county jails, the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh was in full compliance with the required standards: “Inmate medical records were observed to ensure that the inmates are being seen by medical [professionals] within 24 hours of commitment for an initial health risk assessment.” Meanwhile a former nurse at the jail revealed jailers would leave detainees waiting to be screened “in the same clothes, sitting in those chairs, for days.” A psychiatrist who also had left the

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