The Texas Commission on Jail Standards voted to request that the attorney general’s office intervene to force Harris County Jail to comply with state standards.
The Harris County Jail has been out of compliance with state standards since September 2022.
Since that year, 55 inmates have died, and the jail has received two more notices of noncompliance. After one inmate died last month, jail officials self-reported that face-to-face observation of inmates was not happening as required.
Over the years, notices of noncompliance have been issued after a gun was introduced into the facility via a wheelchair, for failure to give inmates medication, and following inmate deaths.
In May 2023, TCJS issued a remedial order following an investigation that discovered inmates were being kept in holding areas longer than 48 hours, were not being seen within 48 hours by medical staff, and insufficient jailers were being provided.
Recent reports have detailed incidents at the jail.
In late January, inmate Travis Bryant managed to escape from the Harris County Joint Processing Center by blending in with a group being released.
Two Harris County inmates have died so far in 2025. Inmate Erik Carlson died after being transferred to a privately owned prison in Louisiana.
Carlson was in Louisiana because Harris County houses inmates in out-of-state prisons in an attempt to come into compliance with TCJS standards for inmate-jailer ratios. The practice, aimed at alleviating overcrowding and understaffing, costs taxpayers $50 million per year and has been criticized for complicating oversight and potentially increasing risks to inmates.
According to a county dashboard, the Harris County Jail currently houses 9,806 inmates. Of that number, 1,459 inmates are outsourced to third-party facilities, including privately owned jails in other states.
Additionally, 1,258 alien inmates in the Harris County Jail have active ICE holds.
The average length of a stay at the Harris County Jail is 186 days. Seventy-nine percent of people in the jail are reported as having a mental illness indicator, and 30 percent are prescribed psychotropic medication.
Texas Scorecard reached out to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Attorney General’s Office to ask if a plan of action has been put in place for the AG to help the jail come into compliance.
Neither office responded by the time of publication.
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