Since 2005, 0 people have died in the custody of Texas law enforcement, based on state-mandated reports.

What We're Reading

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  ‘A place of torment’: 22 families, former inmates sue Harris County over jail conditions

  Published on August 7, 2023

  Eileen Grinch with Houston Landing reports that relatives of nine people who died in Harris County Jail along with 13 people who were formerly incarcerated have sued Harris County, claiming civil rights violations. The federal complaint comes after dozens of deaths and injuries in the Houston lockup over the past few years.

• Texas prisoners struggle to endure heat wave in facilities without air conditioning

  Published on July 19, 2023

  Paul Flahive reports on the ongoing heat wave affecting people incarcerated in Texas prisons: "One inmate told TPR the best way to describe what it’s like to be in a Texas prison cell without air conditioning is to think of a cookout on a hot day."

• HPD's use of force incidents that cause major injuries disproportionately affect Black residents

  Published on June 12, 2023

  Data from the Houston Police Department's transparency hub: Black individuals made up 72 percent of those seriously injured and 63 percent of those killed by police since 2020, according to reporting by Matt deGrood.

• Nearly 200 people with mental illnesses died in Texas jails. The death toll is getting worse.

  Published on June 7, 2023

  In the second story in Houston Landing's series, "Deadly Detention," reporter Alex Stuckey writes that "the number of people flagged as mentally ill who died of unnatural causes in the custody of Texas’ jails in 2022 had increased nearly 1,200 percent since 2012, from three deaths to 38 last year."