Courtesy of Bexar County
The Bexar County Jail currently has some 250 job vacancies, KSAT reports.
On average, the Bexar County lockup recorded 0.84 suicides per 1,000 inmates from 2018 to 2022, the third-highest rate among Texas' county jails with at least 400 inmates, according to Hearst's number crunching.
Numerically, though, Bexar's jail recorded more suicides every year for the past four years than any other such facility statewide, Hearst found. The county recorded 13 jail suicides between 2020 and 2022 alone.
A spokesperson from Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar’s office told Hearst the data is skewed because three of the suicides recorded between 2018 and 2022 occurred outside the jail’s walls. Even so, the suspects were technically still in the department’s custody when the incidents happened.
Bexar County deputies have successfully intervened in 233 suicide attempts over the past four years, the spokesperson added.
After a 2019 increase in jail deaths, Salazar set up a team to deal with inmate mental health issues, instituted a 24/7 in-jail suicide hotline and installed an electronic system requiring deputies to log in at each cell door during prisoner checks, the sheriff told the Current in 2021.
The jail suicide numbers aren't the only damning stat contained in Hearst's story, however. Bexar County Jail also had the second-highest rate of assault incidents per 1,000 inmates over the past four years and the ninth-highest average of fatal incidents per 1,000 inmates in 2022.
Bexar County has recorded seven jail deaths so far this year, according to state filings collected by the Texas Justice Initiative.
Experts told Hearst the uptick in violent incidents and suicides at county jails, which are used to house suspects rather than convicted criminals, stems from staffing shortages and swelling jail populations. Jail populations are increasing statewide because new state laws prevent some suspects from being released while awaiting trial.
At the same time, the Bexar County Jail is severely understaffed, and now has about 250 job vacancies, KSAT reported Monday.
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