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A Tarrant County Jail inmate died at John Peter Smith Hospital on Thursday after hanging himself in his cell earlier in the week, according to the sheriff’s office. Tarrant County detention officers found the inmate hanging in his cell shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday. The officers cut him down and immediately started life-saving measures, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Friday. The man was taken to JPS Hospital and placed on life support, but he died two days later.

Democrat Patrick Moses will face incumbent Republican Sheriff Bill  Waybourn in the November general election. With all voting centers reporting, Moses, a  retired federal law enforcement official and pastor, was ahead of fellow  Democrat Indya Murray with 54.69% of the vote. “Let’s get ready  to ensure there is accountability, and that there is public trust,  coming back to the very important position of sheriff,” Moses told the  Fort Worth Report at his watch party in Arlington.

In Tarrant County, one of the most pressing issues for the sheriff is to reduce jail deaths and improve overall conditions. It will be the defining issue for incumbent Bill Waybourn and his challenger this fall. Two Democrats are running in the party’s primary, and both express concern about this issue. While both candidates are likable and qualified, we think retired federal law enforcement officer Patrick Moses, 60, would be best qualified to manage the jail and represent the party this fall. 

Tarrant County will cut ties with a private prison in West Texas  after KERA News reported on a state inspection that found medical  neglect, late checks on prisoners, missing documentation and other  problems at the facility. Since 2022,  Tarrant County has signed more than $40 million in contracts to use the  Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility, near Lubbock, as an overflow  facility, sending local prisoners there. In December, the state’s jail watchdog, the Texas Commission on Jail  Standards (TCJS)...

Just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, John Eastman co-drafted the 70 Days Report for  the Claremont Institute, a far-right research group that officials with  the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have tied to the Jan. 6  insurrection at the U.S. Capitol which left seven dead and hundreds of  rioters facing federal criminal charges. The purpose of the report was to  roleplay scenarios that could lead to the election of Trump even as  national polling at the time suggested a lead by Joe Biden.

There have been 60 deaths in the Tarrant County jail since Sheriff Bill Waybourn took office in 2017, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  That statistic will be a central issue in the general election this  fall; both of Waybourn’s Democratic challengers are already talking  about it. If either of them can oust the incumbent, that will be the  number that does it. And if either candidate can flip this office from  red to blue, it’s Patrick Moses... Pastor Moses has robust experience managing a large organization.

Zenorah was barely one week old when doctors took her off life  support. She exhaled her last breath in the arms of her grandmother. “I held her until she was, you know,” Kimberly Hammond said. “I held  her until she went on and her body was cold. It was like somebody ripped  out my soul.” Zenorah’s official cause of death was asphyxiation — her umbilical cord was tightly wrapped around her neck, suffocating her. The unofficial cause of death, as her family argues, is a deplorable Tarrant County Jail.

The private prison that gets tens of millions of dollars to house  prisoners from Tarrant and Harris counties has not met the state’s  minimum jail standards since December, according to state watchdogs. Medical  neglect, a lack of safety training, missed checks on prisoners and  missing documentation are some of the problems the Texas Commission on  Jail Standards found at the Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility in  Garza County, four hours west of Fort Worth, according to a notice of  non-compliance dated Dec. 18.

Patrick Moses, a Democrat who is running for sheriff, also spoke about the deaths in the Tarrant County jail and criticized Waybourn, a Republican, for his role in creating the county’s election fraud unit. “You just mentioned to us sheriff that you don’t chase conspiracy theories, but you sir are part of a great conspiracy and that conspiracy is your role while neglecting people who are dying in the jail, you’re part of this great conspiracy when there’s no documented evidence of election fraud in Tarrant County,” Moses said.

Tarrant County commissioners voted Tuesday to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was allegedly beaten by three jailers for the amount of $200,000. Corey Rodrigues sustained various injuries from the July 2020 beating, including bleeding in his lungs, a collapsed lung, multiple rib fractures and a broken cheek bone that required surgery. In his federal lawsuit against the jailers and the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, he requested between $400,000 and $4 million in damages. 

Life at Tarrant County Jail is rough and inhumane, but June was  particularly tough. That’s when two prisoners died within three days of  each other. One unnamed 39-year-old committed suicide, while 55-year-old JoAnn  Lemmons died from an “unknown medical emergency,” based on findings from  the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office. That’s because Tarrant County is run by sexist, racist, bigoted  Christian Nationalists who grovel before local megachurches and  Southlake powerbrokers...

A 44-year-old man died in the Tarrant County jail on Jan. 9, according to the sheriff’s office. That Tarrant County medical examiner and a family member identified the man as Russell Qualls of Fort Worth. He was booked into the jail on a murder charge in April 2023, in the fatal shooting of a 46-year-old man near a South Freeway motel. Qualls died in his sleep at approximately 11 a.m. after experiencing a medical emergency, the sheriff’s office said. He was in a single cell and there were no signs of foul play, the office said.

Tarrant County activists are calling for a reduction in the local  jail population, pointing to the potential for local government cost  savings.

Activists associated with the Justice Network, a Tarrant  County coalition that frequently speaks on jail issues, pushed county  commissioners at their meeting Tuesday to apply fiscal conservatism to  jail costs. One way to do that is avoid jailing people for low-level crimes, said former Texas State Rep. Lon Burnam.

Clyde Alexander, 48, is at least the tenth person to die in Tarrant  County jail custody this year. Alexander died on Nov. 21, medical examiner records show. His cause of death is unknown.  Jail  medical staff were examining Alexander when he "experienced a medical  emergency," according to the Tarrant County Sheriff's  Office. "Life-saving measures began and he was transported to John  Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, where he was pronounced deceased,"  the statement read. 

Patrick Moses is running to be Tarrant County’s next sheriff. Moses, a Democrat, is challenging Republican incumbent Bill Waybourn. On his official campaign website, he cites public safety, professional management of the county’s jails  and embracing community input as key parts of his platform. Moses will  work to create a civilian review commission responsible for  investigating excessive force incidents, including jail deaths, he said. 

People in Tarrant County’s jails get sick like everyone else. For the  smaller things, they can get care from inside the jail. But when dire  emergencies strike, correctional health staff call an ambulance. That’s  where the problem starts. Neither Tarrant County nor its hospital district, JPS Health Network,  pay for ambulance rides for inmates coming from the county’s jails.  Instead, those bills go to the incarcerated people themselves — and the  majority can’t or won’t pay.

Joe Jernigan didn’t have to go to jail. He chose to, he said. This  past October, a police officer was writing him a ticket after he stole a  bottle of wine from a convenience store, but he asked to go to jail  instead, Jernigan recalled. He needed to sober up, and he needed help. "I've reached the point where I was no longer safe to myself, you know?”  Jernigan said. 

“The last thing I want to do is be involved with someone  else getting hurt because of my actions."

While the U.S. Presidential race will get the lion’s share of the attention in 2024, there are a handful of races for Tarrant County that will have a major impact on the day-to-day lives of local residents. Candidates have until 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 11 to file for the March 5 primary. Two seats on the Tarrant County Commissioners Court are wide open after incumbents Gary Fickes and Roy Brooks opted not to run for re-election. Fickes joined the court in 2006 and Brooks, 2004. 

The Tarrant County Election Integrity Task Force exists to  investigate local election complaints. But when asked how many people  have been punished as result of those investigations, the county doesn’t  know the answer.

The county’s top Republican officials announced the formation of the task force in February, even though election crimes are rare in Tarrant County and around the country. Critics warned the task force could intimidate voters and election workers.

A man who was incarcerated in the custody of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office died on Wednesday at a hospital, authorities said. Derreal Jackson, 31, was pronounced dead about 6 a.m. at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. The cause and manner of Jackson’s death were not clear. About an hour before he died, Jackson experienced a medical emergency at the jail, according to a sheriff’s office account that does not use Jackson’s name.