Tarrant County won’t ask feds to investigate the jail. So activists are doing it themselves

Members of Fort Worth’s Broadway Baptist Church Justice Committee have showed up to the Tarrant County Commissioners Court for months pleading with county leaders to request a Department of Justice investigation into the county jail following the 2019 death of Robert Miller.

No action has been taken. So the Justice Committee took matters into its own hands.

Broadway’s Justice Committee joined with United Fort Worth, ICE Out of Tarrant and the Texas A&M School of Law Legal Clinics to cosign a 39-page letter that will be sent to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland seeking an investigation into the conditions and safety of those incarcerated at the Tarrant County Jail.

The three groups are asking other community members to pen their name, too. The plan to send the request after May 31.

The groups claim the Tarrant County Jail violated inmates’ Eighth and 14th amendment rights that lead to “preventable deaths and injuries,” and that the jail “fails to provide constitutionally adequate medical and mental health care.”

The Eighth Amendment outlaws excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment. The 14th Amendment prohibits denying people life, liberty and property without due process.

The letter refers to the 2019 death of Miller, who died after he was pepper sprayed three times and didn’t receive medical attention; the 2020 death of Ricky Farmer, who died after he did not receive needed medications; and the 2022 case of Kelly Masten, who went into a coma after 10 days at the jail, among other cases.

Since 2017, 52 people have died in the Tarrant County Jail, Sheriff Bill Waybourn said during an April press conference. That number of jail deaths in Tarrant County are comparable to those in Harris, Dallas and Bexar counties.

In February, the FBI opened a civil rights investigation into the deaths of two men at the Harris County Jail.

“Instead of changing policy and practices in light of the deaths and other serious incidents, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office has largely stayed the course, disavowing responsibility and culpability as a whole, avoiding independent medical review, and prosecuting only a handful of individuals involved in the most egregious incidents,” the letter reads.

Sara Zampierin, director of Texas A&M School of Law’s Civil Rights Clinic, said all three groups have been raising concerns about the deaths, lack of transparency and lack of accountability at the jail for years.

“Ultimately, we still see the same problems happening,” Zampierin said.

The Rev. Ryon Price, lead pastor at Broadway Baptist Church, said they joined together because they believed the collective effort was necessary to enact change.

“It has become evident to us that the Tarrant County Jail’s a threat to the safety of our community,” Price said Monday.

The number of deaths at the jail alone is enough to Price to signify a problem. The “shroud of secrecy” surrounding Miller’s death is of utmost concern, he said.

Price said he and members of the Justice Committee have been “stonewalled” in their efforts to get county leaders to ask for a federal investigation.

“We want to know, do they want to know the facts or did they just want to win a lawsuit?” Price said.

He said the way the county was handling the case would not gain the trust of the public.

“Isn’t it the truth that really matters in the end?” Price said.

Jonathan Guadian, a community organizer with ICE Out Of Tarrant, said Monday that efforts toward the investigation increased after the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s October 2022 investigation into Miller’s death as well as other stories about deaths in the jail.

Miller’s death had been ruled “natural” from a sickle cell crisis by a county pathologist. The Star-Telegram consulted with experts and members of Miller’s family and found he did not have the disease.

When the news came out that a promised third-party review into Miller’s death never happened, it increased the efforts.

“We just figured that if that’s not going to happen, then we have to act,” Guadian said. “Because if we don’t, then the Commissioners Court is just going to allow this person’s death to just go unchecked. Not only Robert Miller’s death, but you know, so many other people that have lost their lives within the jail.”

Pamela Young with United Fort Worth said the letter was the next step after pursuing multiple channels to change jail conditions.

“It is literally a life and death situation,” Young said. “And what makes it even more horrendous is that there’s no accountability.”

Young said it was a “shame” that activist groups were the ones having to take the initiative to request an investigation instead of county leaders.

“It’s a crying shame that the people who have been tasked with ensuring the safety of our community in these facilities are, again, refusing to do their jobs,” Young said. “I mean, they’re not advocating, they’re not using the tools at their disposal to do basic things to make sure that people are safe. It’s baffling, like what is more important than making sure that people don’t die in the jail?”

Representatives for County Judge Tim O’Hare said he did not have time to immediately review the letter.

Representatives with the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office and the Justice Department did not immediately return requests for comment.