The Tarrant County Sheriff is responding to ongoing concerns about inmate deaths at the Tarrant County Jail.
Since 2017, 63 inmates at the county jail have died with the most recent death coming this past Sunday. NBC 5 obtained new numbers that show how deaths at the Tarrant County Jail compare to the rest of the state.
As investigators work to determine the cause of the latest death in the jail, Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn has asked the community to be patient.
“Allow the truth to come out, and whatever that truth is, it is,” said Waybourn. “And again if people need to be held criminally responsible, they will.”
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On Sunday, 31-year-old Anthony Johnson died while being held at the Tarrant County Jail.
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said Johnson died after being pepper sprayed during a confrontation with detention officers, and the Texas Rangers are now investigating the incident.
Johnson’s family told NBC 5 he was schizophrenic, and they want to know what caused his death, and how the jail handles inmates with mental illness.
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“This is the last death, it should be and better be the last death that they ever have,” said Janell Johnson, the deceased inmate’s sister. “Because that’s not right.”
The sheriff said before Johnson was arrested, his family tried to put him in a private mental health facility but he was turned away.
Waybourn said this incident highlighted a need for more resources to help mental health patients – other than detention facilities.
“We have got to change some of this, we have got to go a different direction,” Waybourn said. “Because you never know what would have changed had that happened.”
There have been 63 inmate deaths reported at the county jail since 2017.
In the wake of the most recent death, county commissioner Alisa Simmons issued a call for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the facility.
“I think it’s important to have a truly independent third party come in and take a look at what’s happening at the Tarrant County Jail,” said Simmons.
On Thursday the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office sent NBC 5 data that showed how many inmate deaths have been reported in each of the six largest Texas counties from 2017 to 2023.
The data showed that among those counties, the Tarrant County Jail fell behind two counties in inmate deaths.
That included Bexar County, which has a population of at least 100,000 fewer people but has reported 20 more inmate deaths over the last seven years.
Simmons said despite those comparisons, more action was needed to reduce deaths at the Tarrant County Jail.
“We’ve got to do better,” Simmons said. “Do we want to be mediocre, or be a champion for once?”
As the sheriff ended his press conference, NBC 5 asked for a response to calls for a DOJ investigation of the Tarrant jail. Waybourn declined to answer the question or any others.
NBC 5 reached out to the Texas Rangers to ask if there have been any updates in their investigation into Anthony Johnson’s death and when it should be completed. We’re waiting to hear back.
