Jail Accountability Stalls In Texas Legislature

Editor’s note: This is the second of an ongoing series about the lack of transparency and accountability for county jails when they send inmates to other counties and out of state. The first article can be found here. 

In 2024, Jaleen Anderson was transferred from the Harris County Jail to the LaSalle Correctional Center in Olla, Louisiana, where he died from a seizure and complications with cardiovascular diseases. The next year, Erik Carlson, who was also transferred from Harris County, died there from an untreated strep infection.

They were two of four Harris County jail inmates who were transferred to and died in an out-of-state facility since 2022.

On March 19 of this year, the Harris County Commissioners Court debated a $38 million contract to send more than 1,000 people in Beaumont and Louisiana through 2027. Before the vote Erik’s mother Kim Carlson begged them to not send another dollar to “the people that killed our sons.”

The contract was approved. But, according to Senator Borris Miles, D-Houston, a contract that size “should come with a very high level of transparency and accountability for the people being held under it.”  Those deaths and lack of scrutiny prompted him to file Senate Bill 2289 during the 2025 legislative session. Miles said he filed a bill “focused on something Texas could realistically require.”

Under current law, once a Texas detainee is transferred out of state, Texas agencies have no jurisdiction over them.

The bill would have given the state slightly more oversight by requiring counties to annually report the number of prisoners transferred out-of-state and who died to the Commission on Jail Standards, which oversees jails in the state. The commission would then send a summary to the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker and the legislative committees that oversee it.

Miles told the Texas Signal he filed it because Texas has no way to learn about a death in another state. "There was no clear mechanism for Texas to receive and track that death, and the state had no jurisdiction to investigate what happened,” he said.

It was one of three bills aiming for more accountability from county jails.

House Bill 4642 by Rep. Mary González, D-El Paso, would have held the receiving facilities to Texas jail standards. Senate Bill 2263 by Sen. Molly Cook, D-Houston, would have expanded on Miles bill by requiring an inquiry by a county’s justice of the peace into each death.

None passed.

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Advocates have pushed for a policy banning the practice of sending inmates altogether. Miles questioned whether Texas should send pretrial detainees out of state at all. But as sympathetic as he is, and even with some law enforcement behind him, “there’s no large block of jail beds available in Texas” to house every inmate, Billy Bryan, former president of the Texas Jail Association, told the Texas Tribune.

Counties send inmates out of state because “there’s no alternative.”

The Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted it out unanimously after little debate on April 1. Three people, including a representative from Harris County, registered in favor and no one against.

Senators in both parties agreed that if someone in the custody of a Texas county dies while housed somewhere else, “the state should at least know about it and have an accurate record of that death,” Miles said.

On April 10, the Senate passed it 28-2, with Republican Sens. Donna Campbell and Mayes Middleton, who is running for Attorney General, voting no. The bill went to a House subcommittee and then died. Asked what stopped it, Miles pointed to González. While he called her the bill's House sponsor, the record lists none. That’s likely an issue of timing during the legislative session, which lasts only five months. González's office noted it sponsored the bill in the House but "was unable to get a hearing in the committee it was assigned in the House before the end of the session.

Bryan, the former jail association president of the Texas Jail Association and chair of its legislative committee, lauded Miles for “starting the conversation” about outsourcing and said his bill will enhance accountability.

Cook's bill would have required counties would report how many prisoners escaped or tried to escape. The justice of the peace representing the county jail would inquire into the death of any county prisoner held out of state and file a report with the attorney general within 30 days.

Inspecting escapes was the idea of Krishnaveni Gundu, executive director of the Texas Jail Project, an advocacy group that works with the incarcerated. Since late 2024, she has argued for the rule change before the jail commission’s Administrative Rules Advisory Committee.

The bill was sent to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee in March 2025.

HB 4642, by González, would require an out-of-state facility holding Texas prisoners meet Texas minimum standards and that counties inspect the facilities with every six months. Any deaths, escapes or injuries would be reported to the state within 24 hours.

While none passed, they had some impact.

On August 25, 2025, Wood sent a memorandum to every sheriff and jail administrator in Texas citing the three bills. It requires counties to report the death of any inmate housed outside Texas beginning September of last year.

The memo says the deaths “will NOT be attributed to the Texas county that is housing the inmate out of state and will not be included in totals that are published for the county but will be available for legislative inquiries.”

The memo sets no form and no deadline.

A rule change may seem like a good start. But the change makes the case for a statute stronger, Miles said. “Administrative policy can be changed or rescinded,” he said. The requirement belongs in law, he said, “so it does not depend on a particular administration or agency policy.”

Miles said he intends to file the bill again and to add what the last session taught him. González will refile HB 4642 and intends to work on other bills on out-of-state inmates next session, her office said. Cook's office is considering refiling SB 2263 and "fully" supports Miles filing SB 2289 again.

SB 2289 carried no penalty for a county that skipped the report. Asked whether he would add one, Miles said he would consider it.

Prefiling for the next session opens November 9, 2026, and the 90th Legislature convenes January 12, 2027.