AUSTIN, Texas — Family members and inmate advocacy groups called for action as they point out deadly and cruel conditions at county jails across Texas.
Loved ones of defendants who died in custody and groups like the Texas Jail Project and Mano Amiga, voiced their concerns during the Texas Commission on Jail Standards meeting on Wednesday morning.
According to the groups, 240 county jails across Texas are holding more than 70,000 defendants a day, and that number is growing.
Adrian Wright said she still doesn't have adequate information about her brother's death.
Joshua Wright was an inmate at the Hays County Jail when he was shot and killed by a corrections officer at a hospital in December.
"My family still doesn't know what happened to my brother … We had to have a second autopsy done. When he got shot, they came to my mother's house and didn't say we can go see his body, go see him. We weren't even sure that it was him. And, you know, Hays County is just pushing this under a rug, and the shooter is back at work and we're just in a state of confusion," Adrian Wright said.
The activists are calling on lawmakers to shift resources away from punitive systems like incarceration and more toward programs that provide health care, mental health care, housing and prevention.