In the wake of the hanging death of Sandra Bland and other recent suicides, the state agency that oversees jails is issuing a new inmate intake form so jailers will ask more specific, direct questions when booking people.
Bland was found dead on July 13, and an autopsy concluded she committed suicide. On one of two intake forms at the Waller County Jail, Bland indicated that she had suicidal thoughts. The screening form gauges the risk of inmate suicide and helps identify medical and mental impairments.
The jail's failure to monitor her as a suicide risk drew ire from activists and prompted lawmakers to seek improvements in jail screening.
Changing the standard jail intake form ā which is supposed to be filled out immediately after an inmate is admitted ā was the low-hanging fruit for lawmakers who have summoned experts, academics and state officials over the last three months to demand answers.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards is changing the intake form and expects the new ones to be in use by December.
[For more of this story, written by Johnathan Silver, go to https://www.texastribune.org/2...ake-form-next-month/]
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