There have been over 70 in-custody deaths at the Tarrant County Jail in Texas in almost a decade. Families, activists, and concerned citizens have questions and argue that the sheriff’s department’s lack of transparency regarding the deaths has added insult to injury.
According to WFAA and Fox 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth, the most recent death was Steven Whitley, a 63-year-old inmate who died at John Peter Smith Hospital on August 26, after suffering a medical emergency in his cell.
Anthony Johnson Jr. (“A.J.”), a 31-year-old former Marine who had schizophrenia, was among nine inmates who died in 2024. According to the family’s lawyer, Daryl K. Washington, managing principal of Washington Law Firm, P.C., two jailers allegedly went into Mr. Johnson’s cell for some unknown reason, took him out and started assaulting him.
“They sprayed pepper spray multiple times in his mouth, and one of the jailers, who weighed in excess of 300 pounds, this guy got on Anthony’s neck and you could hear Anthony saying, ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,’” stated Atty. Washington to The Final Call. “And, they basically stayed on top of him until he died,” he added.
“We haven’t received any type of accountability” stated his father, Anthony Johnson, Sr., who filed a federal lawsuit in July 2024 against Tarrant County Jail, two former employees, and 10 employees who still work there.
However, KERA News reported that U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor dismissed the claims against Tarrant County and six of the named jailers, ruling the family’s attorneys failed to show the county’s policies were the cause of the death, and that jailers were not responsible for the outcome or the reasons behind the events leading to it.
The Johnson family is also seeking accountability from the mental health hospital WellBridge Healthcare in Fort Worth, which turned A.J. away. “I already told them, you have no idea of what A.J.’s responsibility was in my family,” said Mr. Johnson, Sr., referring in part to how his son helped to care for their disabled daughter, he told The Final Call.
Two of the jailers involved in the incident have been indicted for murder, and those cases should be going to trial in the first quarter of 2026, according to Atty. Washington. Also, we filed an appeal related to the dismissal of ‘some’ of the jailers and the county,” said Atty. Washington. He thinks their trial could expose a lot that has taken place at the jail.
“That case, there, is probably one of the worst cases I’ve dealt with in my entire career and I don’t like to compare them, because every death is bad. … These individuals were loved by their families,” he stated.
Lack of transparency
According to Atty. Washington, Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons has been fighting this battle “by herself,” in terms of trying to get answers from Sheriff Bill Waybourn on what is happening.
“More jail deaths. Two in August. But still no updates,” Commissioner Simmons said during a Sept. 3 Tarrant County Commissioner Court session. “Why? Because the sheriff refused to show up at the Commissioners Court,” she said. Many residents have demanded his resignation, and others are vowing to vote him out. However, his current term ends in December 2028.
“These briefings aren’t about me—they’re about the public. When 75 people have died in our jail during his eight years in office, families deserve answers. Taxpayers deserve transparency. That’s called accountability,” continued Commissioner Simmons.
The Commissioners Court is the general governing body of Tarrant County and is made up of the County Judge, who is elected countywide and presides over the whole Court, and the four County Commissioners—each elected from one of the county’s four precincts. Fort Worth and Arlington are two of several cities located in Tarrant County.
The Final Call reached out to Commissioner Simmons for an interview and was informed by her assistant, Gabe Rivas, that she was out of state on a personal matter.
The biggest question many are asking is what happened regarding these more than 70 deaths, including that of Chasity Bonner, his client LaMonica Bratton’s daughter, said Atty. Washington.
Ms. Bonner had reportedly complained about having problems with another inmate when she was initially housed at another facility and then reportedly had problems with a guard after she was transferred, upon her request, to Tarrant County, according to Ms. Bratton.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the autopsy report indicates Ms. Bonner died from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a buildup of cholesterol in the arteries that causes obstructed blood flow.
However, according to Ms. Bratton, her daughter was healthy. “Like any other parent, you never want to bury your kids before you are buried, and this is the most heartbreaking, devastating thing that I ever in my life have to deal with and I will have to deal with it for the rest of my life. It’s like they done snatched a part of my soul,” Ms. Bratton told The Final Call.
She wants justice for her 37-year-old daughter, who had two children and three grandchildren, all of whom suffer greatly from her death, she said. Her daughter died four days before her birthday and 11 days after being incarcerated, according to Ms. Bratton.
“I demand accountability from each and every one of them, JPS (Health Network), Tarrant County, and the guards in that place. I’m going be honest with you. If I could, the first thing I would want to see is them behind the same damned bars my own baby died behind,” Ms. Bratton said.
“I talked to her every day. We laughed. We talked. We saw each other every day because they were allowed to have video chats,” she continued. Ms. Bratton also wants help for and with her grandchildren, who have been suffering from anxiety.
“I want acknowledgment. I want a lot, but whatever can get done is what I pray to God comes to the light, because this has been horrible for me,” added Ms. Bratton.
One tactic the Tarrant County Jail has used is to make it extremely difficult for the families to find out what happened, according to Atty. Washington.
“They hide behind the fact that they’re allegedly conducting a criminal investigation, and they do that because that prevents us from getting autopsy reports. That prevents us from getting witness statements, so it makes these cases extremely difficult,” Atty. Washington said.
These deaths have been going on for a very long time, but when somebody is incarcerated, people tend to have less sympathy for them, he noted.
“When something happens, people tend to say, ‘Well, if they didn’t get in trouble, then they wouldn’t be in this situation.’ But what you have to understand about the Tarrant County Jail is that this is not a prison.
Tarrant County Jail is a temporary holding place until a person has his or her day in court, so a great majority of the individuals who are dying at that facility have never even had their day in court.
And that’s a problem, because many of these individuals are innocent of the crimes that they commit so once their innocence is proven, they should be able to walk away as a free person but sadly, many people are not walking out of that facility,” he added.
According to Tarrant County Jail statistics, reportedly, 73 inmates have died since 2017, including 51 due to “natural/medical” causes, and others by suicide, toxicity (alcohol and/or drugs), accidental (two from falls and one, a drug overdose), two from homicide and one from gunshot.
However, these numbers do not reflect the full death rate in the jail, according to Texas A&M University School of Law, counsel for Broadway Baptist Church Justice Committee, ICE Out of Tarrant County, and United Fort Worth.
Organizers have requested an investigation into the conditions of confinement in the Tarrant County Jail. “When you have a criminal legal system that is violent, it doesn’t matter who you are. If you break the rule, you go into a cage,”
said Pamela Young, United Fort Worth executive director. Her organization got involved about five years ago, between 2020 and 2021 when some 20 people had died in the jail, she told The Final Call.
Her organization and others have also accused the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office of failing to provide adequate medical and mental health care for its inmates, which has led to deaths and serious injuries. They also sent a letter in 2023 to the U.S. Department of Justice with their concerns.
The Tarrant County Sherrif’s Office (TCSO) claims that “as with nearly all in-custody deaths, there are investigations occurring simultaneously” by either the TCSO jail staff, the TCSO Criminal Investigations Division, an outside, independent law enforcement agency.
John Peter Smith (medical provider for inmates) Medical Staff, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office and the Texas Attorney General’s Office.”
TCSO denied The Final Call’s request for an interview with Sheriff Waybourn, saying he was unavailable to interview on this topic.
Sheriff Waybourn has a legal and a constitutional duty to the public, especially to those in custody, but is abdicating his responsibility by refusing to brief the commissioners, said Houston-based defense attorney Sadiyah Karriem.
Transparency is not optional for public officials, and what’s at stake is the 70-plus lives already lost and the potential for more to be lost due to his lack of leadership and transparency, she said.
There is also a race and power dynamic at play, Atty. Karriem explained.
“Here you see a Black woman (Commissioner Simmons) calling this ‘good ol boy’ (sheriff) to be accountable and responsible for his duties and ‘how dare she do that,’” she told The Final Call.
The commissioner has a right under law to request briefings and operating procedures, and the sheriff’s claims that the mandates of the law are overstepping are not reality, she said.
Broader implications are that it’s symptomatic of how institutional powers often resist being held accountable, especially when racial inequalities exist, said Atty. Karriem.
Student Minister Lee Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque No. 52 in Fort Worth was shocked by the drastic increase in deaths at the Tarrant County Jail. “‘In custody’ means those who have you in custody are responsible, and of course, it’s very alarming that it’s predominantly Black, and it’s a blatant disrespect for life,” he stated.
The first step toward justice is transparency, and families seeking closure first must be given answers as to what happened, he said.
“Some of the cases they said were suicide. … but still, you’re not presenting the actual videos or actual evidence that proves that that’s the case,” he continued.
“Each of them was subjected to a system that ignored their medical and mental health needs and put them at risk of violence from guards and other inmates, in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments,”
Stated the Texas A&M counsel’s letter to the U.S. Department of Justice. “This system of violence, failure to provide medical care, and failure to adequately investigate is characteristic of a culture of secrecy and cover-up,” they argued.
“In a lot of situations, they are placing people in jail who deserve to be in institutions, or hospitals and that’s another reason why our people are dying in jail,” said Atty. Washington. “You have people who are in there, who are working in these facilities who, quite frankly, they don’t care.
There is not much empathy shown and they mistreat people and this has been going on for years. This is not something that’s new. This is just something that’s just being reported. This has been going on for a very long time,” he continued.
A solution is to continue to fight these issues, not get upset for a couple of weeks and move on to the next case, according to Atty. Washington. “We’ve got to see these cases all the way through, and there are issues. Today it’s Chasity Bonner and Anthony Johnson. Tomorrow it could well be you or I.”