Medical neglect in jails disproportionately affects communities of color

TheBexarCountyJail.com

This commentary in the San Antonio Express News shines a light on a problem that extends beyond Bexar County in Texas. There are approximately 3,100 jail facilities throughout the Nation with 2.1 million incarcerated persons - 56 percent of them are persons of color.

Medical neglect in our nation's jails should be a growing concern. - VL

Bexar County Commissioners Court recently approved bringing on two consulting firms to examine issues at the Bexar County Adult Detention Center.

During the commissioners’ meeting, it was decided that the consulting firms would review overtime and five other issues, including inmate housing, jail population and retention of deputies — but there was hardly any mention of the investigation into a string of in-custody deaths, let alone the victims of medical neglect.

Sheriff Javier Salazar announced in early 2020 that he’d opened an investigation of University Health System staff at the Bexar County Detention Center, stating, “We’ve had deaths at the Bexar County Jail. My belief is that they were receiving less than stellar service at the Bexar County Jail. I find that unacceptable.”

It’s been two years since the sheriff called for an investigation into the inadequate medical care, yet there’s been no update or any action plan to address concerns over the quality of care administered to those in custody.

While the public waits for answers, those incarcerated in Bexar County continue to suffer. Time and again, allegations that medical staff at the Bexar County Adult Detention Center were aware of and yet disregarded serious medical risks to those in custody have surfaced in court records.

The demographics of the jail population must not be ignored when considering the decision to omit the care complaints from the analysis. There’s no denying that the negative impact of excluding the medical neglect connected to in-custody deaths from the jail analysis would disproportionately affect communities of color; in Texas, for every white person imprisoned, 3.42 Black Texans will face imprisonment, according to the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit focused on criminal justice reform.

READ MORE HERE.

Subscribe today!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Must Read

The EPA’s soot pollution update falls dangerously short for Latinos

Victor Landa March 12, 2023

On Jan. 6, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a proposal to strengthen the annual standards for fine particulate matter, commonly known as soot, from 12 ug/m3 to between 9 and 10 […]

Opinion: In Hollywood, Latinos are still waiting for their close-up

Victor Landa

Carolyn Curiel served as a U.S. ambassador and White House senior speechwriter in the Clinton administration. Latinos will be an integral part of the Academy Awards on Sunday. You likely […]

Republicans are winning more Latino votes. But rising turnout still benefits Dems.

Victor Landa

The red wave never came to pass in 2022 — but there was a noticeable shift among Latino voters in the midterms, who still tilted toward Democrats overall but reached […]

Latino Republicans push back on party’s immigration agenda

Victor Landa March 15, 2023

MIAMI (AP) — More than half of the residents in the slice of Miami that includes Little Havana were born abroad. And when Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar ran […]

Latino families face tough circumstances with ballooning college debt

Victor Landa

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on palabra, the digital news site by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. By Rich Tenorio Iliana Panameño wanted to get a master’s degree in social […]

Young Latino leaders unlikely to see Jews as targets of systemic discrimination, says poll

Victor Landa March 20, 2023

Latino millennial and Gen-Z thought leaders are increasingly unlikely to see Jews as the target of systemic discrimination, according to a new survey commissioned by the American Jewish Committee (AJC). […]

Racial equity news coverage of Latinos is lacking, a new study finds

Victor Landa

Latinos are barely part of the conversation in newspapers and online media outlets covering the issue of racial equity and racism, a new study has found. Only about 6% of […]