XPost: alt.prisons, tx.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: alynching@gmail.com   
      
   Jacqualyne Johnson took her son to a mental health hospital in Fort Worth,   
   Texas, on April 19. Anthony Johnson Jr. had not slept for two days, and he   
   suffered from schizophrenic episodes. This time it was “hot and heavy,”   
   she said, and Anthony was    
   trying not to harm himself.   
      
   Anthony always wanted to be a trusted man among his family, his sister Chanell   
   said, and planned to earn college degrees. He wanted to fix his mental health   
   issues and have a home for his family. But this was his second recent trip to   
   a hospital; a prior    
   manic episode spurred a visit in February.   
      
   After a 15-minute assessment, medical officials decided not to keep him at the   
   hospital, saying it was best if he stayed with his family. When they arrived   
   back home, Anthony got two bags of clothes and left. That was the last time   
   Jacqualyne Johnson saw    
   her son. Less than 24 hours later, her son called and said he had been   
   arrested and was in the Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth. The 31-year-old   
   Marine veteran was held oncharges of evading arrest and drug possession.   
      
   “I told him to be safe in there, and we will work on getting you out of   
   there on Monday,” Jacqualyne Johnson remembered.   
      
   But he died on April 21 inside the jail. According to authorities, a struggle   
   took place between Johnson and several officers as deputies were conducting a   
   routine contraband check.   
      
   Surveillance footage and a cellphone video show several officers struggling   
   with Johnson while attempting to handcuff him outside of his cell. Officer   
   Rafael Moreno knelt on Johnson’s back. Johnson can be heard responding: “I   
   can’t breathe.”   
      
   The footage did not show the full encounter, according to Daryl Washington,   
   the attorney representing Johnson’s family. This month, the Tarrant County   
   Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Johnson’s death a homicide by asphyxiation.   
      
   Last month, a grand jury indicted Tarrant County Sheriff’s Officer jailer   
   Moreno and Lt. Joel Garcia on murder charges.   
      
   Garcia’s attorney released a statement to KTXA-TV in Fort Worth, saying the   
   officer was “heartbroken” about Johnson’s death but that he committed   
   “no crime.”   
      
   Johnson was one of 64 people who have died in the Tarrant County Jail in the   
   last seven years. The causes included suicides, overdoses — and fatal   
   encounters with staff.   
      
   Calls For Federal Oversight   
   Multiple officials in Texas are sounding the alarm for federal intervention at   
   the jail.   
      
   In early June, Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) urged the Department of Justice to   
   launch an investigation into “the distressing pattern of inmate deaths and   
   jail incidents at the Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth.” Veasey also wrote   
   a letter to the    
   Justice Department in May, raising alarms about people in the jail dying due   
   to drug overdoses and poor supervision.   
      
   “From physical altercations to drug overdoses and even an unattended birth,   
   the loss of any life within correctional facilities is intolerable and   
   warrants immediate investigation and action,” the letter said.   
      
   Critics have also homed in on Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn, who is in   
   charge of the jail. “The sheriff has lost all institutional control of that   
   facility, and it needs to be controlled by the feds at this point. I don’t   
   know how many deaths    
   have to occur,” Washington, the lawyer for Johnson’s family, said.   
      
   Waybourn fired Garcia and Moreno on May 16 following Johnson’s death, but he   
   reinstated them a week later, then fired them again.   
      
   When Johnson died on April 21, Waybourn said department policy was violated   
   when an officer knelt on Johnson’s back. But Waybourn has not commented on   
   the case since the two sheriff’s officers were charged.   
      
   The Tarrant County Jail is the third-largest county jail in Texas, with   
   capacity for about 5,000 prisoners. Tarrant County spent $18 million in 2022   
   to move some people to a correctional facility in tiny Garza County, nearly   
   300 miles west, to alleviate    
   overpopulation. But after a jail standards review, the lockup was found to be   
   out of compliance with “minimum jail standards” in December 2023. The   
   county has since considered canceling the agreement with the Texas prison   
   contractor. People who were    
   sent to Garza County are scheduled to return to Tarrant County in September   
   and October, Tarrant County officials told HuffPost.   
      
      
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