July 30, 2015      3:56 PM
House County Affairs opens investigation of the death of Sandra Bland
Rep. Stickland shines as hearing gets underway, earning accolades from Democrats for suggesting Bland has possibly been smeared by Waller County officials; Stickland says of inmates: "If one innocent person suffers then we've messed this up.”
The
Texas
House County Affairs Committee on Thursday afternoon started to dig
into the conditions in local lockups across the state following the death of Sandra Bland. Bland is believed to have
committed suicide in a Waller County Jail cell days after a
traffic stop in which a Department of Public Safety Officer
acted irate toward her on video and violated department policies.
In
opening the proceedings, Chairman Rep. Garnet
Coleman, D-Houston, noted that Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith could not be present for the hearing. However, Coleman
commended Smith for the way the sheriff has handled the aftermath of the death
of Bland and the intense national scrutiny that has gone along with the
circumstances.
Sheriff
Smith has been open, honest, and transparent, Coleman said. "Usually the
lawyer would have gotten to him before then and he would have said
nothing," Coleman said.
As
has often been noted, Rep. Coleman pointed out that county jails have become
the biggest mental health facilities in many communities around Texas. At one
point, 2,500 people per day were in the Harris County Jail in Houston
primarily because they suffer from mental health issues.
By Scott Braddock
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