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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