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Lucio Vasquez / Houston Public Media
Three Harris County Jail inmates died during a recent 48-hour span, marking a total of 10 in-custody deaths reported in Harris County so far this year.
Alexander Winstel, 43, suffered a medical emergency inside of the downtown Houston jail before he was transported to St. Joseph Hospital, according to the sheriff’s office. He was previously diagnosed with a life-threatening health condition. Winstel was pronounced dead at the hospital at 7 a.m. Sunday, four days after he was arrested on a charge of unauthorized use of a vehicle.
On Sunday night, Phillip Brummett, 68, was pronounced dead at Ben Taub Hospital. The sheriff’s office, which operates the jail, said he had been hospitalized since suffering a medical emergency in the jail on June 19. Brummett was booked into the jail one day before the emergency on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child, indecency with a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than 14, according to Harris County court records.
Ronald Pate, 35, died on Monday after suffering a medical emergency in the jail. He was in the Harris County Jail for 13 days after his arrest on a possession of a controlled substance charge.
The three deaths were first reported to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office had reported Winstel’s death on its website as of early Tuesday afternoon. Information about the other two deaths were reported later in the day following an inquiry from Houston Public Media.
The Houston Police Department is investigating the three inmate deaths. The sheriff’s office’s internal affairs division is also investigating to determine if all applicable policies were followed.
RELATED: 26-year-old Harris County Jail inmate dies after allegedly smoking unknown substance, officials say
The string of deaths comes weeks after the sheriff’s office reported that a 26-year-old inmate was pronounced dead after allegedly smoking a substance and losing consciousness. A 52-year-old inmate with a pre-existing health condition died days earlier, prompting the Texas Rangers to investigate.
Ten people reportedly died while in custody last year, according to information released by the sheriff’s office. That was a decrease from 2023, when 19 people died. Twenty-seven in-custody deaths were reported in 2022 — the highest number in nearly two decades, according to county records and data from the Texas Justice Initiative.
“After being in continuous non-compliance for over three years, Harris County Jail continues to be an engine of death, disease and violence as evidenced by the latest series of custody deaths and lawsuits for use of excessive force,” Krish Gundu, executive director of the Texas Jail Project, told Houston Public Media on Tuesday.
Gundu said the Texas Jail Project has yet to see a meaningful plan from the county to remedy issues within the jail — with the exception of calling for a bigger jail or a mental health facility.
RELATED: Harris County Sheriff’s Office to work on bringing back outsourced inmates as jail population dips
From 2023 through 2024, the state commission issued 149 notices of noncompliance and referred the Harris County Jail to the Texas Attorney General’s Office earlier this year after repeated violations. On Tuesday, Gundu said the Texas Jail Project is calling on the AG’s office to file an injunction against the Harris County Jail as requested by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards in its last two quarterly meetings.
“The bricks and walls are not killing people,” Gundu said. “It’s the punitive and inhumane culture that has turned pretrial detention into a death sentence for so many.”
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