Mental illness, understaffing challenge Texas jails

AUSTIN (KXAN) — When Amy Ortiz stepped up to the microphone at a packed Capitol hearing of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, she had one message to the board members: Please keep my brother alive.

Ortiz recounted how her family called a crisis line to get help for her mentally ill brother. Instead, the police arrested him and put him in Smith County jail in January 2024. 

By February’s hearing, Ortiz said her brother’s physical condition was so deteriorated she feared he may soon die.