Houston Public Media: Two more Harris County prisoners die in custody, marking first reported jail deaths of 2025
January 31, 2025
Two Harris County prisoners died this month, one of whom died after being transferred to a private prison in Louisiana – an ongoing practice used to address overcrowding within the…
Topics: 2025news, Custody Death, Medical, Overcrowding, TCJS
Harris County
Two Harris County prisoners died this month, one of whom died after being transferred to a private prison in Louisiana – an ongoing practice used to address overcrowding within the county jail in downtown Houston.
Erik Carlson, 29, was booked into the Harris County Jail on Jan. 5 after being charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and retaliation. On Jan. 17, he was transferred to the LaSalle Correctional Center, a privately-owned prison in Louisiana located nearly 300 miles away. One week later, on Jan. 24, he was “hospitalized for an unknown medical condition,” according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Carlson died the next day.
Another prisoner died while in custody at the Harris County Jail just days before Carlson drew his last breath. Court records say 70-year-old Denaly Matute was charged with aggravated assault of a family member and booked into the jail on Dec. 5. About a month later, he was brought to Ben Taub Hospital “for a pre-existing medical condition,” according to the sheriff’s office. He was declared dead Jan. 19 at around 4:12 p.m.
Matute’s death will be counted toward the state’s ongoing tally of in-custody deaths, while Carlson, who died in Louisiana, will not be counted – despite that fact he was a Harris County prisoner. According to Brandon Wood, executive director of the Texas Commission of Jail Standards, they can’t punish Harris County for deaths that occur out of the state. They also can’t penalize LaSalle.
The LaSalle Correctional Center is one of several private facilities utilized by the county to alleviate chronic overcrowding and understaffing within the Harris County Jail. Three of the facilities are located outside of Texas: LaSalle in Louisiana, along with LaSalle’s Natchitoches Parish Detention Center in the same state and the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi.
This practice has drawn criticism from jail reform advocates like Krish Gundu, executive director of Texas Jail Project, who says the distance makes oversight difficult and puts prisoners at greater risk.
“We’ve essentially created a system where we can play accountability ping pong,” Gundu said. “The sheriff’s office can say, ‘It’s not our fault because the death happened in LaSalle in Louisiana,’ and LaSalle will say, ‘Well, we’re just a holding facility for the sheriff’s office,’ and they don’t have to investigate, and none of the usual protocols and procedures are followed.”
“We just don’t learn from these deaths, and they just keep happening over and over again.”
Full Article at Houston Public Media