Houston Landing: Texas attorney general to join efforts to enforce state standards at Harris County Jail

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards, the statewide regulatory body that oversees county jails, will request that the Texas Attorney General intervene in its longstanding efforts to force the Harris County Jail into compliance with minimum jail standards, according to a motion raised and approved at a commission meeting Thursday.

The move represents a significant escalation in the state’s efforts to improve conditions in Harris County’s troubled jail system, which has struggled to comply with a remedial order since 2023. 

“The Harris County Sheriff’s Office continues to work with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards to address overcrowding challenges created by the backlog of local cases awaiting trial,” Jason Spencer, senior policy and communications advisor for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, wrote in an email. “Because of this backlog, the average length of stay in the Harris County Jail exceeds 180 days, which is about six times longer than the average Texas jail. The Harris County Jail also houses 350 inmates who are on a waiting list for the state’s overwhelmed mental hospitals. 

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards first issued the remedial order in May 2023 following several inspections of the Harris County Jail that found persistent areas of noncompliance with state jail standards, particularly a failure to meet the required staffing ratio of one detention officer per 48 inmates. 

In response, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office accelerated hiring and outsourced hundreds of inmates awaiting trial from its overburdened downtown facility to privately operated jails in Mississippi and Louisiana.

On Thursday, the total Harris County Jail population was over 9,800, according to public data maintained by the sheriff’s office. The jail is only equipped to hold about 9,400 inmates, according to jail officials. 

What the attorney general’s intervention in Harris County’s jail conditions will mean in practice was not immediately clear on Thursday. 

Advocates for reform celebrated the attorney general’s involvement but called it long overdue.

Three Harris County inmates have died awaiting trial out of state since the county began outsourcing inmates in late 2023, with the most recent death occurring last month in LaSalle Parish, Louisiana. Meanwhile, three inmates have died in Harris County’s Houston facilities in 2025 alone, following 10 reported deaths in custody in 2024. 

“I just feel like we’ve paid such a huge price for (noncompliance),” Gundu said. “The community has paid such a huge price.”