Jails made headlines in 2015, when the 28-year-old Sandra Bland was arrested and placed in a Waller County, Texas, jail. She was unable to post bail, which was set at $5,000. Less than three days later, she was dead of an apparent suicide.
Such deaths happen with alarming regularity. A nationwide HuffPost study over one year identified an average of two fatalities per day. This first edition of The Badge, a new Political Report series on the powers of sheriffs, examines the problem of jail deaths and the responsibilities of sheriffs for the welfare of people in their custody. . .