US jails are torture factories.

In the spring of 2019, 46-year-old Holly Barlow-Austin was detained in the Bi-State Justice Center jail in Texarkana for a probation violation. She was HIV positive and bipolar. Her husband dropped off her medication at the jail. Then they … just didn’t give it to her at first, and then only sporadically.

She got sick, complaining of a headache and lump in the throat.

Blood work performed by the medical staff at the jail on April 14 showed her white cell blood count at 87. The normal range in healthy adults is 500 to 1,500. Disturbing video footage shared by her family's lawyer shows Barlow-Austin splayed on the ground of her cell, clutching her head. On April 30, she told jail staff her legs were numb. She was taken to the jail medical office, where they gave her Tylenol before returning her to her cell. Jail staff brought her to an outside mental health provider, who relayed the information to jail staff that Barlow-Austin had been fainting. In response, according to the lawsuit, a nurse on staff said that Barlow-Austin "pretends to be weak" and "knows how to play the sickly role." 

By May 2, 2019, Barlow-Austin's blood pressure had climbed to 160/90. Staff found that she had a urinary tract infection. She complained to jail staff about headaches, vomiting, and blurred vision. She reported fainting frequently. She was not taken to a hospital. 

By June, the lawsuit alleges, Barlow-Austin was blind as a result of her various undertreated conditions. Video shows her in distress, emaciated, flailing around on the floor of her jail cell, repeatedly soiling herself. Video shows a staff member setting a styrofoam cup of water in her cell on June 10, then falling back and holding their nose at the smell emanating from the cell. It was only the second cup of water she'd consumed in 16 hours, according to the complaint. In the video captured the same day, she appears to mouth "Help me" to two female inmates who'd been sent to her cell to clean it up. 

During this period, her husband and family were repeatedly told she didn't want to see them, when in fact she appeared to be unaware she had visitors and unable to communicate her desires.

She died soon after that.

This week, a judge handed down a ruling awarding 7 million dollars to her estate, the largest wrongful death payout of an inmate in Texas history. That’s great. But there’s also no amount of money to make up for what happened.

From a press release by Budge and Heipt, the law firm that litigates wrongful deaths in custody and won the pay out:

TEXARKANA, TEXAS – The Estate of Holly Barlow-Austin has been paid $7 million to settle its legal claims against LaSalle Corrections and other defendants. The $7 million settlement is the largest known jail death settlement in Texas history and among the largest settlements ever reached nationwide in a civil rights case involving the wrongful death of an inmate. For the sake of comparison, the 2016 death of Sandra Bland in a Texas county jail, which received national media attention, resulted in a $1.9 million settlement. More recently, in 2020, the family of a man who died in Houston’s Harris County Jail received a $2.5 million settlement.

LaSalle Corrections is a private company that administers jails and immigration detention centers throughout the country. They have a history of abuse and neglect, primarily in immigration facilities. From their website:

LaSalle Corrections offers a diverse spectrum of corrections industry services to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. Whether the need is facility development, financing, management, security, inmate programs & services, or even a turn-key solution, LaSalle and its partners can help.

LaSalle Corrections LLP run 19 jails in TX and AZ. Nobody was criminally charged in Barlow-Austin's death h/t @JohnTeufelNYC.