(a) The commission shall develop a comprehensive set of risk factors to use in assessing the overall risk level of each jail under the commission’s jurisdiction. The set of risk factors must include:
(1) a history of the jail’s compliance with state law and commission rules, standards, and procedures;
(2) the population of the jail;
(3) the number and nature of complaints regarding the jail, including complaints regarding a violation of any required ratio of correctional officers to inmates;
(4) problems with the jail’s internal grievance procedures;
(5) available mental and medical health reports relating to inmates in the jail, including reports relating to infectious disease or pregnant inmates;
(6) recent turnover among sheriffs and jail staff;
(7) inmate escapes from the jail;
(8) the number and nature of inmate deaths at the jail, including the results of the investigations of those deaths; and
(9) whether the jail is in compliance with commission rules, standards developed by the Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments, and the requirements of Article 16.22, Code of Criminal Procedure, regarding screening and assessment protocols for the early identification of and reports concerning persons with mental illness or an intellectual disability.
(b) The set of risk factors developed under this section may include the number of months since the commission’s last inspection of the jail.

Terms Used In Texas Government Code 511.0085

  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Population: means the population shown by the most recent federal decennial census. See Texas Government Code 311.005

(c) The commission shall use the set of risk factors developed under this section to guide the inspections process for all jails under the commission’s jurisdiction by:
(1) establishing a risk assessment plan to use in assessing the overall risk level of each jail; and
(2) regularly monitoring the overall risk level of each jail.