These were among the more than two dozen people who died in Tarrant County jail custody since 2021 whose deaths weren’t fully investigated according to state law. Family and friends of people who died in the jail have asked state officials to intervene after Bolts revealed last year that Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn had flouted state law requiring outside law enforcement investigations into all jail deaths—a key element of 2017’s Sandra Bland Act that was designed to keep sheriffs from investigating themselves when people die in their custody.

These marginalized people are in jail, so they must be bad. Nothing to see here. Move along.