HOUSTON — The Harris County Sheriff’s Office is investigating two incidents captured on jail security video. Those leaked videos are now being investigated.
A spokesperson for HCSO said the internal affairs probe began “months ago” and involves two separate incidents captured on jail security video.
In the first video, from October 2023, two detention officers are seen walking into a holding cell and leading an inmate, handcuffed behind his back, to sit on a concrete bench. The video shows one officer punching the inmate in the head. A few seconds later, the other officer lands another blow to the inmate’s head.
A third detention officer standing in the doorway does nothing to intervene in the video and proceeds to close the holding cell door and walk away. It is unclear what happens next behind the closed door.
The second video, from January 2024, shows an incident in a hallway near a bank of elevators inside the Harris County jail. One of the same detention officers in the first video shoves a handcuffed incarcerated woman against a wall and then throws her to the concrete floor. Three other detention officers look on as the detention officer pins her down with an elbow on the woman’s neck. He then picks her up and slams her against the wall, and then proceeds to violently throw her to the floor again.
Jail and prison expert Michele Deitch reviewed both videos and called the force unnecessary.
“I was very disturbed by it,” Deitch said. “What I was watching was out and out abuse.”
Deitch runs the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. The policy resource center focuses on the safe and humane treatment of people in custody.
“This was not a justified use of force,” Deitch said. “There are times when force is justified and explainable, neither of these cases is one of those.”
In the video involving the incarcerated woman, Deitch said there is no indication that she is doing anything to provoke the incident. She added that using force, especially towards an inmate’s head, is uncalled for against handcuffed inmates since they generally pose no threat to detention officers.
But over four years at the Harris County jail, KHOU 11 Investigates identified 26 incidents where inmates received head injuries, while handcuffed, at the hands of detention officers.
“There is no risk, there is no imminent risk to the officer,” Deitch said. “The person is not showing any signs of fighting, they're restrained, they're under control and force is not justified in those situations.”
KHOU 11 Investigates reviewed more than 3,300 use of reports from Jan. 2020 to Jan. 2024 as part of its documentary into unnecessary and excessive force at the Harris County jail. The reports associated with the two videos of force against handcuffed inmates were not provided because they are under ongoing investigation. The extent of the injuries to either of those inmates is unclear.
A sheriff’s department spokesperson said once the internal affairs investigations are completed, evidence will be provided to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office to determine whether criminal charges are appropriate. The spokesperson said the officer who punched the incarcerated man in the holding cell has been assigned to duties that do not involve contact with inmates. The officer who threw the incarcerated woman to the ground resigned in April amid a separate internal affairs investigation.
KHOU 11 Investigates confirmed that officer applied to the Houston Police academy the same month and graduated in November. He was sworn onto the force, but now has been pulled off the street. Houston Police posted the following statement on X:
“The Houston Police Department was recently made aware of a video showing a use of force incident involving a detention officer at the Joint Processing Center in January 2024. An investigation has been initiated to determine the circumstances of the event and what information was disclosed by the employee in relation to this incident at the time of his application. At this time, he has been assigned to administrative duties pending the outcome of the investigation.”
KHOU 11 has chosen not to name the detention officers in the videos at this time, because they have not been disciplined or criminally charged.