The Kinner & Stevens Funeral Home in Louisiana wouldn’t open for hours. Sarah Knight sat in the parking lot thinking that the body inside was not her son’s. Nothing about the 1 a.m. phone call from the Harris County, Tex., Sheriff’s Office made sense. Jaleen Anderson was awaiting his day in court on a felony drug possession charge when he was shipped to a Louisiana prison because the Harris County Jail in Houston didn’t have room for him. For the healthy 29-year-old suddenly to die behind bars even harder to comprehend, the Texas Tribune reports. When the Louisiana coroner and funeral home director unzipped the body bag, Knight’s worst fear became real.
“I asked God to bring him back to me,” she said, recounting the moment she saw her son’s body in the Jena, La., funeral home 268 miles from their home in Houston. “I said, ‘This was an untimely death. He had no business dying at this age.’” On April 3, Anderson was among hundreds of Texans accused of crimes — and still presumed innocent — sitting behind bars in other states. As an increasing number of Texas jails face overcrowding and understaffing, more people with criminal charges are being shuffled to other lock-ups while they await the resolution of their cases. While state jail standards meant to protect people awaiting trial partially led Harris County to ship Anderson to LaSalle Correctional Center, Texas jail officials’ oversight of conditions inside lock-ups doesn’t cross state lines. Since Anderson’s death, his mother has been on two missions. First, Knight has pushed Louisiana officials and leaders at the prison where Anderson died for answers about whether her son got the medical attention he needed after he began having seizures. At public meetings from Houston to Austin, she’s implored county officials and state leaders to stop shipping Texans defending themselves against criminal charges to out-of-state lockups.
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