Sandra Bland, an outspoken critic of police brutality and supporter of the #BlackLivesMatter movement was pulled over by a Texas Department of Public Safety Ranger for failure to signal a lane change on July 10th. That traffic stop led to her being removed from her vehicle, allegedly for being "argumentative and uncooperative,” where she was subsequently arrested and charged with assault on a public servant. Less than 72 hours later, Sandra Bland was found dead in her cell from an apparent suicide, at least according to the Waller County Sheriff’s Department. But the circumstances surrounding her death have caused many people from the Hempstead community, and even inmates inside of Waller County to ask, what happened to Sandra Bland?
The Waller County Jail is a small facility, at least in relation to other county jails such as Travis County, Dallas County or nearby Harris County. Around the east side of the jail and towards the back there is a raised roof, with open grating that functions as the rec area for inmates. Three organizers, including myself were lucky enough catch the inmates while they were outside, and spoke with two of them regarding the Sandra Bland case.
Byron Garfield, a 30 year old African-American male inmate at Waller County Jail has been incarcerated for at least 5 months, and confirmed that the milky colored trash bags activists pulled from the jail’s dumpster were in fact the ones used inside, but said that “those bags won’t hold a 175-pound person. I don’t think it was possible that she used a trash bag to kill herself.” He was unsure if the women’s two jail cells had the same kind of divider as the men’s, but said that if they did, it would have been impossible to tie a bag around it. When asked if he thought local officers were racist or racially biased he said “he didn’t think, he knew”. When asked to view the inside of a female cell, Waller County officials refused.
Mr. Garfield also repeated that it just didn’t make sense for her to have killed herself if she had a job lined up. Byron Garfield has been incarcerated for at least five months, without an indictment, for alleged theft charges in violation of Texas law, according to him. We are looking into that situation now. Another inmate, Aaron Livingston reconfirmed doubts that the trash bags provided to inmates would hold enough weight to result in death by suicide.
We also spoke to a community member and former African American female inmate who had been in the same type of cell that Sandra Bland would have been in. She asked to be identified as “Kiandra” for security purposes. During an interview she also confirmed the types of trash bags found on site were accessible to inmates, but that she also didn’t think it likely to hold the reported 175lbs Ms. Bland was said to weigh. She ended by saying that, “It’s like this every day, and nothing is changing. Obama could come down here, and it’s not going to stop.”
We went into the neighborhood surrounding the Waller County Jail, and spoke with a resident by the name of Calvin Glover. Mr. Glover, 32 and from Hempstead, has also been inside of the facility and in his opinion, “you can’t hang yourself in the holding cell, at least not on the male side”, and that he suspected “sure fire foul play.” He went on to say that “[they] ain’t never going to tell the truth”, that “you can’t hang yourself with those trash bags”, and that local officers profile individuals based on the color of their skin.
Interestingly, Waller County is named for Edwin Waller, who represented Austin County in 1861 when Texas voted to secede from the United States. He was “given the honor of signing the ordinance of secession immediately after the president of the convention signed” since he was the only living person who had signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. His son, Edwin Waller Jr., reached the rank of Captain in the Confederate Army.
We are expecting results from an independent autopsy conducted by Sandra Bland’s family. The Texas Department of Public Safety has already determined that there were policy violations in how the traffic stop was conducted, and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards has also cited Waller County for failure to observe an inmate at least once an hour and for substandard training in how to handle potentially suicidal and mentally disabled inmates.
Watch the Full Interview with the Inmates Here: http://www.ustream.tv/...