Will scrutiny over jail deaths unseat Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn?

Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn has faced intense backlash over some high-profile deaths at his jail. His opponent, Patrick Moses, said it shows a failure in leadership. NBC 5 had a chance to sit down with both candidates.

Waybourn has held the reigns as sheriff for nearly a decade and points to his creation of the intelligence and human trafficking units as some highlights of his success.

He said the human trafficking unit is closing in on 1,000 rescues, and the intelligence unit has been able to stop shooters before they've acted.

“We have interrupted the cartel, we have interrupted terrorist organizations," Waybourn said.

He said he's also beefed up the narcotics unit.

“They have taken enough drugs off the street, including that deadly fentanyl, to kill everybody in Tarrant County," he said.

TARRANT COUNTY JAIL DEATHS

Waybourn even counts his jail as a success, despite over 60 deaths under his tenure.

"The context that people miss on the deaths in custody is that 98% of them are in the hospital, they pass away in the hospital and were chronically ill when they walked in," he said.

He said they had 44,000 referrals to MHMR last year and stopped over 279 suicides.

Waybourn said his staff conducts 80,000 checks a day on inmates.

“The context is is that there’s isolated — there’s been an isolated incident, but the rest of those are that they died at the hospital or they have died from use of drugs," he said.

He said their machine used at intake sometimes doesn't detect drugs.

Critics, including challenger Patrick Moses, see the situation differently.

Since he announced his campaign, Moses has carried a list of all those in-custody deaths and said the public deserves answers about each one.

"Not just a number, but why did this particular person die? Sheriff, you're the leader. Leadership matters, especially in law enforcement," he said, pointing to the list. "So, it doesn't matter if the individuals are suffering from a medical situation, it doesn't matter if it's mental, it doesn't matter what it is. Tell the public what is going on."

Moses is retired from the U.S. Homeland Security Department's Armed Protective Services branch, where he was an assistant director of field operations. He's now a local pastor.

He said he offers transparency and change, prepared to conduct a review in his first 100 days in office.

“I want to make some decisions based on some input from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. I want to make input based on what citizens are saying and what, of course, the DOJ is recommending to us. That's real leadership," Moses said.

TARRANT COUNTY JAIL REVIEW

A branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Institute of Corrections, recently completed a review of the Tarrant County Jail.

It found that many of the current practices meet or exceed national standards.

But it also listed several recommendations, many of which Waybourn said are too expensive or impractical to implement.

One recommendation, for example, is for jail staff to use urine drug screens as inmates check in "to better identify those at risk of withdrawal."

“They want us to give everybody a drug test on the way in, and that’s a constitutional issue. That would require a warrant and we’d have to have probable cause… it’s a huge hurdle that’s not practical," Waybourn said.

NIC reviewers said their "greatest concern and area for improvement" is how some inmates are confined, saying those at-risk for suicide, for example, detoxing, or who have mental health needs are restricted to single-cells.

"They experience confinement for 23 of 24 hours per day and may have further restrictions to accessing some personal items," reviewers explained.

Researchers suggest revising that method and allowing "for more opportunities for normalization and treatment."

"Formalizing levels of suicide watch (constant observation and staggered observation) that do not simply restrict an individual to a cell and limit items that would provide opportunities to improve one’s mental health, reduce distress, and allow interactions with others, including more private reassessment and treatment settings," the report stated.

In a video response posted online, Waybourn disagreed.

“This would be more appropriate for a rehab center or a hospital or a treatment center. But this is the county jail, and our methods are the safest way to detox inmates in the jail environment. The detox protocol that is administered by JPS does follow national standards," he said.

NBC 5's Tahera Rahman asked Waybourn if there would be any changes if he got re-elected.

“Well, there’s always changes. We always want to improve, and we want to get to best practices in every part of our organization, and we’re on our way, well on our way to do that," he said, stating that he is trying to get better technology at the jail, like devices that monitor inmates' vitals and ring an alarm if they go into crisis.

But, he said, that requires a lot of money.

The report comes with a disclaimer that the points of views or opinions stated "are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice."

Moses said he supports another, more thorough, review by the DOJ.

He said he also wants to establish a citizen review commission.

"Meaning that I want individuals across the community to provide input on our policies, on our use of force policies to review all of them and also to review every in-custody death, so there is this notion of transparency," he said.

TARRANT COUNTY JAIL STAFFING

Moses said the staffing shortage at the jail also points to a lack of leadership under Waybourn.

"That's because people do not want to work for a failed leader. That's the problem," he said.

He said part of his 100-day review would include hiring and retention.

"How we recruit, how we train, how we educate, how we retain the workforce and focusing on the people there while also coming up with strategies, mitigation strategy to really reduce the number of deaths in the jail," Moses explained.

One idea he wants to look into is one he's seen in another county, an alternative jail certification program that operates like an ROTC program.

Waybourn has acknowledged he has over 180 openings and that they are behind in staffing.

He said they are close to having a brand new academy, where he hopes to have premiere training.

TARRANT COUNTY SHERIFF'S RACE OUTLOOK

Waybourn said he's not worried about the impact the jail deaths issue will have on his race for re-election.

“The death rate in our jail is markedly smaller than a county -- if you check a county, an entire county that size of 4,400," he said, confident that most people will realize that. “I don’t think it’ll be an issue for the majority of people.”

But a new Super PAC has entered the race, putting in six figures to flip the sheriff's seat.

In a press release, they pointed to a poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling and commissioned by Sheriff Accountability Action, that found Moses leads by five points, and that a "majority of voters are seriously and easily moved by the deaths in the Tarrant County Jails under Sheriff Waybourn’s tenure."