TCJS Reports

Texas state law requires jails to report certain information about the people who are in their custody to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS), which oversees the facilities.

TJI is building a tool to make it easier to analyze four types of these reports over time, with unique visualizations and filtering capabilities. Our first step was to accumulate all of the available reports, which we are sharing here (for more information, see this blog post). Some of the reports found below are available on TCJS’ “Historic Populations Reports” page; many others — including all of the “Serious Incident Reports” — are not.

TJI cannot vouch for the accuracy of the data in these TCJS reports. We also acknowledge that some reports are missing — including reports from the second half of 2022 — and are in the process of making our collection fully complete.

The monthly reports below fall into the following categories:

SB 71, passed in 1991, requires Texas sheriffs to report to TCJS “the number and type of inmates confined to the jail.”  Years (full or partial) available: 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

SB 1698, passed in 2011, requires “the reporting of inmates with an immigration detainer and the associated costs.”  Years (full or partial) available: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

HB 3654, passed in 2009, requires the reporting of the total number of individuals in jail who “are known to be pregnant.” In 2018, TCJS clarified in a Technical Advisory Memo that jails “will not only be required to count pregnant inmates at booking, but also those determined to be pregnant after booking.”  Years (full or partial) available: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

The Sandra Bland Act, passed in 2017, requires jails to submit reports tallying how many “serious incidents” occur each month. Serious incidents are defined as:  * suicide: the act of intentionally causing one's own death * attempted suicide: a serious self-destructive action made by an inmate which could have resulted in death. This act may have taken place when the inmate was alone and in a place where the likelihood of being discovered is minimal to none, and is rescued by accident or by some unexpected and unpredictable quirk of fate. Intention in these instances is an unequivocal desire to die; * Death: caused by an illness or internal malfunction of the body, by homicide, by accident or misadventure, or by an undetermined cause; * Serious bodily injury: a bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes death, serious permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ; * Assault: intentionally or knowingly causing bodily injury to another or threatening another with imminent bodily injury; * Escape: individual escaped from inside of a secure perimeter; * sexual assault: the penetration of the anus, sexual organ, or mouth of another person by any means, without that person's consent; and * any use of force resulting in bodily injury: any physical pain, illness or physical impairment Years (full or partial) available: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

Available Reports

To download reports, start be selecting a year or group of years.