Phillips is at least the fourth person whose death in Tarrant County Jail custody has been linked to dehydration since 2020. She appears to be the first linked to starvation, at least since 2017, when Republican Sheriff Bill Waybourn took office.<\/p>\n
And this was not the first time Phillips stopped eating in the Tarrant County Jail, according to notes from an incarceration dated 2023 \u2013 a fact that medical staff noted when she was booked into jail again in January.<\/p>\n
By the time she was transferred to John Peter Smith Hospital (JPS) three weeks later, on February 15, Phillips had severe hypernatremia \u2014 a sodium imbalance usually caused by dehydration \u2014 and her kidneys were failing, records show.<\/p>\n
Now, Mills is left wondering how this happened, leaving her without her mother and her kids without their grandmother.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was my best friend,\u201d Mills said, crying. \u201cI didn\u2019t have friends, because I always felt my mom was enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Please don\u2019t let me die\u2019<\/p>\n
The Tarrant County Jail has been under scrutiny for years for\u00a0deaths<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0allegations of mistreatment<\/a>\u00a0behind bars. At least 71 Tarrant County prisoners have died since Waybourn took office in 2017,\u00a0including an alleged murder by guards<\/a>\u00a0last year. The county has also paid more than $4.3 million in\u00a0jail-related lawsuits<\/a>\u00a0since 2022.<\/p>\n That includes a\u00a0$750,000 payout to the family of Georgia Kay Baldwin<\/a>, a woman with severe mental illness who died in 2021 from hypernatremia. That\u2019s despite having a water fountain in her cell.\u00a0<\/p>\n Abdullahi Mohamed and Edgar Villatoro Alvarez also died of dehydration in jail custody, in 2020 and 2022, respectively. Both men\u00a0also had a documented history of serious mental illness,<\/a>\u00a0WFAA reported.<\/p>\n A\u00a0recent investigation in The New Yorker<\/a>\u00a0found dozens of starvation and dehydration deaths in jails across the country. Often, the people who died struggled with mental illness, were arrested for low-level crimes and couldn\u2019t make bail.<\/p>\n Mills suspects her mother\u2019s food intolerances led to her death, she said. In the medical records she shared with KERA News, providers at JPS wrote they thought Phillips\u2019 mental health played a role. She had previously been treated for psychosis and seemed to have paranoia around food, medical staff wrote. \u201cSevere allergies\u201d are also listed elsewhere in her medical history.<\/p>\n Whatever led to Phillips\u2019 death, Mills\u2019 lawyer Chidi Anunobi said he suspects her death was preventable.<\/p>\n \u201cOur working theory is that Tarrant County Sheriff\u2019s Office, that they were grossly negligent, and that their negligence caused Kimberly\u2019s death,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Tarrant County Sheriff\u2019s Office declined to answer specific questions about Phillips\u2019 treatment in jail, citing an ongoing investigation. When asked if the jail has made changes to prevent more dehydration deaths, spokesperson Laurie Passman responded in an email, \u201cNo changes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInmates have always had access to water 24\/7. They have a water fountain in each cell,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n Phillips was booked into jail on January 25 for outstanding warrants, according to a press release from the sheriff\u2019s office. The release noted Phillips was \u201cplaced in medical housing under medical observation, where there is access to 24\/7 medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n Mills visited her mom multiple times during the three weeks she was behind bars. Phillips was a vegan, and she wasn\u2019t getting vegan food, Mills said. She tried to eat the food they gave her, but she told Mills she kept vomiting it up.<\/p>\n \u201cShe said, \u2018Please don\u2019t let me die here, Maranda. Please don\u2019t let me die,\u2019\u201d Mills recalled.<\/p>\n Two years earlier, when Phillips was in the Tarrant County Jail, a staff member checked on her after she hadn\u2019t eaten for three days, according to her medical records.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen asked about reason of referral, patient stated \u2018the food is not good, it makes me sick, I\u2019m not going to be forced to eat something that it\u2019s [sic] going to kill me, I\u2019m supposed to get a special diet, and they have not given me anything,\u2019\u201d the provider noted.<\/p>\n Phillips expressed the same concerns during her incarceration this year. When medical providers visited Phillips, she declined to let them take her vitals, but she told them she could not eat the food she was given, records show. She made multiple requests for vegan food and nutrition drinks. She also told a mental health provider she \u201cstarved\u201d the last time she was in the jail, according to one note dated January 25.<\/p>\n Special meals are available in the Tarrant County Jail through an order from a doctor or the chaplain, Passman said. But JPS records show a nurse told Phillips on February 6 she could only get vegetarian meals for religious reasons.<\/p>\n Mills tried to get her mother some food, too. She called jail medical staff with her concerns about her mother\u2019s diet, but she was told the jail is not a hotel or a restaurant, she said.<\/p>\n The Tarrant County Sheriff\u2019s Office declined to comment on this allegation, citing the ongoing investigation. JPS also declined to comment, citing patient privacy.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a \u201ccrass, ridiculous\u201d response to Mills\u2019 request, jail and prison consultant Lenard Vare said. He spent about 26 years working in corrections, including a decade as jail commander in Napa County, California.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes they say stuff like that, but the reality is this: We do have vegetarian meals in jails. We have kosher meals in jails. We have halal meals in jail,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have special dietary meals in jail for people with high cholesterol or high blood pressure, or diabetic meals, and those kinds of things. So there are various types of meals that most jails will accommodate.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes, jails have to get creative to help incarcerated people do what they need to do, Vare said. He remembered bribing one man with apples and oranges to get him to stop fighting the guards escorting him to court dates.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounds childish, but it worked,\u201d Vare said. \u201cIt was fine, because we got him to where we needed to get him. Nobody got hurt, and sometimes you have to think outside the box.\u201d<\/p>\n Jails\u2019 responsibility<\/p>\n There are plenty of medical and psychiatric reasons someone might not be able to eat, according to Dr. Marc Robinson, a Texas physician who cares for incarcerated people.<\/p>\n In some cases, people have the right to starve themselves, Robinson explained. Prisoners\u00a0have used hunger strikes to protest conditions<\/a>, but it\u2019s different when someone isn\u2019t eating or drinking due to mental illness, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor someone to make that decision, they have to have the capacity to do so,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n Whenever someone isn\u2019t eating or drinking in jail, medical staff needs to determine whether they\u2019re doing it for a reason that makes sense, that they\u2019re not depressed, and they understand the risks, Robinson said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf somebody doesn\u2019t meet that capacity assessment \u2014 for example, if they have a mental illness and they\u2019re not eating \u2014 well, then it does become incumbent on the jail to make sure that somebody\u2019s eating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He acknowledged that can be an \u201cimpossible task\u201d for jails, where most prisoners may have a mental illness. Texas jails have been called\u00a0the biggest mental health providers in the state.<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s why sometimes, what people require is hospitalization, because it\u2019s easy for one person who\u2019s not eating to slip through the cracks, Robinson said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf that person was in a psychiatric hospital or any other facility, they would have someone checking in on their meal tray and saying, \u2018Oh, how much did you eat? Oh, they didn\u2019t eat. Well, let me talk to the doctor, because this has been two days now,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The last time Mills saw her mother, she remembered Phillips\u2019 voice sounded hoarse and weak. Phillips told her daughter not to worry about her anymore, because \u201cthey don\u2019t want to help her,\u201d Mills said.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, mom, you need to ask them to take you to the hospital. You don\u2019t sound right,\u201d she said. \u201cShe said, \u2018I did, baby. I asked a lot of times. And they won\u2019t let me go to the hospital.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n KERA News asked the sheriff\u2019s office about the allegation that Phillips\u2019 request to go to the hospital was ignored. JPS jail medical staff decide when someone needs to go to the hospital, Passman said, adding that the sheriff\u2019s office will \u201crefrain from commenting until the investigation is completed.\u201d<\/p>\n KERA News also asked JPS what was done to help Phillips, and who is responsible for making sure that people in jail are eating and drinking.<\/p>\n \u201cAny inmate requiring medical attention or treatment receives individualized care in accordance with his or her unique circumstances,\u201d JPS spokesperson Dawn Fernald wrote in an emailed statement. \u201cWhile we are unable to comment on specific patient matters, we do take all inmates\u2019 health needs seriously and strive to deliver the most appropriate care in every instance.\u201d<\/p>\n Jails need to have a protocol in place when detention officers notice someone isn\u2019t eating or drinking, Vare said. Some agencies require officers to refer a prisoner to mental health if they\u2019ve gone 24 or 48 hours without eating.<\/p>\n If someone doesn\u2019t eat for a couple days, Robinson recommended they should be sent to a hospital.<\/p>\n Phillips was transferred to the hospital on February 15, three weeks after she was booked. One jail record noted she had not eaten since January 27, according to her medical file. A detention officer reported Phillips had accepted a meal tray on February 11 but didn\u2019t know how much she ate.<\/p>\n People in jail have a right to medical care, and it\u2019s the jail\u2019s responsibility to provide it, Robinson said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they have a medical crisis, they can\u2019t just walk out and go to a clinic,\u201d he said. \u201cThey can\u2019t check themselves into the hospital. They\u2019re fully dependent on the jail or prison.\u201d<\/p>\n Suing for answers<\/p>\n The day Phillips was transferred to the hospital, medical staff noted she was weak, uncooperative and agitated. Her face was sunken, her lips were dry, and her ribcage was protruding.<\/p>\n Phillips tried to refuse care, but JPS staff decided she wasn\u2019t able to do that.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven her inability to articulate an understanding of the risks associated with refusing medical care, we are determining that she does not have decision-making capacity at this time,\u201d a doctor wrote.<\/p>\n So JPS moved forward with treatment, noting her dire condition put her at \u201coverall high risk of mortality.\u201d They started dialysis for Phillips\u2019 failing kidneys and started tube feeding her.<\/p>\n They had to be careful to avoid\u00a0refeeding syndrome<\/a>, according to the notes. That\u2019s a dangerous medical complication that can arise when a starving person starts eating again.<\/p>\n But the doctors could not save Phillips. In the hospital, she was disoriented, confused as to the month and year and her situation, according to medical records. She refused dialysis and asked medical staff to remove her feeding tube. On her third day in the hospital, doctors responded to a Code Blue \u2014 a cardiac arrest \u2014 and CPR and compressions failed. Phillips was dead.<\/p>\n In May, Mills sued Tarrant County for information about her mother\u2019s death. The county has moved to withhold those records, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n Phillips\u2019 family has had to rely on media reports to learn about what happened, her lawyer, Chidi Anunobi, said in an interview.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are human beings. These are human beings who have families who care about them, who love them,\u201d he said of people in jail. \u201cAnd regardless of what they did, they\u2019re still entitled to basic human decency.\u201d<\/p>\n Anunobi submitted an official public records request to the county, asking for files like intake logs, custody records, medical charts and surveillance footage, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n The county appealed that request to the Texas Office of the Attorney General, the decision-maker in open records disputes, arguing the release of those records would threaten the ongoing investigation into Phillips\u2019 death. The AG\u2019s office agreed and allowed the county to keep the records secret.<\/p>\n If he gets access to the documents, and they indicate wrongdoing, Anunobi plans to file a federal lawsuit, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to see the record so we can make that determination and go where the facts lead us,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are blocking us from even getting to that stage.\u201d<\/p>\n The lack of information, and the lack of closure about her mother\u2019s death, make it hard for Mills to sleep, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was scared. She didn\u2019t want to die,\u201d Mills said. \u201cShe just wanted out. She wanted to be out and eat.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative<\/a> for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.<\/p>\n Republish This Story<\/p>\n
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