A for profit jail corporation and others settle after a Texas woman dies on their watch. 46-year-old Holly Barlow-Austin died at the Bi State Jail in Texarkana in 2019 after she was arrested for probation violation.
The lockup, at the time, was run by Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections. Barlow-Austin was HIV positive. Her husband brought her medication to the jail but she wasn't give her pills for eight to ten days. Her family's attorney Eric Heipt said Barlow-Austin began developing alarming symptoms. "Over the next several weeks her condition got worse and worse and worse. She was never taken to the hospital or seen by a doctor."
He said it got to the point where Barlow-Austin lost her sight and could no longer stand or walk, and could barely crawl. He says "She spent the last ten days of her life in an isolation cell, completely blind, severely sick, in pain. By the time they finally took her to the hospital it was too late to save her life." He says she lingered five days in ICU but her family wasn't told until the fourth day.
He said it's important to hold jail operators accountable when they commit atrocities on our citizens, "and this is something that happens much too frequently. When it does, we need to make them pay and we need to expose it so that people demand change."
The suit was against LaSalle, Bowie County and several guards and medical staff. This is the third settlement against LaSalle
In 2016, 35-year-old Michael Sabbie died at that facility. His family reached an undisclosed settlement with LaSalle two months before Barlow-Austin died in a hospital. They alleged company employees deprived him of medications and treatment for his heart disease and diabetes. He became short of breath and begged for help for three days. He asked to use the phone, was denied and was tackled and pepper-sprayed while walking to the phone. He died on the floor of an isolation cell.
And in 2017, LaSalle agreed to settle following the 2016 death of 20 year old diabetic Morgan Angerbauer. She died after asking for insulin and being ignored as she screamed for help for hours from her jail cell. Her sugar level was 813, more than five times the normal range. The nurse in that case would plead guilty to misdemeanor negligent homicide.
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