FORT WORTH, Texas — Tarrant County jail officials said an inmate died after hanging himself in his cell last week.
Ronald Kenneth Reese, 32, was identified as the man who died, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office.
His official cause of death has not been released yet.
A release from the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office said jailers on March 5 at 6:02 p.m. had discovered Reese had hanged himself in his cell. The jailers cut him down and "immediately began to perform life-saving measures," according to the release.
Reese was then taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, where he was placed on life support and died two days later, on March 7.
The sheriff's office release said Reese's cell was last checked at 5:37 p.m. on March 5, as part of the jail's checks every 40 minutes. At 5:52 p.m., security footage showed Reese opening his cell door and handing something to another inmate, the release said.
Ten minutes later is when Reese was found hanging in his cell.
Officials said the investigation indicated that Reese "planned the timing of when he would harm himself between those 40-minute checks."
Reese had been arrested by Fort Worth police on Nov. 21 on charges of evading arrest, possession of a controlled substance and tampering with or fabricating evidence. The sheriff's office said Reese was placed in general population at the jail and was also in contact with Tarrant County MHMR mental health resources while in custody at the jail.
More information about his death and time at the jail was not released. Officials said an array of agencies investigate in-custody deaths, including the sheriff's office, hospital staff, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards and the Texas Attorney General's Office.
Jail scrutiny
The Tarrant County Jail has come under scrutiny in recent years after an uptick in jail deaths.
Sheriff Bill Waybourn defended his jail staff, telling WFAA in an interview that the county runs "one of the safest and cleanest jails in America."
Waybourn said factors beyond the jail’s control caused the number of deaths to spike since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Records showed eight prisoners died from COVID-related causes. Another five died from drug overdoses.
Most of those who died suffered from chronic diseases and died under the supervision of doctors at the hospital, the sheriff said.
“In 99 percent of the cases, everything was done right and unfortunately somebody passed away,” the sheriff said.
