KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — A Kaufman County mother is on a mission to get every single question she has about her son's death in prison answered and explained to her satisfaction.
Jon Anthony Southards was convicted of burglary and was about seven years into his sentence, according to his mother. His mother told WFAA that if the prison phones worked properly, they talked on the phone every single day and sometimes more than once a day.
Tona Southards-Naranjo made no excuses about her son's criminal past but looked forward to him returning home one day.
"I thought my baby would be rehabilitated. I thought he would serve his time, which deservingly too," Southards-Naranjo said.
During a emotional interview Monday afternoon, Southards-Naranjo explained her search for answers about her son's death in prison. He passed away June 28, the same day they had several conversations on the phone. During their third phone call that day, Southards-Maranjo shared part of what she calls an alarming conversation with her son.
"He told he was hot, that they weren't giving him water," said Southards-Naranjo. "And he wasn't getting rested. My son was in a cell by himself."
Southards was doing time for burglary in which his mom turned him in out of tough love. His mother shared that he had turned his outlook on life around while serving out his sentence. He also started working on some of his talents like music and drawing.
Southards-Naranjo showed WFAA some of his artwork and talked about their closeness. For much of his childhood it was just the two of them. She had him when she was just 15 years old and learned how to sacrifice as a teenager to take care of her son.
"Jon was not just my son. Jon was my best friend, my baby," Southards-Naranjo said.
His unexpected prison death has been tough on his family. His mother is convinced the Texas heat played a role in his death.
But, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) said after a guard found Southards unresponsive in his cell, he died at 11:58 p.m. The preliminary cause is cardiac arrest, but they are waiting on a final autopsy.
TDCJ dismissed prison temperatures as a factor, saying they haven't had a heat-related death since 2012. A spokesperson for TDCJ said every inmate now has access to ice and water.
A statement sent to WFAA from the TDCJ said:
"Core to this department's mission is protecting the public, our employees, and the inmates in custody. It is a responsibility that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice takes seriously. We take numerous precautions to lessen the effects of hot temperatures for those incarcerated within our facilities. These efforts work. In 2023, there have been eight inmates who required medical care beyond first aid for heat related injuries and none were fatal. This is out of a population of 128,000 (about the size of Waco).
Fans are strategically placed in facilities to move the air. Inmates have access to a fan, and they can access air-conditioned respite areas when needed. The agency recognizes that some inmates are potentially at a heightened risk of heat-related illnesses because of their age, health conditions, or medications. These individuals are identified through an automated heat sensitivity score that uses information from the inmate’s electronic health record. Individuals who have a heat sensitivity score receive priority placement in a housing area that is air-conditioned.
Over the past several years, the agency has worked to increase the number of cooled beds available. Since Fiscal Year 2018-19, TDCJ has added air conditioning to 3,598 beds. Additionally, there is an active project for FY 23 that will add 5,861 cooled beds. This will bring the total to 9,459 beds added between FY18-23. The current total number of cool beds is around 42,000.
Each summer we continue to refine and improve our practices. What has not changed is our commitment to do all that we can to keep staff and inmates safe."
Still, Southards' mother has a lot of unanswered questions based on her last conversation with her son.
"What mother would be okay hearing that their child was having to wipe their rear end with their sheet and use that same sheet to rinse the toilet out so that they could get a cold drink. No parent should ever have to hear their child say that" said Southards-Naranjo. "Who has to answer, somebody should have to answer."