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Former inmate plans to sue Harris County Jail
FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke with the inmate about his experience inside the jail.
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - In 2021, there were 20 inmate deaths at the Harris County Jail. Last year, that number rose to 27.
Tron Madise says he was lucky to make it out alive.
"For them to be watching me get attacked, it was like in my mind, ‘I'm about to die bro,’" Madise said.
Madise was placed in the jail in August 2021 for an unlawful weapons charge.
He says a deputy assigned to the jail grabbed him.
"And he came up, and he grabbed me for no reason," said Madise.
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"He complained about his treatment, little did he know there would be much more to come after that," said civil rights attorney UA Lewis.
"’He's like so you wrote me up, huh,’ and I said not one word," Madise said.
A few hours later, Madise says that deputy he filed the grievance against moved him to cell 7A.
"They call it the murder tank in jail," he said. "They had a big ole quarantine tag on it on the door, quarantine do not enter."
Madise says eight inmates attacked him, and he spent several days in the ICU at Ben Taub Hospital.
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"He was brutally attacked while in custody at the direction of a jailer staffer there at the jail," Lewis said.
When he returned to jail, Madise says a detective asked him to identify the inmates who attacked him.
"They never asked me anything about the officer that I originally filed the grievance on," he said.
Lewis plans to file suit on Madise's behalf.
"Unfortunately, that's the course they force citizens to have to take to get any type of resolve from Harris County," Lewis said.
"That place is not safe for anyone," Madise said. "If you've got family in there, get them out."