Harris Co. Jail inmate goes public with death, violence, drug use he says he's witnessed since last October
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - His name is Kyle French, and he's in the Harris County Jail for violating a protective order.
He describes his nearly four months behind bars as "Scary as Hell."
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French told us he's worried about his safety.
"I am, I'm shaking talking to you," French said. "It's the first time I've told anybody to do this to go public."
French has been in the Harris County Jail since October 24, 2022, for violating a protective order, an order granted by a controversial family court judge who got voted out.
"Kyle was essentially accused of not paying the lawyer for the other side, and saying a bunch of mean things about the judge," said Wayne Dolcefino with Dolcefino Consulting.
French says he worked in the 701 Clinic and witnessed many inmates beaten by jailers.
One of those, French says he witnessed, was the beating death of Jacoby Pillow.
He says Pillow was put in a single person holding cell that didn't have a camera.
"Detention officers would regularly use it to abuse inmates without being monitored by video surveillance, and they talked about that openly, and threaten the inmates to use that cell with no camera," said French.
French would call and send letters to Dolcefino detailing abuses he witnessed.
"There apparently was a group, and there still may be some in there, of jailers that were going crazy and hurting people," said Dolcefino.
French says drug use is rampant on the second and fifth floors of the jail. He says he witnessed detention officers doing drugs in the 701 Clinic.
"Every night, it was like a party down in the clinic," French said. "At 2:00, other officers would come down. They'd sit with the officers there, and they'd all go into a room, and then come out higher than a kite."
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French says he would witness three to four beatings a week during his first couple of months in the jail.
But he says it grew worse in January.
"After the Jacoby incident, it seemed to increase it was daily," he said.
It was Jacoby Pillow's death that made him decide to go public.
"I can tell you this. If something happens to me, I did not fall off my bunk, I did not have an accident or get into an inmate fight," French said.
In a statement, the Harris County Sheriff's Office sent the following:
"Here’s the statement we released regarding this incident back when it happened: https://nixle.us/E6YS7?_ga=2.224582428.721766820.1676583831-747552449.1669132360
We acknowledged then, and now, that our staff used force against the individual and that the incident is the subject of an independent investigation by HPD. More recently, we announced that the Sheriff has asked the FBI to conduct a separate investigation into the incident, and the FBI has agreed to do so. Here’s the statement we released about the FBI’s involvement: https://nixle.us/E9G7D?_ga=2.232044057.721766820.1676583831-747552449.1669132360