Editor's note: After this story's publication, Liz Piñón confirmed her son Gabriel received his medication as of June 16. This story has been updated to reflect that.
An autistic 18-year-old with intellectual and developmental disabilities was held in Tarrant County Jail custody for about a week with none of the medication he relies on, he and his mother told KERA.
On June 7, Gabriel Piñón got into a fight at his group home and hit another person on the head repeatedly with a skateboard, according to the Fort Worth Police Department. A police spokesperson did not have details on the other person’s condition as of Wednesday.
Gabriel was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He was booked into the Tarrant County Jail on June 8, and his bond was set at $5,000, jail records show.
Gabriel takes several prescriptions to manage his anxiety and his “explosive behaviors” — meltdowns that can become violent, his mother Liz Piñón said. It took years to find the perfect mix of medicine for him to function at his current level.
"I’m terrified. As a mom, I’m terrified,” Liz said. “My biggest fear is that my brown son with special needs is in jail, not getting the medicine he needs to at least bring him to baseline."
In a phone call from jail, Gabriel said he felt the lack of his medications, experiencing anxiety and panic attacks.
“It’s really scary up here,” he said.
Liz was scared for her son’s safety in a county jail with a history of complaints about medical neglect, she said.
"He doesn't understand why he's there. He doesn't have the mental ability to understand what he's done. I'm frustrated as a mom that the system doesn't realize that," Liz said.
The Tarrant County Jail has a history of complaints about medical neglect, some resulting in death.
- Javonte Myers, who had a seizure disorder, died in his cell in 2020. Two former Tarrant County jailers were indicted after they allegedly lied about checking on him.
- Also in 2020, a woman gave birth alone in her Tarrant County Jail cell. The baby later died.
- In 2022, a disabled 38-year-old woman named Kelly Masten left a 10-day stint in the Tarrant County Jail comatose and covered in bruises. Masten has a severe form of epilepsy, and the jail did not give her medication, even though her family brought her medicine to the jail, her father said.
Gabriel has lived in a group home near his family’s house for two years, Liz said. He needs 24-hour care that she and her husband, who also have a set of triplets with special needs, could not provide.
“He needs to be reminded to brush his teeth, what clothes to wear that are appropriate for the weather,” Liz said. “Sometimes he'd have these mental health breakdowns of behavior and he'd run off on us."
Healthcare providers diagnose intellectual and developmental disabilities with IQ tests, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. An average IQ score is around 100. Gabriel scored a 62, Liz said.
"He can read like a fourth-grade level and do math about at a fourth-grade level,” she said. “But even simple questions like, can you tell me your address, or tell me your birthday, he might still struggle with and get confused.”
Gabriel takes multiple prescriptions each day, according to documents Liz shared, including trazodone, an antidepressant. Every four weeks, he gets a shot of aripiprazole, which can be used to manage irritability associated with autism.
KERA sent a list of questions to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, the agency in charge of running the jail, on Tuesday. Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Robbie Hoy directed all inquiries to JPS, the county hospital.
“All medication is handled by medical personnel from John Peter Smith Hospital. We are not authorized to release medical information about inmates, you will have to reach out to JPS,” Hoy wrote in an email.
On Thursday, JPS spokesperson Jessica Virnoche directed questions to My Health My Resources (MHMR), the county’s mental health authority.
“We perform a medical screening on all inmates that are booked into the jail. We refer any patient who indicates that they are currently on psychotropic medications to MHMR for evaluation and any medication orders,” Virnoche wrote.
Also on Thursday, Gabriel’s MHMR service coordinator texted Liz, asking for a list of Gabriel’s medications, and to set up a meeting with his group home about what happened and to make a plan for when he is released, Liz said.
By Friday, he had received that medication, she confirmed.
In jail, medication isn’t guaranteed
Liz Piñón shared a list of her son's prescriptions with the jail after he was booked, she said.
During booking, jails are required to check if someone has been involved before with a local mental health or disability authority. In Tarrant County, that authority is MHMR.
Gabriel already works with MHMR, but the agency didn’t get notified that Gabriel was in jail, Liz said. In some court records, his name is misspelled as “Grabriel.” His birthdate is also incorrect, according to Liz.
When someone goes to jail, they can’t just bring their prescriptions in with them, said Courtney Luther, a staff attorney at Disability Rights Texas.
The process varies depending on the jail, but it usually works like this: Jails have to verify someone’s prescription, and then dispense it from their own pharmacy, Luther said.
That means there’s a delay built in, and there’s no guarantee someone will get the exact medication they take in the free world.
“Generally, there are some medications that jails just do not carry, whether that be for cost reasons or because they typically have high risk of abuse," Luther said.
The Texas Administrative Code requires medical professionals to “review as soon as possible any prescription medication an inmate is taking,” but “as soon as possible” doesn’t have a clear definition.
That makes it hard to determine how long is too long to go without a medication, but prescriptions to help stabilize someone’s behavior, like Gabriel's, are important, Luther said.
“Being in jail is stressful enough. Anything that's contributing to amplifying those behaviors can be a dangerous situation,” she said.
People with disabilities are more likely to be arrested and charged with crimes than people without disabilities, and they’re discriminated against in conviction and sentencing, according to The Arc, a national intellectual and developmental disability rights organization. They’re also more likely to be victims of crime.
And Gabriel isn’t alone in being arrested from a group home, according to Krish Gundu, co-founder of the Texas Jail Project, a nonprofit jail watchdog group.
There’s no data tracking how many people are arrested from group homes like Gabriel was, but Gundu said it’s a common story, and the state needs to start paying attention.
"The symptoms of their disabilities are so easily misunderstood, misinterpreted, and then punished,” she said.
When responding to an altercation at a group home, police in Texas have the option not to make an arrest, thanks to a state law passed in 2019. Officers can decide whether incarceration is the best safety option for everyone at the home.
Police should take more advantage of that option, Gundu said. Once people with IDD enter the criminal justice system, it can be hard to get out. They might be declared incompetent to stand trial and end up on the years-long waitlist for a state hospital bed, she said.
"You can't punish your way out of the problem,” Gundu said. “That does not improve or enhance public safety for anyone, especially for the person that's most vulnerable. We're not thinking about their safety at all."
Just a few weeks ago, Gabriel completed all the traditions that come with graduating high school. In his prom photos, he wears a black suit, shirt and tie to match his girlfriend’s sparkly black dress.
“I feel like I've failed him as a mom,” Liz said through tears. "As I walked into the Tarrant County Jail, I never thought I’d have to come see a son here. Especially a son who can hardly write his name and who doesn’t even remember his birthday.”
Looking back, she wishes a lot of things – that the group home had followed a crisis intervention plan, that the police had chosen not to arrest Gabriel.
"Our special needs children don't choose to come with their disabilities that they come with," Liz said. "The system needs to do a better job and helping us grow them as productive members of society."
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org. You can follow Miranda on Twitter @MirandaRSuarez.
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