Arrested in Texas, dead in Louisiana: Private-prison transfers raise accountability concerns
HOUSTON (CN) — Last January, Houston resident Erik Carlson was arrested and charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm. As is typical for people facing charges, he was booked into the county jail.
As is much less typical, Carlson was then transferred not just to a different facility but out of state, to the for-profit LaSalle Correctional Center in Olla, Louisiana. There, after falling sick, Carlson was denied medical care and ultimately died as a result, his family claims in a lawsuit filed last month in Louisiana federal court.
The lack of adequate medical care continued despite pleas not only from Carlson but from fellow inmates and medical staff, the family says in their complaint. Instead, they say prison officials told Carlson to buy over-the-counter medicines from the commissary.
When a nurse finally did see him, she noted that his mouth was severely swollen, “to the extent that his tonsils, throat and epiglottis were not visible.” Officials agreed to transfer Carlson to a hospital, but he went into cardiac arrest and died in transit, just 29 years old.
His cause of death, according to an autopsy: strep throat.
Twenty people died in Harris County jails in 2025, an increase over the previous year. So far this year, there have already been two deaths. Those numbers are sadly below average for county jails in the United States, which see around 167 deaths for every 100,000 inmates, according to Justice Department data from 2019.
https://www.courthousenews.com/arrested-in-texas-dead-in-louisiana-private-prison-transfers-raise-accountability-concerns/
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