Krysten Gonzales
Krysten Gonzales, a 29-year-old U.S. Army veteran who had been treated for PTSD, depression and anxiety, died by hanging in her cell at the Oklahoma County Jail on January 8, 2019. The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office and jail officials say she hanged herself, though the state medical examiner had not determined a cause of death at the time of their statements. Public defenders say they spent about three months trying to find an inpatient or outpatient mental health facility that would accept her while she was held at the jail, and that she was not held in the jail's mental health ward. Her family's attorney has sued the county, and a county public defender said she probably would have been released and would have lived.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide (neglect alleged). Jail officials say she hanged herself, and public defenders say the county kept her jailed for three months while searching for an inpatient mental health bed.
Reported by: Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office (the agency that held her); her family's attorney (family or their lawyers); public defenders.
Sources (8)
- Sheriff's Office investigates death of female inmate found unresponsive at Oklahoma County Jail
- Jail inmate waited for mental health treatment bed for months before death
- Cell by Cell: The complete list of people who have died in Oklahoma jails in 2019
- Cell by Cell: The Oklahoma County jail is in crisis
- Oklahoma’s Jail Mortality Rate Ranks Second in Nation
- Oklahoma’s Jail Mortality Rate Ranks Second In Nation
- Oklahoma’s jail mortality rate ranks second in nation - Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise
- People with mental illness are more likely to die in jail. A new Oklahoma County program puts them in treatment instead