The Texas Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would eliminate a requirement to investigate all deaths in county jails, making deaths from presumed natural causes exempt.
Advocates say if it becomes law, jails could escape accountability for medical neglect.
The state has required an outside law enforcement agency to investigate all jail deaths since 2017, with the passage of the Sandra Bland Act.
The new bill, Senate Bill 1896, aims to walk back part of the Sandra Bland Act. If a doctor determines that someone died of natural causes in jail custody, no outside law enforcement agency would have to investigate that death.