Texas Attorney General Opinion: DM-111 Page: 4 of 5
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Honorable Scott W. Johnson - Page 4 (DM- 111)
37 T.A.C. 273.1 (footnote added).3 Accordingly, the commissioners court must
provide a licensed physician or physicians to provide medical services to the county
jails, if the circumstances and locality of the jails permit. We note that the
commission's rule suggests that the physician not only be licensed to practice
medicine, but be competent to "assume the responsibility as the director of medical
services for the quality and availability of all medical services provided to jail
inmates."4
SUMMARY
A county commissioners court has the authority to contract
with a licensed physician to provide medical services to inmates
incarcerated in the county jails. A county sheriff has the
authority to schedule medical services for the county jails.
Very truly yours,
DAN MORALES
Attorney General of Texas
3The 72d Legislature amended the Code of Criminal Procedure article 104.002(d) to require
"[a] person who is or was a prisoner in a county jail and received medical, dental, or health related
services from a county or a hospital district . . . to pay for such services when they are rendered." See
Acts 1991, 72d Leg., ch. 434, 1; see also Acts 1991, 72d Leg., ch. 14, 284(19). If a prisoner cannot
pay for the services because he or she is indigent, the county's responsibility is to assist the prisoner to
apply for reimbursement pursuant to chapter 61 of the Health and Safety Code. Id For purposes of
this opinion, we assume that the newly amended article 104.002(d) only affects the county's duty to pay
for the medical services prisoners in the county jails receive; the county commissioners court remains
responsible for providing the medical services.
A county sheriff has a duty to keep safely persons committed to the sheriffs custody. See
Alberti v. Sheriff of Hanis County, 406 F. Supp. 649, 669 (S.D. Tex. 1975). We do not address in this
opinion the issue of whether a county sheriff who doubts the competency of a physician with whom the
commissioners court has contracted may seek, in addition to other possible remedies, a declaratory
judgment that the physician is incompetent to render medical services in the county jails.p. 564
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: DM-111, text, April 20, 1992; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth273920/m1/4/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.