For-Profit Jail Is Accused of Abuse After Death of Woman With H.I.V.

A lawsuit filed in federal court on Wednesday accused a for-profit jail in Texas of civil rights violations, including neglect and abuse, that led to the death of a woman with H.I.V. who was held for two months as a pretrial detainee.

The woman, Holly Barlow-Austin, 46, was housed in “deplorable and inhumane conditions of confinement,” deprived of water and denied vital medications, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Ms. Barlow-Austin was arrested on a violation of the terms of her probation last year and held at the Bi-State Justice Center in Bowie County, Texas, on the border with Arkansas. The jail is operated by LaSalle Corrections, which operates jails in Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.

The lawsuit claims that LaSalle failed to monitor and treat Ms. Barlow-Austin’s life-threatening medical needs, and that jail employees failed to “transport her to the hospital until it was too late to save her life.”