When Amy Lynn Cowling, a 33-year-old mother of three, died just after Christmas last year in the Gregg County Jail, two jailers were arrested and fired from the lockup in Longview, three others were fired and another resigned.

They were among the more than 40 percent of jail staff who quit or were fired each of the last two years at that facility, an alarmingly high turnover rate, according to jail conditions experts. And Cowling’s death was one of nine there in the last five years — a large number compared to jails of similar size across Texas.

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