A 29-year-old Houston man unexpectedly passed away in a Louisiana hospital last month while awaiting his Harris County trial, and his family claimed they are still looking for answers.
Less than a week after being moved by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office to a privately run prison in LaSalle Parish, central Louisiana, where the sheriff’s office contracts out the housing of certain prisoners, 29-year-old Erik Carlson passed away on January 25.
After being transported by EMS to the Rapides Emergency Room in Olla, Louisiana, Carlson experienced cardiac arrest, which medical personnel informed his family was most likely caused by sepsis that had developed on a peritonsillar abscess. The American Academy of Family Physicians defines a peritonsillar abscess as an infection behind the tonsil.
In the days before his death, Carlson’s family said they didn’t hear from him, and it wasn’t until they got a call from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office informing them of his passing that they realized something was off.
“I didn’t believe it. Erik is healthy. Erik doesn’t have anything wrong with him. Harlee Carlson, Carlson’s grandmother stated. She also mentioned that it took several hospital calls before she was able to talk to someone who could explain the probable cause of her grandson’s death.
Days earlier, Harlee Carlson said that after Erik Carlson’s family hadn’t heard from him on January 20, she had called the LaSalle facility to ask for a welfare check on him.
She questioned whether someone had physically checked on him after a staff worker at LaSalle Correctional Center assured her right after that he was okay and in his cell.
According to the family, they also had a conversation with another prisoner who claimed that Erik Carlson had asked for medical attention for three days before to his passing.
According to Erik Carlson’s family, they feel they are not alone in their struggles to get answers regarding his death. David Lewis, his stepfather, stated that he is aware that the Louisiana prison has a history of inmate fatalities.
Since 2022, Erik Carlson has become the third prisoner from Harris County to pass away following his outsourcing to the LaSalle Correctional Center. Two years after Billie Davis passed away in the facility, 29-year-old Jaleen Anderson passed away in April 2024 following a seizure. A coroner’s report from Louisiana declared Davis’s death to be a homicide.
Lewis remarked, “This is why we’re bringing this to a head,” “We need to get these answers and to make sure this doesn’t continue.”
According to senior policy and communications advisor Jason Spencer, Erik Carlson was still seen as the Harris County Sheriff’s Office’s duty even though he was outsourced at the time of his death.
“Anytime someone in our custody passes away, we take it seriously and we look at it deeply — the circumstances of what happened — to make sure we’re doing everything we can to keep people safe in the jail,” he stated.
According to Spencer, the county’s agreement with LaSalle Corrections stipulates that medical personnel must always be on site.
“We’re always monitoring the situation that our inmates are in in any of the outsourced facilities that we’re using,” he stated. “We conduct visits and inspections of those facilities. We’re in constant contact with people operating those facilities to make sure that they’re meeting the standards that are laid out in the contracts that we have with them.”
As of Wednesday morning, neither the autopsy nor the death certificate for Erik Carlson had been sent to the family.
Erik Carlson, an artist who loved Houston culture, was born and reared there. According to his family, he enjoyed going to the rodeo and supporting the Astros.
“He was a very lovely, affectionate person,” Harlee Carlson remarked, her voice cracking.
According to Harris County records, Erik Carlson had a criminal history beginning in 2012. According to records, he had prior felony convictions for illegally carrying a weapon, producing a criminal device, and escaping arrest or custody with a vehicle.
Despite having spent a significant amount of time in and out of prison, Erik Carlson remained close to his mother and grandmother.
Lewis stated he would write his mother a lot of handwritten letters while he was in jail awaiting trial.
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“There was a bond between his mother and him,” he stated. “He really cared about her.”
According to Harlee Carlson, she has always had a unique and deep bond with her grandson, who resided with her and lovingly referred to her as “Momba.”
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She said he was a devoted parent who was smitten with his daughter, Madelynn, who was four years old. Erik Carlson had intended to travel to Washington state to see Madelynn and her mother, an active-duty Air Force member, prior to his detention.
Harlee Carlson stated, “He was a criminal, but he was a human being too. He was a caring person.
