Edgar Villatoro-Alvarez was only 40 years old when he died in the custody of Tarrant County Jail. He was booked into the Fort Worth jail on December 14, 2021, and his date of death was February 25, 2022. The cause of death was not entered in the custodial death report because it is unknown and awaiting autopsy results.

All Texas county jails are inspected annually by inspectors with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS). Oftentimes, areas of noncompliance indicate that protections for potentially suicidal and mentally ill inmates are not provided according to the minimum jail standards required by TCJS. Such is the case with a jail inspection report dated February 7, 2022. Details follow.

Van Zandt County Jail is Allegedly Non-Compliant with Rule §275.1

Rule §275.1 – Regular Observations by Jailers requires that face-to-face observations of prisoners shall be performed as specified. This, specifically, means that the general population at county jails must be observed in intervals not to exceed every 60 minutes. Supervision of potentially suicidal and mentally ill inmates must be stricter, with observations made and documented in intervals not to exceed every 30 minutes.

• Supervision was allegedly not provided as required in areas of Van Zandt County Jail where mentally ill prisoners, potentially suicidal inmates, and inmates who have demonstrated bizarre behavior are housed. A TCJS inspector indicates that face-to-face observations that were supposed to be made every 30 minutes were conducted at times that routinely exceeded 30 minutes by anywhere from 1 minute to 91 minutes.

Learn more in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of this series.

There is no intention on this site to suggest that persons or entities have been engaged in misdeeds. Being of help to Texas inmates now or previously detained in a county jail is the aim of this site’s posts.

–Guest Contributor