Carlos S. Contreras was 67 years old when he was booked into Nueces County Jail on September 27, 2022, and when his custodial death occurred at Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi on October 2, 2022. The custodial death report (CDR) filed about his passing provides few details, and there seems no way to know the cause of death until autopsy results are in.

Compared to other states, research suggests that custodial deaths in local Texas jails occur more frequently than the national average. Statistics like this have resulted in widespread scrutiny and speculation about the causes. When the 2018 mortality data for local jails was released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), numbers revealed a rate of 154 deaths per 100,000 individuals in jails. This rate was the highest since 2000, the first year BJS prepared such a report.

The data also showed that, though the jail population had grown, the percentage of deaths in jails grew even more.

The BJS report showed that, at 30%, suicide continues to be the single leading cause of death for detainees in local jails. Compared to the general U.S. population, jailed individuals are three times more likely to die from suicide.

Learn more in Part 1 and Part 2 of this continuing series.

Aiding inmates held in municipal or county Texas jails is the reason this website was established. There is never an intention on this site, including ongoing posts, to accuse people or organizations of involvement in misdeeds.

–Guest Contributor