The Nueces County Sheriff’s Department in Corpus Christi, Texas, turned in a custodial death report regarding the death of 48-year-old Donald Oscar Cruz. Mr. Cruz had been incarcerated for five days when he died of natural causes on November 18, 2020.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) sets the guidelines for the operations of county jails in Texas. Some of the rules are dedicated to inmate supervision. That portion of the Texas code includes the information below. In a jail inspection report dated November 15-17, 2021, a Texas county jail was found non-compliant with regard to inmate supervision.

Rule 275.1

This segment of the Texas code states that an appropriate number of jailers must be in each county facility 24 hours every day. Jails must have procedures in place for documenting face-to-face observation of inmates by jailers. In areas where inmates are knowingly mentally ill, potentially suicidal, or assaultive, observations must be made every 30 minutes.  Below are the findings of a TCJS inspector.

• Documentation at the jail revealed that some of the face-to-face inmate observations were performed by jailers between 90 and 144 minutes after the previous round was conducted. This area of non-compliance was in connection with the general population, where observations must be made every 60 minutes.

Learn more in this series, which is to be continued.

Implying that a person or Institution has been a participant in wrongdoing is never intended on this website. The purpose of each post is to help inmates in Texas county jails, whether they are current or former prisoners.

–Guest Contributor