Norma Barrera Avila was booked into Reeves County Jail in Pecos, Texas, on 10/21/2020 and died approximately nine hours later on the same day. She was 54 years old, and the autopsy report indicates that the cause of death was chronic ischemic heart disease.

County jails in Texas face the growing problem of drug-addicted inmates. The need for detox treatment in jails is a problem across the US. The biggest struggle is that jails are not treatment facilities. Although medical care is provided and the drug problem has been widespread for decades, jails are oftentimes ill-equipped to provide inmates with adequate drug treatment.

Various county jails in Texas have adopted programs to address addiction, and the prevailing opioid addiction has likely challenged every jail in the nation. Bexar County in San Antonio, Texas, announced in February 2020 that it was launching a pilot program to offer inmates new options for opioid addiction treatment. Bexar County was set to be one of the first counties in Texas to administer Vivitrol, a federally approved drug to address dependence on opioids. The program was planned for 100 inmates in the county jail over the course of one year.

Nonviolent offenders were invited to volunteer for participation and to determine whether they qualify medically and psychologically for the medication-assisted addiction treatment.

It was expected that the Texas governor’s office would pay for the medication with a $385,000 grant.

There is no intention on this site to infer wrongdoing on the part of any persons or organizations. Helping inmates now or previously detained in county jails in Texas is the purpose of this site’s posts.

–Guest Contributor