Discovered unresponsive but awake, 47-year-old Hidalgo County Jail inmate Miguel Angel Garcia was transported to nearby Edinburg, Texas, hospital on the morning of September 4, 2022. Once at the hospital, Mr. Garcia was diagnosed with severe cirrhosis of the liver and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, according to a jail supervisor. Tragically, Mr. Garcia died the following day. His cause of death is currently unknown and results from an autopsy are awaited.

Hidalgo County Jail is Found Non-Compliant with Minimum Jail Standards in November 2021

A Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) inspector conducted an inspection at Hidalgo County Jail November 8-10, 2021, and released a resulting non-compliance report. TCJS establishes and enforces minimum jail standards by which Texas city and county jails are required to operate. When standards are not upheld, various outcomes become possible, including custodial deaths.

For example, there have been instances when inmates were denied the prescriptions issued to them by doctors. Evidence has shown that inmates have died because of the jail’s failure to issue prescription meds per doctors’ orders. This failure to comply with minimum jail standards is one of the two areas of alleged non-compliance for which Hidalgo County Jail was cited after the November 2021 inspection.

Hidalgo County Jail is Allegedly Non-Compliant with Rule §273.2(7)

Per Rule §273.2(7), the distribution of prescriptions to inmates must be in keeping with instructions written by physicians and must be performed by the appropriate person who has been designated by the sheriff or jail operator.

• Medication administration records were reviewed during an inspection of Hidalgo County Jail, and there was a failure to show that medications are distributed to inmates in accordance with doctors’ written instructions.

See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of this series.

This website’s mission is to help inmates in county and city Texas jails by providing helpful resources. It is never intended to imply that an institution or individual has participated in wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor