After 23-year-old Brandon Pacheco Calzada was booked into El Paso County Jail in El Paso, Texas, not much time had passed before fellow inmates reported to jailers that he had taken some kind of pill. A detention officer checked on Mr. Calzada and saw that he was struggling to breathe. The inmate was transported to a local hospital, where he died on December 24th, 2021, which was eight days after admission.

Regular observation by jailers is addressed in RULE §275.1 of the Texas Administrative Code. It is required by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) for all inmates to be checked on every 60 minutes at most. Prisoners who are considered to be at risk must have face-to-face observations every 30 minutes. A person being held in restraints must be personally observed every 15 minutes, and the observation must include checking to ensure that blood circulation has not been cut off to major extremities. The respective time frames must not be exceeded.

Supervision of prisoners is very important, so much so that a recent new requirement for county jails was added that had a deadline of August 31, 2020. It ensures that observations of prisoners who are at risk are recorded electronically. These automatic electronic checks are weighed against hand-written documentation, to verify accuracy.

Disturbingly, when jails are found to be non-compliant with minimum jail standards established by TCJS, failure in the area of inmate supervision is often cited.

Find out more in this continuing series.

Intimating that a person or entity has been involved in wrongdoing is never intended on this website. Providing beneficial resources to inmates detained in county jails in Texas is the purpose of the posts on this site.

–Guest Contributor