The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office submitted a custodial death report on Brandon Pacheco Calzada on December 29, 2021. The 23-year-old inmate died on Christmas Eve, 2021. According to the report about his death, Mr. Calzada died of a drug overdose.

Inspectors with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) made the following notes about non-compliance with rules on the supervision of inmates.

Jail Inspection Report Dated 12/7/21

With regard to alleged noncompliance with RULE §275.1 regarding regular observation by jailers, an inspector with TCJS noted that the face-to-face observations of inmates in increments no greater than once every 60 minutes was exceeded by between 1 and 12 minutes.

In the same non-compliance a report, the inspector shows that RULE §265.3 – Observation During Holding had not been complied with, either. In this rule established by TCJS, inmates who are being held in a detoxification cell or a holding cell must be observed by jailers at intervals not to exceed every 30 minutes. The inspector said members of the jail staff exceeded this half-hour face-to-face observation check in both detox cells and holding cells by 1 to 10 minutes. 

Jail Inspection Report Dated 12/1/21

A TCJS inspector found that a Texas county jail was noncompliant with RULE §273.6 – Restraints. Instead of the required 15-minute check on inmates being held in restraints, the inspector says that documentation showed that jail staff members exceeded the quarter-hour observations by 1 to 23 minutes.

Find out more in Part 1 and this continuing series.

Implicating persons or entities in wrongdoing is never intended on this website. Helping inmates currently or previously detained in jails in Texas counties is the purpose of these posts.

–Guest Contributor