Andres Linares Baca was housed in a single cell at El Paso County Jail on May 29, 2022. Jailers were flagged down at 2:52 PM about an unknown problem in his cell. Officers observed that Mr. Baca was unresponsive. The summary of his death only says that he was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Hanging/strangulation was, however, listed as his means of death within the report about his passing, though the summary specifically indicates that the manner of death was pending the results of an autopsy.

21 Inmates Die in El Paso County Jail Between 2016 and 2020

In recent years, there have been increasing numbers of inmates who have died in the two El Paso County jail facilities. The number of inmates who died in either the East Side jail annex or the downtown detention number was 14 between 2010 and 2015. That number rose to 21 in the five years that followed.

Nine of the deaths in the five years ending 2020 were suicides. It has long been recognized that suicide is the leading cause of death in local jails. Therefore, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS), which establishes minimum jail standards, includes suicide prevention in the operational mandates.

In spite of the high number of deaths at the El Paso county jail facilities, there seems to be no record of non-compliance with minimum jail standards at the El Paso jails since they were cited up to three times in 2017. A shocking breach in observation requirements was discovered during an inspection which took into account the death of inmate Robert Gallegos in evaluating the jail’s compliance or lack of it.

See Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this continuing series. In the next segment, learn more about the jail inspection reports on non-compliance in El Paso county jails in 2017.

Helping inmates who are in a municipal or county jail in the state of Texas is the reason for this website. There is no intention of implicating that individuals or institutions have participated in wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor