Celestino Perez was an inmate of Tom Green County Jail when he died on January 2, 2021. The Tom Green County Sheriff’s Department in San Angelo, Texas, filed the custodial death report. Mr. Perez received extensive medical care while he was incarcerated, and he reportedly died of natural causes.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards sets the guidelines for the operation of county jails in the state. Necessary medical care for inmates must be provided. The tuberculosis screening plan is an important health consideration. A few details on the tuberculosis screening plan follows:

• Any jail facility with a 100-bed capacity or more must develop and implement a tuberculosis screening test for employees, inmates, and volunteers. The requirement is also for facilities that house inmates transferred from a facility with at least a 100-bed capacity or from another state.

• When an inmate has been confined for more than 7 days, he or she must be tested on or before the 7th day after entry into the facility. Inmates may be exempt from the tuberculosis screening test when the test conflicts with the tenets of an organized religion that the individual may belong to. Another reason for exemptions is when the test is contraindicated by a physician’s examination.

In this continuing series, learn more about the tuberculosis requirements by TCJS as well as some of the reasons this type of care is essential.

This website provides information intended as helpful resources for Texas county jail inmates, whether now or previously incarcerated. It is never an intention on this site to infer wrongdoing on persons or entities.

 –Guest Contributor