The Webb County Sheriff’s Office filed a custodial death report (CDR) on Christopher Torres-Garcia on April 21, 2022. It specifies that the 34-year-old inmate died from sepsis due to drug injection sites that had become infected. It also shows that the inmate received medical treatment between the time he entered the Laredo, Texas, jail and the day he died, which was a week later on December 8, 2021.

127 of 195 Inmates in a State’s County Jails Outside Texas Die of Medical Causes

A watchdog group reported that in a county jail outside of Texas, a 36-year-old inmate died within a month of arriving at the jail. His cause of death, allegedly, was a treatable variety of meningitis. An investigation that followed the fatality revealed that people in county jails of that state frequently suffer from dire medical conditions, that they are routinely ignored, and the consequences are often fatal.

The report also suggests that there is little to no oversight regarding healthcare for inmates. They say that neither the for-profit health care companies nor the sheriffs in that state are held responsible for questionable circumstances surrounding many of the inmates’ deaths.

Statistics revealed in the exposé show that of 195 inmates who died in that state’s county jails in a recent 10-year-period, 127 of them died of medical causes. Sepsis, heart disease, and drug overdose were among the medical causes of inmate deaths.

Learn more in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this continuing series.

Speculating that persons or institutions have been participants in misdeeds is never intended on this website. The goal of posts added to this site is to provide help to inmates in Texas county jails, whether they are now in jail or were previously incarcerated.

–Guest Contributor