Category: Bexar County Sheriff|County Jails|Custodial Death|Medical Care

At the Bexar County Jail in San Antonio, Texas, Daniel Maldonado was booked and incarcerated on January 10, 2022. He died just over a month later on February 15, 2022. A custodial death report (CDR) about Mr. Maldonado’s passing was filed with the Office of Attorney General of Texas by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office on March 3, 2022.

Bexar County Jail Inmate Richard Altamirano Dies on 11/8/21

On November 5, 2021, Richard Altamirano was booked into Bexar County Jail. He died at the age of 58 at 3:32 AM on November 8, 2021. A CDR about his death was submitted on November 22, 2021. The CDR indicates in the summary of how the death occurred that Mr. Altamirano refused a diabetic check. For that reason, a welfare check was conducted at about 2:20 AM on the morning of his death. At that time a code for medical assistance was initiated. Mr. Altamirano was evaluated there in the multiple-occupancy cell where he had been housed, after which a Code 1 blue aka medical emergency was initiated. An ambulance arrived and took Mr. Altamirano to a medical facility at about 3:15 AM. Tragically, life-saving measures were unsuccessful. Just 17 minutes later, a doctor pronounced Mr. Altamirano dead.

See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of this series.

Inferring that people or institutions have engaged in misdeeds is never intended on this website. Each of the posts on this site is meant as a resource helpful to inmates now or previously incarcerated in a county jail in Texas.

–Guest Contributor

Norma Barrera Avila was booked into Reeves County Jail in Pecos, Texas, on 10/21/2020 and died approximately nine hours later on the same day. She was 54 years old, and the autopsy report indicates that the cause of death was chronic ischemic heart disease.

County jails in Texas face the growing problem of drug-addicted inmates. The need for detox treatment in jails is a problem across the US. The biggest struggle is that jails are not treatment facilities. Although medical care is provided and the drug problem has been widespread for decades, jails are oftentimes ill-equipped to provide inmates with adequate drug treatment.

Various county jails in Texas have adopted programs to address addiction, and the prevailing opioid addiction has likely challenged every jail in the nation. Bexar County in San Antonio, Texas, announced in February 2020 that it was launching a pilot program to offer inmates new options for opioid addiction treatment. Bexar County was set to be one of the first counties in Texas to administer Vivitrol, a federally approved drug to address dependence on opioids. The program was planned for 100 inmates in the county jail over the course of one year.

Nonviolent offenders were invited to volunteer for participation and to determine whether they qualify medically and psychologically for the medication-assisted addiction treatment.

It was expected that the Texas governor’s office would pay for the medication with a $385,000 grant.

There is no intention on this site to infer wrongdoing on the part of any persons or organizations. Helping inmates now or previously detained in county jails in Texas is the purpose of this site’s posts.

–Guest Contributor