A series of lawsuits have been filed in connection with the death of 42-year-old Daren Borges, who died in a Southern California sobering cell. The civil rights action included a lawsuit against Humboldt County for the tragic death in the Humboldt County Correctional Facility. In late August 2017, a federal jury in McKinleyville ruled against Humboldt County. Borges’ mother obtained a $2.5 million judgment in the jury’s decision. Ultimately, the ruling of the jury was that Borges’ constitutional rights were violated.
More specifically, the jury unanimously agreed that three correctional officers failed to provide Borges with adequate medical care during his brief detention in June of 2014. They ruled that the force behind those officers’ actions were the customs, practices, official policies, and/or training programs of Humboldt County.
This is the type of verdict that seems to be needed in Texas and perhaps the nationwide criminal justice system. Deficient customs are costing inmates their lives, many times when the simplest and most basic medical treatments are needed. Reforms are desperately needed, to prevent tragic and completely unavoidable custodial deaths.
The lawsuit claimed that medical assistance for Borges was desperately and obviously required and that if written policies were followed, he could have survived his illness. The lawsuit also alleged that those written policies were routinely ignored and violated as a basic standard operating procedure at the facility.
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