DEATH BEHIND THE WALLS: ANOTHER COUNTY INMATE DIES

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

In what has become a too-common occurrence under Cameron County Sheriff Eric Garza's administration, yet another inmate has been found dead inside his cell at the Rucker-Carrizales Detention Center at Olmito.

This time the dead inmate is identified as a 49-year-old male (not identified by sheriff's office yet) who jailers say died after he was allegedly exercising at night in his cell. As usual, the Texas Rangers are on the scene. Let's hope that they won't just say it was "accidental" and absolve the jail and policies until another inmate dies.

Garza, usually found posting laudatory messages on his Facebook page has not given out any information on the inmate's death. Finally, just yesterday, Garza posted that: "On Friday, December 16, 2022, an inmate incarcerated at Carrizales-Rucker was transported to the hospital due to a medical emergency. After complications, the inmate passed away."

Then he takes a freebie. Even before he mentions that the death is being investigated by the Texas Rangers and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, he issues his finding. "No foul play is suspected. The Texas Rangers and the (Commission) have been notified. The investigation is ongoing."

He has complained in the past that county commissioners do not give him enough money to hire jailers who seek employment elsewhere. At one time, the jails were more than 55 jailers short and many were working overtime hours to provide custody to the inmates.

This latest death while in custody follows another just this past May 4. The death of inmate Lidia Grover, of Harlingen, who was booked April 27 for criminal trespassing and had a $500 bond was also investigated by the Texas Rangers. She was found unresponsive in her cell at the Rucker-Carrizales Detention Center and transferred to Valley Regional Center where JP 2-1 Linda Salazar pronounced her dead and ordered an autopsy.

What made that inmate death even seem even more unnecessary is that it happened when Sheriff Garza had sent four of his jail administrators and captains out of town for a week for training even though the jails are short on staff and did not pass a state inspection for that very reason. The chief jailer and major were attending the conference in San Marcos and the jail commander and major were also out of town.

This "rookie mistake" might have led to lax supervision of inmates at the jails, some department staff asserted at the time.

And the woman had been there since April 27 until May 4 – a week – without making the $500 bond. Where was our vaunted pre-trial release program?