San Antonio, Texas \u2014 SAN ANTONIO – \u201cMy son is a hero, he\u2019s a champion, he went out giving love.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is how Lydia Leos remembers her son, Julian Dena.<\/p>\n
Dena, 34, was arrested by San Antonio police in July 2020. The Bexar County Sheriff\u2019s Office said he swallowed Methamphetamine while being booked into the county jail. He died three days later, but his kidneys, liver and lungs helped save four lives, according to his family. <\/p>\n
Other families have also lost loved ones shortly after they entered the jail system.<\/p>\n
Andrea Nicole Garcia, 31, died in the jail booking area the day after San Antonio police arrested her in September 2024. The Sheriff\u2019s Office initially said her medical emergency was exacerbated by detoxing. The medical examiner later ruled that she died from methamphetamine toxicity.<\/p>\n
Alexandra Gedminas, 29, died in the jail in 2021. An investigative report documented her vomiting and falling while she was detoxing from heroin.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter was 29 at the time of her death, leaving behind a five-year-old son and an infant daughter,\u201d her mother, Rexanne Seidler, said. <\/p>\n
The cases are different, and there is no way to know whether a different booking process would have changed their outcomes. But Sheriff Javier Salazar says they show why medical screening and recognizing the signs of withdrawal cannot wait.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of those deaths are happening within the first seven days,\u201d Salazar said during our exclusive tour of a county building he wants to turn into a new booking center.<\/p>\n
He said the jail continues to receive people who are detoxing from opioids, benzodiazepines, alcohol and other drugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith just looking at that group, if we can do a better job as a system of keeping those people out of the jail setting, deflecting them elsewhere, absolutely those numbers are going to come down,\u201d Salazar said.<\/p>\n
A process that can take 16 hours or longer<\/p>\n
Many people arrested by San Antonio police are first taken to the city\u2019s Arrestee Processing Center on Frio Street.<\/p>\n
They are processed and appear before a magistrate there. If they are not released, they are transported to the county jail, where they go through another intake process and a similar hearing before bail is set.<\/p>\n
A county-commissioned study found that the process can take 16 hours or longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody can argue and say that the double-magistration process is working better or that it\u2019s any cheaper or more efficient,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cYou\u2019d be hard-pressed to make that argument.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salazar said the delay can be especially dangerous when someone is experiencing withdrawal or another medical emergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes if somebody is detoxing and they\u2019re brought in by the city, they\u2019ve already been sitting in that building over there for eight or 10 hours, 12 hours by the time they get here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Salazar wants to replace that divided system with one location where city and county arrestees could be booked, medically evaluated, brought before a magistrate and considered for mental health or substance-use diversion.<\/p>\n
Inside the proposed booking center<\/p>\n
The county building is next to Pretrial Services, about two blocks from the jail. It is currently used to train new recruits at the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
The academy would have to move before the building could be converted.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, I\u2019m looking to make this a one-stop shop and once and for all let\u2019s make it a safer environment than what we\u2019ve got going on right now because everything that we\u2019ve got right now just still seems kind of piecemeal,\u201d Salazar said.<\/p>\n
The sheriff said the proposed center could handle about 200 people at a time. People would receive an early medical assessment and remain under observation throughout the booking process.<\/p>\n
Those who qualify could be released on bond or directed to mental health, substance-use or other services without entering the jail. Those who remain in custody would be transported to the jail after the booking and medical-screening process.<\/p>\n
Salazar said one option under discussion is a \u201cred door, blue door, green door\u201d system<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the other possibilities that has been tossed around in discussions has been going to a red door, blue door, green door type concept,\u201d Salazar said.<\/p>\n
A person going through regular booking would enter through the red door. Someone who may be more appropriately directed to mental health treatment would enter through the blue door. Officers dropping off evidence or property would use the green door.<\/p>\n
University Health, which provides medical and mental health care inside the jail, has toured the building. Salazar expects the health system to play an important role in the center, although no final staffing or operating agreement has been approved.<\/p>\n
The building would also need extensive renovations. Salazar said regular doors would have to be replaced with secure pneumatic doors, and the facility would need hardened ceilings, improved ventilation, smoke-evacuation systems, and other security upgrades.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey told me that once we start knocking down walls and doing everything that needs to get done, about 18 months,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cBut that\u2019s why I\u2019m like, OK, then we need to start now, as opposed to six months from now, or a year from now. This needs to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The county decides whether to build it<\/p>\n
The project does not require the city\u2019s approval to move forward as a county facility.<\/p>\n
Bexar County Commissioners Court would have to approve the final plan and identify funding for the center’s construction and operation. No final cost has been determined.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, obviously, finding the money is an obstacle,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cBut, you know, quite frankly, I don\u2019t think not building it is an option. I think the community is demanding that this be changed. We need some major changes to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The City of San Antonio has a separate decision to make: whether it will join the county, move its booking operation out of the Frio Street facility, and participate in the one-stop system.<\/p>\n
City elected officials, city staff and Interim Police Chief Jesse Salame have toured the building. The city has not committed to joining the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndicators are that we\u2019re heading that direction,\u201d Salazar said.<\/p>\n
For now, Salazar says he is moving forward with plans to turn the building into the new county booking center while he waits to see whether San Antonio will join the county.<\/p>\n
The final decision to build and fund it rests with Bexar County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio, Texas \u2014 SAN ANTONIO – \u201cMy son is a hero, he\u2019s a champion, he went out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-415904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}