Frio sheriff will continue accepting Pearsall arrests at county jail

By Breyana Segura - Chief Staff Writer | May 20, 2026

“Our policies are not going to change”

The 30-day window following the city of Pearsall’s termination of its decades-old inmate housing contract with Frio County has officially expired.

However, local law enforcement operations will avoid immediate disruption as Frio County Sheriff Peter Salinas confirmed his office would continue to accept city arrestees, pre-magistration, under the existing intake guidelines.

The transition marks the latest development in a long-simmering dispute over inmate medical expenses.

“Since 2019, there have been efforts from the city of Pearsall, particularly to the county judges,” Pearsall City Manager Federico Reyes said in a meeting on Tuesday, May 12. “Part of it has been silence and avoidance; no one has really wanted to discuss it because it is a tough topic.”

While the city continues to pay the $50 jail booking fee, the breakdown in contract negotiations stems entirely from post-COVID spikes in non-jail medical bills.

According to Reyes, the city’s inmate medical expenses rarely exceeded $2,000-$3,000 annually prior to 2020.

Since 2021, however, the city has paid over $100,000 in medical bills, including a single $50,000 lump sum to resolve outstanding hospital bills.

Mayor Ben Briscoe said the city is halfway through the fiscal year and has incurred $74,000 in inmate medical costs.

In an effort to protect municipal funds, Pearsall councilors recently passed two resolutions declaring that the city would no longer pay outside hospital expenses unless explicitly mandated by state law.

Briscoe said he believes that if the hospital district collects $6 million in local tax revenue, it should absorb those medical costs. The hospital district maintains that the city remains liable.

“The hospital believes they do not owe this; we believe that the hospital does owe this,” Briscoe told commissioners. “It is not our position that we don’t want to pay and push it on you. It is not your bill either.”

According to Briscoe, legislation reads, “other municipal entities within the county may not pay medical expenses for district residents.”

“I understand, not everyone in the county gets free medical health care but it says district residents,” Briscoe said. “So that is what we are trying to get clearance on. It is my position, the city manager’s, and the city attorney’s, that it is hard to get past that ‘district resident.’ I will let the hospital speak for themselves. They say that is not accurate, that we are liable for that, and I disagree. It was never our intent for the county to pay for it. The amount that goes to the hospital district is $6 million, and I will let the hospital speak to where that money goes and how that benefits the county directly.”

The financial strain is exacerbated by medical clearance protocols, according to the city manager, which dictate that any arrestee showing signs of illness or injury must be medically cleared by a healthcare professional before being booked.

Reyes told the court that statistics from City Hall indicate that one in five individuals arrested by city police have warrants.

“So the question becomes, if we are making the arrest and we have to get these people medically cleared, how do we decipher that situation?” the city manager asked. “The other challenge is one in ten people have to get medically cleared.”

Salinas said intake policies are non-negotiable and apply equally to all agencies, including state troopers and county deputies.

“I don’t know if it is one in five or one in ten, but what I have asked my staff to do is create a log when they ask for a medical clearance,” the sheriff said. “Now, that is any arresting agency; deputies are not excluded. That policy is not going to change.”

The sheriff also said current policy does not require arresting agencies to take arrestees to Frio Regional Hospital.

“You can take them [arrestees] to whatever medical professional you like that can give them a clearance,” Salinas said. “Our policies are not going to change. They signed a resolution, and it does state they need medical clearance. We are not billing for wherever that medical treatment takes place. We are asking that that person be checked out, cleared, and brought back. To tell you why their hospital costs have gone up, that is not really a conversation for me to be involved in. All I know is our medical bill is budgeted for, is funded, is up to date, and we are managing.”

Reyes asked why the Texas Department of Public Safety does not have an inmate booking fee.

According to Salinas, state troopers enforce traffic laws inside the county and those citations are issued to local justices of peace.

“So that is their [state troopers’] contribution to the jail,” the sheriff said. “That is why they do not pay the fifty-dollar fee. However, they follow every other policy and procedure, including medical clearance, and they are not exempt from that. Again, that policy is going to remain.”

Joseph Sindon, legal counsel for the commissioners, said the city’s recent attempts to redline the jail contract to deflect liability toward the hospital are legally invalid, as the hospital is not a signing party to the city-county agreement.

“The problem with their redlines is they are basically adding redlines to give legal responsibility to the hospital, and the hospital is not a party to the contract,” the attorney said. “You cannot bind somebody to a contract that you did not sign. I think it stems mainly from a misconception that they are bound to the hospital and they are not. They are bound to us.”

Reyes reiterated his opinion that the policies “are meant to have good intentions.”

“But those policies have made things really messy,” the city manager said, “in a sense that we are all kind of pointing fingers at one another and nobody really wants to take on the task.”

Despite the expired contract, both sides have expressed a willingness to return to the negotiating table.

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