SAN ANTONIO, TX — Friday night’s storm hit the Bexar County Jail hard, knocking out electricity and leaving more than 4,800 inmates without air conditioning. Water also began leaking in from the roof, raising fresh concerns inside the facility as deputies worked through the outage.
Sheriff Javier Salazar said emergency generators kept essential systems going, but only in a limited way. He said the backup power was enough to keep the lights on, but not enough to run the air conditioning normally, and staff had to keep operations moving under those conditions.
Processing Delays and Limited Backup Power
Salazar said intake and inmate processing slowed because jail deputies had to rely on laptops while the facility was running on backup power. Some outlets worked, but not all of them, which made it harder to keep the devices charged and paperwork moving.
He said the backlog created by the outage had been reduced by Monday. The sheriff also said the jail was still functioning, but not smoothly, because the generators were not designed to power every system the same way normal utility service would.
During a News 4 I-Team interview, Salazar said the generators were mainly there to keep the lights on. He said they did not fully restore the building’s cooling system, which left people inside uncomfortable during the outage.
What Conditions Were Like Inside
Salazar said the jail stayed within Texas jail standards for most of the time, and those rules say temperatures should remain below 85 degrees. Even so, he acknowledged that inmates were uncomfortable while the air conditioning was out.
To help with the heat, Salazar said inmates were given cold water. He also said he ordered staff to be flexible about showers, even if that meant letting people shower at unusual hours in the middle of the night.
The sheriff did not describe any serious health emergency tied to the outage. Instead, he stressed that staff were trying to manage conditions as best they could while power problems and roof leaks were being addressed.
Power Restored Sunday Morning After Roof Damage Check
Salazar said the jail stayed on generators until Sunday morning, when CPS Energy fully restored power. By Monday, the sheriff’s drone unit had flown over the building and found roof damage that may have been responsible for the water leaking inside.
That inspection helped explain why the storm created more than just a power problem. The combination of lost electricity, broken cooling, and possible roof damage turned the outage into a broader disruption for one of the county’s largest lockups.
Salazar said the jail was back on track after the restoration, but the storm had already forced deputies and staff to work around limited power, delayed processing, and uncomfortable conditions for thousands of inmates.
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