Ricardo Trevino was a life long convicted felon. I met him at the county jail in 1989 but he had been there so many times before. The only reason I had not met him sooner was because he was in prison. But he was always in prison. Theft, burglary, assault, aggravated assault, you name it he did it. His criminal history read like the Texas Penal Code, just not in order. This time was different though. He was here for murder now. If convicted he would never see the inside of a county jail again. He was facing life in prison.

Ricardo didn't seem like a bad person but he did look mean. He was 32 when I met him and the only thing I thought when I met him was that I would not like to meet him on the street. He had short brown hair and brown eyes and a square jaw. He had a dimple on his chin. His eyes were so light brown that they sometimes looked hazel. He never said much but he always looked like he was ready to fight. His arms were always by his side and his hands in a fist. Ready to fight. He was built like a tree trunk. He wasn't real huge but his shoulders and arms looked like they were carved from large cement blocks. He was scary.

I worked his tank a few times and I noticed he never slept much. He pretty much laid on his bunk the same way he stood. Arms flexed ready for a fight. I called him over to the guard station one night to talk to him and he did not give up much. He wasn't married and he had a girlfriend for six months that he met when he got out from prison. She had a one year old baby. He had been in and out of jail since sixteen. He said this was his 9th time to county jail and he thought this would be his last. I asked him why he was here and he said he got into a fight at a party. He said someone was disrespectful to his girlfriend and he got pissed of so he beat the guy bad with his fists. The victim died after 3 days in the hospital. He turned himself in 2 weeks later to officials when they issued a warrant for his arrest for murder. There was something different about Ricardo. He was the first inmate I had met who I believed was exactly the same in jail as he was outside. A lot of people act differently in jail and out. Not him. I could not picture him any different. He did not talk about his home life or childhood but I imagined it to be hard.

Okay now here is the part where I tell you an ugly secret. No one has ever told this secret out loud much less put it down in writing so it is not easy. You may or may not believe me but it will be easy to tell if it's true or not. All you have to do is ask anyone who worked at the old Hidalgo County jail between 1980 and 1993 and they will adamantly deny it. It's about "elevator rides" and every bit of it is true. 

The old county jail was built to house about 500 inmates. It had sections Alpha through Echo and each divided in 4 sections meant to house about 25 inmates each. It had a large courtyard in the middle but part of it was taken when they had to add the Delta sections on one end of the courtyard because of over crowding. In the late 80's temporary rooms were built to accommodate more prisoners in the back of the jail. The jail was always way over capacity and understaffed. All these sections were 2 stories high so there was an elevator in Charlie section and Echo section. When I started at the jail in 1989 I had never had any law enforcement experience what so ever. I was so incredibly green when it came to dealing with the "justice system". One of the things I first learned about in my training was the existence of "elevator rides". It was explained to me that sometimes inmates misbehaved and the usual punishments were not enough to maintain order. Thus the existence of the elevator ride. It was kind like the "code red" in the military. A non-approved non-written rule that the officers had. If an inmate would not behave a select group of officers had the un-written approval to do what they had to do to fix the problem . The elevator in Charlie section was so slow and perfect for this. It would take almost 30 seconds for the elevator to go from the first floor to the second floor. A select group of officers would take the inmate into Charlie section and take him for the ride. One minute in the elevator with 3 officers would be all that was needed. By the time the doors of the elevator opened up on the bottom floor again the problem was solved. The inmate had learned his lesson and he would never give us problems again. A trip to infirmary was sometimes needed but not often. In my entire time at the jail I know of the elevator ride being used maybe 10 times though I am sure there were other times I was not aware of. I personally witnessed 2 of them. Like anything else in this world that gives men power over another the elevator ride became not just a tool for discipline but deviated into something else. Inmates were given rides sometimes just for fun I'm sure. Having done nothing wrong but maybe rubbed an officer the wrong way.

One particular officer was especially good at them. His name was Javier. When I started the jail he had been there 5 years already. He was also the leader of what they called the 7-man team at that time that was in charge of the extractions of unruly inmates and was always involved in the daily head count. He had no rank. He was there cause he was one of the toughest assholes you ever met and nobody would dare fuck with him. I sure wouldn't. He only talked to me once and that was to tell me to get the fuck out of his way during headcount in my section one evening. Everyone was scared of him. He was often just assigned as "back-up" officer during his shift so he could go where he was needed. This guy was born to give elevator rides. It was his thing.

One day in late 1989 I was working Charlie section when the headcount team walked in to do the daily count. I was in Charlie 2 section. I had 24 inmates in my tank and the head count team came in and did a quick count. Javier was there leading them. As they walked out one of the inmates laughed at something. Javier asked him what he was laughing at and the inmate shut up and put his head down. The inmate had been sitting up against the wall during the count and Javier picked him up by his shirt and slammed him up against the wall. You could tell he was hurt. I looked at the other guys on the team and none of them did anything. Neither did I. Javier threw the man across the room and he landed hard in the middle of the day room. I did not know what to do or what would happen next. I had never had an incident involving officers happen in my section. Javier walked up to the inmate on the floor and was about to give what I believed could only be described as 60 yard field goal attempt. Before that happened we heard the word "that's enough". It was real soft and came from the other end of the room. I was hoping it was one of the other officers but it wasn't. It was Ricardo Trevino. Javier looked at him and said "what the fuck did you say"? Ricardo responded, "I said fuck you". Javier looked around at the other guys and they all walked over to Ricardo and grabbed him. They told him he was going to the hole. He said he wasn't going to the hole. They walked him out of my section and into the area between Charlie and the Delta sections and in front of the elevator. Javier took off his badge and his detention officer shirt and got in Ricardo's face "who the fuck do you think you are?". He pushed him to the wall and Ricardo did not react. After a few moments of everyone staring at each other not knowing what to do Ricardo took his shirt off. Javier laughed and pushed the elevator button. The door opened up and Ricardo walked in. Just as he stepped in Javier jumped him from behind and pushed him. I heard Ricardo hit the back wall of the elevator hard. Javier followed him in and the elevator door closed behind him. I heard the elevator start its long trip up. I looked at the other officers and they just looked away. One of them went to the courtyard entrance of Charlie section to make sure no one was coming. Another one got in front of the Delta section door to make sure no one could see from that section. A third guard ran up to the second floor using the stairs to make sure no one was waiting for the elevator upstairs. A fourth pressed the elevator button to make sure the elevator came back down. The other 3 waited downstairs. This was executed with such precision I could only wonder how many times they really had done it before. I did nothing. The elevator took forever but I know it could not have been more than 60 seconds. Finally the door opened and I did not know what to expect. The guards just stood there. Ricardo walked out and stepped to the side and immediately faced the wall with his hands behind his head and his fingers interlocked. After what seemed like forever again Javier stepped out. He then fell to one knee. The officers did not know what to do. One of them then helped Javier up and the rest jumped on Ricardo. Javier immediately yelled at them to let him go. They walked him back to my tank and he walked right in to his bunk and went to sleep. Not a scratch on him. Javier was bleeding from his nose and ears. He left Charlie section with the team and I did not hear from them again that night. I did not know what to do so I did nothing.

The very next day I was in briefing and the word was given. No more elevator rides. The "word" it turned out came directly from Javier. He spread the word that if he found out anyone gave an elevator ride he would personally beat the shit out of them. Nobody knew why but the story was that Javier had beat the shit out of some inmate and sent him to the hospital with broken bones and everyone was scared because there was an investigation by the "Feds". I laughed inside. That was the last elevator ride.

I saw Ricardo only a couple of times after that but never worked his section again. I saw him in court later and he plead out to 40 years in prison for his crime and left to prison. In 2004 I learned that he was killed in prison. According to his file he had been hounded by one gang who wanted him to join. He refused and beat up one of their members. A few months later 5 of the gang members attacked him and he was stabbed to death. He was able to kill 2 of them before they got him.

The new county jail has no elevators.