Three weeks after one man died from a suspected overdose at a downtown jail, authorities said another seven Men’s Central Jail inmates were hospitalized early Tuesday morning following another potential drug exposure incident.
Shortly before 7 a.m., jail deputies responded to a medical emergency in the Bauchet Street jail’s 5600 dorm, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. In addition to taking lifesaving measures — including giving the men the overdose-reversing drug naloxone — deputies requested help from the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Paramedics took all seven men to local hospitals “as a precautionary measure,” though fire officials said six were stable and conscious. One was in critical condition.
“We’re really praying that he makes it,” Sheriff Robert Luna said in a press conference later Tuesday morning. “We have a zero tolerance [policy] for any narcotics in any of our custody facilities, so there will be a very thorough investigation about how, what, when, why, and all that, because we need to figure out how this happens so we can prevent it from happening again.”
After the incident, jailers cleared out the dorm — then went back later in the day to search the area for drugs. Just before 3 p.m., officials said, seven custody staff conducting that search were taken to local hospitals after “experiencing symptoms potentially related to today’s earlier suspected overdose incident,” according to the department.
The department did not specify what those symptoms were or explain exactly how the jailers may have been exposed but said that they were only sent to the hospital as a precaution. They all remained conscious and in stable condition, the department said.
In a statement Tuesday, the Sheriff’s Department said it is working to keep drugs out of the jails with the help of mail scanners, body scanners and drug-sniffing dogs.
“The department is optimistic that in the near future,” the statement continued, “we will have the use of updated technological solutions, including more advanced body and property scanners that will further assist us in minimizing illicit substances in the jails.”
The department has also worked to address the problem by investigating its own employees. In April, a sheriff’s deputy who was part of a task force focused on keeping the county lockups free of drugs and gang activity was arrested and accused of smuggling drugs into one of the county jails.
Drug use and drug overdoses have been persistent problems inside the jails. On October 8, seven people were hospitalized and one man in his 30s died from suspected overdoses in a holding cell at the Inmate Reception Center. Authorities have not said what drugs were involved or how the inmates might have obtained them.
In June, six inmates and two jailers at another county jail were taken to the hospital after they were exposed to a “toxic substance,” which jail officials have since confirmed was fentanyl, though it is not clear how the inmates and staff came into contact with it.
At Tuesday’s news conference, Luna said being around fentanyl in any “shape, way or form” could “cause immediate death.” Medical experts, however, have repeatedly debunked claims that fentanyl can be absorbed simply through skin contact. The drug is routinely used by doctors during surgeries, and overdoses typically involve smoking, injecting, or inhaling illicit fentanyl.
Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences who studies addiction at Northeastern University, said law enforcement officials have repeatedly misstated the dangers of fentanyl exposure in recent years.
“It has been conclusively shown that you cannot overdose by touching or accidentally breathing in fentanyl, and it does not have magical powers that supersede the laws of science or nature,” he told The Times, adding that inaccurate information could “discourage people from aiding folks who may be experiencing an overdose.”
It’s not clear whether fentanyl was involved in Tuesday’s incident, and the sheriff declined to speculate what drug could have sparked the latest cluster of suspected overdoses.
The department said this week that its Organized Crime Task Force and Operation Safe Jails are both investigating.
