In Riverside County, fentanyl is blamed in 38% of in-custody deaths so far this year. Jails are using enhanced technology, searches, education and the availability of Narcan to combat its use.
Jails in Southern California are taking steps to guard against fentanyl-related deaths among inmates, but some are still dying and now deputies and nurses at the institutions are facing the threat of exposure.that fentanyl has been confirmed in the deaths of three inmates and suspected in two other deaths so far in 2022. That total, matching the deaths attributed to fentanyl in 2021 and 2020, constitutes more than 38% of the 13 in-custody deaths this year.
Last fall, at least three nurses and two deputies were exposed to fentanyl while treating an inmate at the Robert Presley Detention Center who consumed the drug but survived. At least two of the nurses went to an ER to be treated, but the deputies declined treatment, according to a nurse who was working at the jail at the time of the incident.
In one incident, she said, she treated an inmate who overdosed on fentanyl on a bus that returned to the jail from court. She resuscitated him with Narcan, he was taken to the hospital and he returned to the jail a couple hours later. “With the fentanyl issue continuing to grow across the U.S., in our county, and in the jail system, we put together a system to track the overdose numbers that will allow us to easily access this information for our own purposes,” Rodriguez said in a July email.
All jails are supplied with Narcan, and inmate welfare checks are conducted every 45 minutes instead of the industry standard of every hour, he said.
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