Over the course of three days, three inmates on the Santa Barbara County Principal Jail have been discovered unresponsive of their cells from obvious opioid overdoses and resuscitated with Narcan, the opioid reversal drug, in response to the Sheriff’s Workplace.
On Thursday, September 7, custody deputies discovered an unresponsive male inmate mendacity on the bottom within the dayroom, in response to Sheriff’s Workplace spokesperson Raquel Zick, and requested emergency medical assist. Medical employees then administered two rounds of Narcan, attaching an AED to his chest. The inmate regained consciousness after the second dose and was transported to an space hospital for follow-up remedy.
In a second incident later that very same day in the identical housing space, one other inmate was discovered unresponsive in his bunk at round 1:20 p.m. Emergency medical help was once more requested, and three doses of Narcan have been administered to the inmate, who regained consciousness and was additionally taken to the hospital.
Two days later, on Saturday, September 9, custody deputies discovered an unconscious male inmate in a receiving-area cell at 3:49 p.m. and radioed for medical assist. The inmate was resuscitated with one dose of Narcan and in addition transported to the hospital. The identities of the three inmates haven’t been launched.
The three near-death experiences come lower than per week after the in-custody dying of 37-year-old Goleta resident Luis Enrique Duron Rodriguez. Rodriguez had been booked into the Principal Jail on August 31 on felony fees of driving below the affect leading to damage and hit-and-run with accidents, in addition to misdemeanor reckless driving. He had been positioned in a “single remark cell because of medical issues,” and checked at common intervals, Zick stated, till early September 3, when he was found unresponsive and transported to a close-by hospital, the place he died hours later. The trigger and method of his dying stay below investigation.
Rodriguez is simply the newest inmate to die within the county jails. In Could, 57-year-old inmate David Lee Ligon died within the Northern Department Jail of an obvious drug overdose simply days after one other inmate, Rio Favourite Ulvaeus, 45, of Santa Barbara, died of an opioid overdose within the Principal Jail. On the time of these two deaths, Sheriff’s Workplace spokesperson Jarrett Morris said that the jail was implementing further measures to scale back entry to medication whereas in custody. “By using extremely educated narcotic-detection canines and superior physique scanners and conducting random searches, we actively intercept and stop the entry of fentanyl and different illicit substances into the services,” he stated. “Equally essential, all custody deputies are outfitted with Narcan, the lifesaving antidote, empowering them to manage instant medical help in case of opioid overdose emergencies.”
This summer season, a Santa Barbara County Grand Jury issued 4 blistering experiences detailing how systemic gaps within the county’s legal justice system led to the deaths of 5 inmates in Santa Barbara County jails final yr. (These experiences are summarized right here and could be learn in full on-line right here.)
This Tuesday, September 12, the Board of Supervisors will likely be approving an modification to the county’s contract with Wellpath, the medical and mental-health providers supplier to the county’s jails. The modification will lengthen the $14.7 million contract by one yr at an extra value of $848,000. That enhance is the results of a 5 p.c enhance in the price of labor and 36 p.c enhance in the price of prescribed drugs.
