A group of 22-year-old inmates died of suspected overdoses on a prison bus early Friday morning, prompting Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials to halt court transfers from the downtown facility.
The incident was the department’s first in-custody death of the year, but is the latest in a chaotic week in which wildfires shuttered courthouses, delayed inmate transfers and forced the evacuation of one sheriff’s station. I woke up inside.
The death occurred just after 7 a.m. as inmates were boarding buses from one of the downtown jails to take them to court. In addition to the man who died, two other inmates were hospitalized, both with suspected overdoses, officials said. One was subsequently released from custody and the other was returned to prison.
Shortly before 9:30 a.m., Associate Supervising Judge Judge Yvette Verastegui sent an email to judicial officials warning them of the case and its potential impact on the day’s court proceedings.
“Courtline is currently on lockdown due to multiple inmate overdoses,” the email said. “Inmates at Courtline will either remain there for several hours or be returned to their residences. We are unable to provide an estimated time of arrival today.”
The women’s prison will not be affected, and direct court transfers from the Castaic prison facility will continue as well, according to the email.
But several cases in downtown criminal court were derailed by defendants’ absences, including at least one murder trial in which closing arguments were scheduled to begin Friday.
The sheriff’s office has not released details about what drugs are suspected to be involved or how the men obtained them. A senior court official, who requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, told the Times that the cause of death was fentanyl-related.
Overdoses and drug exposure incidents have plagued Los Angeles prisons in recent months. Last April, a 28-year-old man died from methamphetamine and heroin use, according to prison records. Two weeks later, a 38-year-old woman died in her cell in what the department’s website described as “the effects of fentanyl and methamphetamine.”
In June, six inmates and two guards were taken to the hospital after being exposed to a “toxic substance,” which authorities later confirmed was fentanyl, but no inmates or staff members. It is not clear how he came into contact with it.
Two months later, a 59-year-old man at Men’s Central Prison died from “the effects of oxycodone and hydrocodone,” according to prison records. In early October, seven people were hospitalized, and a group of men in their 30s died of suspected overdoses in a holding room at the inmate reception center. Authorities have not said what drugs were involved, and an autopsy has not yet been performed.
Then, on Oct. 29, seven inmates at Men’s Central Prison were hospitalized after another possible drug exposure incident in Dormitory 5600. Hours later, seven guards were sent to the hospital after authorities said they “began showing symptoms” while searching for drugs in the dormitory.
The next day, a 20-year-old boy on another floor of Men’s Central Jail died from the effects of fentanyl and heroin, records show.
To combat the influx of drugs into county jails, the Sheriff’s Office announced it has enhanced search procedures, including adding canine teams and using mail scanners and body scanners.
“The Department is optimistic that the latest technological solutions, including more advanced body and property scanners, will become available in the near future and will further help minimize illicit drugs in prisons.” officials said last year.
The department has also been working to resolve the issue by investigating its own employees. In April, a sheriff’s deputy who was part of a task force focused on eliminating drug and gang activity from county jails was arrested and charged with smuggling drugs into one of the county jails. Ta.
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