Five inmates at Monterey County Jail taken to the hospital for possible opioid overdose

UPDATE 7/12/2019 6:00 p.m. A group of inmates were hospitalized after overdosing at the Monterey County Jail overnight.

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office believes it was an opioid overdose.

The sheriff’s office says five inmates were taken to the hospital around 2 a.m.

One of those inmates overdosed again and was taken back to the hospital.

They say a custody and control specialist saw an inmate being helped to the shower by other inmates, that inmate seemed to be in distress.

Deputies and medical staff got to the areas and saw signs of an opioid overdose that inmate and in four other inmates.

They used narcan to counteract the overdoses and later took the inmates to the hospital.

The sheriff’s office is now investigating how the inmates got the drugs.

They say they have a series of system in place to try to keep drugs out.

“[The inmates] are searched a couple of times,” said Capt. John Thornburg with the sheriff’s office, “Traditionally an exterior search, we do have our body scanner and we do scan them, but obviously as we discovered last night, nothing is perfect.”

The sheriff’s office believes the drug was fetanyl after they found that drug in a search of the area.

The time each of those five inmates was in jail ranged from less than six hours to one year.

One other inmate was treated for an overdose early Thursday. The sheriff’s office does not know yet if that situation was related to the five Friday overdoses.

UPDATE 7/12/2019 12:30 p.m. Five inmates were taken to the hospital and two others were taken to the jail infirmary after what the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office believes was an opioid overdose.

It happened at the Monterey County Jail at around 2 a.m. A Custody and Control Specialist saw an inmate being helped to the shower by other inmates, and the inmate seemed to be in distress, so the control specialist contacted deputies and medical staff.

When they got there, the deputies and medical staff from Well Path saw signs of a potential opioid overdose. They used Narcan to counteract the overdose. In total, the Sheriff’s Office said five inmates were treated with Narcan and taken to the hospital, and two other inmates were taken to the jail infirmary.

The Sheriff’s Office said the housing unit was evacuated and quarantined. Deputies and a K9 searched the unit, but did not find anything.

The inmates taken to the hospital were treated and released. One of the inmates had a second episode back at the jail. The inmate was given Narcan again and an ambulance responded. The inmate became responsive, and the Sheriff’s Office said admitted that he hid the drug in his nose and used it again after returning to the jail.

The incident is still under investigation, and law enforcement is looking into how the drugs got into the jail.

PREVIOUS STORY: The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office tells KION that five inmates at the Monterey County Jail were taken to the hospital for what it believes to be drug exposure overnight.

The inmates were cleared by the hospital and are back at the jail.

We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.