Fentanyl suspected in series of overdoses at women's jail in Lynwood

Over the last two months, at least seven incarcerated people have overdosed at the women’s jail in Lynwood, according to county authorities, raising questions about how illicit drugs made it into the facility and into the hands of the people held there.

None of the overdoses were fatal, according to law enforcement.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said fentanyl is suspected as the key substance that caused the overdoses at the Century Regional Detention Facility.

A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department said no one had been arrested in connection with the overdoses. The spokesperson declined to comment as to whether any jail staff at the Lynwood facility were disciplined.

It’s unclear whether overdoses are common at the jail, which has an average daily population of around 1,300 people. Citing federal privacy law related to medical information, the Sheriff’s Department said in an email to LAist that it does not track total overdose incidents in its facilities.

Criminal justice reform advocates say that’s a problem.

Michelle Parris, program director with the Vera Institute of Justice — a group that wants to end mass incarceration — said seven overdoses at the women’s jail seemed like a very high number in a short period of time.

“But I think it’s also pretty hard for us to contextualize because there isn’t actually a lot of information put out there about how often overdoses — particularly non-fatal overdoses — are happening in the jails,” Parris said.

In a statement released after the original publication of this story, the Sheriff's Department said it: "continually strives to prevent illicit substances from entering our jail facilities."

A spokesperson said in an email that the department does track its use of the opioid-overdose reversal drug naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan. The department said it administered Narcan within its custody division 189 times in 2023 and 127 times so far this year.

The spokesperson said the department conducts regular searches that have been enhanced recently with drug-detecting dogs. It also deployed scanners to screen all mail sent to incarcerated people in the jails.

County reaction

County Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes the women’s jail, said in an email to LAist that news of the overdoses was frustrating.

“I am grateful that these women are going to be OK, but it is unacceptable that any drugs are getting into our jails,” she said.

The Sheriff’s Department did not provide the dates of each overdose incident, but some of them happened on June 4. The department is investigating an incident at the Century Regional Detention Facility on that date when “several incarcerated females housed in a dorm” had to receive emergency medical treatment at a nearby hospital, county authorities said.

It’s unclear how many people overdosed during that incident. The department said not all seven overdose cases were connected.

In response to a request for comment, the Sheriff’s Department said it would “continue to work with our partners at Correctional Health Services to ensure we provide a constitutional level of care to all individuals housed within our jail facilities.”

Reform advocates call for accountability

Reform advocates say that not tracking and reporting overall overdose numbers indicates a lack of transparency from the department and makes it difficult to understand what the department is doing to prevent them.

“Of course you want the data because you need someone to be accountable,” said Michele Infante, with the group Dignity and Power Now, which advocates for criminal justice reform. “And this goes back to the sheriffs don’t put out that information so that they don’t have to be accountable.”

Infante said she first heard about the overdoses while she was doing outreach at the Lynwood facility. A woman who was released told Infante she was one of several people who overdosed.

“People that are incarcerated are not disposable persons — they’re not,” Infante told LAist. “They’re the responsibility of the Sheriff’s Department. And the county needs to be paying attention to that.”

The department does keep track of deaths that happen in Sheriff’s Department custody and it releases that information throughout the year. According to a report released in May by the L.A. County Office of Inspector General, 12 of the 45 people who died at county jails last year had overdosed on drugs.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said this year there have been 15 in-custody deaths — linked to various causes — across its eight custody facilities and 21 station jails. The numbers are posted on it's Transparency Page. The department said one of the in-custody deaths this year was attributed to overdose.

In December, the county Board of Supervisors passed a motion that directed the Sheriff’s Department to collect and track data on when drugs were recovered in county facilities. It also directed the department to “[s]trengthen existing policy on increasing and conducting more comprehensive searches of the belongings of staff and civilians who enter the facility, beyond visual inspections.”

The department did not have numbers available to show how many staff searches were conducted at jails during the first quarter of this year, according to the inspector general’s report. It pointed out that the department requires staff and civilians entering jails to carry their personal items in clear containers, but that it “rarely” uses drug-sniffing dogs or staff to do more thorough searches.

It its most recent statement to LAist, the department revealed that its K9 teams conducted 2,405 searches and "recovered various illicit drugs." The mail scanners, the department said, can detect the presence of drugs and the type of substance on a piece of mail, providing protection from potential exposure for people held in the jails and staff.

"We are optimistic that in the near future we will have the use of updated technological solutions, including body and property scanners, that will further assist us in minimizing illicit substances in the jails," the statement read.