S.D. County Inmate Uses Anti-Overdose Drug To Revive Fellow Prisoner

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA — An inmate at the George Bailey Detention Facility in Otay Mesa used the anti-overdose medication Naloxone to help a fellow inmate, the sheriff's department reported Wednesday.

An alarm alerted deputies that someone had accessed a Naloxone box within the housing unit, just after 2:30 p.m. last Thursday, according to the Sheriff's Media Relations office. Deputies found a male inmate unresponsive, although another inmate had given him two doses of Naloxone, the sheriff's department said.

Deputies and medical staff administered eight more doses of Naloxone to the inmate, who then became responsive. Paramedics took him to a hospital for treatment. He was later released and returned to the jail, according to the department.

This was the eighth time an inmate has administered Naloxone since it was made available in common areas of county jail housing units in June, according to the department.

The names of the inmates were not released.

Naloxone is a nasal spray that quickly reverses and blocks opioid or narcotic effects in the body, allowing a person to breathe normally again.

Those being booked into jail watch an instructional video on administering the medication. Jail deputies have used Naloxone over 500 times in suspected overdose cases since June 2020, according to the sheriff's department.

Former jail inmates at risk for opioid overdose are given access to free Naloxone and may be connected to treatment programs, according to the department.

The sheriff's department has received heavy criticism in recent years over the number of overdose-related deaths in its jails. Along with Naloxone, the department has taken other steps to attempt to reduce overdoses having illegal drugs come into the jails including using body scanners and drug- sniffing dogs.

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