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Has been updated: May 7, 2023 at 1:49 PM
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PHOENIX (AP) — Five inmates at Maricopa County Jail were treated and released from hospital after overdosing, officials said.
A county sheriff’s official said the overdose occurred Saturday at Towers Prison in Phoenix.
The 720-bed facility houses medium security general inmates, mostly unsentenced pretrial detainees.
A sheriff’s spokesman said all five prisoners were dosed with Narcan and were conscious before being examined at the hospital.
Last month, seven women incarcerated at Estrella Prison in Phoenix were hospitalized for overdoses.
In response to an increase in fentanyl overdoses in county jails, Sheriff Paul Penzone deployed seven additional security scanners to screen employees and volunteers entering and leaving the prison for drugs and contraband. We have announced plans to install
Penzone, who took office in 2017, said drug smuggling had to be cleared at five of the county’s prisons, and a new security process is expected to begin this summer.
He said he received 158 inmate postcards seized last year by the mailroom that tested positive for fentanyl and/or methamphetamine soaking, along with 282 in-prison drug incident reports. said.
