Medication on demand, straight from a jail guard, had been shut down by the sheriff on the Decrease Buckeye Jail in Phoenix, Arizona.
In accordance with Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone, a detention officer was arrested for trying to convey methamphetamine and fentanyl into the Decrease Buckeye Jail in Phoenix, Arizona.
Fox 10 reports that detention officer Andres Salazar faces a number of drug-related felony counts. A cash trade befell within the parking zone of the jail earlier than Salazar tried to convey a package deal containing about 100 drugs into the jail.
“This was an ongoing investigation,” Penzone stated at a press convention on Jan. 11. “This detention officer was employed in October 2019, lately labored with inmates and a few of us on the surface, and tried to convey fentanyl and methamphetamine into the jail.”
Salazar apparently wasn’t excellent at it, a regrettable selection that may affect his future. “Now we have robust motive to consider this was his first try,” the sheriff stated.
“This younger man, no matter led him to make this choice, will no longer solely lose his profession, however more than likely the long run that he has for himself is certainly going to be hindered in an hostile means,” Penzone stated.
The drug downside is dangerous: In Maricopa County jails in 2022, 172 inmates had been taken to the hospital for overdose or drug-related incidents; 17 in-custody deaths had been attributable to an overdose, or medication had been a serious contributing issue to the deaths; 194 inmates examined constructive for some sort of drug via a urine pattern; and 114 of these inmates examined constructive for fentanyl particularly.
The County says that 150 inmate postcards had been intercepted within the mailroom that examined constructive for being soaked in fentanyl and/or methamphetamine. “Since October 2022, 1,503 detention officers, sergeants and lieutenants had been educated to deploy Narcan,” the sheriff said.
A Sample within the U.S. Prison Justice System
This type of factor isn’t remarkable within the legal justice system: In 2021, Marc Antrim, a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, was sentenced for orchestrating a faux drug raid, stealing over half a ton of hashish and $600,000 in money from a warehouse.
Three South Carolina jail guards had been arrested in 2018 for smuggling medication and different contraband into two totally different correctional establishments. In a kind of incidents, a guard tried to smuggle in 143 grams, or about 5 ounces of pot right into a detention middle.
Assume that medication are out of attain within the jail and jail methods? Assume once more: In accordance with the Nationwide Institute of Drug Abuse, there are “excessive” charges of substance use inside the legal justice system. Particularly, some analysis reveals that an estimated 65% percent of the United States prison population has an “energetic substance abuse dysfunction,” and so they should get these medication from someplace. It’s the most effective arguments to say that drugs won the War on Drugs.
Maricopa County, nevertheless, is tackling the issue with some new modifications.
Maricopa County Fights Medication, Corruption in Jail
Penzone is now taking motion proactively to forestall incidents like this from taking place once more beneath his watch. KTAR Information reports that the sheriff introduced scanning machines will quickly be put in at jailhouses to detect medication and different contraband getting into and exiting the amenities, authorities introduced Wednesday.
“I’m at a stage now the place I believe it’s not solely essential however applicable that we buy scanning machines so that each particular person who enters our jail—whether or not or not it’s workers/volunteers—anyone and everybody who enters into the secured inhabitants will likely be checked to find out if we will mitigate and intercept any potential contraband coming into the jail,” Penzone stated.
“If we have to improve the complete system in the complete jail system, I’m prepared to try this,” Penzone stated. “However we’re going to search out the one that’s the best and put it in play in all of our jails as quickly as attainable.”
Medication corresponding to fentanyl and methamphetamine rank excessive within the hazard degree.
In accordance with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), fentanyl is the deadliest drug risk dealing with this nation. “In 2021, a document variety of Individuals—107,622—died from a drug poisoning or overdose,” the DEA launch reads. “Sixty-six % of these deaths may be attributed to artificial opioids corresponding to fentanyl.”