{"id":23998,"date":"2025-01-15T17:43:04","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T00:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-inmates-survive-overdoses-at-la-plata-county-jail\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:46:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:46:04","slug":"two-inmates-survive-overdoses-at-la-plata-county-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-inmates-survive-overdoses-at-la-plata-county-jail\/","title":{"rendered":"Two inmates survive overdoses at La Plata County Jail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The La Plata County Jail relies on members of the trustee program like Mike McCoy to perform different jobs around the jail. The 22 members of the trustee program also do other community service. They made the sandbags that were distributed to homeowners after the 416 Fire. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Two women overdosed in the La Plata County Jail on Sunday morning after taking what jail staff members suspect was fentanyl that had been smuggled into the facility.<\/p>\n

Both inmates were both given Narcan, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, and were taken to Mercy Hospital.<\/p>\n

One was immediately released back to the jail and the other was released later that afternoon, according to a news release issued by the Sheriff\u2019s Office after The Durango Herald<\/em> inquired about the matter.<\/p>\n

Around 7:30 a.m., deputies were alerted by an inmate using the intercom that someone in the female housing pod was in distress. They responded and discovered one of the two women had an oxygen saturation level around 80% (anything under 90% is considered a serious<\/a> medical problem), said Cmdr. Mitch Higgins, who manages the jail.<\/p>\n

Deputies administered Narcan and the woman began to display increased vital signs. As staff members were preparing the first inmate for transport, they were notified by other pod residents of another woman who appeared to be overdosing.<\/p>\n

One woman is being held on several charges, including possession of a controlled substance and has been in jail since October. The second inmate is being held on a contempt of court charge and has been in jail since Dec. 29.<\/p>\n

Neither is expected to face new charges related to Sunday\u2019s incident, Higgins said, as a result of lack of evidence.<\/p>\n

Jail staff members are now investigating, so far without much success, to try to determine how the contraband narcotics entered the facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe it got smuggled in and it got through our body scanner, and it got through the strip search portion,\u201d Higgins said.<\/p>\n

But who sneaked the drugs in and how, exactly, is not clear.<\/p>\n

Neither of the inmates who took the narcotics are cooperating with investigators.<\/p>\n

The body scanner used at the jail is similar to those used at airports, and should be able to catch stashed items like pills. However, Higgins said, it can be difficult to differentiate between something like concealed narcotics and constipation.<\/p>\n

When intake staff members do detect anomalies on the scanner, that inmate is often kept in the booking area for extra time to try to prevent the introduction of contraband, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s scary to me,\u201d Higgins said. \u201cIf people smuggle drugs in \u2026 we could have a whole pod die from overdoses, especially if they get really powerful fentanyl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Narcan is stocked throughout the jail.<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday he had scheduled an appointment with technicians to examine whether the scanner is operating properly. Jail staff members are also reviewing video evidence and trying to parse who may have introduced the contraband.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deputies suspect women consumed fentanyl while behind bars<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2025,28,1024,2638],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-fentanyl","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-jail","tag-opioids"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78352,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23998\/revisions\/78352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23998"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}