Pa. prisons are locked down...‘unknown substances' to blame.
Aug 29, 2018 19:21:58 GMT -5
tnthomas likes this
Post by TheSource on Aug 29, 2018 19:21:58 GMT -5
Pennsylvania prisons are locked down after ‘unknown substances’ leave 29 hospitalized.
By Deanna Paul
August 29 at 5:38 PM
After an Albion, Pa., prison rushed five employees to the hospital on Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections ordered a statewide lockdown of its prison system.
The Albion episode was one of 17 cases that have terrorized the western part of the state since early August. Twenty-nine prison staff members have been hospitalized from “unknown substances” and nine prisons have been affected, two on Wednesday morning, according to Sue McNaughton, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Communication Director.
Effective Wednesday, she said, all state prisons were locked down indefinitely, all visits suspended, and all mail rooms closed for nonlegal mail. “It’s definitely going to be more than a day,” she said. “It’s going to be a good while.”
The department has been combating violence and drugs in its 25 Pennsylvania facilities.
Last week, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel announced new protocols to detect narcotics and other illicit substances, including purchase of body scanners for processing new inmates and expanding the unit dedicated to searching community corrections facilities.
“The safety and security of our employees is my number one concern,” Wetzel said Wednesday. “Our state prisons, especially those in the western part of the state, have experienced recent incidents in which employees have been sickened and we need to get to the bottom of this issue now.”
Affected employees have reported feeling sick after routine activities like searching a cell or escorting an inmate through the prison, with symptoms like dizziness, lethargy, scratchy throats, and headaches, according to McNaughton.
The mail room, she said, has been particularly dangerous.
“Mail is one of the main ways people get drugs into the institutions,” said McNaughton. “Individuals will take a piece of paper, soak it in a drug, let it dry, write on it, then send it. Our mailroom staff opens up mail and searches for contraband, exposing them to it.”
The department is looking into a new mail processing system. For now, it has made the use of personal protective equipment such as gloves mandatory and will begin training on institutional awareness. Staffers have also been advised to use extra caution with new inmates and parole violators.
“Just like the community is suffering, the prisons are suffering from the opioid epidemic,” said McNaughton. “We’re not alone in this battle.”
Wednesday’s lockdown came a day after a crisis in Ohio, with nearly 30 prison employees exhibiting signs of drug overdose at an Ohio Correctional Institution. The suspected cause was fentanyl, a synthetic opioid about 50 times more powerful than heroin.
More than 72,000 people died of drug overdoses last year, according to preliminary 2017 figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is a 9.5 percent increase from 2016, a rise driven largely by deaths from fentanyl and carfentanil, an even stronger opioid typically used as a large-animal tranquilizer.
Since Aug. 6, Pennsylvania has sent out lab testing in all 17 cases. Results have only returned for an Aug. 13 incident, where four officers at SCI Greene, a supermax facility in Franklin County, were hospitalized after searching an inmate’s property. The labs tested positive for synthetic cannabinoids.
The department is still investigating whether all cases are related, however the state’s Opioid Command Center is involved.
source: www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/08/29/pennsylvania-prisons-are-locked-down-after-unknown-substances-leave-hospitalized/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.063acef760c9
____________________________________
____________________________________
A similar possibly related incident in Ohio...
Ohio prison substance exposure: Guards, inmates and nurses sickened
.
POSTED 4:20 PM, AUGUST 29, 2018, BY CNN WIRE
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — The potent narcotic fentanyl may have been the substance that left more than two dozen people sick Wednesday at the Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, Ohio, officials said.
Authorities responded to the prison after reports that 29 people — including 23 prison guards, four nurses and one inmate — were overcome after being exposed to a substance, according to the state highway patrol. They were taken to Adena Regional Medical Center, the highway patrol’s statement said.
“Several doses of Narcan were administered to victims, and an additional 300 Narcan doses are available at the facility,” the statement said.
Narcan is commonly used to treat opioid overdoses.
The statement said the incident started with a report of an inmate with possible signs of a drug overdose.
Dr. Kurt Tucker, a physician at Adena Regional Medical Center, told reporters the potent narcotic typically used to manage pain may have been the cause.
“What we think right now, it is probably fentanyl,” he said.
When legitimately prescribed, fentanyl helps patients managing extreme pain, such as caused by cancer. It is typically dosed in the form of tablets, patches or intravenously.
But illicit forms of the drug are commonly sold as a powder or pressed into pills. Fentanyl and chemically similar variations, known as analogs, have been sold on the black market and can be extremely potent.
“This was a very serious incident and it involved a lot of people but I’m telling you, it could have been a lot worse,” Tucker said.
Tucker described the substance as a “very fine powder.”
About 31 inmates who were not affected by the substance were removed from the cell block and moved to other areas, according to the highway patrol.
Troopers said the facility is secure and there is no threat to the public. Authorities are investigating.
The Ohio incident comes as Pennsylvania’s Corrections Department said it had issued a statewide lockdown after staff members became sick over the last few weeks from an unknown substance.
Tucker called the timing “extremely coincidental.”
The latest incident in Pennsylvania occurred Wednesday at Albion Correctional Facility, where five employees were sent to the hospital after processing a parole violator who was feeling sick, corrections department spokeswoman Susan McNaughton said.
Hazmat teams were called to the Albion women’s prison but could not determine what the substance was, according to Albion spokeswoman Michele Tharp.
source: wgntv.com/2018/08/29/ohio-prison-substance-exposure-guards-inmates-and-nurses-sickened/
By Deanna Paul
August 29 at 5:38 PM
After an Albion, Pa., prison rushed five employees to the hospital on Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections ordered a statewide lockdown of its prison system.
The Albion episode was one of 17 cases that have terrorized the western part of the state since early August. Twenty-nine prison staff members have been hospitalized from “unknown substances” and nine prisons have been affected, two on Wednesday morning, according to Sue McNaughton, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Communication Director.
Effective Wednesday, she said, all state prisons were locked down indefinitely, all visits suspended, and all mail rooms closed for nonlegal mail. “It’s definitely going to be more than a day,” she said. “It’s going to be a good while.”
The department has been combating violence and drugs in its 25 Pennsylvania facilities.
Last week, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel announced new protocols to detect narcotics and other illicit substances, including purchase of body scanners for processing new inmates and expanding the unit dedicated to searching community corrections facilities.
“The safety and security of our employees is my number one concern,” Wetzel said Wednesday. “Our state prisons, especially those in the western part of the state, have experienced recent incidents in which employees have been sickened and we need to get to the bottom of this issue now.”
Affected employees have reported feeling sick after routine activities like searching a cell or escorting an inmate through the prison, with symptoms like dizziness, lethargy, scratchy throats, and headaches, according to McNaughton.
The mail room, she said, has been particularly dangerous.
“Mail is one of the main ways people get drugs into the institutions,” said McNaughton. “Individuals will take a piece of paper, soak it in a drug, let it dry, write on it, then send it. Our mailroom staff opens up mail and searches for contraband, exposing them to it.”
The department is looking into a new mail processing system. For now, it has made the use of personal protective equipment such as gloves mandatory and will begin training on institutional awareness. Staffers have also been advised to use extra caution with new inmates and parole violators.
“Just like the community is suffering, the prisons are suffering from the opioid epidemic,” said McNaughton. “We’re not alone in this battle.”
Wednesday’s lockdown came a day after a crisis in Ohio, with nearly 30 prison employees exhibiting signs of drug overdose at an Ohio Correctional Institution. The suspected cause was fentanyl, a synthetic opioid about 50 times more powerful than heroin.
More than 72,000 people died of drug overdoses last year, according to preliminary 2017 figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is a 9.5 percent increase from 2016, a rise driven largely by deaths from fentanyl and carfentanil, an even stronger opioid typically used as a large-animal tranquilizer.
Since Aug. 6, Pennsylvania has sent out lab testing in all 17 cases. Results have only returned for an Aug. 13 incident, where four officers at SCI Greene, a supermax facility in Franklin County, were hospitalized after searching an inmate’s property. The labs tested positive for synthetic cannabinoids.
The department is still investigating whether all cases are related, however the state’s Opioid Command Center is involved.
source: www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/08/29/pennsylvania-prisons-are-locked-down-after-unknown-substances-leave-hospitalized/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.063acef760c9
____________________________________
____________________________________
A similar possibly related incident in Ohio...
Ohio prison substance exposure: Guards, inmates and nurses sickened
.
POSTED 4:20 PM, AUGUST 29, 2018, BY CNN WIRE
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — The potent narcotic fentanyl may have been the substance that left more than two dozen people sick Wednesday at the Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, Ohio, officials said.
Authorities responded to the prison after reports that 29 people — including 23 prison guards, four nurses and one inmate — were overcome after being exposed to a substance, according to the state highway patrol. They were taken to Adena Regional Medical Center, the highway patrol’s statement said.
“Several doses of Narcan were administered to victims, and an additional 300 Narcan doses are available at the facility,” the statement said.
Narcan is commonly used to treat opioid overdoses.
The statement said the incident started with a report of an inmate with possible signs of a drug overdose.
Dr. Kurt Tucker, a physician at Adena Regional Medical Center, told reporters the potent narcotic typically used to manage pain may have been the cause.
“What we think right now, it is probably fentanyl,” he said.
When legitimately prescribed, fentanyl helps patients managing extreme pain, such as caused by cancer. It is typically dosed in the form of tablets, patches or intravenously.
But illicit forms of the drug are commonly sold as a powder or pressed into pills. Fentanyl and chemically similar variations, known as analogs, have been sold on the black market and can be extremely potent.
“This was a very serious incident and it involved a lot of people but I’m telling you, it could have been a lot worse,” Tucker said.
Tucker described the substance as a “very fine powder.”
About 31 inmates who were not affected by the substance were removed from the cell block and moved to other areas, according to the highway patrol.
Troopers said the facility is secure and there is no threat to the public. Authorities are investigating.
The Ohio incident comes as Pennsylvania’s Corrections Department said it had issued a statewide lockdown after staff members became sick over the last few weeks from an unknown substance.
Tucker called the timing “extremely coincidental.”
The latest incident in Pennsylvania occurred Wednesday at Albion Correctional Facility, where five employees were sent to the hospital after processing a parole violator who was feeling sick, corrections department spokeswoman Susan McNaughton said.
Hazmat teams were called to the Albion women’s prison but could not determine what the substance was, according to Albion spokeswoman Michele Tharp.
source: wgntv.com/2018/08/29/ohio-prison-substance-exposure-guards-inmates-and-nurses-sickened/
