ST. LOUIS 鈥 Nineteen inmates at three Missouri prisons have died or presumably died from opioid overdoses since March, according to a sampling of county coroners contacted by the Post-Dispatch this week.
Potosi Correctional Center had seven confirmed fatal overdoses and an eighth presumed.
鈥淚 have no idea how or why, other than obviously drugs are getting inside the prison,鈥 Washington County Coroner Steve Hatfield noted of the spike there.
Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre had five overdose deaths, including three since Oct. 10. Each case is pending toxicology reports. St. Francois County Coroner Jason Coplin said he鈥檚 handling each one as an overdose.
鈥淭hey are getting in during visiting hours,鈥 Coplin said of the drugs. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the only thing I can think of.鈥
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South Central Correctional Center in Licking had six fatal overdoses since June. Texas County Coroner Marie Lasater said five are presumed overdoses, one, involving Christopher Scroggins, was confirmed by autopsy and toxicology. She described the fentanyl analog that showed up in his bloodwork as 鈥渃artel blend.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 much stronger than what鈥檚 used in the hospital,鈥 Lasater said.
She said she was frustrated that the remaining death reports are taking so long to complete because of a backlog in state contracted autopsy and toxicology lab analysis. Victim ages range from 23 to 42. At least one of them was from 狐狸视频 County.
Demarco E. Washington, 35, of the Glasgow Village area, was serving a 10-year sentence for the 2019 death of his 11-month-old daughter, Journey Washington, who died from fentanyl intoxication. Washington told police after his arrest that he had lost a fentanyl capsule in his daughter鈥檚 bedroom.
State response
Lasater said there have been numerous overdoses at the prison in Licking, most of them nonfatal.
An assistant for South Central Correctional Center Warden Michele Buckner referred a reporter to the Missouri Department of Corrections administrative office in Jefferson City for comment. Spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said Director Anne Precythe wasn鈥檛 available to be interviewed by phone Friday. Pojmann refused to immediately provide comprehensive death data for prisons statewide, nor comment about specific hot spots.
鈥淎ll facilities struggle with the challenge of keeping drugs and other dangerous contraband out of prisons,鈥 Pojmann said by email. 鈥淭o answer your question, we would have to gather data, including medical records, autopsy reports, incident reports and other relevant information and conduct a comparative analysis. At this point, we don鈥檛 have all of the toxicology reports from recent deaths.鈥
Kaleb Smith, 27, an inmate in Licking who previously lived in Forsyth, Missouri, died Aug. 31. His family is fed up with the apparent lack of urgency.
鈥淎s of this point, we still don鈥檛 know how or why he died,鈥 said Mike Smith, an uncle. 鈥淭he prison has only said they are conducting an internal investigation.鈥
Told of the coroner鈥檚 preliminary analysis, he said: 鈥淭hat is what I have suspected, but nobody is cooperating with us.鈥
He said his nephew struggled with addiction for a long time. According to court records, an arresting officer noted several track marks on Kaleb鈥檚 hand when he and a friend were pulled over Nov. 16, 2017, in Ozark, Missouri. He pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a controlled substance, morphine and buprenorphine, which is typically used as a medication to treat opioid withdrawal symptoms.
There is an effort underway to disperse Narcan, the overdose-reversing nasal spray, to at-risk communities in Missouri, but that hasn鈥檛 happened in state prison cells.
Tim Cutt, director of the Missouri Corrections Officers Association, said only medical personnel are authorized to administer Narcan. Corrections officers, he said, are allowed to carry pepper spray and handcuffs.
鈥淚 would say my staff doesn鈥檛 want to carry (Narcan) because it could increase their liability if something went wrong,鈥 he said.
Getting in
Drugs get into prisons in various ways.
To cut down on the chance of bringing them in via the mail system, Missouri is now scanning personal letters to inmates and delivering them electronically. Legal mail and some other types of mail are still delivered to prisons.
Historically, drugs have also gotten in through visits and prison employees.
The corrections department, like many other state agencies, has struggled to hire and retain staff. Qualifications have been lowered over the years. Cutt said the state no longer drug tests each correctional officer recruit.
Asked for verification, Pojmann said: 鈥淎ny employee can be tested for drugs at any time.鈥
In the fiscal year ending June 30, there were 2,712 urinalysis tests conducted among Department of Corrections employees, according to state records, which includes probation, parole and other areas of the enormous agency.
State prison records say 75% of offenders need drug treatment. This week, there were 23,500 inmates spread throughout 19 prisons.