A 22-year-old inmate died in a cluster of suspected overdoses on a jail bus early Friday, prompting Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials to halt court transports from the downtown facilities.
The incident, which marks the department’s first in-custody death of the year, comes amid a chaotic week in which wildfires shut down courthouses, delayed inmate transports and forced the evacuation of one sheriff’s station.
The death happened just after 7 a.m., as inmates from one of the downtown jails were boarding a bus headed to court. In addition to the man who died, two other inmates were hospitalized — both from suspected overdoses, officials said. One has since been released from custody, and the other was returned to jail.
A little before 9:30 a.m., Judge Yvette Verastegui, the assistant supervising judge, sent an email to judicial officials warning them of the incident and its potential impact on the day’s court proceedings.
“CourtLine is currently in lockdown due to multiple inmate overdoses,” the email said. “Inmates at CourtLine will either remain there for several hours or be returned to their housing. We cannot provide an estimated time of arrival for today.”
The women’s jail was not affected, the email said, and court transports directly from the Castaic jail complex were set to continue as well.
But in the downtown criminal courthouse, the absence of defendants derailed proceedings in several cases, including at least one murder trial slated to begin closing arguments Friday.
The Sheriff’s Department has not provided details about what drugs it is suspected were involved, or how the men obtained them. One high-ranking court official, who requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, told The Times the death was fentanyl-related.
In recent months, Los Angeles jails have struggled with overdoses and drug exposure incidents. Last April, jail records show a 28-year-old man died from using methamphetamine and heroin. Two weeks later, a 38-year-old woman died in her cell from what the department’s website described as the “effects of fentanyl and methamphetamine.”
In June, six inmates and two jailers were taken to the hospital after they were exposed to a “toxic substance,” which department officials have since confirmed was fentanyl, though it is not clear how the inmates and staff came into contact with it.
Two months after that, a 59-year-old at Men’s Central jail died from the “effects of oxycodone and hydrocodone,” according to jail records. In early October, seven people were hospitalized, and a man in his 30s died in a cluster of suspected overdoses in a holding cell at the Inmate Reception Center. Authorities have not said what drugs were involved, and the autopsy is still pending.
Then on Oct. 29, seven inmates at Men’s Central Jail were hospitalized after another potential drug exposure incident in the 5600 dorm. Several hours later, seven jailers were sent to the hospital after officials said they began “experiencing symptoms” while searching the dorm for drugs.
The following day, records show that a 20-year-old on a different floor of Men’s Central Jail died from the effects of fentanyl and heroin.
To combat the influx of drugs into the county’s jails, the Sheriff’s Department said it has stepped up its searching procedures with the addition of canine teams and the use of mail scanners and body scanners.
“The Department is optimistic that in the near future, we will have the use of updated technological solutions, including more advanced body and property scanners, that will further assist us in minimizing illicit substances in the jails,” officials said last year.
The department has also worked to address the problem by investigating its own employees. In April, a sheriff’s deputy who was part of a task force focused on keeping the county lockups free of drugs and gang activity was arrested and accused of smuggling drugs into one of the county jails.
