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Ohio Prison System Investigates Suspected Inmate Overdoses
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The state says it’s investigating a series of nonfatal drug overdoses of inmates at a central Ohio prison this weekend.
Grant Doepel, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, on Tuesday confirmed the investigation at Pickaway Correctional Institution. But he said further details weren’t available.
Doepel says fewer than six inmates overdosed.
Overdoses by people behind bars have become an issue as the state’s painkiller and heroin epidemic has worsened, though the problem is more closely associated with jails.
Over the past year or two, jail inmates in Lake and Richland counties, among others, have overdosed. Some of them died.
Overdoses last year at the county jail serving Youngstown in northeastern Ohio led a sheriff to request a body scanner to stop drugs from getting inside.