Two inmates overdosed over the weekend in the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton, prompting corrections officials to place the prison on lockdown while Vermont State Police canines searched for drugs.
One inmate was discovered without a pulse, but both survived. Corrections Commissioner Mike Touchette said the drug they ingested was likely K2 or Spice — synthetic cannabinoids.
Corrections officials said both inmates were given the overdose-reversal drug Narcan. The department acknowledged that Narcan doesn’t have an effect in reversing a non-opiate overdose, but it’s policy to administer the drug whenever an inmate is found unresponsive with no apparent injuries.
Two other Vermont inmates have overdosed during the past six months or so. Staff quickly used Narcan to reverse those overdoses.
Touchette has decided to expand Narcan access for prison guards and workers. Previously, shift supervisors and medical staff were the only staff equipped with overdose-reversal kits.
“After the weekend here we’ve made a change in policy to make sure that all staff have access to the Narcan,” Touchette said Monday. “Generally, our response times [to any incident] are between 10 and 30 seconds, but you know with any overdose event, time matters. Seconds matter.”
Touchette said that illicit drugs get smuggled into prisons through mail, visitors and incoming inmates. State police are working with DOC to find any remaining drugs in the Swanton prison. Touchette has also implemented a temporary amnesty policy for any inmates wishing to turn over contraband drugs.
The corrections department is also planning to work with Vermont State Police and the Department of Health to review this weekend’s incidents. Touchette called the review a “social autopsy, top to bottom” and said officials hope it will inform future policies.
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It’s interesting that Mr. Touchette mentions how drugs get into the prison without mentioning anything about the people who work there. There is money to be made on-the-side by prison staff bringing in contraband and drugs. Ask the inmates about this at State and Federal prisons and you’ll find complicity.
We cannot keep drugs out of a prison with concrete walls, barbed wire, armed guards, and a perimeter of maybe one quarter mile, but continue to delude ourselves that we can keep drugs out of our whole country–its perimeter of thousands of miles be damned. Makes a whole lot of sense, doesn’t it? We got thumped, hard, in our War On Drugs. Let’s designate an aircraft carrier to host the ceremony, declare ourselves victorious as we usually do, then re-think our drug policies.
Wheres the so-called Vermont “BIG SHOTS SENATORS and CONGRESSMAN??? The “BIG SHOTS” LEGISLATORS and GOVERNOR and LT GOVERNOR??? Instead of pushing all these breweries in Vermont and the “SMOKING POT” craze. They said that they will crush the drug problems. Instead of trashing Pres Trump why don’t they take care of Vermont. That’s what they were voted for right? Sorry I’m wrong, they were voted in to run around the country, buy 5 homes, take bribes and mingle with crooks and tell lies. Vermont is becoming a big brewery and a drug/pot state.. “jibjab” I’m sure a lot of people will say the drugs just walk through the wall next they will say prisons don’t need walls either.. Just let them go free and tell them don’t break the law.!!!
Donna,
It’s the DOC’s problem and not the senators. The guards are supposed to thoroughly check all the incoming inmates for drugs as well as mail. The DOC always has some excuse why drugs get in. It’s the guards who are buddy buddy with the inmates and bring them in. I bet if the guards got randomly checked without warning then a lot of them would be found with drugs on them