Multiple Butte County Jail inmates overdose on opioids

Five inmates at the Butte County Jail in Oroville were taken to hospitals after apparently overdosing on opioids over the weekend, the sheriff's office said.

In a social media post on Sunday evening, the Butte County Sheriff's Office said a deputy in an observation tower reported an unresponsive inmate in a medium security housing unit at the jail on Saturday at about 9:40 p.m. Other deputies and jail medical personnel responded and called for an ambulance.

The sheriff's office said after deputies and medical personnel arrived, they identified four other inmates in the same housing pod displaying symptoms consistent with an opioid overdose, and more deputies and staff responded. All five inmates affected were administered two doses of naloxone (Narcan) to reverse the overdose effects, the office said.

All five inmates were taken to hospitals by ambulance for further treatment and evaluation. Each was subsequently cleared medically and returned to the jail, the sheriff's office said.

The source of the substance causing the overdoses was believed to be another inmate who was recently booked into the jail, according to the sheriff's office, and the unidentified inmate was separated from the general jail population as the investigation proceeded.

People entering the Butte County Jail are physically searched and screened with a low-dose X-ray body scanner to prevent any contraband from entering the jail. The sheriff's office said that despite the measures, tiny amounts of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, can be extremely difficult to detect.

The circumstances surrounding how the substance entered the jail remained under investigation.