Maricopa County jails saw spike in overdoses in 2023. What is being done to fix it?

2023 saw a significant spike in the number of people incarcerated within a Maricopa County jail having to be rushed to the hospital for suspected overdoses or other drug-related instances.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the county’s jail system, reported that 295 inmates were hospitalized for suspected overdoses in 2023 — a 71.5% increase from the 172 people hospitalized in 2022.

Despite the spike in hospitalizations, inmate deaths that were the result of an overdose or where drugs were a contributing factor were relatively the same with 18 deaths in 2023 and 17 deaths in 2022.

Sgt. Monica Bretado, an MCSO spokesperson, noted that two additional deaths from 2023 remain pending as the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office investigates the cause of death.

In January 2023, then-Sheriff Paul Penzone announced the agency would purchase and install body scanners within its jails and screen anyone — including correctional staff — who entered the jail.

Penzone included millimeter-wave scanners often used at airports as an example of what the department might use.

That announcement came after MCSO arrested 26-year-old Andres Salazar who attempted to smuggle fentanyl and methamphetamine into the Lower Buckeye Jail in exchange for $1,000 in cash. Authorities found 58.3 grams of meth and over 100 fentanyl pills in Salazar’s vehicle which was parked outside the jail.

Salazar, now 28, was sentenced to two years in prison and four years of supervised probation after he pled guilty to one count of soliciting to commit promoting prison contraband. He’s currently incarcerated within the Lewis prison complex in Buckeye.

While Penzone announced his intention to purchase and install body scanners for the jails, that plan didn’t come to fruition until August 2023.

Bretado noted that MCSO has used body scanners on inmates since 2020 when its intake, transfer and release facility opened. She added that detention staff found more than 2,000 fentanyl pills and more than 145 grams of other narcotics which led MCSO to submit over 240 felony charges in 2023.

“These scanners are operational on a random basis at each of our jails,” Bretado said. “Since implementing these scanners, no drugs have been found on employees or others trying to enter the jail.”

Bretado did not elaborate on how often correctional staff were scanned when entering jails or the factors that decide when scanning takes place.

Data regarding inmate hospitalizations due to overdoses between the time the body scanners were installed in all the jails and now was not immediately available.

Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at [email protected] or 602-444-2474. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @PerryVandell.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Maricopa County jails saw spike in overdoses in 2023