Sacramento County Sheriff outlines changes made in attempt to stop flow of drugs into jail

By Lee Anne Denyer

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office is calling for increased penalties for drug dealers who intentionally bring drugs into the main jail.

“Drug dealers are the scum of the earth. They’re ruthless. They don’t care. You also have addicts. This is really a war on addiction,” Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper said Thursday. “I fear there’s simply more overdoses due to the will of the inmates and sophistication.”

Cooper spoke at the jail to a group of journalists Thursday about changes he said they’ve made in recent weeks to decrease the amount of drugs coming into the jail.

“It only takes two milligrams of fentanyl to kill a person,” Cooper said. “Since the beginning of the year, deputies have recovered over 500 grams of narcotics and fentanyl that arrestees have tried to smuggle into the jail. That’s enough fentanyl to kill the entire population of Elk Grove.”

To combat this, the sheriff said, they’ve made changes including keeping arrestees who are being booked and released from arrestees who will be booked. They’ve also moved a strip search for arrestees who will be admitted up in their booking process.

“Those folks that are going to be spending time here in jail obviously pose the greatest risk to that jail population of smuggling substances like fentanyl and other drugs in here, so we wanted to get them strip searched in the beginning,” said Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a spokesperson for the department.

Gandhi said deputies have seized more drugs in one month since this change than in any prior month at the jail.

“That kind of gives you an idea of how effective this new process is,” Gandhi said.

Officials said deputies and medical personnel have administered 75 doses of the overdose reversal drug Narcan this year. Opioid reversal kits containing Narcan have had 110 doses refilled. The kits are placed throughout the jail.

Despite efforts, Cooper said they need more help.

“Increase the penalties. Make folks afraid to want to do it,” Cooper said. “Right now, they know there’s a slap on the wrist. It’s not treated seriously.”

The sheriff said drugs inside the jail are 10 times more valuable in the facility than on the street and that dealers are motivated to bring them inside in whatever ways they can.

“We’re also seeing, which is very troubling, is extended family members on the outside using hard-to-trace electronic money transfers, like Cash App and Venmo to facilitate drug purchases,” Cooper said.

Additionally, the sheriff said they’ve increased its jail investigations unit for smuggling and distribution.

According to the Sacramento County Coroner, overdoses caused three of the four deaths at the jail this year. The fourth death was ruled as natural, officials said.

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