Investigators probing another inmate overdose at Richland County jail, sheriff says
Another inmate has overdosed at a Columbia jail, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said Friday.
The non-fatal overdose, which occurred Thursday afternoon at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, follows a suspected fatal overdose at the troubled facility last week.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the jail just after 1 p.m. Thursday and were informed that an overdosing inmate was being taken by ambulance to a local hospital, the department said in a statement.
A detention officer told investigators she found the inmate lying on the floor turning blue in the face after hearing other inmates yelling and banging on the glass of a cell housing unit, according to an incident report.
The overdose victim, who was alert and conscious during the hospital transport, was administered the opioid overdose reversal medication naloxone by jail staff prior to deputies’ arrival, the sheriff’s department said.
The victim confirmed to investigators at the hospital that he overdosed after ingesting narcotics inside the jail, the sheriff’s department said.
Thursday’s overdose comes just over a week after a 66-year-old inmate died of a suspected overdose after being found unresponsive in a recreation yard inside the detention center.
The Richland County Coroner’s Office identified that inmate as Keith Bagley, of Columbia, but did not immediately provide a cause of death. The sheriff’s department said it suspected Bagley’s death was an overdose based on witness statements, and launched an investigation to determine whether criminal activity contributed to it.
Deputy Jamie Burton, a spokeswoman for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, said investigators were also reviewing why detention center staff hadn’t notified the agency of the fatal overdose.
“Any time something under those circumstances happens, they are required to report to us, but have been failing to do that,” she said Friday.
Burton said she didn’t immediately know whether Thursday’s non-fatal overdose had been reported by jail staff, but said the department’s investigation would examine whether any other recent overdoses at the jail had gone unreported.
A spokesman for Richland County did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sheriff’s probe of alleged communication failures at the jail.