One inmate dead, second resuscitated with Narcan in Sacramento jail, fifth

One inmate died and another was revived after a suspected fentanyl overdose occurred Friday at the Sacramento County Main Jail, the fifth inmate death at the sheriff’s jail in nearly three months.

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said Friday night that guards responded to an eighth-floor cell in downtown around 11:15 p.m. and found two unresponsive cellmates.

“Both inmates were removed from the cell and officers immediately began administering first aid,” said Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office. “Narcan was also administered to both inmates multiple times, while staff continued to administer first aid until fire personnel arrived.”

Gandhi said in a press release that one of the inmates was resuscitated “and started breathing on his own” before being briefly hospitalized. After being treated, the man was returned to the Main Jail.

The second man, identified only as a 40-year-old, was pronounced dead at the jail, Gandhi said. His identity is expected to be released by the Sacramento County coroner’s office.

He was the fifth inmate to die in Sacramento sheriff’s custody in the past 11 weeks. The three other inmate deaths occurred on May 5, May 12 and June 8 at the downtown facility; another man died on June 28 at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove.

Understaffing was cited in reports last year as a factor in inmate deaths. As a result of low staffing, Sacramento County is in violation of a 2019 federal class action settlement that requires the jail to improve medical and mental health care for inmates.

A total of 30 inmates have died in Sacramento prisons since the beginning of 2021.

Gandhi said officers would “complete a thorough investigation into the death of an inmate in accordance with department procedures and state law,” a standard procedure for an inmate death. It would likely be months before that report was released.

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