Sacramento County sheriff cracks down on drug smuggling into downtown jail

SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office is working to combat drug smuggling after confirming three inmates died from overdoses this year.

The sheriff's office also confirmed that deputies have saved lives by administering 75 Narcan doses.

"I fear there is going to be more overdoses due to the will of the inmates and sophistication," Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper said.

Sheriff Cooper said that is why they switched up the protocol they have when someone is arrested to stop drugs from getting smuggled into jail.

Now, people arrested who are going to be released will be placed in a separate holding cell from those who will be housed. The other change they made was with the strip search, which will happen earlier in the process and then a body scan happens after that.

While it can detect weapons, it cannot always detect a lot of items inmates try to smuggle in like drugs. Sheriff Cooper said many inmates hide the drugs in body cavities.

"In just two weeks with our new process, we had the largest amount of seized narcotics than in any month," Sheriff Cooper said.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office has seized nearly 100 grams of narcotics and caught 11 different cases of smuggling within the last month. Over 500 grams of narcotics have been seized this year alone.

However, the searches are not foolproof as the jail has seen three inmates die of overdoses this year. That is why every sheriff's deputy is trained on how to administer Narcan, which is all across the jail, including holding cells and pods where inmates spend most of their time.

Relatives of inmates on the outside are also facilitating drug purchases that have turned deadly in the jail.

"On June 7, during poll call, an inmate took his prescribed methadone and gave it to another inmate whose family member sent him a $50 via Cashapp," Sheriff Cooper said.

Sheriff Cooper said the unprescribed inmate took the medication and died that night. He could not reveal that inmate's identity, but back on June 8, the sheriff's office said that Smiley Martin, one of three suspects charged in the 2022 mass shooting on K street, died of an overdose.

Earlier this month, the coroner's office confirmed Martin died from methadone toxicity .

"We do everything we can. At some point, there's only so much you can do," Sheriff Cooper said. "I don't want to see any deaths; my deputies don't want to see any deaths."

Sheriff Cooper said that in California, it is illegal to do cavity searches, so that is how most of the drugs get smuggled. He added that they are looking into new body scan technology and increased their jail investigations unit for fentanyl, smuggling and distribution.