SCI Fayette unit locked down after officer sickened while checking cell, given Narcan

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A corrections officer at State Correctional Institution Fayette became sickened Saturday morning while on duty at the prison and was given an opioid-reversal drug.

The officer was checking a cell around 9:45 a.m. when his face became flushed and his heart rate elevated, according to Susan McNaughton, a state Department of Corrections spokeswoman.

Medical staff gave him Narcan, and he responded.

The officer was alert and responsive when he was taken to Uniontown Hospital. He was treated and released.

Ms. McNaughton said no inmates or other officers or staff at the prison in East Millsboro were affected. The unit where the incident occurred is locked down.

“Certainly after any type of incident, our staff investigates to determine what exactly happened and how we can prevent it in the future. We take the safety of our employees very seriously,” Ms. McNaughton said.

“Obviously there is a drug problem in communities across the state and nation, and our prisons experiencethese problems as well.”

Earlier this week, Ms. McNaughton issued a news release saying it is “taking aggressive measures to address new threats to staff and inmate safety” in the state prison system, particularly in light of “illicit, harmful substances and the violence that can be connected to their illegal trade.”

Since the beginning of August, the corrections department said, 18 staff members at three institutions in western Pennsylvania were sickened after being exposed to an unknown substance.

Pennsylvania State Police are testing samples.

“As new toxic substances are introduced that are more difficult to identify, the DOC is working to eliminate the avenues for contraband to enter the system. The DOC believes there is a link between increased drug trade in prisons and the uptick in violence, both inmateon-inmate and inmate-on-staff assaults,”the department said.

The steps taken by the corrections department include new training in how to use personal protective equipment and deal with hazardous materials; boosting the inventory of protective gear to handle hazardous materials; expanding the use of body scanners; buying auto injectors to deliver naloxone to drug-sniffing dogs; and expanding the K-9 unit.