State prisons to remain on lockdown indefinitely

our staff at risk and, frankly, we don’t want to put the inmates at risk, so, we thought the prudent thing to do would be to lock down, make sure we train everybody,” he said.

He said the department is pushing to make sure staff members are trained to use protective gloves and other equipment.

Also, every facility will have a hazardous materials team, and the department is exploring technology that might be able to detect the drug. In the long term, all mail might have to be scanned.

Hours after Mr. Wetzel’s visit, the Corrections lethargic and was taken Department reported that to a hospital, Ms. three employees at State McNaughton said. A second Correctional Institution officer who was with him Somerset became ill, dazed was also taken to a hospital and flushed Thursday evening. as a precaution. The trio opened a cell About the same time at door to distribute meal trays State Correctional Institution and saw inmates smoking Greene, a corrections officer an unknown substance, according who was teaching a to department class on personal protective spokeswoman Susanequipment experienced a McNaughton. metallic taste in his mouth

The employees reported and was taken to a hospital. ill effects a short time later Ms. McNaughton said he and were taken to an emergency was not near any inmates or room for evaluation. inmate property at the time.

Another corrections officer who tried to purge the air from the cell in which the exposure occurred began feeling and in other districts following investigations launched from Pittsburgh by a unit known as J-CODE, or Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement Team.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the creation of the squad in a visit to Pittsburgh in January, although its members had been working on cases before that.

The squad of agents and analysts pursues worldwide drug trafficking on encrypted dark websites.

The team is coordinated through the FBI and was built largely on the work already done in Pittsburgh in recent years by agents and prosecutors pursuing cybercriminals.

Mr. Sessions has said that drug addicts are increasingly turning to overseas suppliers to get narcotics rather than buying them on the streets.

One of the first cases brought here was that of Henry Koffie of Philadelphia, known as “NarcoBoss,” who was accused in 2017 of selling fentanyl imported from China to customers on the dark web.

Prosecutors said he was responsible for overdose deaths in Oregon and may have had other victims in Florida, Michigan and elsewhere.