Spike in fentanyl overdoses reported at jails

As the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office contends with a spike in fentanyl overdoses at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas, the medical examiner-coroner's office has identified a 44-year-old inmate who died after apparently coming into contact with the opioid earlier this month at the Main Jail in San Jose.

Deputies at the Main Jail were conducting welfare checks around 8:20 a.m. March 11 when they found 44-year-old Roland Wrigley unresponsive on the floor of his cell, Sgt. Michael Low said in a statement.

Wrigley was given CPR as well as Narcan, a medicine used to counteract an opioid overdose, but he was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later, Low said.

The in-custody death follows a “substantial amount” of fentanyl overdoses at the Elmwood Correctional Facility, Low said. The first two cases were reported March 8, with a total of 13 inmates eventually being treated at hospitals.

“It has been confirmed by test results that fentanyl was the cause of these medical emergencies,” Low said.

In one case, an inmate was found unresponsive and not breathing, but he regained consciousness and began breathing after receiving Narcan, CPR and shocks from an automated external defibrillator, Low said.

All 13 of the inmates were expected to make full recoveries. Low said several of them might have died if not for the “swift actions” of deputies and nurses at the jail.

A deputy and two nurses also were treated at hospitals for possible exposure to the drug. The deputy was “doing well,” Low said Wednesday; an update on the nurses was not immediately available.

Low said searches and welfare checks were stepped up at Elmwood following the first couple of cases. Illegal drugs were found during some of those searches and an investigation was underway to determine how they made it into the facility, he said.

As for Wrigley, Low said he appeared to have died by suicide, adding that there were no signs of foul play.

“The inmate was housed alone in a single cell at the time of the incident,” Low said.

The Sheriff's Office, along with the District Attorney's Office and the Medical Examiner-coroner's Office, is continuing to investigate the death.

Low said Wrigley was booked into the Main Jail on Nov. 30 in several counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor as part of a San Jose Police Department investigation. Wrigley's next court appearance was scheduled to take place April 14.