Overdoses continue to hit Pitchess population

First responders once again called to Castaic facility over drug use

Three additional Pitchess Detention Center inmates were transported to the hospital following suspected drug-related overdoses Monday.

This incident follows reports that Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel had transported more than a half-dozen inmates from the facilities two weeks prior for suspected overdoses, according to L.A. County Sheriff’s Department officials.

The report of the most recent set of overdoses was received shortly after 12:15 p.m. Monday, with Fire Department personnel responding to the scene for a “person sick,” according to spokesman Sean Ferguson.

Fire Department representative Franklin Lopez later confirmed all three patients were suspected of overdosing, with all patients being transported to the hospital with advanced life support.

Three ambulances were seen leaving the jail facilities headed to the hospital around 1 p.m.

A total of at least 10 patients have been transported to the hospital due to suspected overdoses in the past month, with Fire Department personnel responding to the facilities numerous times in that time period for more than a dozen patients.

In one of the incidents last month at the North County Correctional Facility, Naloxone, or Narcan, a life-saving opioid antagonist that can reverse the effects of a fatal overdose, had been administered to save two of the unconscious patients’ lives.

No information is currently available as of the publication of this story on the exact status of each of the three patients from Monday, nor the previous seven patients transported to the hospital in the last month. Sheriff’s Information Bureau officials had no updates on the investigation as of Monday.