An inmate at the Habersham County Detention Center required emergency treatment for what appears to be a heroin overdose. “We found the inmate unresponsive,” Sheriff Joey Terrell explains. “We took him to the (Habersham Medical Center) ER and the tests came back that he had heroin in his system.”
The unidentified inmate was treated with Naloxone which is hailed as an antidote to heroin overdose. Sheriff Terrell says the hospital had to double up on the dose suggesting the prisoner had ingested more than a little of the narcotic.
The incident happened last week and Terrell says more than one inmate took the drug, “We gave several prisoners field sobriety tests that night so we would know who to watch. We didn’t want anybody else losing consciousness. There were several who were apparently under the influence.”
Officers immediately began searching for the source of the heroin and soon focused on a female inmate. They believe she secreted the drugs within her body, either anally or vaginally, to get them into the Clarkesville facility. It’s called “suitcasing” by criminals and is a common technique for hiding drugs and other contraband. Once she got inside the jail, she managed to slip some of the heroin underneath a door to male inmates.
Because of the time that passed between the smuggler’s arrival at the jail and the overdose, investigators have been unable to find direct evidence linking the suspect to the crime. Their investigation continues.
Smuggling is not a new problem for Habersham Detention Center officers, “Most of the folks in jail are here because of drugs.” Terrell says. “They’ll do anything to continue their addiction.”
In this case the suspected hiding place was effective because, while all new inmates must strip in front of a guard when they first put on their jail-issued uniforms, invasive cavity searches are not routine. They require a search warrant and must be performed by a medical professional.
The problem has grown to the point that the Sheriff no longer sends prisoners out on work detail because someone will inevitably use the opportunity to smuggle in contraband, “The jail gets pumped full of all kinds of stuff when folks are on work release. We just had to stop it.” Terrell says the most common contraband smuggled into the jail is tobacco. They also had one prisoner bring in a cell phone “suitcased” inside their body.
Drug possession in jail is a felony under Georgia law. The inmate that overdosed is now out of the hospital and back in jail.
Author’s Note: This was an odd story to try to tell due to federal regulations protecting medical records.
In this instance, because the whole thing hinges on a medical treatment situation, I could report the inmate’s name OR I could report what happened to him but I could not, in good conscience, do both.
Releasing his name AND the details of his hospital treatment would have violated the individual’s federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protections.
I chose to tell what happened rather than to whom it happened because the situation speaks to the larger issues facing our community and the officers who deal with these matters every day.
