CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Prison guards and nurses were among more than two dozen people treated for a possible drug exposure inside Ross Correctional Institution Wednesday.
Around 9 a.m. Wednesday, an inmate showed signs of a possible drug overdose at RCI, said Ohio State Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Robert Sellers.
As officers and medical responders arrived, a total of 28 individuals were treated through the administration of naloxone, a drug used to combat overdoses caused by opioids such as heroin or fentanyl. They were taken to a local hospital for evaluation.
One inmate was treated on scene and not transported.
The substance was possibly dispersed into the air by a fan, said Sellers who emphasized investigators were still trying to determine exactly what happened.
Around 11:10 Wednesday night, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said the substance was identified as a mixture of heroin and fentanyl.
Fentanyl is considered several times more powerful than heroin and has been linked to thousands of overdose deaths nationwide, sometimes on its own, but often mixed with heroin. Law enforcement officers routinely now put on gloves when responding to overdoses to avoid possible exposure.
A total of 31 inmates were evacuated from the unit where the prison exposure occurred, and a hazmat team from the Columbus fire department was summoned to clean the affected area.
Adena Medical Center received 24 patients from the prison: one inmate, the rest staff. Twenty-two victims were treated and released. The inmate was admitted and one other person remains in observation; both expected to be OK.
Five rooms and one trauma bay at the hospital still are quarantined. They will have to be thoroughly decontaminated.
Contraband drugs including opioids are an ongoing issue for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and county jails.
In May, a former milk deliveryman was accused of hiding marijuana, tobacco and cellphones inside milk cartons and smuggling them into a prison in southwest Ohio. He was sentenced to house arrest.
In September 2017, the Richland County Jail in Mansfield started operating a body scanner to detect drugs. Officials there monitored 26 opioid-related withdrawals in July 2017.
In February 2017, four inmates overdosed in two days at Pickaway Correctional Institution south of Columbus, requiring the use of CPR and doses of an anti-overdose drug as guards scrambled to revive the men.