Trumbull jail reviewing procedures, full-body scan after 3 inmates overdose Sunday morning

Staff report

WARREN

The Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office is reviewing procedures and taking another look at a full-body scan done on an inmate after three fellow inmates overdosed on opiates Sunday in the county jail.

Inmates alerted corrections officers at 7:46 a.m. that something was wrong. Three male inmates were discovered overdosing over the next 45 minutes.

Corrections officers administered the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, and all three were recovering when they were taken by ambulance to a local hospital, said Chief Deputy Joe Dragovich of the sheriff’s office.

They all returned to the jail later Sunday after being treated, apparently in good condition. One of the three men received four doses of naloxone.

The three inmates involved are Christopher T. Medzie, 52; Scott T. Herrmann, 36; and Ryan P. Wright, 28.

An investigation has begun, and criminal charges are possible against all three and the person who provided the drugs, Dragovich said.

It appears that an inmate supplied the drugs to the three men, Dragovich said. They all were in a cell together at one point, Dragovich said, adding that being in another inmate’s cell is a violation of jail rules.

That may have happened because the jail currently has about 340 inmates right now, which is a high number, Dragovich said.

To address that, jail officials are looking at possible additional limits on inmate movement.

Dragovich said the inmate suspected of providing the opiates to the three inmates was scanned on the jail’s new full-body scanner for contraband a couple of weeks ago, and the scan came back negative.

Because of that, jail officials will show the scan image to a representative for the company that sold the scanner to determine whether a corrections officer missed something.

The full-body scanner, which went online Sept. 15, has been a success in getting inmates to surrender contraband voluntarily and serves as a deterrent to inmates smuggling drugs into the facility, Dragovich said.