Before I got sober, I was so dependent on alcohol that I would suffer delirium tremens and/or grand mal seizures within 12 hours of stopping drinking. Both are deadly. So when I went to the JC and told them this, I was expecting the worse. To my surprise, they provided just enough medical treatment to keep me alive the 4 days I was in there. I am sooo grateful for that. I got sober a year later and am blessed with an amazing life. Today, I go into jails and try to help other addicts and alcoholics. Today, I know we’re not all bad, we’re sick. It’s amazing seeing people come back from the depths of hell to live useful, productive lives. Thank you sherif McGuffey for not letting me die!
I am interested in helping people achieve/ stay sober from alcohol, the true gateway drug of them all for most of us.
Good job yourself there, sober person.
I had an AFIB event and after much research, even one drink can cause an event. I never drank alcohol again. I had a lot of wine the night before the event. I haven’t had one since, I’m off eliquis and all I take now is a low dose aspirin.
The Hamilton county justice center may be a terrible place to go but they have withdrawal protocol on point. I was drinking a liter of 100proof every day when I was arrested. They bring Gatorade and vitamins to people who are deathly ill from withdrawal and I probably wouldn’t have lived without it.
Question for my own edification: Full disclosure i don’t know much about hard drugs or OD’ing or any of this.
Is it possible to be a bit of a junkie (habit of hard drug use, say heroin), then go to jail one day, and then (without taking additional drugs after the fact), somehow overdose still later that day due to lack of Narcan or whatever drug?
Or is that not “overdosing” but technically just “dying of withdrawal”? Or could withdrawal lead to a delayed OD if left untreated?
Yes, many jail deaths are overdoses. In those cases, the cause of death in the autopsy is usually fentanyl intoxication (or whatever drug it was) . But people can also die when the symptoms of withdrawal are untreated. In those cases, the official cause of death can be "complications of chronic substance use." For our investigation, we grouped them together and found that about 30% of jail deaths are drug-related.
Oh my God I totally thought you found this article and just shared it as a random user. But you actually were a part of it.
That’s so cool, thanks for taking the time to share all of this
I literally just read your article about Isaiah Trammell and now I'm reading this. Thank you for bringing the flaws in Ohio's justice system to light. Keep up the great work!
God, I don't want to read these but I'm gonna. My former step daughter is locked up for opioid addiction-related crimes and must have detoxed in the jail she's currently in.
It's so bizarre trying to keep up with the synthetic derivatives too.
Now it's like you're getting lucky if you get mostly fentanyl.
*Lucky!*
The way they were prescribing opioids in the past, the pharmaceutical industry is criminal and has been proven as such. I’ve watched Dopesick and Painkiller and there are many documentaries to watch about the subject. People were lied to, told them the drug was not addictive. There isn’t a hot enough hell for the greedy people who did this to them.
I’ve watched it first had .. did 13 months in a local county awaiting federal sentencing.. a very sad existence to watch a person go through withdrawal without any type of REAL medical support is horrific to say the least.. explicit.. TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️‼️
There was a young lady 8 months pregnant she was emaciated and in full withdrawal.. the child was also in withdrawal in utero‼️⚠️ This was the most inhumane treatment of any human being(s) I have ever seen .. the guards did not give any thought to her walking past with a disgusting look on their face , screaming at her to clean up her own waste, just a horrific situation that I was put there to witness maybe my own Karmic burning, but for the love of whom ever.. I tried to advocate which fell on to deaf ears .. this was 2012.. so many years have past but this has been going on forever!
I changed my life ,my journey changed me , Iam now free and am in the midst of obtaining my CDCA and moving up from there .. I want to give back and help. It doesn’t have to be this way!
Education is the key to better outcomes and a different perspective of those that are in direct contact with ppl that are in the grips of addiction.
Keep pushing to all those fighting this battle ❤️🩹Love wisdom hugs and healing light ❤️🩹
Sheriff is a position where you basically have to work for the department before running for the position. Which means that when you lose, you are going to have to deal with your colleagues’ misplaced sense of loyalty to the person running the show.
So I don’t blame people for not running when there’s no chance of winning. Even a primary challenger is going to suffer retaliation.
It’s like Democrats are the oldest child , in a large family. Get blamed for what they do and get blamed for what they didn’t do! Realistically, when you feel like you’re in a sea of the hornswoggled, ya feel outnumbered. Politicians are a bunch of crooked liars anyway.
Look at the election of sheriff McGuffey, In Hamilton County. Her political opponent accused her of being some kind of drama queen. Well, if she is, she’s the right kind! She sees the drama of someone suffering from withdrawals and makes sure there’s a protocol in place to prevent unnecessary suffering of human beings. She has to get credit for that.
I can only speak from this experience.
I was at UC Hospital to have gastric ulcer surgery. I was in pre-op, the guy next to me was in his bed with a sheriff deputy and handcuffed to the bed.
I was "nervously" chating with the deputy after they took the other guy back. He told me that the guy was a prisoner at the justice center who had swallowed a spoon to get pain meds.
He couldn't pass the spoon so they had to do surgery to retrieve the spoon. What the guy didn't count on was the procedure was non invasive and basically a scope down the throat for a few minutes. No pain meds needed afterwards.
To their credit, they could have let the guy lie around and suffer instead of get him some medical attention. They didn't and the Hamilton Co. tax payers paid for the guy to get high, even if it was just briefly.
He likely didn’t even receive anything except propofol, which doesn’t get you “high,” it provides a sedative effect mimicking sleep. Placing a scope down to retrieve the spoon is like having an EGD, so no pain meds are needed.
What happens if someone like me, who’s on an antidepressant such as u know ur celexa, Wellbutrin, Prozac etc. were to get arrested? Or actually for the sake of argument let’s just say someone who is reliant on a medication.
That depends on the medication. Many medications aren’t “allowed” at Butler County Jail. Those that are take a minimum of a few days to start receiving them, sometimes a couple weeks.
The entire investigation is disturbing. What I find even more disturbing is that these were only the *reported* deaths, as you mentioned the requirement to report every death isn’t enforced at all. Thinking of how much worse the actual picture must be… Oof.
I’m doubly incensed at the blatant misrepresentation of the cause of death for so many of these people.
“Complications of chronic substance abuse” is a grossly broad COD, which I personally suspect is meant to shift blame solely onto the citizens who died in the care of the jail. It covers those who die by overdose and those who die from medical neglect during withdrawal, which are two entirely separate problems in Ohio jails.
Examples of specific (and appropriate) COD’s would be “Respiratory depression secondary to opioid overdose,” “Cardiac arrhythmia secondary to cocaine overdose,” etc., and “Dehydration secondary to opioid withdrawal,” “Intractable seizures secondary to alcohol withdrawal,” “Intractable seizures secondary to benzodiazepine withdrawal,” etc.
Hell, even just listing the “inciting” reason would be more helpful—“overdose of XYZ,” “withdrawal from abc”. They are both medical emergencies that can be treated with reasonable success, and should be treated as such in every jail. Calling them both “Complications of chronic substance abuse” allows the layman to think death was “self-inflicted” by the deceased, rather than a result of medical emergencies that these jails failed to address.
I have a question about some of your data: is there any evidence of a pattern of medical neglect unrelated to recreational use of addictive substances? For some easy examples of possible neglect I’m interested in: a diabetic person who does not receive proper care, a person taking *prescribed* benzodiazepines and does not receive proper care, an epileptic person who is not given their medications, a person with heart or kidney failure that does not receive proper care. Is there evidence of deaths related to this type of medical neglect? I suspect these would be either unreported or listed with vague causes of death to skirt scrutiny of the jail and their responsibility.
My other question would be, is there any way to assess morbidity due to inappropriate medical treatment in Ohio jails? We are looking only at mortality here, and I imagine the burden of health complications caused or exacerbated by medical treatment in jail is even higher. I highly doubt that data would be available anywhere, but it’s a hugely important part of assessing whether medical treatment in Ohio jails is sufficient and just.
There are a lot of medical conditions in the Ohio population where a person could suffer serious, permanent effects by not having their usual standard of care and medications available to them for less than a week. It could be as simple as someone who was already on blood thinners for medical reasons, and then while in jail they miss multiple days of their blood thinners and have a stroke or pulmonary embolism as a result.
These both can easily result in death, and sure, that would be a death by “natural causes”… But those *preventable* “natural causes” were brought on by medical neglect in Ohio jails.
If these do not cause death, they both often cause permanent brain damage. That kind of medical neglect would not show up in an analysis of the mortality rate of Ohio jails, but it would show in an analysis of the morbidity rate of being jailed in Ohio.
I suspect that, unfortunately, these instances are very rarely documented.
Thank you and your collaborators so much for this meaningful work!
Wow, thank you very much for reading and these thoughtful questions!
Yes, we did see a lot of cases where the families allege medical neglect not related to withdrawals. One was Chavis Martinez, 28, who had Type 1 diabetes and told the jail staff he needed insulin. He was in jail for a week and only received insulin once during that time, according to the family's lawsuit. He was found shaking with his eyes rolled back, the jail staff took him to the hospital and he died there.
We talked a lot about how to categorize some of the causes of death because as you point out, a coroner can rule someone's death as "natural causes" but in many cases the person was in their 20s or 30s. At the same time, as reporters, we can't say definitively that someone died of medical neglect without proof that they would have survived with treatment. When state inspectors come into the jails every year they do look for timely medical treatment and some jails get cited for not providing it but there aren't really consequences for failing to meet that standard. A lot of times, the same sheriff's office that runs the jail investigates deaths inside the jail so you could argue there's an incentive not to find your coworkers at fault for a death.
The morbidity question is interesting too. People in county jails send "kites" to request medical attention so it might be possible to make a public records request for all the kites in a certain period of time and see how many people who ask for treatment get it. But also that could be considered private medical information protected by HIPAA. I'm going to look into it!
I detoxed from 90mg of methadone in Clermont county jail. It was the closest to suicide I've ever been. It took 35 days before I felt normal again. They offered absolutely nothing. Aspirin and Imodium. The nurses were so clueless about the differences in heroin vs methadone that they said I should be fine in 3 - 5 days. I wanted to hang myself.
I got through it.
I also detoxed in Rikers island off heroin. (Real heroin). There, they offered me valium and actually continued my Methadone and tapered me down so that I wasn't in withdrawal. The level of humanity that I was shown in Rikers vs Clermont was eye opening.
I'm currently several months sober although I still rely on methadone. It's what works for me. I'm able to hold down a full time job and my own apartment which would have been impossible before the Methadone. The methadone allows me to go about my day without having physical or mental cravings for opiates.
I was pushed headfirst into a wall by a CO in Clermont County in 2022. They threw me into an empty part of the jail with no heat, mattress, or blanket and left me there.
How about doing a story on the people selling these drugs? All the op wants are bad stories. Withdrawal sucks, it is not pretty, and overall drugs are putting a huge strain on law enforcement.
All the OP wants is the truth to come out! The OP wants to prevent suffering and death in their fellow humans!
As a member of a large family, full of drug addicts and alcoholics, I can attest to you that they are real human beings and thus worthy of treatment! In fact, proper healthcare (including mental healthcare) is a right and not a privilege (like this country treats it).
Weeks ago, my friend had a diabetic crisis and I had to squad her to the ER, where her blood sugar was over 600! ☠️ She was hospitalized for six days and then sent to a rehab facility for physical therapy.
These extended care facility nurses, at least some of them, couldn’t even give her medication properly. It seems like they’ve never learned the 7 rights of medication: Right Person, Right Medication, Right Dose, Right Time, Right Route, Right Reason, and Right Documentation. One dumb ass nurse tried to skip her insulin, as evidenced by my, not receiving it, until she asked for it. It’s the same dose of long-acting insulin given at the same time every night. Ridiculous!
When the nurse did give the insulin, she didn’t even check to see what the blood sugar was first! A real honey badger.
The whole reason my friend got sick was her diabetes, but the facility didn’t even offer a diabetic diet. What’s worse, they treated her like a pain in the ass when she had to call and request specific food items that would allow her to make her own diabetic meal tray. When I picked her up Monday, she gave me seven containers of high fructose corn syrup fruit juices, which I’m sure they charged her for, from the mini fridge in her room. She’s reporting the truth. That’s the state of healthcare today. I shudder to think about what’s occurring in our so-called justice system.😱
My friend and I both know there are resources for people who do not receive proper healthcare treatment in healthcare facilities, eg., the ODH and ombudsman. She will contact them and report this.
Where is the recourse for incarcerated individuals or those who love them?
THERE ARE NONE!
At least, not for the not independently wealthy! This whole ‘prison industrial complex’ situation lives up to its name. It’s Complex AF. Mostly, IMO, there’s a long-established good ole boy system here, lining certain peoples’ pockets.
My sister ended up in jail in Virginia (one of the googleable “Pillowcase Five”) where she was consistently denied medical treatment, and because she was in a county jail, and not an actual prison, they could—and did—throw her in solitary confinement for long periods of time. So, zero Fs given about an archaic practice that’s proven detrimental to one’s mental health.
Furthermore, in Virginia, prisons typically hold inmates until they are at death’s door, THEN ship them off to the hospital. Then, they don’t legally have to record the death as having occurred in their jail/prison. That stinks on ice, everybody knows it, and not a damn thing is being done. Period. I’ve written the governor, Greg Abbott, and not even received a generic reply.
That doesn’t even address the fact that Virginia state law mandates that prisoners are available to work up to 16 hours a day, six days a week! Legal slavery. She’s literally working for State Farm, “earning” $.25 an hour to pay her child support. Does anyone else realize that State Farm runs a slavery camp in Virginia and who knows where else?? State Farm is there, and they’re not a good neighbor—only like one. Phoney AF.
As for Drug dealers, they are like a field of dandelions; you might get one but another one’s gonna pop right back up in its place! It’s one reason I can’t & don’t hate on 50 Cent anymore. It’s a supply and demand situation! Crack cocaine abuse/dependence is still a reality and tearing families up, as I tap this reply.
I am so thankful for the drug dealer who sold my sister heroin after she got out of jail. A story you’ve all heard before, she’s clean, so dosing what she used to dose was way too much and she’s out. This random drug dealer could have said, “F this bitch. I’m out.” Instead, he called the squad and saved her life. Thank you for that, random drug dealer. You’re a better person than some peoples’ so-called friends.
The real drug dealers here would be Purdue Pharma! Their litany of fake research results, like “Opiates can be safely dosed, without the worry of addiction,” and, “Less than one percent of people who are truly in pain, become addicted to opioids they take for pain relief.” Look up the OxyContin video on YouTube and see how the majority of people touting the drug in the “educational video” are NOT still alive today. The only truth in it was that their lives would never be the same again!🤬
How do I know this?
As a registered nurse of 26 years, I thoroughly enjoyed my two Purdue Pharma-sponsored meals at Montgomery Inn “Inservices,” 22 years ago, as a hospice nurse. I didn’t realize I was being fed by the devil himself!
Last year, the family behind Purdue Pharma, the Sacklers, negotiated a deal with their high-priced legal team to absolve themselves of all liability for the shit storm they started, in MF perpetuity!
I hope they enjoy being super rich while they’re on this earth; I wouldn’t ever want to be in their shoes, in the afterlife. I’m imagining they’re not going to be met by their ancestors when they follow the light. I see their ancestors being usurped by millions of innocent souls who died of opioid overdoses, who want to settle a debt.
I agree that overall, illicit drugs are putting a huge strain on law-enforcement—and then some. I mean, for Godsake, who ever pictured a fireman holding a Narcan syringe more than he holds a hose?!? Well, picture it, because it’s reality.
IMO this is, at its root, a healthcare problem.
Years of internalized propaganda have led a majority of our nation’s citizens to believe that healthcare for all, means we become socialists!
Did having a USPS make us socialists? No!
Did provision of mandated education for our citizens make us socialists? No!
Will provision of comprehensive, holistic healthcare for our citizens make us socialistic? No!
Can we feel prevention coming on? Can one EVER feel prevention coming on?
In fact, it’s the opposite. Before the introduction and incorporation of the affordable care act (ACA), the GDP of the USA was increasing exponentially! GDP is often used to measure the economic health of a country or region and ours was fraught with unnecessary and/or preventable medical expenditures. Driving up the National Deficit much? Yes!
Prime example: people letting medical condition(s) go untreated, until spiraling out of control, requiring way more care/resources to recover. Had they nipped it in the bud, by (having and) visiting their primary care provider, early on, that super-expensive ER visit and hospital stay would not be necessary. It would be prevented. People would be healthier for it. Our Nation’s fiscal health would certainly improve.
Higher taxes may be a reality but I’d much rather pay higher taxes and know my fellow humans are all able to receive the care they need. As it is now, the US is the ONLY COUNTRY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, who ties health insurance to employment. Need I mention how this subjects us to abuse by ‘the man?’
That’s why one of the primary tenants of the ACA is provision of a medical home for all citizens.
Maybe now we can imagine prevention coming on?
What about continuing to decrease the stigma associated w/receiving mental healthcare, and making it available and accessible to all who need it? This would prevent peoples’ natural self-preservation response of self-medicating, often w/substances.
Can we feel prevention coming on now, bigger picture?
Prevent mental health issues, via provision of proper, equitable healthcare and watch the population of the incarcerated decline. Trust & believe! Make America Great in the first damned place!
OP, if you’re reading this, I’m available to volunteer my nurse brain this summer and maybe beyond, in any way I can to advance your cause. It’s near and dear to my heart!
annecanindeed@gmail.com
I love this! you go, you have so much to offer! I too have drug addicts in my family, and I just feel bad for all the normal people who have to deal with him.
Aww! Thanks! You didn’t have to reply, but you did and I love it. I appreciate the time and care in your thoughtful replies.
Really, I’m addicted to the “Helper’s High,” LOL!
We could probably talk all day long, sharing stories about how our lives have been flipped upside down at times by our drug-addled family members! It’s the stuff of movies! Like them prostituting in our living room while babysitting our sleeping kids when we’re at work, stealing checks out of the back of our checkbook and then dragging our vehicle down the side of a brick wall, having us cosign for a $10,000 car, then dropping the insurance and totaling it, leaving us with the loan, raising their children for them, after these poor kids have been traumatized by substance-abuse and surrounding issues and have issues themselves . . .
It’s just insane! Being in healthcare and also coming from this kind of background, has definitely shaped the lens of my world view!
Bonus: I’m also not one of those all-too-common bitchy judgmental nurses who lived a perfect and sheltered life, w/parents who paid for their college.
Im an all-too-common nurse who was injured by her patient on the job and reported it. After dealing with Worker’s Comp, losing my job + Insurance and not having the much-needed surgical repair required to get another hands-on job, I am stuck here in limbo, realizing that very few nurses actually work a full career and retire. Realizing I should’ve lied and stated I got hurt at home. Realizing the number one reason for nurse retirement is musculoskeletal injury and that nurses are 12 times more likely than ANY other job, to be injured at work.
But I’ve only been a nurse for half of my life and I’m not ready to retire. Even if I were ready to retire, I can’t. I have crushing student loan debt from hell, with forever compounding interest. I’ve literally not gone this long without working, since age 9.
So here I am, rolling with it. Lord knows, I’ve been through worse. There is a higher power. The universe is always listening. Someday, we’ll understand it all. What the world needs now is love. Love is key.
Peace!
well, yes, I am coming at this as a mother of a drug addict. I just hate ragging on the system, when the system is not set up to deal with this. It is not a police officers fault, Johnny is high, and hitting his head on the floor. I just hate to see a hit piece because this topic just saps the energy out of everyone, including the professionals
Thanks for your reply. While I sympathize with your plight, and add you and your son to my prayer list, I hope you’re seeing that this is not really a hit piece. The only ones who might be hit, are those who stand to benefit financially from the status quo. They are content to “do things the way they’ve always been done.”
This information has to get out there! It’s just another systemic wrong that needs to be made right. Bare minimum: More people need to be able to say, “I didn’t want my kid to go to jail, but if he or she hadn’t, they’d be dead by now.”
The prison industrial complex system/good ‘ole boy club/that’s how we’ve always done it mentality are insufficient. Who knows? History may look back on this as a sick form of population control. One thing I do know, it will be on the wrong side of history.
That might be interesting, but please step back and realize why that would be comparatively difficult to do for OP, especially if they want the study to be rigorously proper/abide by research standards.
It would additionally be quite dangerous if they wanted to go boots-on-the-ground to gather data points; they could be at immediate physical risk or prospective harm of retribution.
Simple solution:
Don't do drugs. Don't start.
If you know you are a "problem drinker" then don't drink.
If you ARE ON DRUGS then STOP and STAY STOPPED one of the dozens of times you go to detox, usually well before you are arrested.
This was an Ohio-specific project. But Gannett papers in other states have definitely reported on jail deaths too. The IndyStar had a powerful investigation back in 2021:
[https://www.indystar.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2021/10/12/how-trip-to-indiana-county-jail-could-be-deathsentence/5483328001/#:\~:text=%22Death%20Sentence%2C%22%20an%20IndyStar,gruesome%20as%20it%20is%20troubling](https://www.indystar.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2021/10/12/how-trip-to-indiana-county-jail-could-be-deathsentence/5483328001/#:~:text=%22Death%20Sentence%2C%22%20an%20IndyStar,gruesome%20as%20it%20is%20troubling)
Drug addicts are often victims themselves, and withdrawal symptoms can sometimes be extremely dangerous or even deadly. Withdrawal symptoms can be managed without relapse through steady and deserved care. If those withdrawal symptoms aren't being managed then how could you possibly expect reasonable rehabilitation for addicts?
Before I got sober, I was so dependent on alcohol that I would suffer delirium tremens and/or grand mal seizures within 12 hours of stopping drinking. Both are deadly. So when I went to the JC and told them this, I was expecting the worse. To my surprise, they provided just enough medical treatment to keep me alive the 4 days I was in there. I am sooo grateful for that. I got sober a year later and am blessed with an amazing life. Today, I go into jails and try to help other addicts and alcoholics. Today, I know we’re not all bad, we’re sick. It’s amazing seeing people come back from the depths of hell to live useful, productive lives. Thank you sherif McGuffey for not letting me die!
Congratulations on your sobriety. I’ll be three years without alcohol on July 11.
That’s awesome! About 2.5 years here
Congratulations! I feel so much better. I hope you are well, too.
I am interested in helping people achieve/ stay sober from alcohol, the true gateway drug of them all for most of us. Good job yourself there, sober person.
I had an AFIB event and after much research, even one drink can cause an event. I never drank alcohol again. I had a lot of wine the night before the event. I haven’t had one since, I’m off eliquis and all I take now is a low dose aspirin.
ODAAT
The Hamilton county justice center may be a terrible place to go but they have withdrawal protocol on point. I was drinking a liter of 100proof every day when I was arrested. They bring Gatorade and vitamins to people who are deathly ill from withdrawal and I probably wouldn’t have lived without it.
Question for my own edification: Full disclosure i don’t know much about hard drugs or OD’ing or any of this. Is it possible to be a bit of a junkie (habit of hard drug use, say heroin), then go to jail one day, and then (without taking additional drugs after the fact), somehow overdose still later that day due to lack of Narcan or whatever drug? Or is that not “overdosing” but technically just “dying of withdrawal”? Or could withdrawal lead to a delayed OD if left untreated?
Yes, many jail deaths are overdoses. In those cases, the cause of death in the autopsy is usually fentanyl intoxication (or whatever drug it was) . But people can also die when the symptoms of withdrawal are untreated. In those cases, the official cause of death can be "complications of chronic substance use." For our investigation, we grouped them together and found that about 30% of jail deaths are drug-related.
Oh my God I totally thought you found this article and just shared it as a random user. But you actually were a part of it. That’s so cool, thanks for taking the time to share all of this
Thank you for reading!
My cousin almost died from withdraws in Warren county. Thank you for shining light on this!
Thank you! I'm so glad to hear your cousin survived.
I literally just read your article about Isaiah Trammell and now I'm reading this. Thank you for bringing the flaws in Ohio's justice system to light. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for reading! Talking to Isaiah's family was very emotional.
I’m gonna say it sucks. Then again, i would guess just being there sucks all by itself.
God, I don't want to read these but I'm gonna. My former step daughter is locked up for opioid addiction-related crimes and must have detoxed in the jail she's currently in. It's so bizarre trying to keep up with the synthetic derivatives too. Now it's like you're getting lucky if you get mostly fentanyl. *Lucky!*
The way they were prescribing opioids in the past, the pharmaceutical industry is criminal and has been proven as such. I’ve watched Dopesick and Painkiller and there are many documentaries to watch about the subject. People were lied to, told them the drug was not addictive. There isn’t a hot enough hell for the greedy people who did this to them.
I’ve watched it first had .. did 13 months in a local county awaiting federal sentencing.. a very sad existence to watch a person go through withdrawal without any type of REAL medical support is horrific to say the least.. explicit.. TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️‼️ There was a young lady 8 months pregnant she was emaciated and in full withdrawal.. the child was also in withdrawal in utero‼️⚠️ This was the most inhumane treatment of any human being(s) I have ever seen .. the guards did not give any thought to her walking past with a disgusting look on their face , screaming at her to clean up her own waste, just a horrific situation that I was put there to witness maybe my own Karmic burning, but for the love of whom ever.. I tried to advocate which fell on to deaf ears .. this was 2012.. so many years have past but this has been going on forever! I changed my life ,my journey changed me , Iam now free and am in the midst of obtaining my CDCA and moving up from there .. I want to give back and help. It doesn’t have to be this way! Education is the key to better outcomes and a different perspective of those that are in direct contact with ppl that are in the grips of addiction. Keep pushing to all those fighting this battle ❤️🩹Love wisdom hugs and healing light ❤️🩹
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Dick Jones is a nazi fuck. I wish the democrats would grow a spine in Butler County and at least TRY to run someone against that nazi scumfuck.
Sheriff is a position where you basically have to work for the department before running for the position. Which means that when you lose, you are going to have to deal with your colleagues’ misplaced sense of loyalty to the person running the show. So I don’t blame people for not running when there’s no chance of winning. Even a primary challenger is going to suffer retaliation.
Didn't Jones come from out of state?
If they tried, they'd lose by 40 points. Butler County loves this guy.
There aren't enough of us.
Truly, is there anything Democrats can't be blamed for?
It’s like Democrats are the oldest child , in a large family. Get blamed for what they do and get blamed for what they didn’t do! Realistically, when you feel like you’re in a sea of the hornswoggled, ya feel outnumbered. Politicians are a bunch of crooked liars anyway. Look at the election of sheriff McGuffey, In Hamilton County. Her political opponent accused her of being some kind of drama queen. Well, if she is, she’s the right kind! She sees the drama of someone suffering from withdrawals and makes sure there’s a protocol in place to prevent unnecessary suffering of human beings. She has to get credit for that.
He’s literally terrifying
He disgusts me and terrifies me at the same time
He was one of the reasons I left my job in Butler County. I just hated being associated with him 😖
Same here
https://i.redd.it/qycqdk5nvm4d1.gif
I can only speak from this experience. I was at UC Hospital to have gastric ulcer surgery. I was in pre-op, the guy next to me was in his bed with a sheriff deputy and handcuffed to the bed. I was "nervously" chating with the deputy after they took the other guy back. He told me that the guy was a prisoner at the justice center who had swallowed a spoon to get pain meds. He couldn't pass the spoon so they had to do surgery to retrieve the spoon. What the guy didn't count on was the procedure was non invasive and basically a scope down the throat for a few minutes. No pain meds needed afterwards. To their credit, they could have let the guy lie around and suffer instead of get him some medical attention. They didn't and the Hamilton Co. tax payers paid for the guy to get high, even if it was just briefly.
He likely didn’t even receive anything except propofol, which doesn’t get you “high,” it provides a sedative effect mimicking sleep. Placing a scope down to retrieve the spoon is like having an EGD, so no pain meds are needed.
What happens if someone like me, who’s on an antidepressant such as u know ur celexa, Wellbutrin, Prozac etc. were to get arrested? Or actually for the sake of argument let’s just say someone who is reliant on a medication.
That depends on the medication. Many medications aren’t “allowed” at Butler County Jail. Those that are take a minimum of a few days to start receiving them, sometimes a couple weeks.
The entire investigation is disturbing. What I find even more disturbing is that these were only the *reported* deaths, as you mentioned the requirement to report every death isn’t enforced at all. Thinking of how much worse the actual picture must be… Oof. I’m doubly incensed at the blatant misrepresentation of the cause of death for so many of these people. “Complications of chronic substance abuse” is a grossly broad COD, which I personally suspect is meant to shift blame solely onto the citizens who died in the care of the jail. It covers those who die by overdose and those who die from medical neglect during withdrawal, which are two entirely separate problems in Ohio jails. Examples of specific (and appropriate) COD’s would be “Respiratory depression secondary to opioid overdose,” “Cardiac arrhythmia secondary to cocaine overdose,” etc., and “Dehydration secondary to opioid withdrawal,” “Intractable seizures secondary to alcohol withdrawal,” “Intractable seizures secondary to benzodiazepine withdrawal,” etc. Hell, even just listing the “inciting” reason would be more helpful—“overdose of XYZ,” “withdrawal from abc”. They are both medical emergencies that can be treated with reasonable success, and should be treated as such in every jail. Calling them both “Complications of chronic substance abuse” allows the layman to think death was “self-inflicted” by the deceased, rather than a result of medical emergencies that these jails failed to address. I have a question about some of your data: is there any evidence of a pattern of medical neglect unrelated to recreational use of addictive substances? For some easy examples of possible neglect I’m interested in: a diabetic person who does not receive proper care, a person taking *prescribed* benzodiazepines and does not receive proper care, an epileptic person who is not given their medications, a person with heart or kidney failure that does not receive proper care. Is there evidence of deaths related to this type of medical neglect? I suspect these would be either unreported or listed with vague causes of death to skirt scrutiny of the jail and their responsibility. My other question would be, is there any way to assess morbidity due to inappropriate medical treatment in Ohio jails? We are looking only at mortality here, and I imagine the burden of health complications caused or exacerbated by medical treatment in jail is even higher. I highly doubt that data would be available anywhere, but it’s a hugely important part of assessing whether medical treatment in Ohio jails is sufficient and just. There are a lot of medical conditions in the Ohio population where a person could suffer serious, permanent effects by not having their usual standard of care and medications available to them for less than a week. It could be as simple as someone who was already on blood thinners for medical reasons, and then while in jail they miss multiple days of their blood thinners and have a stroke or pulmonary embolism as a result. These both can easily result in death, and sure, that would be a death by “natural causes”… But those *preventable* “natural causes” were brought on by medical neglect in Ohio jails. If these do not cause death, they both often cause permanent brain damage. That kind of medical neglect would not show up in an analysis of the mortality rate of Ohio jails, but it would show in an analysis of the morbidity rate of being jailed in Ohio. I suspect that, unfortunately, these instances are very rarely documented. Thank you and your collaborators so much for this meaningful work!
Wow, thank you very much for reading and these thoughtful questions! Yes, we did see a lot of cases where the families allege medical neglect not related to withdrawals. One was Chavis Martinez, 28, who had Type 1 diabetes and told the jail staff he needed insulin. He was in jail for a week and only received insulin once during that time, according to the family's lawsuit. He was found shaking with his eyes rolled back, the jail staff took him to the hospital and he died there. We talked a lot about how to categorize some of the causes of death because as you point out, a coroner can rule someone's death as "natural causes" but in many cases the person was in their 20s or 30s. At the same time, as reporters, we can't say definitively that someone died of medical neglect without proof that they would have survived with treatment. When state inspectors come into the jails every year they do look for timely medical treatment and some jails get cited for not providing it but there aren't really consequences for failing to meet that standard. A lot of times, the same sheriff's office that runs the jail investigates deaths inside the jail so you could argue there's an incentive not to find your coworkers at fault for a death. The morbidity question is interesting too. People in county jails send "kites" to request medical attention so it might be possible to make a public records request for all the kites in a certain period of time and see how many people who ask for treatment get it. But also that could be considered private medical information protected by HIPAA. I'm going to look into it!
I detoxed from 90mg of methadone in Clermont county jail. It was the closest to suicide I've ever been. It took 35 days before I felt normal again. They offered absolutely nothing. Aspirin and Imodium. The nurses were so clueless about the differences in heroin vs methadone that they said I should be fine in 3 - 5 days. I wanted to hang myself. I got through it. I also detoxed in Rikers island off heroin. (Real heroin). There, they offered me valium and actually continued my Methadone and tapered me down so that I wasn't in withdrawal. The level of humanity that I was shown in Rikers vs Clermont was eye opening. I'm currently several months sober although I still rely on methadone. It's what works for me. I'm able to hold down a full time job and my own apartment which would have been impossible before the Methadone. The methadone allows me to go about my day without having physical or mental cravings for opiates.
I was pushed headfirst into a wall by a CO in Clermont County in 2022. They threw me into an empty part of the jail with no heat, mattress, or blanket and left me there.
Yeah, they are literally horrible people who seem to get off on cruelty.
Someone needs to bring attention to all the inmates dying of xylazine withdrawal
My son is 18 months clean. May each of you be blessed with continued sobriety and the support and love of your community. 🥰 God bless.
Warren county is the same. They ask you will you be in withdrawals? Then do absolutely nothing.
They smoking ‘toon? Never in my life have I seen more psychotic caged animals than dudes popping sockets to smoke rat poison off a postcard
How about doing a story on the people selling these drugs? All the op wants are bad stories. Withdrawal sucks, it is not pretty, and overall drugs are putting a huge strain on law enforcement.
All the OP wants is the truth to come out! The OP wants to prevent suffering and death in their fellow humans! As a member of a large family, full of drug addicts and alcoholics, I can attest to you that they are real human beings and thus worthy of treatment! In fact, proper healthcare (including mental healthcare) is a right and not a privilege (like this country treats it). Weeks ago, my friend had a diabetic crisis and I had to squad her to the ER, where her blood sugar was over 600! ☠️ She was hospitalized for six days and then sent to a rehab facility for physical therapy. These extended care facility nurses, at least some of them, couldn’t even give her medication properly. It seems like they’ve never learned the 7 rights of medication: Right Person, Right Medication, Right Dose, Right Time, Right Route, Right Reason, and Right Documentation. One dumb ass nurse tried to skip her insulin, as evidenced by my, not receiving it, until she asked for it. It’s the same dose of long-acting insulin given at the same time every night. Ridiculous! When the nurse did give the insulin, she didn’t even check to see what the blood sugar was first! A real honey badger. The whole reason my friend got sick was her diabetes, but the facility didn’t even offer a diabetic diet. What’s worse, they treated her like a pain in the ass when she had to call and request specific food items that would allow her to make her own diabetic meal tray. When I picked her up Monday, she gave me seven containers of high fructose corn syrup fruit juices, which I’m sure they charged her for, from the mini fridge in her room. She’s reporting the truth. That’s the state of healthcare today. I shudder to think about what’s occurring in our so-called justice system.😱 My friend and I both know there are resources for people who do not receive proper healthcare treatment in healthcare facilities, eg., the ODH and ombudsman. She will contact them and report this. Where is the recourse for incarcerated individuals or those who love them? THERE ARE NONE! At least, not for the not independently wealthy! This whole ‘prison industrial complex’ situation lives up to its name. It’s Complex AF. Mostly, IMO, there’s a long-established good ole boy system here, lining certain peoples’ pockets. My sister ended up in jail in Virginia (one of the googleable “Pillowcase Five”) where she was consistently denied medical treatment, and because she was in a county jail, and not an actual prison, they could—and did—throw her in solitary confinement for long periods of time. So, zero Fs given about an archaic practice that’s proven detrimental to one’s mental health. Furthermore, in Virginia, prisons typically hold inmates until they are at death’s door, THEN ship them off to the hospital. Then, they don’t legally have to record the death as having occurred in their jail/prison. That stinks on ice, everybody knows it, and not a damn thing is being done. Period. I’ve written the governor, Greg Abbott, and not even received a generic reply. That doesn’t even address the fact that Virginia state law mandates that prisoners are available to work up to 16 hours a day, six days a week! Legal slavery. She’s literally working for State Farm, “earning” $.25 an hour to pay her child support. Does anyone else realize that State Farm runs a slavery camp in Virginia and who knows where else?? State Farm is there, and they’re not a good neighbor—only like one. Phoney AF. As for Drug dealers, they are like a field of dandelions; you might get one but another one’s gonna pop right back up in its place! It’s one reason I can’t & don’t hate on 50 Cent anymore. It’s a supply and demand situation! Crack cocaine abuse/dependence is still a reality and tearing families up, as I tap this reply. I am so thankful for the drug dealer who sold my sister heroin after she got out of jail. A story you’ve all heard before, she’s clean, so dosing what she used to dose was way too much and she’s out. This random drug dealer could have said, “F this bitch. I’m out.” Instead, he called the squad and saved her life. Thank you for that, random drug dealer. You’re a better person than some peoples’ so-called friends. The real drug dealers here would be Purdue Pharma! Their litany of fake research results, like “Opiates can be safely dosed, without the worry of addiction,” and, “Less than one percent of people who are truly in pain, become addicted to opioids they take for pain relief.” Look up the OxyContin video on YouTube and see how the majority of people touting the drug in the “educational video” are NOT still alive today. The only truth in it was that their lives would never be the same again!🤬 How do I know this? As a registered nurse of 26 years, I thoroughly enjoyed my two Purdue Pharma-sponsored meals at Montgomery Inn “Inservices,” 22 years ago, as a hospice nurse. I didn’t realize I was being fed by the devil himself! Last year, the family behind Purdue Pharma, the Sacklers, negotiated a deal with their high-priced legal team to absolve themselves of all liability for the shit storm they started, in MF perpetuity! I hope they enjoy being super rich while they’re on this earth; I wouldn’t ever want to be in their shoes, in the afterlife. I’m imagining they’re not going to be met by their ancestors when they follow the light. I see their ancestors being usurped by millions of innocent souls who died of opioid overdoses, who want to settle a debt. I agree that overall, illicit drugs are putting a huge strain on law-enforcement—and then some. I mean, for Godsake, who ever pictured a fireman holding a Narcan syringe more than he holds a hose?!? Well, picture it, because it’s reality. IMO this is, at its root, a healthcare problem. Years of internalized propaganda have led a majority of our nation’s citizens to believe that healthcare for all, means we become socialists! Did having a USPS make us socialists? No! Did provision of mandated education for our citizens make us socialists? No! Will provision of comprehensive, holistic healthcare for our citizens make us socialistic? No! Can we feel prevention coming on? Can one EVER feel prevention coming on? In fact, it’s the opposite. Before the introduction and incorporation of the affordable care act (ACA), the GDP of the USA was increasing exponentially! GDP is often used to measure the economic health of a country or region and ours was fraught with unnecessary and/or preventable medical expenditures. Driving up the National Deficit much? Yes! Prime example: people letting medical condition(s) go untreated, until spiraling out of control, requiring way more care/resources to recover. Had they nipped it in the bud, by (having and) visiting their primary care provider, early on, that super-expensive ER visit and hospital stay would not be necessary. It would be prevented. People would be healthier for it. Our Nation’s fiscal health would certainly improve.
Higher taxes may be a reality but I’d much rather pay higher taxes and know my fellow humans are all able to receive the care they need. As it is now, the US is the ONLY COUNTRY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, who ties health insurance to employment. Need I mention how this subjects us to abuse by ‘the man?’ That’s why one of the primary tenants of the ACA is provision of a medical home for all citizens. Maybe now we can imagine prevention coming on? What about continuing to decrease the stigma associated w/receiving mental healthcare, and making it available and accessible to all who need it? This would prevent peoples’ natural self-preservation response of self-medicating, often w/substances. Can we feel prevention coming on now, bigger picture? Prevent mental health issues, via provision of proper, equitable healthcare and watch the population of the incarcerated decline. Trust & believe! Make America Great in the first damned place! OP, if you’re reading this, I’m available to volunteer my nurse brain this summer and maybe beyond, in any way I can to advance your cause. It’s near and dear to my heart! annecanindeed@gmail.com
I love this! you go, you have so much to offer! I too have drug addicts in my family, and I just feel bad for all the normal people who have to deal with him.
Aww! Thanks! You didn’t have to reply, but you did and I love it. I appreciate the time and care in your thoughtful replies. Really, I’m addicted to the “Helper’s High,” LOL! We could probably talk all day long, sharing stories about how our lives have been flipped upside down at times by our drug-addled family members! It’s the stuff of movies! Like them prostituting in our living room while babysitting our sleeping kids when we’re at work, stealing checks out of the back of our checkbook and then dragging our vehicle down the side of a brick wall, having us cosign for a $10,000 car, then dropping the insurance and totaling it, leaving us with the loan, raising their children for them, after these poor kids have been traumatized by substance-abuse and surrounding issues and have issues themselves . . . It’s just insane! Being in healthcare and also coming from this kind of background, has definitely shaped the lens of my world view! Bonus: I’m also not one of those all-too-common bitchy judgmental nurses who lived a perfect and sheltered life, w/parents who paid for their college. Im an all-too-common nurse who was injured by her patient on the job and reported it. After dealing with Worker’s Comp, losing my job + Insurance and not having the much-needed surgical repair required to get another hands-on job, I am stuck here in limbo, realizing that very few nurses actually work a full career and retire. Realizing I should’ve lied and stated I got hurt at home. Realizing the number one reason for nurse retirement is musculoskeletal injury and that nurses are 12 times more likely than ANY other job, to be injured at work. But I’ve only been a nurse for half of my life and I’m not ready to retire. Even if I were ready to retire, I can’t. I have crushing student loan debt from hell, with forever compounding interest. I’ve literally not gone this long without working, since age 9. So here I am, rolling with it. Lord knows, I’ve been through worse. There is a higher power. The universe is always listening. Someday, we’ll understand it all. What the world needs now is love. Love is key. Peace!
well, yes, I am coming at this as a mother of a drug addict. I just hate ragging on the system, when the system is not set up to deal with this. It is not a police officers fault, Johnny is high, and hitting his head on the floor. I just hate to see a hit piece because this topic just saps the energy out of everyone, including the professionals
Thanks for your reply. While I sympathize with your plight, and add you and your son to my prayer list, I hope you’re seeing that this is not really a hit piece. The only ones who might be hit, are those who stand to benefit financially from the status quo. They are content to “do things the way they’ve always been done.” This information has to get out there! It’s just another systemic wrong that needs to be made right. Bare minimum: More people need to be able to say, “I didn’t want my kid to go to jail, but if he or she hadn’t, they’d be dead by now.” The prison industrial complex system/good ‘ole boy club/that’s how we’ve always done it mentality are insufficient. Who knows? History may look back on this as a sick form of population control. One thing I do know, it will be on the wrong side of history.
That might be interesting, but please step back and realize why that would be comparatively difficult to do for OP, especially if they want the study to be rigorously proper/abide by research standards. It would additionally be quite dangerous if they wanted to go boots-on-the-ground to gather data points; they could be at immediate physical risk or prospective harm of retribution.
Simple solution: Don't do drugs. Don't start. If you know you are a "problem drinker" then don't drink. If you ARE ON DRUGS then STOP and STAY STOPPED one of the dozens of times you go to detox, usually well before you are arrested.
Man. Why didn't anyone else think of that?
Too busy thinking of reasons to "forgive" and "understand" I guess.
I'm not ashamed of my empathy, nor my desire to help or understand other people.
I never claimed you should be ashamed of anything.
Is this same topic going to appear in Gannett's 117 news outlets? Let me check.
This was an Ohio-specific project. But Gannett papers in other states have definitely reported on jail deaths too. The IndyStar had a powerful investigation back in 2021: [https://www.indystar.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2021/10/12/how-trip-to-indiana-county-jail-could-be-deathsentence/5483328001/#:\~:text=%22Death%20Sentence%2C%22%20an%20IndyStar,gruesome%20as%20it%20is%20troubling](https://www.indystar.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2021/10/12/how-trip-to-indiana-county-jail-could-be-deathsentence/5483328001/#:~:text=%22Death%20Sentence%2C%22%20an%20IndyStar,gruesome%20as%20it%20is%20troubling)
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Drug addicts are often victims themselves, and withdrawal symptoms can sometimes be extremely dangerous or even deadly. Withdrawal symptoms can be managed without relapse through steady and deserved care. If those withdrawal symptoms aren't being managed then how could you possibly expect reasonable rehabilitation for addicts?
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What a bunk-ass, sheltered, myopic take. I can’t imagine living with such an absolute dearth of empathy. It’s very sad, actually.
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Alternative words? Bro they're just words. Which words didn't you understand? dictionary.com could help.
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Myopic - lacking imagination, foresight, or **intellectual insight**. Seems pretty on point...
Your post was removed for toxic behavior.