Suspected OD at Mercer County Jail has sheriff checking for smugglers

Sheriff's investigators are trying to determine how drugs were smuggled into the Mercer County Jail after an inmate was suspected to have OD’d Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff Jeff Grey said.

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Inmates alerted corrections staff about 3:30 p.m. about a male inmate who was unresponsive and not breathing, the sheriff said in a statement released Wednesday evening.

Corrections officers immediately responded to the dorm where an inmate had started CPR. The on-duty corrections nurse rendered aid while central dispatch alerted Celina EMS personnel.

EMS administered Narcan to the inmate, then took him to Mercer Health.

A deputy sheriff followed for security because the inmate was in the facility on several felony violence-related offenses. His name is being withheld because of medical privacy laws and because no additional charges have been filed, Sheriff Grey said.

Sheriff's K-9 units were called to search the dorm and a search warrant for blood and urine of the inmate was applied for the inmate found to be unresponsive.

“Drugs getting into detention facilities is becoming a nationwide problem,” Grey said in the statement. “Mercer County is no different.”

He expressed frustration at the resourcefulness of inmates in getting contraband into the jail.

The jail has a body scanner that has detected drugs hidden inside body cavities, Grey said, but inmates still are successful from time to time smuggling drugs in.

The sheriff commended the inmates for their quick action and for alerting jail staff.

“Had they not done that, this young man probably would’ve died,” Grey said.