- An Oregon man has filed a federal lawsuit alleging wrongful death and negligence in the case of his daughter, who took her own life while recovering from opioids in a county jail.
- The lawsuit alleges the county failed to provide adequate treatment for the daughter’s physical and mental health needs.
- Prisons in other states have also reported successful programs to provide inmates with drugs to treat opioid addiction.
Kendra Sawyer spoke to her father in the Deschutes County Jail and told him she loved him. Six hours later, in the throes of her opioid withdrawal, the 22-year-old took her own life.
A year later, Sawyer’s father, Kent, wondered if his similarly troubled daughter would still be alive if the prison had not provided medication to ease the pain of withdrawal. He recently filed a lawsuit.
“Kendra screamed and cried in pain for hours, but no one did anything,” Sawyer said. “No one deserves a truly painful death.”
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Oregon prisons could soon become addicted to opioids like Kendra’s if efforts to repeal Measure 110, the nation’s first drug decriminalization law that legalized possession of opioids, are successful. The number of inmates suffering may increase. “Personal use” amounts of illegal drugs such as heroin. In response, state lawmakers from both parties are pushing for increased funding for drugs used to treat opioid addiction in prisons.
In this undated image provided by Hayley Wendling, Colin Connor’s family poses for a photo while holding a statue of Colin. Conner, who had struggled with opioid addiction for years, died of a fentanyl overdose in June 2023, just days after being released from a Salt Lake City prison. (Haley Wendling, via AP)
The measure, passed by voters in 2020, has come under fire as Oregon struggles with a fentanyl crisis that has caused the nation’s largest spike in overdose deaths, and its overhaul is a top priority in this year’s legislative session. ing.
The latest proposal would allow prisons looking to create or expand drug treatment programs to apply for grants from the $10 million fund. It has bipartisan support, including support from public health advocates and some law enforcement officials.
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“This is a policy that puts politics aside and is actually about what prisons need to take care of people,” said Democratic state Rep. Pam Marsh, who authored the bill. Stated. “It’s clearly a gap that needs to be filled if we’re serious about providing care to people.”
For example, the Lincoln County Jail currently spends nearly $50,000 a month on addiction medication for 30 inmates, or more than $1,600 at a time, said Marie Gaynor, the correctional officer who oversees the program. he said in an email. The prison program, located in rural Oregon’s Pacific Coast about 130 miles (210 kilometers) southwest of Portland, treated 91 inmates last year, she said.
Supporters of prison-based treatment programs argue that they save lives by allowing people to continue or begin recovery while incarcerated.
According to federal data, about 60% of people in American prisons have a substance use disorder, and overdoses are the leading cause of death among newly released people, in part because prison If the drug is not used within the body, tolerance decreases.
However, the most recent federal data from the 2019 Prison Census shows that just under a quarter of prisons are providing opioid addiction treatment to people who had a prescription before incarceration and those without a prior prescription. Even fewer prisons, at 19%, provide treatment to people.
But a court recently ruled that withholding pre-prescribed addiction drugs from inmates violates federal law, and more states and local counties have taken steps to expand access. ing.
In Washington state, for example, lawmakers want to devote an additional $7.4 million to the issue on top of the $7.5 million already approved in last year’s biennial budget. Some of the proposed aid would come from the Opioid Settlement Fund, a month after the state attorney general announced a nearly $150 million settlement with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson. . Gov. Jay Inslee’s office said in an email that the additional funding, if passed by Congress, would double the number of prisons providing medical supplies from 19 to 38.
Other states, including New York, Vermont, Maryland and Utah, have passed laws requiring prisons to provide opioid use disorder medication to people who already had a prescription for it at the time of their incarceration.
When Utah’s law took effect last May, Colin Connor, who had struggled with opioid addiction for years, had been in a Salt Lake City jail for nearly two months. At that point, his father said, the jail had already stopped administering methadone, which had been prescribed to him before his arrest.
John Tyler Connor said the medication was stopped and Colin experienced painful withdrawal symptoms. His cravings returned and his drug tolerance decreased. Days after his release last June, he died of a fentanyl overdose at age 32.
“If they had treated him according to the law, he would have been on methadone. He wouldn’t have died,” said Connor, who lives in Seattle.
The Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office said in an emailed statement that it could not comment “due to the potential threat of litigation.”
In Oregon, Sawyer filed a federal lawsuit against Deschutes County alleging wrongful death and negligence in the death of her daughter Kendra. She accused the county of failing to address her physical and mental health needs. Records containing information about Kendra’s previous suicide attempts were available to staff at the time of her booking, according to the complaint.
Ryan Drebeskracht, Sawyer’s attorney, said he is still waiting on Kendra’s medical records but has seen no evidence that she was given withdrawal drugs.
Deschutes County “does not consent to the allegations in the complaint and intends to vigorously defend the lawsuit,” County Attorney David Doyle said in an email.
Prisons in other states have had success providing opioid addiction treatment inside the prison.
Since 2018, the Saratoga County Jail in New York has provided such drugs to inmates who had a prescription at the time of their booking, but in 2020 they began administering them to people without a prior prescription who were found to be addicted to opioids during intake screening. started.
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Ben Deeb, who oversees the program, said the recidivism rate among participants has been 16 percent since the program began.
“This proves that when you give people the medicine they need, the education, trauma treatment and peer support they need, they succeed,” he said. “This is what the fix needs to look like.”
Jonathan Larsen, legal program manager at Temple University’s Center for Public Health Research in Philadelphia, said states have an important role to play in increasing funding for this often overlooked treatment in prisons.
“After all, we already know how to treat this,” he said.
In Oregon, Sawyer knows his case won’t bring Kendra back. But he hopes her daughter’s story will spark change and raise awareness.
“If we do a little more, we can save more lives,” he says.
