Six inmates at an upstate New York prison have been taken to hospital following multiple drugs overdoses, reports suggest.
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Two inmates among the initial group were accused of promoting contraband in connection with the case.
Guards came into a cell block at Westchester County Jail in Valhalla on Sunday and found the group unresponsive, prompting the facility to be put on lockdown.
Emergency medical crews were called to the jail and the six were taken to local hospitals.
O’Leary said they all showed signs “of a possible drug overdose”. They said James Graziano, being held on a parole violation, had a plastic bottle that was altered into a pipe.
Mr. odd was being held at the jail for a second-degree assault charge, according to Mr. O’Leary.
The investigation continues to determine what substance the inmates ingested, apparently by smoking it, and how they obtained it. Officials are investigating how it got into the jail.
The jail was in lockdown, and drug-detecting dogs had been sent in, O’Leary said.
The inmates have been reportedly discovered collectively in a single wing of the jail complicated.
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All visitors are searched before meeting with inmates, and inmates are strip-searched before visits at the jail, which houses 1,099 inmates, majority male, said Justin Pruyne, Deputy Commissioner of Correction at the Westchester County Department of Correction.
