{"id":102862,"date":"2017-11-12T15:34:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-12T22:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sheriffs-office-says-jail-inmate-suspected-of-smuggling-drugs\/"},"modified":"2017-11-12T15:34:39","modified_gmt":"2017-11-12T22:34:39","slug":"sheriffs-office-says-jail-inmate-suspected-of-smuggling-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sheriffs-office-says-jail-inmate-suspected-of-smuggling-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff\u2019s Office says jail inmate suspected of smuggling drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office has confirmed it is investigating an inmate who smuggled drugs into the La Plata County Jail.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office has confirmed that a suspect has been identified for smuggling drugs into the La Plata County Jail, an incident that could implicate more than 10 inmates.<\/p>\n

La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith told The Durango Herald last weekend that his office had launched an investigation into the presence of drugs in the facility, saying, \u201cWe\u2019re trying to determine how it was done and how far it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, Smith said the Sheriff\u2019s Office has determined a suspect and charges may be pending.<\/p>\n

Smith said the suspect, who he declined to identify, was booked into the county jail Nov. 4. A medical incident Nov. 5 alerted authorities to the presence of drugs in the facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had two inmates that said they were feeling sick, and they indicated they used drugs,\u201d he said. \u201cThat made us look into the fact something was going on, and as we got into it, it became bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident involves more than 10 inmates, Smith said, although only one inmate is suspected of bringing drugs into the jail. He declined to identify what drugs were brought in.<\/p>\n

Each inmate implicated in the incident was put on a disciplinary process, which can include urine analysis and revocation of earned time, among other measures, Smith said.<\/p>\n

He declined to discuss further details of the incident because of the ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n

Many speculated that the death of inmate Vicente Lucero earlier this month, as well as several other reports of inmates requiring hospitalization, were tied to illegal drugs being brought into the jail.<\/p>\n

But Smith said there is no connection between Lucero\u2019s death and drugs being brought into the jail.<\/p>\n

Some inmates who complained of illness tied to the contraband drugs were treated in house, but not elsewhere, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one wound up in the hospital because of those drugs,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

He said it\u2019s a \u201cconstant battle\u201d to make sure inmates do not take illegal substances into the jail. It is an issue that every prison and jail across the country deals with, he said.<\/p>\n

The county jail is on pace to have booked more than 6,000 people over the past two years, Smith said. During that time, there have been eight cases of the introduction of contraband into the jail, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that sounds like a lot, but this stuff happens in jails and prisons, everywhere and every day,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt\u2019s a constant battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

As standard practice, Smith said jail staff regularly conducts \u201cshakedowns,\u201d where inmates from an entire cellblock are told to wait in the brickyard while staff searches cells.<\/p>\n

Smith said wardens usually find benign contraband, such as food they aren\u2019t supposed to have in their cell. However, once in a while, \u201chooch\u201d or other drugs are found in hiding places.<\/p>\n

The La Plata County Jail houses about 100 inmates. Smith said the jail has been understaffed this year. There is an average of six people on shift at the jail, and Smith said that needs to be at eight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some staffing challenges this year with turnover,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Smith said four people are currently in training to work at the jail, which is a 14-month process. That still leaves five vacant positions, he said.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office would also like to solicit the services of more canine units, Smith said. As of now, the Sheriff\u2019s Office has only one canine that visits \u201cnot as often as we\u2019d like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prohibiting people from bringing in banned substances also falls into a fiscal challenge. Smith said there is a scanner that is highly efficient in detecting drugs, but it costs $250,000 \u2013 money the Sheriff\u2019s Office and county government doesn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing is a perfect solution,\u201d Smith said. \u201cAnd it will not be the last time this happens to us. But I want to stress: It\u2019s something my people do a very good job trying to manage, but again, it\u2019s a constant battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charges may be pending, sheriff says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-102862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102862"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=102862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}