North Carolina Records 40% Rise in Opioid Deaths
A recent report to the state's correctional authorities recommended that jails give incarcerated people “adequate medical care” and improve transparency.
Landwebs
A new report from Disability Rights North Carolina (DRNC) found that there were a record number of 56 deaths in North Carolina jails in 2020, and, of those deaths, 32 were due to suicide or related to substance use, an increase from the 30 people who died from suicide or substance use in the state’s jails in 2019 and 22 in 2018, reports North Caroling Health News.
Because jails across the state are controlled by individual, elected sheriffs, comprehensive oversight and monitoring of jails is hard to come by. North Carolina reported a 40 percent increase in overdose deaths statewide in 2020 compared to 2019, a recent report from the state Department of Health and Human Services found. In order to prevent future deaths, DRNC recommended that jails: require sweeping state-wide suicide prevention measures in the state jails; give incarcerated people “adequate medical care”; improve transparency about conditions in the state’s jails; “Adequately fund” NCDHHS’s jail regulation unit; and take part in Stepping Up campaigns which fight mental illness with treatment instead of incarceration.
