Two male inmates were hospitalized Tuesday after they overdosed on controlled substances at the Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau, according to an online dispatch from Alaska State Troopers.
Sherrie Daigle, deputy director of the Alaska Department of Corrections, said one man was treated in the capital city at Bartlett Regional Hospital and released back to the prison. The second man was medevaced to Anchorage. He remained in the hospital Wednesday, Daigle said, "as far as I know."
Daigle said the men were being held in separate cells in the prison's segregation unit Tuesday. She said she did not know if the men had overdosed on the same substance. She said she could not release details about what the inmates overdosed on, citing an ongoing investigation.
"We are just characterizing it as an overdose at this time," Daigle said.
Troopers spokesperson Beth Ipsen said the trooper who responded to the report of inmates overdosing on a controlled substance was not working Wednesday and could not provide additional detail about the online dispatch.
A second online dispatch posted Wednesday said troopers went to Lemon Creek Correctional Center shortly after 11:30 a.m. -- about a half-hour before the overdose report. A male inmate had brought "contraband" into the jail, the dispatch said. The contraband was seized.
Daigle and Ipsen said they did not have information on what the contraband was, nor could they say if the cases were linked.