In Jefferson County Jail in Alabama, two inmates were discovered unresponsive in a common area of the jail at 5:50 PM on September 1, 2022. One was revived by jail medical staff through a dose of Naloxone, which is an opioid-reversing drug. Thirty-four-year-old Wesley Wayne Moore was the other inmate, and he did not revive. Mr. Moore was quickly transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced deceased at 6:28 PM.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office stated that they assume inmate Moore died of an overdose, but the official cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy. An online news story about this tragic incident further says that detectives with the sheriff’s office are investigating how the inmates came to be in possession of these harmful substances.

Many times, drug-related deaths that occur in Texas jails happen within the first day or two and result from drugs taken prior to incarceration. In this Alabama case, the deceased inmate had been incarcerated since August 20, 2022.

Naloxone is not provided as a lifesaving measure in every jail, not by any means. The decision to make Naloxone available to local jail inmates is currently made from one city or county to the next.  

According to a May 2022 report on the US opioid epidemic, more than 1,000,000 people have died of drug overdoses since 2000, and the majority of those deaths were caused by opioids. The opioid crisis is one that cannot reasonably be denied. Narcan, like Naloxone, is an opioid protocol medication used to rescue people from imminent death caused by an opioid overdose.

In an August 2022 news story, a Texas program that helps to combat opioid overdoses by supplying Narcan makes it known that it has been out of money for months.

Learn more in this continuing series, including details about the custodial death of an inmate in El Paso County, Texas, who had been placed on opioid protocol medication in the jail.

This post and others on this website are intended as resources that can benefit inmates in Texas jails, whether now or previously incarcerated in a county or municipal detention center. On this website, there is no intention of implicating a person or institution in connection with wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor