A Los Angeles inmate died of a suspected overdose on a prison bus

A 22-year-old inmate died on a jail bus Friday of a suspected overdose, prompting Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials to halt judicial transportation from downtown facilities.

The incident, which marks the department’s first in-custody death this year, comes during a chaotic week during which fires have closed courthouses, delayed the transportation of inmates and forced the evacuation of one sheriff’s office.

The death occurred just after 7 a.m. as prisoners from one of the city center prisons were boarding a bus to court. In addition to the deceased man, two other inmates were hospitalized – both for suspected overdoses, officials said. One of them has already been released from custody, the other returned to prison.

Just before 9:30 a.m., Judge Yvette Verastegui, deputy supervising judge, sent an email to court officials alerting them to the incident and its potential impact on today’s court proceedings.

“CourtLine is currently closed due to multiple inmate overdoses,” the email said. “CourtLine inmates will either remain there for a few hours or be returned to their housing. We cannot provide an estimated arrival time as of today.”

The email said the women’s prison is not impacted and judicial transports directly from the Castaic prison complex will also continue.

But at the downtown criminal court building, the absence of defendants interrupted proceedings in several cases, including at least one murder trial that is scheduled to start Friday.

The sheriff’s office did not provide details about the suspected drugs or how the men obtained them. One senior court official, who requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, told The Times that the death was related to fentanyl.

In recent months, Los Angeles prisons have struggled with overdoses and drug exposure. Prison records show that in April last year, a 28-year-old man died as a result of taking methamphetamine and heroin. Two weeks later, a 38-year-old woman died in her cell from what the department’s website describes as “the effects of fentanyl and methamphetamine.”

Read more:Video of a prison guard slamming an inmate into a wall is calling for a Justice Department investigation

In June, six inmates and two guards were hospitalized after being exposed to a “toxic substance” that department officials confirmed was fentanyl, although it is unclear how inmates and staff came into contact with it.

Prison records show that two months later, a 59-year-old man at Men’s Central prison died from “the effects of oxycodone and hydrocodone.” At the beginning of October seven people were taken to hospital, and a man in his 30s died of a suspected overdose in his cell at a halfway house. Authorities did not say what drugs were involved, and an autopsy is still ongoing.

Then on October 29 seven inmates at the Men’s Central Prison were hospitalized after another potential drug exposure incident in Dorm 5600. Hours later, seven guards were hospitalized after officials said they began “experiencing symptoms” while searching the dorm for drugs.

The next day, records show that a 20-year-old man on a different floor of the Men’s Central Jail died from fentanyl and heroin.

To address the influx of drugs into county jails, the Sheriff’s Department has stepped up search procedures, adding canine teams and using mail and body scanners.

Read more:What it’s like to sleep in prison: moldy mattresses, bright lighting, constant noise

“The Department is optimistic that in the near future we will benefit from updated technological solutions, including more advanced body and property scanners, that will further assist us in minimizing the amount of illicit substances in prisons,” officials said last year.

The department also worked to address the issue by testing its own employees. In April, a sheriff’s deputy who was part of a task force dedicated to keeping county jails safe from drugs and gang activity was arrested and charged with smuggling drugs into a county jail.

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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.