Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell has asked two outside agencies to review how the sheriff’s office investigates in-custody jail deaths and to assess the county’s jail facilities and operations.
In a statement on Wednesday, Morrisey O’Donnell said that she asked the Oregon State Police to review her office’s investigations into the circumstances surrounding six deaths that occurred between May 2 and Aug. 1 in Multnomah County jails.
Morrisey O’Donnell has also asked the National Institute of Corrections to assess “our facilities, operations, policies and services, currently, specifically related to suicide prevention,” Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Chris Liedle said in an email.
Seen here in a still from a livestreamed ceremony, Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell spent 26 years with the sheriff’s office before being elected to the top job. Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell has asked two outside agencies to review how the sheriff’s office investigates in-custody jail deaths and to assess the county’s jail facilities and operations.
Jeff Thompson / OPB
Liedle said the independent reviews were “not uncommon.”
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which handles media requests for the National Institution of Corrections, did not respond to a request for comment. The Oregon State Police did not respond before this story published.
Speaking on OPB’s Think Out Loud, Morrisey O’Donnell said there are a host of factors that can contribute to a death in custody. The same fentanyl crisis that is contributing to an increase in overdoses statewide also impacts the jail population, she said.
“Fentanyl can be deadly in very small quantities, in one pill,” she said, explaining one reason it’s proven harder to catch deadly quantities of drugs being smuggled into the jail.
Since the deaths, the county has reinstituted a strip search policy when people are taken into custody.
The six deaths in a three-month span is the largest spike in jail deaths in at least 15 years. The county medical examiner found two of the deaths were suicides. Drug overdoses are suspected in at least two of the remaining four but toxicology reports have not confirmed that.
Morrisey O’Donnell said the county has expanded the availability of naloxone in jails to ensure deputies and health care workers have ready access.
She said she does not suspect jail staff are involved in bringing drugs into the facilities.