Spurred by fear of drug-induced deaths, Davison County purchases vital sign monitoring units for jail
Jun. 13—MITCHELL — If it comes to life and death for an inmate in the Davison County Jail, county leaders have approved a high-tech purchase to potentially save lives.
The Davison County Commission voted earlier this week to purchase five units of a contactless vital sign monitoring system that will be located in different parts of the jail.
The commissioners voted 4-0 in favor of the purchase, which will cost the county $2,700 a year.
Davison County Sheriff Steve Harr recommended the purchase, with a specific urgency in installing the equipment due to a recent law change that he sees as having unintended consequences.
Harr said that as of July 1, South Dakota state law will be changed and ingesting drugs will be a misdemeanor instead of a felony. Because of that, if law enforcement catches someone with a baggie of meth or fentanyl, he said, the individual will likely swallow it to avoid having it in their possession, which remains a felony offense.
"It's an unintended consequence but people are going to die from it," Harr said.
Harr told the commissioners of a recent instance on Interstate 90 where this scenario played out and deputies had to use three doses of Narcan to save the person's life. Narcan (and its generic name naloxone) is the overdose medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
Harr said the county is trying to avoid deaths of individuals who are taken into custody, because the county is responsible for their care when they are in jail or being held. Harr said the spending on the monitoring system gives the county a better chance of saving that person's life and also could protect the county from having to deal with a lawsuit.
The units have radar-based technology that can detect heart rates, breathing rates, movement and general presence without cameras or microphones. The units, which can fit in a person's hand, can detect abnormal vital signs and alert staff if there's an emergency.
Commissioner Chris Nebelsick said he felt that nearly $5,000 in maintenance costs for the units was high but Harr countered with his belief that it could be a preventative measure.
"What kind of check are you going to write if someone dies in jail?" Harr asked.
"I think it's important to commit to the technology for our staff. It's $900 per unit per year to maintain them. We can't afford not to," Commissioner Mike Blaalid said.
The cost of the units is $25,000, although Davison County expects to be able to get the hardware and installation costs covered by settlement funding from South Dakota's share of the national opioid settlement. More than $50 billion in settlement funds was distributed nationally to state and local governments after drugmakers settled lawsuits related to how addictive and deadly opioid painkillers were. Specific funds have been set aside for law enforcement use, Harr said.
Davison County would be responsible for paying for the annual costs related to maintenance and monitoring for the units, which would be $900 per unit per year, or $4,500 for the five units.
Davison County received the sales pitch from Darin Young, of Combined Public Communications. Young is now a sales person for the company but formerly served as warden at the South Dakota State Penitentiary and spent more than 30 years in corrections.
Young said as a former jail administrator, there's plenty of practical uses for how it could be used.
"It's designed for your high-risk inmates. Putting my sales hat on, I could sell you one for every cell but as a warden, you want to be watching your high risk inmates, your people with mental issues, your intoxicated individuals, drug overdoses and people with medical issues. ... This will help monitor that."
Davison County jail staff makes rounds in the facility to check on cells every 15 to 30 minutes. Harr said he expects to put the monitoring devices in four locations in the jail's general population pods, plus one in the holding area, commonly known as "the drunk tank."
"We get people in (the jail) that have health issues. It's something we want to be on top of," Harr said.
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