Bill to protect inmates who report overdose emergencies heads to governor

Virginia inmates may now be shielded from arrest or disciplinary actions related to alcohol, controlled substance or marijuana if they seek or report emergency medical attention for an overdose under a bipartisan bill that passed the General Assembly.

Del. Holly Seibold (D-Vienna), the patron of HB 161, said in a Courts of Justice Senate committee meeting on Feb. 21 that she wrote this bill because of the rise in incarcerated overdose deaths. The bill passed the House and Senate on Feb. 27 and was sent to Gov. Glenn Youngkin to approve or veto.

The bipartisan bill passed the House by a vote of 63-34 and the Senate by a vote of 21-18. This bill is an extension of the Safe Harbor law, which protects people who seek or obtain overdose emergency medical attention from prosecution.

“My mindset on this bill is to keep people alive,” Seibold said. “We have ways to treat people and we should encourage those people and perhaps people […] to report and we should not put up any obstacles because our jobs as legislators […] is to keep people alive.”

Elizabeth Hobbs, the chief legal and policy officer for the Virginia Sheriffs’ Association, said the group is concerned about this bill because it will remove the incentive to comply with the law as threatening punishment for noncompliance encourages inmates to talk.

“I think with this particular provision and applying safe harbor provision that works on the street to the incarcerated facility where people are there who are exposed,” Hobbs said. “Perhaps involuntarily, to illegal narcotics such as fentanyl that has a broad-ranging impact beyond the person who is intentionally using it.”

Norfolk Sheriff Joe Baron said that for prisons in his jurisdiction, it isn’t necessarily the overdose itself that is the problem but how the drugs got into the facility. Seibold’s bill would take away accountability for those who are taking drugs and those who are getting them into the facility in the first place, he said.

“It takes away our ability to investigate those things and try to track down how they got in there, whether it got into staff, contractors, nursing staff, whether it was secreted any of those ways,” Baron said.

In the last year, Baron said he has had one inmate overdose. Knowing more about the overdose allowed him to figure out where the drugs came from and put policies in place to make sure that doesn’t happen again, he said.

Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy (D-Prince William) asked Baron to confirm whether this bill prevented him from investigating how drugs got into the jail. Baron said that the bill doesn’t explicitly outlaw investigation but takes away the leverage that the administration has when threatening to charge inmates if they don’t talk.

“The sheriff said his greatest concern is making sure his facility is running, but my response to the sheriff’s concern and the low-hanging fruit of his job is to make sure that we’re keeping people alive,” Seibold said.

Chuck Meire, deputy policy director at JULIAN, a civil rights organization, said it is unjust to still operate under a system where people are scared to seek care for themselves and others.

“We need to work to address the flow of drugs within our correctional facilities,” Meire said. “But we need primarily to work to keep people alive because it is the state’s obligation to provide for the care and the well-being of people who are under incarceration.”

Seibold received testimony from a Virginia sheriff who disagreed with the Sheriffs’  Association’s stance but wanted to remain anonymous to avoid potentially putting his job in jeopardy.

“I believe in this bill because I’d rather save a life and know about someone overdosing and possibly lose criminal prosecution on somebody who brought it in,” the sheriff wrote.