COLLINS, N.Y. — Eleven correctional officers from Collins Correctional Facility were hospitalized Sunday morning after life-saving efforts toward an inmate turned dangerous for the staff.
Shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday, officers raced into the cell of an inmate attempting suicide and began performing CPR and other life-saving measures before starting to feel dizzy, vomiting, and some even passing out.
Many of those officers needed Narcan before 11 and the inmate were transported to Erie County Medical Center. The officers have since been discharged, but the status of the inmate remains unknown.
New York State Police have opened an investigation into the incident, but as of now, the belief is that some sort of unknown substance was involved.
“They could remember doing chest compressions and the next thing you know, they wake up somewhere else in a different area of the prison or in an ambulance,” said Kenny Gold, the Western Region Vice President for NYSCOPBA — the union that represents correctional officers.
“Whether it's synthetic marijuana, whether it's fentanyl, all they know is they were doing chest compressions, and one guy's throwing up, and then they're Narcan-ning someone.”
Gold said Sunday’s incident isn’t the first the staff at Collins Correctional Facility has faced this year. Back in February two inmates were pronounced dead in a 24-hour period, and just weeks ago in June an officer’s finger was bitten off during a series of assaults.
“Collins is horrible right now, if you ask anybody, from top down,” Gold said.
He said his members want someone from the state level to take notice and provide support so change can occur — and hope it happens before it’s too late.
“There's not a single member that wears blue pants that thinks that anybody from the Governor's Office appreciates what they're doing,” Gold said. “Does someone need to die because it's going to happen? It could have happened today.”