Overdoses in L.A. jails fueled by long waits for drug addiction treatment, staffers say
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Cleavotta Morgan said her son, Daejon Morgan, called her every day from his cell at Men’s Central Jail.The 20-year-old inmate would ask her to pass the phone around to different members of the family.She’d often put the receiver up to his dog Hunter’s ear so he could hear the animal’s excitement at the sound of his voice.
The family thought of his incarceration as a “blessing,” she said.“We thought it would be a safe place for him,” Cleavotta Morgan said of her son and the L.A.
County jail system.But during a call Oct.30, 2024, Morgan heard screams.
Then an unfamiliar voice came on the line.“[Daejon] went down,” the man said.“I’m sorry I gotta put the phone down and get help.”Morgan died in his cell from an overdose caused by fentanyl and heroin, according to an autopsy.
He was one of hundreds of inmates on a wait list to receive medication-assisted treatment for drug addiction, according to two L.A.County Correctional Health Services staff members with knowledge of the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly.Medication-assisted therapy uses drugs such as buprenorphine or Suboxone to quell addiction cravings and reduce withdrawal symptoms.
L.A.County allotted $25 million this fiscal year to fund the treatment program in local jails.But despite a push to expand the use of medication-assisted treatment, people in county custody often wait weeks — sometimes several months — to receive it, according to interviews with Correctional Health Services staff and current jail detainees.L.A.
County inmates were roughly three times more likely to die in county custody in 2025 than they were in 2016, according to a Times analysis of Sheriff’s Department data.Overdoses accounted for about a quarter of the 46 in-custody deaths in 2025.
Already this year, 21 jail inmates have died, though autopsy results are still pending to determine the causes.I...