County jails, often holding people awaiting trial, can be just as drug-infested, some more so, The Buffalo News investigation found.

And jail inmates, like prison inmates, are dying.

In New York State, the dead include:

Jason Ciurczak, 30, the son of Amherst man and a Youngstown woman, being held in the Erie County jail on drug charges.

Daniel Riccio, 28, from a suburban Long Island family, being held in the Nassau County jail because of drugs charge.

Kathleen Brennan, 26, the daughter of a New York City police officer, being held in the Orange County jail because of drug charges.

All three were drug addicts - awaiting trial, sentencing or rehabilitation placement on drug charges - who fatally overdosed on drugs they obtained while in county jails.

In New York State, at least 10 inmates fatally overdosed in 10 county jails outside New York City since 2000. Another 10 died of drug overdose in New York City's jails, state records show. That's in addition to the 19 who died of drug overdoses in New York state prisons.

Nationally, a prisoner in a county jail is more than four times as likely to die of a drug overdose than a state prison inmate. Overdoses represent 1.2 percent of deaths in all state prisons versus 5.2 percent of the deaths in county jails.

"Jails are a stepchild of the criminal justice system," said Ken Kerle, with the American Jail Association.

Jailers bringing drugs in

With their budget limitations, constant flow of inmates and sometimes head-in-the-sand attitudes, The News found, county jails often don't have the ability or interest to keep illegal and deadly drugs away from inmates.

As with prisons, visitors smuggle most of the drugs into jails, but employees are also involved. The News found at least a dozen county corrections officers arrested over the past decade for smuggling drugs into jails outside New York City, including one who allowed drugs to be mixed in with orders of Chinese food brought into jail. Another 26 corrections officers at Rikers Island, New York City's primary jail, were arrested over the past 15 years, state records show.

The state doesn't keep statistics on drug-related incidents in county jails, but a News survey found more than 300 inmates and visitors arrested on drug-related charges annually in the state's 60 county jails outside New York City and some 250 last year in New York City jails.

Outside New York City, the incidents are more prevalent in the state's most-populous urban counties, including Erie and Monroe, and suburban New York City counties, including Orange and Nassau.

That's also true with overdose deaths.

Addicts in the family

The Brennan, Riccio and Ciurczak families acknowledge their loved ones were drug addicts.

"He was at my house with [a girlfriend], and they went into the bathroom, and I happened to walk around the corner and the door was open. I just wanted to collapse. It was heartbreaking," said Ciurczak's mother, Susan Canfield. "[His girlfriend] was shooting him up. He had a bungee cord around his left arm. I yelled at him, "Why the hell are you doing this? You're letting this ruin your life.' "

Canfield, like relatives of the other overdose victims, was relieved when her son ended up in jail on a drug possession charge. There, she felt, her son would be safe, away from the drugs she feared were killing him.

But within months, Ciurczak was dead, killed on Jan. 17, 2005, by an overdose of heroin that a fellow Erie County jail inmate injected into the 30-year-old's neck.

It was a similar story with Daniel Riccio, a drug addict sent back to jail in 2001 after his parole officer determined Riccio was still using drugs. He died of a drug overdose in Nassau County jail on Feb. 14, 2001, while waiting to be placed in a drug treatment program.

Kathleen Brennan was sent back to jail after failing to complete a drug rehabilitation program. On Nov. 26, 2003, four days before her release from the Orange County jail, Brennan was snorting heroin that another inmate smuggled into jail. She died of an overdose.

"We were totally blown away when we heard she OD'd," said her mother, Denise Brennan. "How was another inmate able to secret 100 bags of heroin into the jail?"

Kissing bans overturned

In their defense, some county jail officials say that they recognize visitors are smuggling drugs to inmates but that they don't have the wherewithal to stop it.

Two counties - Cayuga and Wayne - banned inmates and visitors in recent years from kissing on the lips, hoping that would stop drug exchanges.

But the bans were challenged by the state Commission on Corrections, which oversees county jails, and overturned.

In addition, while state prisons confine inmates already convicted, usually of felonies, county jails hold inmates convicted of misdemeanors and also serve as holding centers for defendants awaiting resolution of pending court cases. These people are still considered innocent.

Given that, local jails can't routinely strip-search inmates, something state prisons do.

Jails also handle inmates serving weekend jail sentences.

"Weekend-sentenced inmates often bring in the drugs. They have all week to figure out how to get it in," said Lt. James Ginty, a Sullivan County jail supervisor.

Also, most jail inmates live in the community where the facility is located, making it easier for friends, family and criminal associates to visit. It also may be why county jails appear to have more problems than state prisons with corrections officers bringing drugs into the facilities.

"It might be in some localities the officers know the inmates from their neighborhoods, and, unlike state prisons, there's a familiarity that occurs with inmates who keep coming back," said Dominick Orsino, administrator of the Orange County jail and a former deputy superintendent at two state prisons.

Many jail officials also say they just don't have the money needed for such things as drug testing, electronic drug detection devices, drug-sniffing dogs.

"We're looking at [electronic drug detection] scanners, but they are pretty expensive for a small, local jail," said Lt. John Mack, head of the Cayuga County jail.

Not that all jail administrators think there are problems.

Erie County Correctional Facility - where Jason Ciurczak died - requires visitors to open their mouths before entering the visiting room so officers can check for drugs. Visitors are also often searched by drug-sniffing dogs.

"I don't think drugs are a problem in jail," said Donald J. Livingston, the facility's superintendent. "Jason was an anomaly in my mind. He was determined to get drugs in, and he did."

Questions raised

Yet, Ciurczak's death raised questions among state investigators over the Erie County jail's procedures for detecting drugs smuggled into the facility, as well as the training deputies receive for recognizing signs of drug abuse.

Ciurczak was dead in his bunk for three hours, the state found, before he was discovered by jail deputies.

The commission also recommended the Erie County jail revise its inventory controls on the distribution and disposal of hypodermic syringes that the jail's medical staff controls.

Authorities never determined how Ciurczak obtained a needle in jail, but the man who fatally injected him told authorities Ciurczak got it from a diabetic inmate.

The state had similar criticisms and recommendations for the jails in Orange and Nassau counties, where Brennan and Riccio died.

Nassau County should increase the use of drug-detecting dogs and purchase other types of interdiction equipment, the commission wrote.

"Introduction of prison contraband continues to be an issue and has been cited as a contributing factor in previous inmate deaths at the Nassau County Correctional Center," the commission stated.

The jail also needs to develop a system identifying inmates, like Riccio, who got caught with drugs during prior incarcerations in the jail, the state said.

After Brennan's death in Orange County, the state also determined that the jail needs better drug detection equipment and inmate supervision.

Brennan was so high the night she died, other inmates had to help her into her cell and came by to check on her, with permission from a corrections officer. Apparently, jail officers didn't question what was going on, the state found.

The state also questioned a statement from a corrections officer who claimed to have checked Brennan at 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 26, 2003, and found she was fine. In fact, the state pointed out, she had died 7¹/2 hours earlier.

Jail personnel should "have their conduct reviewed for not verifying that Brennan was alive and breathing . . . ," the commission wrote.

e-mail: lmichel@buffnews.com
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