Kelly Ann Crawford had bipolar disorder and was addicted to fentanyl and Xanax. She’d tried drug treatment several times, but she always ended up back homeless in Philadelphia's Kensington area. Her mother, Donna McDonough, said, “I often prayed that she would wind up in jail, so that she would be clean and find a program that worked for her.” Last December, Crawford, 43, was arrested for drug possession and jailed on a bench warrant. The next day, McDonough got a call that her daughter had been found unresponsive in a cell. She was one of at least 25 people who have died in the Philadelphia jails since 2018 of accidents related to drug intoxication, found a Philadelphia Inquirer review of medical examiner’s data and court records. Some of the deaths were from overdoses; other people were going through withdrawal when they died.
As Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker laid out plans for cleaning up Kensington’s open-air drug markets, police leaders have made clear that arresting people who use drugs is part of that plan. “Many of these individuals are going to get locked up for low-level offenses,” said Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel. Some are eligible for Police Assisted Diversion, which allows people to avoid charges and access services. People with repeated arrest histories, those who are on probation, and those who, like Crawford, have open warrants, are more likely to end up in jail. The recent history of drug-related deaths in the jails shows that prisoners are regularly being hospitalized for overdoses. It raises questions about whether the direly understaffed facilities can safely house an influx of medically fragile prisoners. “None of these deaths were determined to have been avoidable,” said Bruce Herdman, the jail system’s medical director. “We did what we were supposed to do.” The Philadelphia Department of Prisons is known as a leader in providing medications for opioid use disorder. It’s one of a handful of county jails in Pennsylvania that not only fills prescriptions but also offers the opportunity to start on buprenorphine, an opioid that quells cravings. Severe short-staffing has hamstrung those policies and fueled a climate of disorder and violence in the jails, which have seen riots, a string of escapes, and dozens of deaths.