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California Prisoners Die of Drug Overdoses at Three Times National Rate

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 (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

More than 150 inmates in California prisons have died of drug overdoses since 2006. That’s three times the national average. The secretary of the state’s corrections department Jeffrey Beard recently told lawmakers that illegal drugs are “rampant in the prisons.” We discuss how illicit drugs are getting into the prisons despite the state’s ramped-up efforts to stop smuggling, which include drug-detecting scanners, dogs and strip searches of visitors.

Guests:

Don Thompson, reporter for the Associated Press

Laura Magnani, program director for Healing Justice at American Friends Service Committee California

Dana Simas, spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

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