An inmate at Collins Bay Institution, found unresponsive in his cell last Thursday, died later in an outside hospital as a result of an apparent fentanyl drug overdose, the Whig-Standard has learned.

Kyle Lawlor, media relations and outreach adviser, communications and executive services for Correctional Service Canada, could not say officially in an interview with the Whig-Standard on Monday that the inmate died of an overdose, but he did say that after Jeffrey Glen Kellar, 50, was found unresponsive in his cell, naloxone was used by staff and chest compressions were performed before he died.

Kellar had been serving a 12-year sentence for manslaughter that began in May 2009. The Edmonton man was convicted in the Sept. 9, 2007, beating death of his 45-year-old wife, Judy Jones.

"We can’t confirm it was an overdose, citing the Privacy Act, and the coroner needs to provide the type of death to us," Lawlor said.

Lawlor confirmed there have been 11 overdoses inside the institution since mid-April.

"Staff are applying the protocol and giving the naloxone to the offender, and in 10 of those cases we were successful and one we were not," he said.

Lawlor said a number of protocols have been put in place in the institution since the issue came forward, including increasing security walks on the ranges to every 30 minutes from every hour, regular wellness checks with staff nurses and correctional officers visiting inmates in their cells, and keeping staff and the inmates informed on the issue.

"Because we’ve had so many, we want to know where any illicit substances are coming from," Lawlor said.

Staff are constantly searching and collecting intelligence, trying to identify where the drugs are coming from, Lawlor said, "so we can eradicate it."

He said the issue is a source of serious safety concern for them.

Lawlor said a tip line, 1-866-780-3784, has been set up, with members of the public asked to call in if they have any information about the situation.

The correctional service came forward with the information after a source with knowledge of the goings-on inside Collins Bay Institution informed the Whig-Standard about the rash of overdoses.

"There’s a bunch of of ODs going on," the source said. "We’re not sure it’s fentanyl. I’m sure it will be."

Immediately after Kellar’s death, a lockdown was put in place in the medium-security unit of Collins Bay so staff could conduct an exceptional search. As of Monday afternoon, the lockdown was still in place.

In an email to the Whig-Standard on Friday, Chris Staley, acting assistant warden, management services at Collins Bay, said the lockdown and search was ordered right after the inmate’s death, "to identify any safety and/or security concerns that may have resulted in the inmate’s death."

Visits have been suspended and normal operations will resume as soon as it is considered safe to do so.

Kellar’s family has been notified of his death.

The overdose issue is nothing new, said Jason Godin, the national president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.

"We’re seeing an overall spike in overdoses across the country," Godin said in an interview on Monday. "It seems like the whole fentanyl issue is moving further east."

Fentanyl can be inhaled accidentally or absorbed through the skin. Even tiny amounts of it, about the size of a grain of salt, can be enough to cause an overdose.

"It started in B.C. and we’re seeing certainly the introduction of fentanyl in the institutions, and obviously at Collins Bay there has been a number of them," Godin said.

Godin said correctional officers are the first responders when an inmate overdoses.

"Many of our institutions don’t have 24-hour-a-day health care," he said.

Rob Finucan, the union’s Ontario president, said the officers at Collins Bay have responded professionally to the recent overdoses.

"The officers have done a fantastic job in intervening and administering naloxone and saving the inmates’ lives," Finucan said.

"That’s our first line of defence in terms of saving a life of an inmate when they’ve overdosed," Godin said of the use of naxolone. "Obviously it creates stress when you’re responding to a medical emergency."

Godin said there’s "a million ways" of getting the deadly drug into the prisons.

"They can bring them in through visits [and] there’s obviously the drone phenomenon that we’re dealing with at different institutions in the country," Godin said. "We’ve seen drugs come in in tennis balls. At the same time, it’s pretty difficult to stop drugs coming in through body cavities as well. That’s an area there’s nothing we can do legally to stop that.

"The inmates come up with different ways [to get drugs in] every day."

Between December 2015 and September of last year, 16 correctional service staff across the country were exposed to fentanyl.

In June 2017, an officer at the Edmonton Institution intercepted a package of fentanyl that was mailed to an inmate, and in July of last year, seven correctional officers at two Alberta institutions were exposed to the drug, with three of them being hospitalized after receiving naloxone.

Four correctional service officers were possibly exposed to fentanyl last September in the assessment unit at Joyceville Institution.

imacalpine@postmedia.com

Twitter: @IanMacAlpine