Three inmates inside the spokane county jail nearly died last night from a drug overdose.

A total of three women were found unconscious -- other inmates told jail staff they ingested a white powder like substance..

New on nightside -- kyle simchuk talked with the director.

Kyle -- he says detention officers and medical staff are the reason these three women are still alive.

They were quick to administer narcan -- a drug that reverses the effects of opioids.the big question now -- how those drugs were smuggled in.

A life or death situation on the third floor of the spokane county jail.

04:28:10 4-9"our corrections officers do rounds every 30 minutes and check into each one of the cells."

:05during that routine check last night -- officers found two women unconscious -- one was face down -- her face grey and lifeless.

04:29:10"we bagan cpr measures and then our medical staff assisted us with narcan, which reverses the action of opioids."

:09 both women regained consciousness and were taken to sacred heart.

04:29:46"we did go through the dorms, search the dorms to see if there was anymore -- what they were calling a white powdery substance."

:06the other four women in the cell were moved to a different area.

That was around 11 pm.

04:30:05"about 6:30 this morning we had another female go down, similar symptoms."

:07once again, cpr and narcan saved a third inmate -- who remains in the i-c-u.

Acting jail director mike sparbar and his staff are now investigating how the drugs -- likely opioids -- made it into the jail.

04:31:49"we screen all the mail that comes into the facility.

We have certain things that alert us -- that possible things might be absorbed into the paper."

:07 other methods are harder to detect..

04:32:08"where we experience the ability to get drugs into the facility usually is in when they've secreted inside of their body.

So we don't have a good detection device or an xray machine to detect those type of things."

:12while he reviews what happened -- sparbar is praising his jail staff for how they handled the three emergencies.

04:36:29 truly outstanding work.

[this could have been three deaths].

It could have resulted in three deaths."

:17 this last august, this last august, kxly reported on the 8th inmate death within a 14 months period.

Many of those were suicides.

Any person or inmate who smuggles drugs into the jail can face felony charges.

I'm Kyle Simchuk kxly four nightside.