JAIL INMATE HOSPITALIZED AFTER DRUG OVERDOSE

An Anderson County jail inmate was in the intensive care unit at Methodist
Medical Center today after she took an overdose of drugs at the jail on Monday.

Anderson County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Neva Bowie said Katherine
Longmire, 23, of Clinton, was taken by the Anderson County Emergency
Medical Service to the hospital and is currently on a respirator in the
intensive care unit. Bowie said she had not been told of Longmire's current
condition.

Bowie said inmates alerted jailers to Housing Unit 5 at the jail about 1:45
p.m. Monday when they noticed Longmire was in some type of distress.

"I thought she had aspirated," said Capt. Avery Johnson.

"To all of us, she appeared to be dead," Bowie said.

Johnson said the jail staff is investigating the incident, and two other
inmates have been charged with drug offenses during the investigation.

Bowie said Tammy Freels, 35, of Batley community, and Misty Dawn Butler,
27, of Oak Ridge, were charged with possession of legend drugs without a
prescription and possession of Schedule II drugs, respectively.

Bowie said other inmates alerted jailers by pushing buzzers and screaming.

"Konohi and Qualls started CPR without hesitation," Bowie said, referring
to jailers David Konohi and James Qualls. "They got a pulse but she could
not breathe on her own."

Clinton firefighters were the first emergency personnel on the scene and
took over from the jailers, Bowie said. Ambulance service personnel arrived
just after the firefighters did.

Bowie said ambulance service personnel continued life-saving efforts while
en route to the hospital.

"It's my understanding that she may be taken off of the ventilator later
today to see if she can breathe on her own," Bowie said.

Hospital spokeswoman Ginny Baxter said the hospital cannot release
information on Longmire.

Johnson said he thinks Longmire may have crushed Xanax tablets and snorted
them. He said he has no positive evidence of what Longmire had taken and
will wait for toxicology results.

Bowie said Freels had some type of pill in her possession when jailers
searched after Longmire was taken to the hospital. She said Butler had a
pain medication patch on her abdomen.

Johnson said that the contraband was most likely smuggled into the jail by
an inmate in a body cavity.

"We think it was smuggled in by another female inmate," Bowie said.
"Katherine has not been on the outside for a couple of months so she has
not had access."

She said Longmire takes prescribed medication at the jail but that only
Kathy Anderson, the jail's nurse, or a designated employee in Anderson's
absence, had a key to the medication cart. She said Anderson gives
medication as prescribed to the inmates and the inmates are not allowed to
keep medication with them inside cells or housing units.

She said all inmates are thoroughly searched when they come into the
facility and some are searched more than once.

"We do a pat search of everything," Bowie said. "We check cuffs, sleeves,
pockets ... while the inmate is handcuffed and then again when we take the
handcuffs off. The majority of people coming in are generally honest when
asked 'Do you have a weapon, something that will stick me, poke me',
especially the walk-ins."

Bowie said jailers do a strip search if something unnatural is felt. She
said that strip searches do not occur daily but fairly often. The most
common contraband is tobacco products and then marijuana, she said.

The walk-ins, people who go to the jail on their own to begin serving a
sentence, are traditionally, here and nationally, the ones most likely to
smuggle contraband into the facility, she said.

"They know the day and time they are to come in," she said. "They have time
to prepare."

The ones that come in from an arrest have been searched by the arresting
officer before being placed inside the police car.

"Body cavity searches merit a search warrant issued by a judge," Bowie said.

Johnson said a hospital physician did a body cavity search on one of the
two inmates charged after a search warrant was secured. No other drugs were
found during the search.

Bowie said none of the inmates inside the unit Monday initially gave
jailers information about the incident with Longmire.

"Initially, no one saw anything," she said, adding that eventually, inmates
give some information.

"They won't rat on each other," she said. "They do have a code among
themselves."

Bowie said individual inmates are rarely taken out of the unit for
questioning after an incident.

"We have to be cautious about singling anyone out because of possible
retribution or placing them in danger," she said. "The females cohabitate
very well, however. They tend to become like a family unit."

The jail currently has 23 women inmates, seven above jail capacity. Bowie
said the jail has 16 beds for women and 18 women are currently in the unit.
She said five others are being housed in other areas of the jail.

The majority of women in the jail are there because of drug-related
offenses, bad checks, violations and failure to appear in court on those
same type offenses.

Longmire is a state inmate and may go to the penitentiary after she is
discharged from the hospital. She was convicted of armed robbery and placed
on probation. Johnson said her violation-of-probation charge came after she
earlier overdosed on drugs.