Ada County Jail inmates possibly given used razors by accident earlier this month

Patrick Orr - Idaho Statesman

Published: 01/12/09


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Ada County Jail officials are still waiting for the results of blood tests given to over 190 inmates who may have been exposed to used disposable razors earlier this month.

The incident occurred Jan. 3 when a jail deputy may have mistakenly gave inmates in a specific unit of the jail used disposable razors that had been left in a bag where the new razors are usually kept, according to Ada County Sheriff’s Office officials.

Deputies are still trying to figure out how the used disposable razors were placed in the storage area and exactly how many inmates were given those used razors instead of new ones Jan. 3.

Jail officials offered blood tests to all of the 192 inmates in the unit — although they do not suspect all those inmates were given the used razors, Sheriff’s spokeswoman Andrea Dearden said.

Dearden said jail employees have processes in place to avoid such mixups and investigators are still trying to figure out how a bag of used razors were put in a place where new razors are usually stored.

“We are trying to figure out what happened to ensure that such a mixup does not happen ever again,” Dearden said.

Medical experts told jail officials the risk of transmission of a disease —like Hepatitis B, for instance — by a used razor is very low but officials decided to offer the blood tests as a precaution, Dearden said.

The blood test will determine what, if any, communicable diseases an inmate has now. The inmates who opt for the test will be offered additional tests in several months later to determine if any changes have occurred, she said.

The presence of used razors was discovered as a jail deputy was handing them out on Jan. 3. The unit where the razors were distributed has cells which can house as many as four inmates each, and the shaving is done in the cell, according to jail reports.

The razors were collected and thrown away that day, Dearden said.

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