Prisons are meant to be drug-free places, but according to a recent investigation, illegal narcotics have become so common in New Jersey’s state prisons that staff members have been giving out Narcan, a medication that reverses overdoses, more than once a day on average in recent years.According to a Department of Corrections annual report on prison health care released this month, Narcan was used by correctional officers and medical staff in 406 unique occurrences during the 2025 fiscal year and 544 times the previous year. According to the report, between 2018 and 2024, overdoses or “drug-related incidents” claimed the lives of 22 persons.