:: to the teeth ::    thoughts on social justice, medicine, race, hope and beats

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.
On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." :: Arundhati Roy ::

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." :: Alice Walker ::
Monday, October 27, 2003  

Prison Unruliness and Neurontin
"Correction officers at the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, a state prison on Staten Island with about 900 inmates, say they collect at least 200 prescription pills every day that inmates who are considered psychotic, depressed or disruptive pretend to swallow in the presence of nurses but then throw out. Perhaps the inmates mistrust the people giving them the drugs, or are weary of the side effects or believe they are not sick. But the costly result, according to Arthur Kill correction officers and members of the nursing staff, is a constellation of expensive yellow, blue and white pills they pick up off the ground, collect in a bag and flush down the toilet each day. The most common type of pills found, officers said, are Thorazine, a powerful antipsychotic; lithium, an antidepressant; Paxil, an antianxiety medicine; and Neurontin, an anti-seizure mood-stabilizing medicine often prescribed for nervous or unruly prisoners."

There are so many things wrong with this issue. First of all, why is the facility called the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility? Second, are prisoners unruly because of undermedication, overmedication, bad staff, or the innate problems of prison and what it does to you? Are we looking at this issue backwards?

posted by Unknown | 10/27/2003 11:40:00 AM | |


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