The Rio Arriba County Jail spent more than $140,000 over five years to keep inmates sedated with dangerous and addictive psychiatric drugs, according to a Rio Grande SUN investigation.
The most commonly prescribed psychiatric drug was Seroquel, a powerful and possibly addictive anti-psychotic tied to increased risks of diabetes, seizures, nerve damage, hypothyroidism and blood clots, Jail Administrator Bidal Candelaria acknowledged and County documents show.
Jail documents, including staff memoranda and hundreds of pages of pharmacy billing records show that between 2004 and 2008, University of New Mexico psychiatrist Richard Barendsen was responsible for prescribing more than 20,000 doses of Seroquel and thousands of doses of Xanax and other psychiatric drugs to the inmates he saw at La Clinica del Pueblo de Rio Arriba in Tierra Amarilla. During those five years, the jail paid Rio Drugs of Chama $146,000 for Seroquel purchases alone, billing records show.
By late November 2007, nearly a third of the jail’s inmates were on Seroquel, Xanax or other psychiatric medications, according to a Jail staff memo.
No comments:
Post a Comment