3/16/2010
The state Senate yesterday passed Senator Don White’s bill that would authorize the Corrections Department and county prisons to redistribute unopened prescription medicines. The meds would be returned to the pharmaceutical wholesaler for credit and potential redistribution to other correctional facilities, and would save the state about a million dollars annually.
Diamond Medical Supply, based in White Township, is the primary supplier of medicines to the state prison system, and advised the senator on crafting the bill. Representatives Dave Reed and Tim Solobay have introduced a similar bill in the House.
White says inmate medical care is important, and the overall health of inmates is worse than the general public’s. Prisons are not authorized to do anything with unopened medications that they don’t need, and so the meds are left on the shelves within the prison. Often they expire without having been used.
$229.5 million is allocated for medical care for inmates in this year’s state budget. That’s $15.3 million more than the previous year. The new bill is modeled after similar legislation in 37 other states.
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