So, you think you spend a lot for your medication?
Last year, the state of Oklahoma spent over $84-million on medication for inmates in the Oklahoma Department of Correction. As in society, prison populations are aging. Here in Oklahoma, 17% of the prison population is over the age of 50 and increasing annually.
Those older prisoners are costing the state more in medical expenses.
The Joseph Harp Correction Center in Central Oklahoma holds 1,400 inmates. However, each day the prison staff hands out over 6,000 pills and doses of medicine to those inmates. Officials there say it can take all day just to see that inmates get their needed medication.
It costs the state more if inmates are hospitalized, because it requires guards around the clock. Also, with the older prison population, comes more inmates with dementia.