Inmates at a state prison are tossing out psychiatric medications, wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars and exacerbating their behavioral disorders, prison union officials said.
Hundreds of discarded pills are collected every day at the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility on Staten Island, the New York State Correction Officers and Police Benevolent Association said Monday.
The problem likely extends to the 69 other state-operated prisons in New York, it said.
"If we found this many pills at just one location ... it is mind-boggling to consider how widespread, wasteful and costly this can potentially be at each prison," said John Schiavone, a correction officer at Arthur Kill and a union shop steward.
Inmates have a legal right to refuse medication unless their conditions are considered life-threatening, said state Department of Correctional Services spokesman James Flateau.
"The courts recognize the right of all citizens to refuse to take any medication," Flateau said. "We cannot mandate (that) inmates ingest medications or punish them for their refusal to do so."
Union officials said the pills the inmates are tossing have been prescribed for conditions such as schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and depression.
"Some of these mental health inmates are the most violent in the system," said Richard Harcrow, president of the correction officers' union. "If they're not taking their medications, they can become very unpredictable."
A lawyer with the Prisoners' Rights Project of the Legal Aid Society, Sarah Kerr, said the issue is why inmates would discard pills that have been prescribed for them. "Clearly if this is occurring there is a substantial failure to provide adequate mental health treatment at Arthur Kill," she said.