TROY, OH - Jail administrators, like everyone else, are looking for ways to save money on prescription medications — especially since most of those jailed don't have insurance.

Miami County Sheriff Charles Cox switched this month from buying drugs at a local pharmacy to a Pennsylvania-based company to save 20 percent to 60 percent for medications for 350 inmates in two adult jails.

Dee Sandy, Miami County jail administrator, said more inmates are taking expensive psychotropic drugs.

In the first six months of 2006, Miami County spent $40,250 on jail prescription medications. Last year, the county paid $67,445.

Medical care, including prescriptions, for the Montgomery County Jail is handled under a contract with NaphCare, based in Alabama. The contract costs around $2.7 million annually, said Bonnie Wayrauch, secretary to Sheriff Dave Vore. The costs for prescriptions was not available.

Wayrauch said the jail is removed from the "loop" of buying and distributing the medications.

"We have no medical department," she said.

Greene County has seen "substantial" savings from an agreement effective in late 2005 to buy prescriptions directly through the local Wal-Mart for jails that hold up to 385 people, said Kim Stamper, jail medical secretary.

Through June 30, Greene County this year had paid $52,143 for prescriptions, saving $43,497 with the agreement. Psychotropic drugs make up about 70 percent of the Greene jail's prescription bill.

For the first six months of the year, Warren County spent $19,800 on prisoner prescriptions, with about one half of the bill for psychotropic drugs, said Randy Turnbow, jail administrator. The Warren County jail gets medications for its average of 208 prisoners daily from the Correct Rx Pharmacy Services in Maryland. Turnbow said the jail doctor uses generic drugs whenever possible to help control costs.