The free flow of narcotics distribution to Washington prison inmates is now under heavy scrutiny thanks to a KIRO Team 7 Investigation.
By analyzing pharmacy logs, we discovered inmates received 329,000 doses of Oxycodone and 85,000 morphine pills in the past three years alone.
Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne's work has prompted the Washington Department of Corrections to call for a full scale review of its prescription drug network.
An anonymous nurse claims to have spent years handing healthy prisoners hundreds of thousands of unneeded doses of Morphine, Oxycodone, and Percocet. The nurse says prison doctors and physicians assistants ordered them distributed rather freely.
The nurse says “I have seen them get Morphine for foot pain. I have seen them get Morphine for dental pain, a toothache and a hurt toe.”
Other prison health workers, like nurse Tim King, say the prison pill program is “total chaos”. He echoes concerns that prisoners, who aren't really in pain, are getting legally high 24 hours a day.
King says, “When an inmate knows he's got that prescription, he's definitely going to ask for it. If he's allowed to get it every three hours, he's going to ask for it exactly three hours from the last time he got it, whether or not he appears to be suffering any pain, the nursing staff will just automatically give it.”
Prison Health Care Chief Dr. Marc Stern says our investigation into prison painkillers caused him to begin an internal audit and review of drug rules.
“I think KIRO asked a good question," Stern said. "The public should be concerned, if we are using narcotics appropriately. We have to remember most of our patients are people with a history of drug problems and it would be irresponsible of us to by not careful about how we prescribe those medications.”
Dr. Stern says a preliminary look at our findings is “interesting.” Each prison should distribute about the same amount of painkillers per inmate. That's not the case. KIRO Team 7 Investigators found wild variations.
For example, since 2002, Monroe prison inmates consumed at least 161,525 doses of Oxycodone: about 62 pills per inmate. That's 15 times more than is served up per inmate at Walla Walla, whom averaged about four oxy each.
Morphine use was all over the board too. Clallam Bay prescribed no doses. Purdy handed out only 200 Morphine pills. The Stafford Creek facility prescribed 24,100 doses of Morphine. Broken down on a per inmate basis, that's 50 times the amount distributed to Purdy prisoners.
Despite that, Dr. Stern says, “I have no reason to believe we are using them inappropriately, but the issues you raised are important ones that cause us to want to look more closely.”
Stern also tells us eliminating narcotics for inmates here, like in Colorado, would be very difficult. He says prisoners deserve fair medical care and pain relief under the 8th Amendment. However, he is working to lower the narcotics distribution numbers in the coming year.