From WLNS.com
LANSING, Mich. -- Millions of Michigan tax dollars are slipping through the cracks. A new report finds that the Michigan Department of Corrections is over spending millions of dollars on prescription drugs for inmates. Now the department is scrambling to fix the problem.
Within prison walls across the state, prescription medications designed to help inmates are actually hurting taxpayers. That’s according to the Michigan auditor general. In newly-released documents, auditors find that the Department of Corrections spent as much as 8.5 million dollars more than it should have over the last three years.
Russ Marlan, MDOC spokesman: “Our director has launched an internal affairs investigation.”
Russ Marlan, the spokesperson for the corrections department, says the director agrees with the report that millions of dollars are going to waste. The areas of waste- disposing of unused medications that could be returned and prescribing name-brand medications instead of generics. Mainly, three anti-psychotic drugs: Seroquel, Abilify and Zypreza. According to the report, those alone account for 35 percent of prescription costs.
Read more at WLNS.com.