The percentage of inmates who have taken psychotropic drugs in correctional facilities is increasing every year. (Image courtesy of Yonhap News TV)
SEOUL, Oct. 8 (Korea Bizwire) –The number of prisoners taking psychotropic medications while in custody has steadily risen over the past four years, justice ministry data showed Sunday.
A total of 5,741 inmates consumed such medications either through prescription or via mail last year, accounting for 10.8 percent of all inmates in correction facilities, according to the data submitted to Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok of the ruling People Power Party.
The proportion of prisoners consuming such medications among all inmates has steadily grown from 8.5 percent in 2019 to 9.2 percent in 2020 and 10.5 percent in 2021, the data showed.
This came despite the ministry’s revision of related guidelines in January last year to ban prisoners from receiving such drugs through proxy access.
In May, a number of prison inmates in Wonju, south of Seoul, were given prison sentences and fines for consuming and sharing Zolpidem, a psychotropic drug used for insomnia treatment.
In another case, a doctor was handed down a suspended prison term in January last year for prescribing psychotropic drugs, without physical examination, 94 times to 22 prisoners in the southern city of Jinju, 280 kilometers south of Seoul.
“We must strengthen supervision to prevent drug overdose or indiscriminate use of drugs at state-managed correction facilities,” Jang said.
(Yonhap)
