Death by Psychiatric Drugging at Connecticut’s Correctional Facility 

October 7, 2024

Given the recent news of a death due to psychiatric drugging in a State of Connecticut correctional facility, one must consider whether the mental health “treatment” provided by the State is working?

According to news reports, 32-year-old inmate Tyler Cole died in the Garner, Ct., Correctional Institution from accidental “acute intoxication.”  Whether the “accidental” “acute intoxication” was the fault of the inmate, or the prescribing physician was not made public.

Cole was provided psychiatric “treatment” in the form of a mind-altering drug cocktail, including methadone; clonazepam (also known as Klonopin), a benzodiazepine prescribed as an anti-anxiety medication; diphenhydramine (antihistamine) and Olanzapine, an antipsychotic medication.

Cole had been sentenced to Garner for less than two months due to a domestic violence incident.  News reports do not advise the public information about whether Cole had been diagnosed with mental illness prior to entering Connecticut’s correctional facility or whether he picked up the mental illness(es) inside the facility. The news reports also do not provide the prescription drug dosing levels that caused the “acute intoxication.”

One can be sure, however, that Cole’s sudden death in the facility at the hands of a state drug prescriber was not how the family anticipated his outcome. And one can almost guarantee that Cole’s family had no idea what the potential side effects of such a mind-altering drug cocktail could be. Let’s consider the possibilities.

Klonopin is a brand-name for Clonazepam, a benzodiazepine prescribed for seizures and panic disorders. The Food and Drug Administration has no clue how the drug works in the brain to “treat” the disorders. Known adverse side effects include, but are not limited to, seizures, shallow breathing, unusual changes in mood and behavior, confusion, paranoia, nightmares, hallucinations, suicidal thoughts, psychosis, and depression.

Zyprexa is a brand name for Olanzapine, an antipsychotic used to “treat” schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Like Klonopin, the FDA is clueless about how the drug works in the brain to “treat” the disorders.  Known adverse side effects include low blood pressure, dizziness, sedation, depression, hallucinations, suicidal ideation, confusion, and personality disorder to name a few.

Online sources recommend consulting with a doctor before using Clonazepam together with Olanzapine as it can cause law blood pressure and shallow breathing. Of course, that information was not made public. Did Cole complain of any side effects associated with his psychiatric “treatment?”  A question that Cole’s family may want to explore with the state correctional authorities.

Knowing the level of care is important as Connecticut is melding mental health treatment with custody control. According a 2022 article in Health and Justice “Garner correctional institution, a mental health prison in Connecticut, states that “the staff at the facility, both custody and mental health, operates through an integrated team approach which ensures a continuity of custody, care, treatment and control.” Does it?

If inmates are dying from the “treatment,” clearly this new team approach isn’t working. Let’s consider that Connecticut has approximately 11,000 residents locked up in various state and federal correctional facilities, with approximately 9,900 in state facilities. Of concern, given the recent death by prescribed psychiatric drugging, is that 95% of those incarcerated “had a current or previous history of mental health disorders, substance abuse or both.”

The Connecticut Sentencing Commission provided a report on the state’s incarcerated population in January of 2023 explaining that “U.S. detention centers have become de facto mental health institutions…and incarcerated individuals with serious mental illness now exceed those in state psychiatric hospitals tenfold.”

The Department of Corrections (DOC) in Connecticut is second only to University of Connecticut Health (UConn) when it comes to prescription drugs. The DOC received nearly $30 million for prescription drugs in 2023 for thirteen correctional facilities. That seems like a lot of drugs for just 10,000 inmates, which only a little over 5,300 inmates are actually diagnosed with a mental disorder and just shy of 3,000 inmates that have a mental disorder diagnosis that requires drug “treatment.”

Nowhere can any confirmed number of inmates being “treated” with psychiatric drugs in the State of Connecticut correctional facilities be found. And that means that there is no way of knowing how many of the state’s inmates are being “treated” with cocktails of psychiatric drugs, like those that killed Tyler Cole.

And it is of interest that a major study was conducted in 2021 and published in Lancet Psychiatry, a peer-reviewed specialty scientific journal published by Elsevier, titled Effectiveness of psychological interventions in prison to reduce recidivism: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.  The authors of the study found that considering the “current research on the effectiveness of psychological interventions in prisons aimed at reducing post-release recidivism, modest effects, at best,” were realized “for psychological interventions delivered in prison.” These psychological interventions delivered in prisons include psychiatric chemical “therapies” also known as mind-altering drugs.  “Modest at best” is not exactly a screaming recommendation for continuation.

Connecticut’s population appears to be suffering from what every other state is reporting…a mental health crisis. And this “crisis” extends to its correctional facilities. The question authorities need to consider is whether the psychiatric drug “treatments” are helping the incarcerated population or making it worse. The data are clear that the criminal population continues to increase, which would suggest that nobody is getting better with this “treatment” plan. When inmates are dying from the “treatment” no one could argue that it’s working. One can only wonder how many others are being harmed by psychiatric drugging that aren’t reported?

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