LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- The Dona Ana County Detention Center has changed the way it distributes medicine, and some of the inmates' family members are concerned that may be harmful.

The Detention Center crushes pills to make sure the medications are used in the way they are intended to be, consumed, not saved.

“We've had a real problem with inmates who will pretend to take a pill and then have the remainder of the pill they will either barter it or hoard the pills,” said Dona Ana County Spokesman Jess Williams.

The policy has one Las Cruces woman worried for her dad.

“I feel that one day they're going to call and tell me that I don't have a dad anymore,” said Cindy Barela of Las Cruces.

Barela said her dad informed her family that he was not getting his medication unless he threatened suicide.

“My father is 64. He's not getting his medication. The medication he is getting they're crushing it all together,” said Barela.

Her father was sentenced to six months for a DWI, but Barela said some of his medicines helped with post traumatic stress disorder from the Vietnam War.

“He gets flashbacks and he can't take it and without that medication to keep him calm and down he's not going to make it,” Barela said.

The family said they were told narcotics are not being dispersed at the center, but Williams said that's not entirely true.

“Like every other accredited detention center in the nation, we strive to be narcotics free to the greatest extent possible. There are some inmates who require some narcotics we very closely monitor that. It is only distributed in the medical unit,” Williams said.

When asked how she knew her husband was not getting the proper medications at the detention center, Mercy Barela said, “Because my husband yesterday told me that that they're giving him medication out of a little cardboard box. They’re not handing him the pills.”

Williams said if inmates come in with medication, or have prescriptions for the medication, it will be delivered.

“We are completely capable of handling the inmates medical needs but they are going to be the basic medical needs and that's for security reasons and for cost reasons,” said Williams.

Williams also said the detention center is accredited and runs to the standards of the national commission of correctional health care.