Schuylkill County President Judge William Baldwin took prison officials to task Wednesday after an inmate arrived in his courtroom for trial without having received his psychiatric medications.

At a prison board meeting, Baldwin said the inmate told Baldwin he was hallucinating and could not testify because he was not given his medication before leaving the prison, which is across the street from the courthouse in Pottsville.Although Baldwin was skeptical about the inmate's claims of hallucinating, he said he had to have the medication brought over because if the inmate did testify without having received his medication, he could have used that as grounds to appeal his conviction."We lost about a half a day of trial," Baldwin said of the misstep.Warden Eugene Berdanier addressed the matter in his report."I have issued a directive to staff that all inmates leaving the building for court must be questioned if they need or request any prescribed medications. An inmate is not to exit the building until the medical department dispenses needed medications," he wrote.PrimeCare Medical handles medications at the jail.In other matters, the prison is once again overcrowded, despite a prerelease program begun in September to alleviate the problem.The total average population in May was 281, up from 264 in January, Berdanier said. As of Wednesday, the total had hit 292.A total of 38 inmates are currently triple-celled, and the board approved the purchase of additional cots to accommodate the overflow.