As opioid addiction has spread in the past decade, county jails have struggled with their increasing role as de facto detox centers. "The problem is particularly hard for jails in more rural and semi-rural counties, which often have limited access to medications, to physicians who will administer it, and to follow-up programs that inmates can tap into upon release," reports Eric Westervelt of NPR. Between half to two-thirds of today's jail population has a drug problem, and in some counties it's higher.
"To get a handle on the problem, more jails are adding some form of medication-assisted treatment, or MAT, to help inmates safely detox from opioids and stay clean behind bars and after release," NPR reports. "But there are deep concerns about potential abuse of the treatment drugs, as well as worries about the efficacy and costs of programs that jails just weren't designed or built for."
States with the biggest opioid problems, including several Ohio Valley states, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, are expanding jail MAT programs the fastest, but only 10% to 12% of the nation's 4,000 jails offer it. Though a few jails offer long-term addiction "maintenance" drugs buprenorphine and methadone to inmates, "the majority of jail-based medication-assisted treatment programs today are limited to injectable naltrexone, given upon an inmate's release," Westervelt reports.
Jails could soon be under greater pressure to expand treatment, since a federal appeals court in Boston ruled that a rural jail in Maine must provide an inmate MAT for her opioid-use disorder. The inmate had been taking buprenorphine twice a day for five years, but the Aroostook County Jail didn't want to give her the meds, arguing that the drug is often trafficked among inmates. The inmate's attorneys argued successfully that withholding treatment violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, Willis Arnold reports for NPR.
"To get a handle on the problem, more jails are adding some form of medication-assisted treatment, or MAT, to help inmates safely detox from opioids and stay clean behind bars and after release," NPR reports. "But there are deep concerns about potential abuse of the treatment drugs, as well as worries about the efficacy and costs of programs that jails just weren't designed or built for."
States with the biggest opioid problems, including several Ohio Valley states, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, are expanding jail MAT programs the fastest, but only 10% to 12% of the nation's 4,000 jails offer it. Though a few jails offer long-term addiction "maintenance" drugs buprenorphine and methadone to inmates, "the majority of jail-based medication-assisted treatment programs today are limited to injectable naltrexone, given upon an inmate's release," Westervelt reports.
Jails could soon be under greater pressure to expand treatment, since a federal appeals court in Boston ruled that a rural jail in Maine must provide an inmate MAT for her opioid-use disorder. The inmate had been taking buprenorphine twice a day for five years, but the Aroostook County Jail didn't want to give her the meds, arguing that the drug is often trafficked among inmates. The inmate's attorneys argued successfully that withholding treatment violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, Willis Arnold reports for NPR.
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