Rural jail offers newly released prisoners with addiction disorders a long-lasting drug to prevent relapse

Cost is a major barrier to using Sublocade as an
addiction treatment for prisoners. (Adobe Stock photo)

In rural Maine, a county jail began giving a long-lasting form of buprenorphine to inmates with drug addictions before they left incarceration. The medicine, which curbs opioid cravings for 28 days, helps past inmates avoid "withdrawal, relapse and overdose — dangers that newly released prisoners confront nationwide," reports Jan Hoffman of The New York Times.

Once out of jail, addiction sufferers can face several obstacles to staying in recovery while re-entering their communities. Maine's Somerset County sheriff, Dale P. Lancaster, was discouraged by the number of inmates who would leave prison and die from overdoses. Lancaster pushed for the extended-release medical treatment. Hoffman writes, "According to a recent analysis in Health and Justice, the switch had a remarkable effect. The long-acting injection afforded newly released prisoners a crucial buffer period after they were discharged, with more time to set up continuing addiction treatment and stabilize their lives."

People suffering from drug addictions are more likely to end up on the wrong end of the judicial system. "Of the more than 1.2 million prisoners in the United States, up to 65 percent of prisoners have active substance use disorders, according to some studies," Hoffman explains. And while those institutions have an opportunity to treat the addicted, few have the resources or staffing. In the case of extended-release shots of buprenorphine, known as Sublocade, the treatment's cost remains a big barrier, with the list price for a monthly injection about $2,000, while a month's supply of pills ranges from $90 to $360.

But the success of Maine's program may help turn the tide. "After being released, the Somerset County prisoners who got the shot were three times as likely to continue treatment as those at another rural Maine jail who received the daily pills" [which are discontinued upon release], Hoffman adds. "Between September 2022 and September 2023, three prisoners from the jail where the pills were dispensed died from overdoses within three months of being released; a fourth died by suicide. None of the former Somerset prisoners who had received the injections died."

Dr. Alane O’Connor, co-chair of Maine's Opioid Response Clinical Advisory Committee, said that "as word of the Somerset program spreads, she is getting inquiries from other county sheriffs about how to bring the shots on board," Hoffman reports. "She is also hearing from former prisoners." O'Connor told Hoffman, "Many wanted to stay on the shots, so they would come back to the jail asking our help in finding a provider."