From Justice Community Innovation Network Coordination and Translation Center (JCOIN CTC):
Recent findings from a nationally representative survey found that only 44% of
U.S. jails provide medications to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) and only 13% offered at least one medication to anyone with OUD who requested it. The survey of 1,028 jails was conducted between June 2022 and April 2023 by JCOIN researchers. MOUD has proven effective in reducing opioid use and overdoses, decreasing overdose deaths, and increasing the use of community-based treatment among individuals involved in the criminal-legal system. However, many jails indicate a significant lack of the resources and programs needed to provide adequate access to these services, such as staffing, policies, funding, and local community-based service providers.
Among jails that did offer MOUD, buprenorphine was the most common, with 70% of facilities providing the medication. However, only 28% of these jails made buprenorphine available to all individuals with an OUD, while the majority reserved it for specific groups, such as pregnant women (40%) or those already receiving buprenorphine prior to incarceration (72%). Methadone was less frequently available, with just 47% of MOUD-providing jails offering it, and access was often limited to those already on methadone treatment at the time of booking. Naltrexone was available in 55% of jails that offered MOUD, with broader access compared to buprenorphine or methadone, as 37% of these facilities provided it to anyone with OUD who requested it.
Almost three-fourths of jails (70%) provided some type of SUD treatment or recovery support. The most common support was self-help meetings (e.g., Alcoholics Anonymous or SMART Recovery), which were available in 63% of jails. Other types of programs offered by jails included services for co-occurring mental health conditions (48%), therapeutic communities within the correctional system (35%), and outpatient SUD treatment (33%). Continue reading here.
|
|
|
|
