USA. Moving Ahead on Methadone in Corrections

People who get incarcerated—in prisons or jails—tend to be people with more advanced addiction. If they have opioid use disorders, they typically spend their term without any opioids. When they are released, their tolerance has decreased, and if they relapse—which is likely—they may overdose. That danger was never as great as it is now, explained Josiah D. Rich, MD, MPH, professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at The Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.

“The stakes have gotten a lot higher,” Dr. Rich told AT Forum. “We send them back out into the community when the illicit opioid supply has never been so lethal.”

Rhode Island, under the leadership of Gov. Gina Raimondo, has led the state’s initiative to expand opioid treatment with medications to the prison and jail system. She put over $1 million a year into her budget that the General Assembly approved to screen incarcerated people for opioid use disorder and offer them medications for addiction treatment (MAT). Dr. Rich, who treats incarcerated patients, works as a consultant to the Department of Corrections, alongside CODAC Behavioral Healthcare, a not-for-profit opioid treatment program (OTP) that delivers methadone and buprenorphine to inmates. (ATForum, 12.02.2018)

http://atforum.com/2018/02/moving-ahead-on-methadone-in-corrections/