Unless you somehow manage to avoid any and all news, you will be fully aware that the United States is in the midst of an opioid epidemic. Drug addiction has become a national scandal, and shows no signs of slowing down or being dealt with. However, groups of New York lawmakers are pushing their support for a bill that would make sure all prisons and jails carry medication to those using opioids.
With proven stats showing that these medications could reduce deaths, there is ample proof that they should be put into the jails to help prisoners. A meeting was recently held to determine how much the state is doing to help people deal with evidence-based treatments. The verdict was damning – only six of the fifty-four state-managed correctional facilities offer medication assisted treatment (MAT) – a damning number in the present opioid crisis.
Speaking about the issue was Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, who said that: “It’s a start, but time is fleeting,”
MAT has become very popular for helping inmates in need of assistance, and has become a proven go-to treatment for numerous reasons. Some, though, believe the drugs are t oo strong on their own and thus shift dependency from one drug to the other, instead backing an abstinence only policy. However, supporters of the process do note that abstinence only policies aren’t going to work for everyone: many people manage to lead happy, productive lives after the use of methadone and buprenorphine.
Indeed, supporters also make the good point how many people see the use of drug treatments to combat addiction as being counterproductive stems from a poor view of those who suffer from addiction. Instead of being treated like a medical illness, it is treated with far less sympathy from the public.
A necessary change
Defending the change was Richard Gottfried, a co-sponsor of the new bill, who said: “I hope and I believe that in every correctional facility in the state our inmates with diabetes and high blood pressure and multiple sclerosis have treatment available to them,
“If there were only six prisons in the state that had diabetes treatment available, nobody would find that acceptable.”
Indeed, MAT has been used in the prison system for some time now, and comes as part of a response to a 2007 study which looked into the rate of fatal overdoses among former inmates. Indeed, it was found those in a Washington State prison were over 12.5x more likely to die in the first two weeks of release than the state average – drug overdose leading the way as the cause.
This was before the influx of dangerous fentanyl into the drug system, which will likely see numbers increase higher. With the hope that MAT can be extended across the system, there are some who believe it’s important to take a more gradual approach given many of the programs in place already are only pilot campaigns.
One thing is for sure, though: something has to be done to help inmates escape both their past and their future.