A new look into addiction treatment availability in the U.S. criminal justice system reveals that fewer than half (43.
8%) of 1,028 jails surveyed across the nation offered any form of medication for opioid use disorder, and only 12.8% made these available to anyone with the disorder. With two-thirds of people who are incarcerated in U.
S. jails experiencing a substance use disorder—in many cases, an opioid use disorder —the failure to make these medications widely available in criminal justice settings represents a significant missed opportunity to provide life-saving treatments in an environment where people in need of care can be easily reached. The study , "Factors associated with the availability of medications for opioid use disorder in US jails," published in JAMA Network Open , also found that most jails did offer some type of substance use disorder treatment or recovery support (70.
1%). The most common reason jails cited for not offering medications for opioid use disorder was lack of adequate licensed staff (indicated by 49.8% of jails).
In general, larger jails, those in counties with lower "social vulnerability" (lower levels of poverty and unemployment, and greater education, housing, and transportation access), and those with greater proximity to community-based providers of medications for opioid use disorder were more likely to offer these treatments. "Offering substance use disorder treatment in justice settings helps to break the debilitating—and often f.
