Report: Opioid Addiction Treatment in PA Jails Either Inadequate or Nonexistent
A new report from the legal aid group Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project says inadequate treatment puts incarcerated people at risk for overdose when they’re released.
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A new report from the legal aid group Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PILP) has found that access to opioid addiction medication in the state’s county jails is scattershot, often inadequate, and in many jails nonexistent — putting incarcerated people at risk for overdose when they’re released, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, just 5 percent of addicted people in state prisons receive medication to treat opioid use disorder while incarcerated.
Studies show that people in prison are many times more likely to die of an overdose after their release than those who are not incarcerated. The study found that nine county jails, most in the northern part of the state, offer no opioid addiction medication at all, while eleven jails offered medication only to pregnant people. Unlike state prisons, there’s no centralized system for county jails, so policies on opioid addiction treatment vary from jail to jail.
