Aug. 3, 2017
CRANSTON, R.I. — As the country reckons with an unfolding opioid crisis, and officials from both parties talk about improving access to care, jails and prisons remain treatment deserts. Few facilities provide any addiction treatment, and when prisoners are released, they return to the same environments — and the same triggers — that fostered their addiction in the first place.
Here, at its campus of squat brick buildings, the Rhode Island Department of Corrections is trying something different. Over the past year, it has expanded its so-called medication-assisted treatment program, becoming the first state system to offer such a broad range of therapies — including all three drugs approved to treat addiction — to its entire prison population.
For supporters, there’s a simple argument behind the initiative: Medication-assisted treatment, or MAT, is considered the most effective therapy for opioid addiction, and so providing it is the right thing to do from a public health perspective. And if it can help reduce recidivism, it’s the right thing to do from a criminal justice perspective.
“It is standard of care in the community, so I think eventually it will become standard of care in correctional facilities,” said Dr. Jennifer Clarke, the medical programs director for the corrections department.
MAT consists of three therapies. Two, methadone and buprenorphine (often referred to as Suboxone), are opioids that help stave off withdrawal symptoms and reduce cravings, while the third, Vivitrol, is an “antagonist,” meaning it blocks people from getting high if they use drugs.
John Young, a 27-year-old inmate here, said his daily dose of methadone has saved him from the worst of withdrawal’s effects. He began treatment four months ago at the start of a six-month sentence for a probation violation tied to a drug-related charge, and it’s provided him with a level of stability.
Young said he plans to maintain his methadone regimen after he’s released.
“It’ll keep me safe — you don’t have to take the risk of getting out there and trying to find heroin or using needles,” he said. Without methadone, “as soon as I got out, I’d probably want to get high.”
“I want a good job, I want to succeed, I want to be better for my family,” he added. “I want actual things to be proud of.”
An estimated half to two-thirds of all prisoners have some form of substance abuse disorder. Doctors say there’s a public misconception that incarceration, particularly years-long incarceration, can help prisoners break an addiction.
But abstinence does not in and of itself treat substance use disorder. And upon release, prisoners generally have a reduced tolerance for opioids; one study found that within two weeks of being released, former inmates overdose at rates nearly 130 times as high as the general population.
“We cannot afford to keep getting all these people with opioid use disorders coming into these publicly funded institutions and not get treated, because it only fans the flames of this crisis as they are released.”
Dr. Josiah Rich, Brown University
But researchers studying Rhode Island inmates have found that prisoners who take methadone before their release are more likely to continue their treatment. If they do that, the hope goes, they will be less likely to overdose or to commit crimes.
“We cannot afford to keep getting all these people with opioid use disorders coming into these publicly funded institutions and not get treated, because it only fans the flames of this crisis as they are released,” said Dr. Josiah Rich, a Brown University researcher who is assessing Rhode Island’s MAT program.
Other states have started to look to Rhode Island to learn from its MAT program, and the Obama administration highlighted it as a national model.
This week, the White House’s commission on combating the national opioid epidemic released an interim report recommending that the Justice Department increase MAT in prisons. The panel noted that multiple studies have shown that inmates who received treatment had lower recidivism rates than those who did not.
But there are challenges to replicating Rhode Island’s system, and the corrections system here enjoys some advantages.
It had political support for the effort, with the state government approving $2 million annually for MAT in prisons. And the corrections system is compact: Rhode Island does not have county jails. All inmates are brought to one center here, and the state’s prisons are all on the same campus.
“If we start someone on MAT in jail, we’re not worried about them getting sent upstate to prison,” Clarke said. “They’ll go across the street, and they continue or we can take them off slowly.”
Clarke has worked in the corrections department for 20 years, and she’s been advocating to expand MAT for just as long. But until last year, only people already on methadone when they were incarcerated could get a week’s worth of treatment (except for pregnant women, who have always remained on treatment).
Now, inmates are screened when they arrive, and those with opioid use disorders are given the option of treatment. Inmates can take methadone or buprenorphine for up to a year, and restart treatment before they are released. Vivitrol is given a month or two before release. The program also includes counseling.
The treatment is provided by CODAC Behavioral Healthcare, a nonprofit with clinics around the state, and the idea is that inmates will transition to one of those clinics when they are released to continue their care.
Some law enforcement authorities have embraced Vivitrol because it is not an opioid, a message touted by its manufacturer, Alkermes, as it has lobbied lawmakers and drug courts. Other experts have questioned the data supporting Vivitrol and noted that there is more rigorous evidence supporting the use of methadone and buprenorphine. (Data from the first study to compare Vivitrol and Suboxone are expected this year.)
But for Clarke, what matters most is that inmates find a treatment they will stick with. Giving prisoners Vivitrol, for example, is useless if they don’t show up for another dose when released.
“Vivitrol is a great medication, for the right patient,” she said. “Really, the best treatment is the treatment that the patient will engage in.”
Experts said they see hints that MAT is becoming more accepted.
“There are all these ways to bash the treatment, but none of that is based on an argument about the effectiveness of the data,” said Dr. Joshua D. Lee, an associate professor at New York University School of Medicine. “In general, attitudes are certainly shifting in favor of finding solutions.”
Still, there is always concern that buprenorphine and methadone will be diverted and used illicitly. While the medications typically cannot give users a heroin-like high, they can generate a buzz. Some illicit use may also stem from inmates seeking out the medications to assuage their withdrawal symptoms, experts say, meaning the treatments are, in a way, being used for their approved purpose.
“So it’s hard, right?” said Dr. Warren Ferguson, an expert in criminal justice and health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, who is studying MAT in New England jails and prisons. “If the primary mission of a correctional facility is safety and security, and health care is secondary to that, if you look at it through that lens, you can understand why correctional facilities are enthusiastic about antagonists” like Vivitrol.
But, Ferguson said, evidence shows that treatment with methadone and buprenorphine improves outcomes in communities. Now, researchers are trying to replicate that in jails and prisons.
“What are some of the facilitators and barriers to establishing those programs?” Ferguson said. “What are some of the adaptations that need to be made for that to be successful?”
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Excellent programs and approach, this effectively cures addicts (or at least provides the best chance thereto), and beats the “punish without help” hands-down. Yes, the support and quidance is on tax-payer money, but I for one rather want to pay more tax in order to walk on safer streets.
Another thing – For every choice u make, right or wrong, there is a consequence. So now, for all those who chose to do drugs illegally, we the tax payers are financially responsible for their choices? I feel as if they are being coddled. It used to be if you broke the law, a stint in jail or prison would not be a happy experience and deter you from making the same bad choice. Not any more! I have personally spoken with law enforcement officers who are very frustrated with the court systems handling these crimes. It is YOUR responsibility as an adult to seek help if you have a problem, to make the right choices and be responsible. How many on the gov’t funded recovery programs have done too many drugs and are now not mentally stable enough to get a job so they are now on disability and state Medicaid? When does it end?!!! When are all criminals going to be held responsible for their actions?!! You lose a loved one to suicide because of an opioid overdose…..was it not their choice to do something they knew could harm them? And their loved ones? I’m the overdose sure it wasn’t prescribed by a Doctor!
Forgive me, but my blood pressure goes up everytime I read an article about what is being done to help those with opioid addiction. I’m not saying there isn’t a need for this but how many of those receiving treatments have the addiction from legally being prescribed an opioid. How many made the choice to use opioids illegally and now are addicted. As a long-term chronic pain patient and what I go through in order to get the medical treatment I need is unreal What is being done to help those like me? There is no gov’t funding available for the long trips we are now being forced to make as most of us can no longer be treated locally as too many Dr.’s are in fear of ramifications and the DEA not to mention the out-of-their-pocket monies that they must be spend annually in order to now prescribe pain meds for patients they have treated for years! Not to mention the expenses we now incur for gas, the motel stays when having to travel out of town for treatment every 3 months, because we’re in too much pain to travel back the same day and we’re now being forced with all kinds of extra expenses because of those who have chosen to use opioids illegally? What is wrong with this picture?
Not sure if a lot of people know but in the late 90s there was a man named Craig Stenning he was so instrumental in getting this pilot program going, he was so forward-thinking in the late 90s he knew that methadone was going to be a lifesaver in Rhode Island he got an award from the senate for his work with getting all inmates not just female inmates but male inmates to methadone it wasn’t statewide as it is now because remember it was 20 years ago but this was a wonderful man and he was influential and what’s going on now and I just don’t want anyone to forget that.
Thank you for publishing this article. My son, who suffered from addiction, ended up in jail due to his addiction. He committed suicide 2-days later.
Karen,
I am so so sorry about your son, people like him are the reason that I was involved in advocacy for so many years. We begged officials in Connecticut, we beg them for their suicide rates they would not release them, we knew what was going on we knew that these men could not take it and we’re committing suicide. You lost the most precious thing in your life the people who just didn’t want to help other people get better. And I am so so sorry there are no words to help heal your grief but please know that I’m thinking about you and people like your son or the reason I do what I do.
This program MAT will be highly successful. Maybe torch bearer for the rest
Get your local, county (including jail), and state cops certified under the 287(g) program, which is run by ICE. The officers will receive training for free, and be certified as “immigration officers.” Once they are certified they can go after the mostly Mexican clowns that smuggle and distribute the Mexican produced heroin (which they lace with fentanyl).
I can tell you from many years of first hand experience, the Mexican cartels do not like to use Americans to smuggle, transport, and distribute (except at the very end of the chain). The cartels can control a fellow Mexican, because they have extended family back in the old country that they can intimidate/toture/kill, if the their employee gets out of hand.
ICE simply doesn’t have enough officers to handle all of those distributing this poisin. Jail officers are especially well placed to identify and begin the deportation process of drug connected violators. ICE supplies them with full access to all of the databases to assit in identifying deportable criminal aliens.
Kudos to Rhode Island for working hard to ensure addicts are medicated and not subject to the torture and cruel punishment of withdrawal while serving out their sentences. I am currently awaiting sentencing in PA for a second DUI where I was caught dozing off in my car in the supermarket parking lot while charging my phone. This charge is from 10/2016, almost a year ago. I had opiates in my system. In 11/2016, I joined a methadone program and have been clean since. My biggest fear is being sentenced to time in jail and having to suffer the excruciating, cold turkey of methadone withdrawal. Is this fair to discontinue a medication I have been taking everyday for almost a year? Lorenzo, these medications are needed by these prisoners who are addicts, just as much as those who have diabetes need their insulin. Just out of curiosity why is it that you think recovering addicts need to be in such a hurry to “get off MAT drugs” if they are successfully doing the job to keep them clean? Matt, congratulations to you! Methadone has been a godsend for me. It has helped change my life in ways I never would have imagined. I am grateful everyday. Rhode Island, thank you for showing true compassion. Hopefully PA and the rest of the states will follow in your footsteps in short order.
If you go with medication-assisted treatment (MAT), then aren’t the real winners the manufacturers of methadone, buprenorphine (Suboxone), and Vivitrol? You just switch addicts from street heroin laced with fentanyl to pharmaceutical grade drugs. I don’t see an incentive for pharmaceuticals to stop MAT as a treatment option when recovering addicts want to get off MAT drugs too.
I wanted to leave a comment that touches on all areas of this topic from someone with first hand experience. I’m a 31 yr old male from massachusetts who has struggled with addiction for over 12 years now. I started in my late teens using vikes and 5mg to 10mg percocet that I was either prescribed, bought off the street or took from an elderly family member who was prescribed them monthly. From that I graduated to perk 15s 20s then 30s, I took those daily until I was around 27 and was spending 300$ a day on perks. I tried heroin and never looked back. Because of drugs I have been incarcerated on 3 different occasionstyles for over a years time. I did 2 bids in massachusetts and 1 in rhode island. The first 2 where in mass and both times I got out even after staying sober for over 60 days each time I relapsed within the first week and my habit was back and stayed back until my last visit to jail in January 2017 where I was incarcerated in Rhode Islands ACI. There I was being given a daily dose of methadone to help me with my severe heroin withdrawls. I never took methadone before but was put on it while in jail. I’ve been out since April in which I’ve attended a 30 day drug program, I also attend meetings daily and speak to a counselor weekly through coda who provides me with my methadone. I relapsed only once since April and if I hadn’t been put on the methadone protocol I may be back in jail or have a raging addiction again or even worse dead. I think all jails should at least offer theseveral treatments for inmates it really can change there lives.