Ohio Jail Provides Opioid Treatment

(June 25, 2019)

Hamilton County Jail in southwest Ohio has begun treating the opioid addiction of some of its inmates, reports Cincinnati.com. NaphCare, the jail’s healthcare provider, began giving buprenorphine treatments in May, and has treated fifty-two inmates so far. Inmates had already received buprenorphine for withdrawal symptoms last year, but the new plan now allows daily treatment for the addiction. Hamilton County officials and experts hope to lower the rate (75%) of inmates who relapse once they’re released. Relapse often leads them to commit the same crimes that first put them in jail, as opioid users often need to steal to support their habit.

One study of inmates’ rate of return to prison after completing the opioid treatment suggests that only 16% of treated inmates will return to jail, which the program’s advocates believe is a promising start. Many American jails and prisons don’t yet support opioid treatments for their inmates. But some prisons around the country use the treatment, in Kentucky and New York for instance.

To learn more about buprenorphine treatments, look here or here. To find opioid recovery clinics or doctors in Ohio, look here and here.