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Study Finds Only Half of All Federal and State Prisons offer Methadone and Buprenorphine and Only In Very Limited Circumstances

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Study finds US prison system falls short in treating drug addiction PROVIDENCE, RI ? Almost a quarter of a million individuals addicted to heroin are incarcerated in the United States each year. However, many prison systems across the country still do not offer medical treatment for heroin and opiate addiction, despite the demonstrated social, medical and economic benefits of opiate replacement therapy (ORT). According to new research from The Miriam Hospital, Brown University and their affiliated Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, just half of all federal and state prison systems offer ORT with the medications methadone and buprenorphine, and only in very limited circumstances. Similarly, only twenty-three states provide referrals for some inmates to treatment upon release from prison...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on September 09, 2009 (boomark / email).