As the opioid crisis ravages America, driving the overdose rate last year to a record 108,000, we are also experiencing an even more considerable increase in overdose fatalities in the country’s prisons and jails. Between 2009 and 2109, overdose deaths in those facilities rose fivefold compared to the national rate has tripled in the same period. One problem is the lack of drug treatment and mental health services for the incarcerated, where drugs use is rampant. For decades, drug use in the U.S. has been mainly addressed through the penal system, with 1 in 5 people behind bars for a drug offense instead of being treated in community-based facilities. There are solutions: California, for example, reported a 60 percent reduction in overdose deaths in its prisons in 2020 after the state started a substance use treatment program and the widespread availability of medication-assisted therapy. Pilot programs are also running in other states, including in New York jails, to divert drug users before they are incarcerated. Yet today, prisons are still the largest mental health and substance abuse treatment facilities in the country. This problem must be addressed on the federal level to reduce overdose deaths and help inmates lead drug-free lives once they re-enter society.
Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
Rosenthal Center for AddictIon Studies