Incarceration Should Not be a Death Sentence for Individuals Who Use Opioids
New litigation centered on increasing access to substance-use disorder treatment in jails and prisons is helping to reduce mortality rates among incarcerated individuals.
The opioid epidemic has gripped communities for more than 20 years. From 1999 to 2022, nearly 722,000 people died from an overdose involving prescription and illicit opioids. Litigation has dramatically changed the substance-use disorder policy landscape and, today, more than $50 billion in opioid settlements from pharmaceutical companies, distributors, pharmacies, consultants, and others are hitting state and local coffers. This creates an unprecedented opportunity to invest in substance-use disorder care that saves lives.
Importantly, a separate wave of litigation is reshaping the way jails and prisons care for incarcerated people with opioid-use disorder. These lawsuits seek to require jails and prisons to provide medications for opioid-use disorder (MOUD) to all people for whom it is medically appropriate.
The data is clear: MOUD saves lives. Treatment of opioid-use disorder with methadone and buprenorphine — two of the three FDA-approved MOUDs — is associated with a 50 percent decrease in mortality.
