Opioid use and contact with criminal justice system often overlap

THE RESEARCHERS DEFINED RECENT INVOLVEMENT AS CONTACT WITHIN THE PAST 12 MONTHS. (JAMA NETWORK OPEN)

People who misuse prescription opioids or heroin are much more likely to come into contact with the criminal justice system than people who don't use the drugs, according to a new analysis in JAMA Network Open. Nearly 20 percent of people with prescription opioid use disorder and 43 percent of those using heroin in the past year had been involved with the criminal justice system in the past year, compared to 3 percent of people who weren't using any opioids. “The overlap we found … suggests that access to opioid treatment within the criminal justice system is a critical public health issue,” the authors say.

By and large, treatment for addiction remains scarce in jails and prisons. But some correctional systems are rethinking their approach — in Rhode Island, a first-in-the-nation program that gives inmates addicted to opioids a range of treatment options appears to have lowered overdose deaths among people recently released from jail or prison.