Jails Finally Allowing Medical Care For Opioid Addiction

FINALLY SOME HUMANITY –

Feb. 18, 2022 – Sedgwick’s joins at least a few other Kansas jails that do so, including Crawford County in southeast Kansas.

“I mean, something’s got to change,” Crawford County Sheriff Danny Smith said of the decision to allow addiction treatment. “Otherwise, it’s just a revolving door all the time.”

Studies suggest two-thirds of prison inmates have substance use disorders. Allowing treatment for people in jails or prisons aims to break the cycle of incarceration — and to save lives.

Fatal overdoses have rocketed during the pandemic in Kansas and nationally, driven in large part by dealers selling drugs laced with fentanyl. Spiking methamphetamine, cocaine, or oxycodone with this synthetic opioid makes those substances even more potent and addictive, but also easily lethal.

When someone who suffers from drug addiction gets out of jail or prison, they face an elevated risk of overdosing soon after release.

A few years ago, Smith got a call from the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas. The center had funding to launch a treatment program for the 108-bed jail if Smith would allow it.

“Honestly,” Smith said, “our willingness to have our facility used for this is a no-brainer.”

The program launched in August 2020. He hopes for “a ripple effect” that will help people heal, get jobs, repair family relationships and stay out of jail.