Criminal Justice

Highlights

Image

©Getty Images/Frazao Studio Latino

• Roughly 60% of people who are incarcerated have a substance use disorder, in many cases an opioid use disorder.¹ The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved three medications for opioid use disorder: methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. But fewer than half of jails² and fewer than 10% of state prisons provide access to all three medications for opioid use disorder.³
• Overdose is the leading cause of death among people returning to their communities from jails or prisons.⁴ A NIDA-funded analysis estimated that treatment with medications for opioid use disorder while detained could reduce overdose deaths by 31%.⁵
• NIDA supports the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) as part of the National Institutes of Health HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term®) Initiative. JCOIN and other NIDA initiatives include funding for research that tests strategies to expand effective substance use disorder treatment and care in partnership with local and state justice systems and community-based treatment providers.