Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T10:11:32.519Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Our Ethical Obligation to Treat Opioid Use Disorder in Prisons: A Patient and Physician's Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Curtis Bone ,
Lindsay Eysenbach ,
Kristen Bell  and
Declan T. Barry
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The opioid epidemic has claimed the lives of more than 183,000 individuals since 1999 and is now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Meanwhile, rates of incarceration have quadrupled in recent decades, and drug use is the leading cause of incarceration. Medication-assisted treatment or MAT (i.e. methadone, buprenorphine) is the gold standard for treatment of opioid use disorder. Incarcerated individuals with opioid use disorder treated with methadone or buprenorphine have a lower risk of overdose, lower rates of hepatitis C transmission, and lower rates of re-incarceration. Despite evidence of improved outcomes, many jails and prisons do not offer MAT to individuals with opioid use disorder. This seems partly due to a scientifically unjustified preference for an abstinence-only treatment approach. The absence of MAT in prisons and jails results in poor outcomes for individuals and poses a public health threat to communities. Furthermore, it disproportionately harms poor communities and communities of color. Health care providers in prisons and jails have an ethical obligation to offer MAT to individuals with opioid use disorder to mitigate risk of infectious diseases, opioid overdose and health disparities associated with incarceration.

Type
Symposium Articles
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 46 , Issue 2: Law and the Opioid Crisis: An Inter-Disciplinary Examination , Summer 2018 , pp. 268 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Rudd, R., Seth, P., David, F., and Scholl, L., “Increases in Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths — United States, 2010–2015,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 65 (2016):1445-1452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NIDA, “Overdose Death Rates: National Institute on Drug Abuse,” January 6, 2017.Google Scholar
Criminal Justice Facts: The Sentencing Project; 2017, available at <https://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/> (last visited May 25, 2018).+(last+visited+May+25,+2018).>Google Scholar
Binswanger, I.A., Stern, M.F., Deyo, R.A. et al., “Release from Prison -- a High Risk of Death for Former Inmates,” New England Journal of Medicine 356, no. 2 (2007):157-165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiellin, D., Heimer, R., Becker, W., and D’Onofrio, G., DMHAS, “The Connecticut Opioid REsponse Initiative,” October 5, 2016.Google Scholar
Binswanger, I.A., Blatchford, P.J., Mueller, S.R., and Stern, M.F., “Mortality After Prison Release: Opioid Overdose and Other Causes of Death, Risk Factors, and Time Trends From 1999 to 2009,” Annals of Internal Medicine 159, no. 9 (2013):592-600.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Substance Dependence, Abuse, and Treatment of Jail Inmates, 2002”, NCJ 209588, July 2005; and “Drug Use and Dependence, State and Federal Prisoners, 2004,” NCJ 213530, October 2006.Google Scholar
Galea, S. and Vlahov, D., “Social Determinants and the Health of Drug Users: Socioeconomic Status, Homelessness, and Incarceration,” Public Health Reports 17, Supplement 1 (2002): S135-S145.Google Scholar
“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet,” 2017, available at <http://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet> (last visited April 10, 2018).+(last+visited+April+10,+2018).>Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Kleber, H.D., “Pharmacologic Treatments for Opioid Dependence: Detoxification and Maintenance Options,” Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience 9, no. 4 (2007):455-470.Google Scholar
Tsui, J.I., Evans, J.L., Lum, P.J., Hahn, J.A., and Page, K., Opioid Agonist Therapy is Associated with Lower Incidence of Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Young Adult Persons who Inject Drugs,” JAMA Internernal Medicine 174, no. 12 (2014):1974-1981.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruce, R.D., “Methadone as HIV Prevention: High Volume Methadone Sites to Decrease HIV Incidence Rates in Resource Limited Settings,” International Journal of Drug Policy 21, no. 2 (2010):122-124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nunn, A., Zaller, N., Trimbur, C., Nijhawan, A., and Rich, J.D., “Methadone and Buprenorphine Prescribing and Referral Practices in US Prison Systems: Results from a Nationwide Survey,” Drug and Alcohol Dependence 105, no. 1-2 (2009): 83-88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolan, K.A., Shearer, J., White, B., Zhou, J., Kaldor, J., Wodak, A.D., “Four-Year Follow-up of Imprisoned Male Heroin Users and Methadone Treatment: Mortality, Re-incarceration and Hepatitis C infection,” Addiction 100, no. 6 (2005):820-828.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boucher, R., “The Case for Methadone Maintenance Treatment in Prisons,” Vermont Law Review 27, no. 2 (2003):453-82.Google Scholar
See Tsui, supra note 13.Google Scholar
Friedmann, P.D., Hoskinson, R., Gordon, M., et al., “Medication-Assisted Treatment in Criminal Justice Agencies Affiliated with the Criminal Justice-Drug Abuse Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS): Availability, Barriers & Intentions,” Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation 33, no. 1 (2012):9-18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See Tsui, supra note 13.Google Scholar
Ludwig, A.S. and Peters, R.H., “Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid use Disorders in Correctional Settings: an Ethics Review,” International Journal of Drug Policy 25, no. 6 (2014): 1041-1046.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
NIDA, “Principles of Drug Abuse Treatment for Criminal Justice Populations - A Research-Based Guide,” National Institute on Drug Abuse (2014).Google Scholar
Denniston, M.M. MM, Jiles, R.B., Drobeniuc, J., et al., «Chronic hepatitis C virus infection in the United States, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003 to 2010,” Annal of Internal Medicine 160, no. 5 (2014):293-300.Google Scholar
Rabuy, B. and Kopf, D., “Prisons of Poverty: Uncovering the pre-incarceration incomes of the imprisoned,” (2015), available at <https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/income.html> (last visited April 10, 2018).+(last+visited+April+10,+2018).>Google Scholar
Daley, D.C., “Family and social aspects of substance use disorders and treatment,” Journal of Food and Drug Analysis 21, no. 4 (2013):S73-S76; S. Calhoun, E. Conner, M. Miller, and N. Messina, “Improving the outcomes of children affected by parental substance abuse: a review of randomized controlled trials,” Substance Abuse and Rehabilition (2015): 15-24; L. Lander, J. Howsare, and M. Byrne, “The Impact of Substance Use Disorders on Families and Children: From Theory to Practice,” Social Work in Public Health 28, no. 0 (2013):194-205; M. Barnard and N. McKeganey, “The Impact of Parental Problem Drug use on Children: What is the Problem and What can be Done to Help?,” Addiction 99, no. 5 (2004): 552-559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphey, D. and Cooper, P.M., “Parents Behind Bars: What Happens to Their Children?: Child Trends,” October 2015, available at <https://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2015-42ParentsBehindBars.pdf> (last visited May 25, 2018).+(last+visited+May+25,+2018).>Google Scholar
Fox, A.D., Maradiaga, J., Weiss, L., Sanchez, J., Starrels, J.L., Cunningham, C.O., “Release from Incarceration, Relapse to Opioid use and the Potential for Buprenorphine Maintenance Treatment: a Qualitative Study of the Perceptions of Former Inmates with Opioid use Disorder,” Addiction Science & Clinical Practice 10, no. 1 (2015); W.A. Zule and D.P. Desmond, “Attitudes Toward Methadone Maintenance: Implications for HIV Prevention,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 30, no. 1 (1998):89-97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar