The Vermont Department of Corrections is expanding treatment for inmates battling opiate addiction following a November 1 Seven Days article that examined the department’s practice of limiting such treatment.
Inmates at all state prisons who have prescriptions for methadone or buprenorphine (aka Suboxone) will be able to receive those medications, which diminish cravings and temper the side effects of heroin withdrawal, for up to 120 days, Commissioner Lisa Menard confirmed in an email Tuesday. Previously, inmates at two facilities received a 90-day maximum of medication-assisted treatment, while MAT was only available for 30 days at the other state jails.
The department’s revised policy stipulates that inmates won’t be taken off their medications simply because the DOC doesn’t know how long they’ll be behind bars.
Inmates, Menard wrote, will receive “their full dose as long as possible, less the expected duration of a medically compassionate taper,” which gradually reduces the dose of Suboxone or methadone over a period of days or weeks.
The new policy won’t formally take effect until next week, according to Menard, but several inmates have told Seven Days that they’re already seeing a difference.
The only thing keeping 26-year-old Sam Blatt behind bars in the Northern State Correctional Facility is a lack of housing — he needs to find a place to live that meets DOC requirements. Less than a month into his prison stay, Blatt reported that corrections staff were reducing his Suboxone dosage because he didn’t have a specific release date. He received what staff told him would be his final two milligrams on November 2.
But, the following day, he wrote to tell a Seven Days reporter that he — and other inmates who were also in the midst of detoxing — had been put back on their meds.
“This is a great thing that happened today and will only help so many more in the future,” Blatt wrote.
William McGuinness has been held at Northwest State Correctional Facility since October 12 — also for a lack of housing. He told Seven Days that he came in with a Suboxone prescription, but a corrections nurse told him two weeks into his stay that he would soon be tapered off the medication.
On November 4, however, he called a reporter with good news: He’d been told he could stay on Suboxone for up to 120 days.
Inmates aren’t guaranteed the full 120 days, however. In most cases, the DOC will begin to taper people as soon as it determines they will be in prison for longer than 120 days, according to Menard. Additionally, inmates who test positive for drugs or who have been caught diverting their medication may still be taken off.
Tom Dalton, the Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform executive director, called the changes a “great step forward” but added that there is “still more work to be done.” His organization plans to continue to push for unrestricted access to medication-assisted treatment in Vermont prisons, Dalton said.
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Thank you Alicia and SevenDays for shining some light on this extremely important issue. Next step: let’s address why young people are seeking out opiates in increasing numbers?
The opiate crisis is a shameful indictment of the society that the previous generation has created for us young people. The previous generation crashed our economy, destroyed our planet, weakened our political institutions and supported political interventions abroad that guarantee that none of us can be safe from political violence (terrorism).
Let’s create a society that enables people to succeed rather than one that drives people to opiate dependence.
Alicia, you did a awesome job of researching, listening and hearing the stories of inmates and former inmates in the article you penned entitled, “Cruel and Unusual? How drug treatment policies in Vermont Prisons are contributing to the opiate addiction crisis.” Thank you Seven Days for positioning the article as a lead.
There is a deeper dive involving inmates and medications when under the supervision of the Department of Corrections and we will continue to work to effect change. However, in less then a week, your work on “Cruel and Unusual?” And the work of others including Jolinda LaClair, Director of the Governor’s Drug Prevention Policy has had a huge impact on Correction’s policy.
Thanks Alicia!
Thanks go out to Governor Scott, Commissioner Menard and Ben Watts, DOC Health Services Coordinator for doing the right thing.
Representative Dan Connor
House Corrections and Institutions Committee
Now we push to remove the time limits altogether. Thank you, Alicia.
Adam Salem, I no more call all of your generation durggies than you should call all of us older people responsible for trashing the planet, war, and the economy. Certainly you have the critical intelligence to know that many of us had nothing at all to do with the economic crash and a large portion of this state has been involved in environmental activism since probably before you were born. Many of us have been against all of these wars of adventurism for our whole lives. We get nowhere by blaming each other for the ills that are present in our society.
If you want a society that enables people to succeed, you are as responsible as we are in creating that society. First we must address those suffering now. Then together, maybe we can halt the ridiculous War on Drugs that has stifled all initiative to deal with these problems for 35 years. But you can’t accuse people of creating this mess and then expect them to accept your demands.
Once again, the victim card is played in Vermont. Crises are self-made. Life circumstances contribute to be sure. But at the end of the day, it’s a choice to take drugs. What happened to medically supervised withdrawl from drugs and alcohol? We are coddling people. By providing drugs so addicts avoid feeling really sick and discomfort, the addict thinks getting straight isn’t too bad. I disagree with this approach. Perhaps if getting straight was not so easy a person would think twice about taking drugs again. I also can’t help but wonder the price tag on this much softer landing.