While some might think that it's difficult to get opioids in prison, opioid addiction is actually a common phenomenon for prison inmates. The problem is often caused by a lack of services that could help treat patients with an opioid problem. 

Reluctance to Use Medical Treatments

Criminal justice settings have often been reluctant to use medical treatments for opioids such as methadone. The World Health Organization recommends that those who are incarcerated for opioid use should receive adequate healthcare to help them recover from their opioid addiction, that they be given agonist maintenance and that they receive the appropriate medication.

Medication-assisted treatment is considered the most-effective way to treat opioid addiction. By supplying the patient with low levels of opioids, the symptoms of opioid withdrawal can be better managed. The use of medication-assisted treatment has reduced the number of deaths related to opioids in the states where this method has been implemented.

Prisoners Relapse Often

Some might think that being in jail can help a patient overcome his or her opioid addiction, but many patients will continue to abuse substances once they have been released from prison because the underlying condition has not been treated. In fact, those who have been recently released from prison are substantially more likely to overdose than the general population. 

Patients Have the Right to Choose

While all of the available treatment options should be made available to patients, they shouldn't be forced to use a particular treatment. For the most part, prisoners have the legal right to refuse treatment. However, it is possible for a DOC to petition the Supreme Court to receive permission to force medical treatment.

Addiction is Not a Moral Failure

Regardless of the methods that are used, it's important that those who receive the treatments be treated as patients struggling with addiction and not as individuals who are simply of low moral character and making bad life choices. This can especially be a problem when some prisons refuse to allow patients to continue with a treatment even when it has been found that the treatment has been effective at treating the patient. 

For example, there are medications that attach themselves to receptors in the brain and make it impossible to get high. However, there are a surprising number of cases where patients are denied medications they were already taking to treat an addiction, often for moralistic reasons. For this reason, it's important for correctional facilities to receive healthcare consulting. For more information, contact companies like J Allen Associates Correctional Healthcare Management.