PHILADELPHIA — Treatment for opioid addiction in Pennsylvania jails is so haphazard that one woman went into withdrawal waiting for access to medication. A man was refused medication because staff said he hadn’t shown enough “motivation to be sober.”
These are among the stories shared by incarcerated clients of the legal aid group Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PILP) in a new report that found access to opioid addiction medication in the state’s county jails is scattershot, often inadequate, and in many jails nonexistent — putting incarcerated people at risk for overdose when they’re released.
Researchers assessed the availability of opioid addiction medication in Pennsylvania’s 62 county jails — which hold people awaiting trials or sentencings and those serving short sentences, usually for minor offenses — through right-to-know requests, interviews with clients, and meeting minutes from jails around the state since 2018.
