October 8, 2024

Less than half of jails (43.8%) surveyed in 2023 offered medications to treat opioid use disorder (MOUD) to some people held at the jail. The survey included responses from 1,028 jails. About 12.8% of the jails offered all inmates with opioid use disorder (OUD) medication-assisted treatment upon request. National data indicates that about two-thirds of the U.S. jail population has an addiction disorder. Jails in counties with less social vulnerability and those shorter mean distances to the nearest facility providing MOUD were more likely to offer MOUD. 

These findings were reported in “Factors Associated With the Availability of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder in US Jails” by Elizabeth Flanagan Balawajder, MPH; Lori Ducharme, Ph.D.; Bruce G. Taylor, Ph.D.; and colleagues. The researchers evaluated the prevalence of medication for OUD in U.S. jails, and the association of jail- and county-level factors related to providing MOUD to jail inmates. They examined data from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey querying jails from June 2022 to April 2023 about the provision of addiction treatment services. The survey was conducted via mail, phone, and the internet. Of 2,791 jails invited to participate, 1,028 responded to the survey. The researchers analyzed the effects of region, urbanicity, jail size, jail health care model (direct employees or contracted), county opioid overdose rate, county social vulnerability, and access to treatment in the county. 

The survey questions asked about the availability of any type of substance use disorder treatment (such as self-help meetings), the availability of MOUD (defined as buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone), and the populations eligible to participate in MOUD. After merging the sample with county data, 927 jails were included in the analysis, representative of 3,157 jails nationally. Nearly 60% of the jails had contracted health care services.