New Mexico’s largest jail will no longer use methadone to treat inmates who are addicted to drugs, The New York Times reports. The jail’s warden cited cost concerns. He also questioned the program’s effectiveness.
The Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque has been one of the
small number of jails and prisons nationwide to administer methadone to
inmates with drug addictions, according to the article. Hundreds of
participants have gone through the New Mexico treatment program.
The program has been costing the jail about $10,000 a month,
according to Ramon Rustin, the jail’s warden. He told the newspaper he
did not believe the program truly worked. He said there is little
evidence it reduces inmates’ return to the corrections system once they
are released.
“My concern is that the courts and other authorities think that jail
has become a treatment program, that it has become the community
provider,” he said. “But jail is not the answer. Methadone programs
belong in the community, not here.”
Advocates for the methadone program say cutting off inmates from methadone is like taking insulin from a diabetic.
In December, Rustin was ordered to extend the program for two months until its results could be further studied.
No comments:
Post a Comment