Over the years, we have advocated for better conditions and more progressive approaches in New York’s prisons. One of these approaches is providing substance abuse treatment for inmates struggling with drug addiction. However, there is a surprising benefit of prison life that we never anticipated.
It appears that in at least one state correctional facility, the indiscriminate distribution of an addictive treatment drug has become standard procedure. An inmate serving a long sentence at Attica Correctional Facility alerted the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to the presence of buprenorphine, a synthetic opioid used to treat addiction, within the rampant drug trade of the maximum-security prison. While buprenorphine has proven effective in reducing abuse of harder drugs like heroin, it is addictive in its own right and can produce a high.
According to the inmate, buprenorphine is readily available within the prison because it is handed out freely by the medical staff. To emphasize his point, he even sent some buprenorphine strips to a deputy commissioner. This was the second time the inmate had raised his concerns to state prison officials.
Buprenorphine is used in state prisons as part of medication-assisted treatment programs, which were approved two years ago by the state Legislature to reduce overdose deaths and help incarcerated individuals break free from drug addiction and criminal behavior. According to the law, inmates must qualify through a screening process to participate in the program, ensuring that they genuinely have a substance abuse problem.
The inmate who alerted DOCCS stated that the strips are being freely distributed for non-addiction reasons, such as pain management. Consequently, the abundance of buprenorphine in circulation has caused its price in the prison drug trade to plummet. Furthermore, the inmate claimed that the drug has become a gateway for individuals who were not previously using opioids or other illicit substances.
Assemblyman John T. McDonald, a Cohoes Democrat and pharmacist, has suggested a potential solution – replacing the distribution of strips with monthly buprenorphine injections given by prison medical staff. While this is a practical solution, it only addresses the symptom of a larger problem: the abandonment of sensible practices by medical staff in at least one of New York’s prisons. The issue of freely distributing addictive drugs like candy needs to be addressed by DOCCS and state lawmakers, not only for the sake of health and safety but also to uphold the mission of correctional programs that strive to transform prisons into places of correction rather than mere warehouses for criminals.
When well-intentioned programs like this fail due to avoidable reasons, it tarnishes the reputation of other enlightened efforts that hard-liners often mock, such as providing college-level education in prisons. DOCCS must ensure that prisons are not exacerbating addiction and undermining smart criminal justice policies, both for the well-being of inmates and to maintain public support for these progressive initiatives.
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