An additional budget was not top of mind, Jail Health Services officials said. Instead, they are facing a problem endemic to public agencies from the police department to the school district: Too few people are interested in taking already-funded positions.
“For jails and prisons, the critical part is the linkage to care when people get out,” said Dr. Josiah “Jody” Rich, a professor of medicine at Brown University who has shaped Rhode Island’s jail addiction medicine program since the HIV epidemic. Numerous doctors noted methadone, though highly-effective, can be difficult for some people to get once released. Partly for that reason, many patients prefer buprenorphine. In San Francisco jails, buprenorphine is most commonly prescribed, Mains said. Beyond access to medication, patients reentering society may need referrals to housing, employment, and mental health counseling.