News

FOX25 Investigates a new tool being used to curb addiction behind bars

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- FOX25 has covered a lot of stories on the opioid epidemic in New England. Now, FOX25 Investigates has uncovered a new weapon that could curb the craving. 
FOX25 went inside the Barnstable County Correctional Facility, one of the first in the country to start giving the drug Vivitrol to inmates in drug rehabilitation programs.

"What we're seeing is that people are just coming back in, it's a revolving door," said Jessica Burgess, the BSCO Director of Health Services. 

Facility officials say that less than 10 percent of addicts that have taken the drug have returned to jail. 
One former inmate spent nearly a year at the facility because of a opioid drug bust. As he got closer to getting out, he was terrified.
“I knew I was going onto the street and I had no foundation to stay clean,” he said.
Just before he got out, the jail gave him Vivitrol, an injection that fights drug addiction.
“It took all of the cravings away which I couldn't believe,” he said.

Eight months later, he says he is still clean.  Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings says the revolving door of inmates ending up back in jail is largely due to addiction issues.

“When we first ask inmates when they're coming into the jail that they felt they were addicted opiates, 43 percent told us yes they were,” Cummings said.
Three years ago, the sheriff decided to give a shot at recovery to heroin addicts right before releasing them from jail.
The Vivitrol shot lasts for a month. The first one is administered in jail and the rest at a community treatment facility after the inmate is released.
“In the 170 plus inmates that we've treated, only 9 percent have returned to jail.  That's a significant number considering the national recidivism rate around the nation is 60 percent,” Cummings said.
That success has prompted every county jail in the state to offer Vivitrol. Jails across the country call weekly asking about it.
While at the jail, FOX25 met Raul, who has been in and out of jail since he was 12.
“I’m a heroin user and been addicted to opiates since I was young, 17 years old,” Raul said.
Raul is set to be released in March and is eager to take Vivitrol, with hopes of having a normal life.
Jail officials wish this is something that could be used in the outside world but it's much harder because people have to be clean for 10 days before they can use the shot. 
The facility’s medical director says using Vivitrol is a win-win for the community. The Massachusetts drug maker pays for the first $1,000 shot and insurance handles the rest.
If you actually look at the root of the problem, which is the addiction, and treat that, then we're not going to have the people committing these crimes at the same level so our community becomes safer,” said Burgess.

Cox Media Group

Most Read