Study finds more than half of jails are located more than 30 minutes from OTPs

Researchers have found that 51.55% of U.S. jails are more than a 30‐minute drive from an opioid treatment program (OTP), making it difficult for many people in custody to establish a partnership with the program. For the study, “Driving Distance From US Jails to Opioid Treatment Programs” by Brendan Saloner, Ph.D., and colleagues, researchers noted that starting medications such as methadone during incarceration is challenging in jails. In addition, only half of all jails offer medications for opioid use disorder at all, and only 3% offer methadone. Buprenorphine is more commonly used, but many patients don't respond as well to is as to methadone. Typically, jails that offer methadone rely on federally licensed OTPs in the community to provide pre‐poured doses that can be transported to the jail. However, travel distance is a barrier.