NY Legislature considering mandatory drug treatment for inmates

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (WCAX) - A bill in the New York Legislature would mandate MAT for inmates there. But there are concerns about who would administer the treatment.

“On theory, I am for this,” said Assemblyman Billy Jones/D-Chateaugay Lake. Before becoming a politician, Assemblyman Jones was a corrections officer and he says getting inmates the treatment they need is a good thing, but he’s worried about a new bill to bring medication-assisted treatment to all New York prisons.

Jones says the measure doesn’t include any funding and is estimated to cost around $30 million just for upstate facilities. “It basically mandates that these jails would have to go about doing this certain program without any money behind it,” he said. “Why would we do that post-budget?”

He says there’s a better way and that some county jails in his district are already teaming up with local addiction services to bring treatment behind bars.

Jacob Coulombe with the Champlain Valley Family Center says MAT is successful in helping people with substance use disorder. “To help people reduce the risk of overdose and allow them to do the work of recovery,” he said. Coulombe says there are many ways to administer treatments including pills, oral liquids, or injections. Depending on the individual, doses might be needed multiple times a day or just once a month. He says counseling is also part of it. “Really, a change in how people think and perceive themselves and the world around them.”

Jones says helping these inmates stay sober is better for everybody, he just doesn’t want an unfunded mandate from Albany. “If we want to do it -- we want to improve it by all means -- let’s do that but let’s not put on a blanket mandate from New York state saying you have to do this, you have to do to that, you have to do this,” he said.

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