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Opioid Users Are Filling Jails. Why Don’t Jails Treat Them? (2017)

Getting methadone in jail gave a Connecticut heroin user a firmer foothold in recovery. But fewer than 1 percent of jails and prisons allow it.

NEW HAVEN - When Dave Mason left jail in October 2015 after his 14th criminal conviction, the odds were good that he would soon end up dead.

A man with a longtime heroin addiction, Mr. Mason was entering one of the deadliest windows for jailed users returning to the streets: the first two weeks after release, when they often make the mistake of returning to a dose their body can no longer handle.

Standing outside the New Haven Correctional Center, clutching his few belongings in a brown paper bag, Mr. Mason appeared precariously close to taking that path. His ride never showed up. He had no money, no contact with his family and nowhere to live.