By Jill Harmacinski
The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.
LAWRENCE, Mass. — Sheriff Kevin Coppinger plans to stand before hundreds of police chiefs next month and tell them how he’s bringing drugs into Essex County jails.
It may sound odd as keeping illicit drugs and contraband out of jails and prisons will always be an issue, Coppinger noted.
But Middleton Jail now has a nationally-acclaimed Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) program where addicted inmates can receive their medically prescribed doses of Suboxone, methadone and Vivitrol on a daily basis.
In large part, such doses are used to treat the opioid addiction that has plagued the region for the past two decades. and many local crimes are drug-driven.
This week, the MAT program expanded when a second treatment site opened at an Essex County Sheriff’s Department location — The Correctional Alternative Center, known as The Farm, off Marston Street in Lawrence.
Adding a second MAT unit “allows us to get the medication to the inmates easier and increases public safety in the community,” Coppinger said.
About two-thirds of Essex County inmates are diagnosed with both substance abuse and mental health disorders. The sheriff’s department was housing 819 inmates as of Friday’s count.
At Middleton Jail, 180 inmates receive MAT. About another 35 are treated through MAT at The Farm, which includes females from the Women In Transition program, who are driven there from the Salisbury facility.
“Abundant evidence” shows the drugs used in MAT programs “reduce opioid use and opioid use disorder-related symptoms, and they reduce the risk of infectious disease transmission as well as criminal behavior associated with drug use,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
“These medications also increase the likelihood that a person will remain in treatment, which itself is associated with lower risk of overdose mortality, reduced risk of HIV and Hepatitis C transmission, reduced criminal justice involvement, and greater likelihood of employment,” according to the institute.
The roots of the MAT program at Middleton came after a 2018 federal lawsuit by an inmate, Geoffrey Pesce, who had been medically treated with methadone prior to his arrest and jailing for driving without a license.
Pesce, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and a law firm, successfully sued for his access to methadone while at Middleton Jail.
In the lawsuit, the federal court was asked to require ECSD to provide Pesce with the prescribed medication onsite or to transport him daily to a medical facility where he could get his daily dosage.
“Pesce suffered opioid use disorder and had been in recovery for two years with help of doctor-prescribed medication. Pesce struggled with addiction for nearly six years, experiencing unemployment, homelessness, and estrangement from his family and son. After his doctor prescribed medication-assisted treatment, he made a dramatic recovery,” according to the ACLU of Boston.
The hope is with the continued treatment behind bars, individuals won’t want to seek drugs when they are released. Brooke Pessinis , a licensed mental health counselor affiliated with the MAT program, explained the goal is “harm reduction” and readying the inmate to success when he leaves lock up.
The inmates are also given Narcan, a medication which can reverse an opioid overdose, when they leave, said Jason Faro , an ECSD assistant superintendent.
Faro noted the medication dispensed in MAT are “highly managed” and kept in a safe approved by the Drug Enforcement Administration .
“You’d probably need 100 sticks of dynamite to blow the door off of it,” said Faro, of the safe.
In October, the MAT program will be among discussion topics at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference, which is being held this year in Boston.
But off stage, anecdotally, on a local level, Faro said he has seen the benefits of the MAT program through a former inmate he occasionally runs into in the Merrimack Valley. This man has a lengthy criminal record that stretches back to when he was 17.
After MAT treatment and release, the man has now reconnected with his family and children, obtained his Commercial Drivers’ License and appears to be thriving.
Faro noted his crimes were “all driven by drug use.”
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