Check out ACLU of MAINE Legal Director Zach Heiden on Maine Public Radio. MPBN just completed an important piece on Maine Jails' Prohibition of Opiate Addiction Treatment. MPBN tells the story of an ACLU of MAINE client, Erin Smith, who is in successful treatment for an opiate addiction. Erin was sentenced to jail for driving while her license was suspended. When the jail threatened to stop her addiction treatment program, denying her access to prescription medication, Saboxone, the ACLU of MAINE intervened. We were successful in securing an alternative sentence for Erin, so she could stay out of jail and on the medication she needs to stay healthy. Other prisoners are not so lucky. Jail policy is to deny all inmates medical treatment for drug addiction. This policy is penny-wise and pound-foolish. The jails may save a buck, but the long-term cost to society of having jail inmates fall go without treatment for the addictions that may have landed them in jail in the first place are huge.
