Smith v. Aroostook County - Prisoners' Rights

Aroostook County Jail denied medical treatment to incarcerated people with opioid use disorder, violating their rights under the Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In a major victory, a federal appeals court ordered the jail to provide our client with medication-assisted treatment, establishing the right for all in Maine and the First Circuit.

A common and effective treatment for people living with an opioid use disorder is medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Despite the medical consensus that MAT is safe and effective in treating opioid use disorder, most Maine jails had policies explicitly prohibiting this treatment for incarcerated people. The Maine Department of Corrections had a similar ban until it was lifted by an executive order from Governor Janet Mills on February 6, 2019.

We joined this case representing Brenda Smith, a woman who was incarcerated in Aroostook County Jail and denied treatment. Ms. Smith was undergoing medication-assisted treatment before she was incarcerated to keep her substance use disorder in remission. The jail refused to continue her treatment, violating her rights.

Our lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine. We argued that, by denying adequate medical care to people in state custody, this policy violated the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which protects people with substance use disorders who are in treatment.

The court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction, ordering Aroostook County Jail to provide Ms. Smith with access to MAT for her opioid use disorder during her 40-day jail sentence. U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Torresen found that denial of MAT would cause serious and irreparable harm to Smith and would violate the ADA.

The jail appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which upheld the district court ruling on April 30, 2019. This comes as a major victory for prisoners' rights. Jails and prisons need to provide incarcerated people with their doctor-prescribed medicine for opioid use disorder, just like any other medical condition.