Why nation's drug czar says Camden County jail is national model for drug treatment
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CAMDEN — Dr. Rahul Gupta is the first medical doctor to lead the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, appointed by President Joe Biden in October 2021 specifically because of his expertise in addiction treatment at the community level.
On Tuesday, Gupta got a firsthand look at those on-the-ground efforts in South Jersey, and called what he saw at the Camden County Correctional Facility "a model for the nation," announcing that, by this summer, all federal prisons will offer treatment for substance use disorder as part of Biden's commitment to offer universal access to addiction treatment by 2025.
In addition, Gupta announced that there will be new federal guidance coming in the spring for medication-assisted treatment (MAT) allowing states to use Medicaid funds for treatment. States can apply for the federal aid for use in prisons, jails and other correctional facilities.
In the Camden County facility where Gupta met with Warden Karen Taylor, jail residents and local officials, 87 percent of people incarcerated return to their communities immediately.
The costs to house people in the jail and to treat them for substance use disorder (since 2019) are as follows, according to information provided by the county:
$663,7171 to provide Suboxone to 3,102 people;
$528,510 to provide Sublocade (buprenorphine) to 178 people (an 18-day shot costs about $1,800);
$87,959 to provide Vivitrol to 274 people;
$81,768 to provide Narcan, the overdose antidote, to people upon their release from the jail;
$290,568 for substance treatment navigators and reentry coordinators;
$90,278 for technology and equipment for virtual counseling and resources;
$68,164 for reentry services and resources.
In 2022, 6,496 people were booked at the facility for an average of 905 people in the jail on a given day. An average stay was 51 days; according to the county, 217 people on a given day were receiving treatment for substance use disorder at the jail.
People in prisons and jails, and especially people who are recently released, are at far higher risk for overdosing, especially if they aren't provided with access to treatment and medications that keep cravings at bay. That risk has skyrocketed since the fentanyl crisis, which Gupta called "a direct and surging threat to public health, to national security and our economic prosperity" and "the worst drug crisis we've ever faced as a country."
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Nationally, Gupta noted, someone dies of a drug overdose every five minutes.
"Those are folks who are not at the dinner table ... This is tearing the very social fabric of our nation," he said.
Gupta and the Biden Administration chose Camden County for the visit and the announcement because of its approach to treating incarcerated people for substance use disorder.
"Everyone who comes in gets screened (for substance use disorder)," he noted. "You keep data. ... You offer all three medications. You work along with transitional housing. You work along with navigators and reentry coordinators. You're looking to get people the help not just while they're here, but when they're going back into the community because they live in the community. You're trying to find them housing, figuring out how to connect them to treatment and getting them ID cards so they can go to the pharmacy, get the medication they need and connect them with services."
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Freddie Flores, a Camden native who'se undergoing treatment at the jail, said that "addiction is more than one thing." He's sold drugs and called making money another addiction, in addition to the drugs he took.
He's been in and out of the jail since 2002, and at 39, decided he needed to make changes in his life. His youngest child is 9; his oldest is now 18 and Flores regrets being incarcerated for much of their lives.
Treatment, he said, "opened my eyes that there's something better, but we really need the support" to fully recover and maintain a life outside jail.
Rachael Parker, a Forked River resident who's been at the jail since January, worried that incarceration would mean the end of the medication she'd been receiving to treat her addiction. She was more than relieved to find she could continue receiving Suboxone in jail — she felt hope that she could finally get her life back together after battling addiction on and off for more than a decade.
"The fear of being sick (from withdrawal) is worse than the fear of death itself," she explained. "You literally feel like you're dying (during withdrawal)."
Now, she's looking forward to a court date, and to being released and able to access the medications she needs to maintain recovery at her local pharmacy.
Phaedra Trethan has been a reporter and editor in South Jersey since 2007 and has called the region home since 1971. Contact her with feedback, news tips or questions at ptrethan@gannettnj.com, on Twitter @wordsbyPhaedra, or by phone at 856.486-2417.
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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Dr. Rahul Gupta, US drug czar, visits Camden County NJ jail
