Essex County Sheriff Kevin Coppinger has until Monday to decide whether to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that his jail must provide methadone to a recovering opioid addict.
“We are weighing all our options,” he said. “But if I don’t appeal soon, we will have to provide the treatment called for by the judge.”
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper ordered the Essex County House of Correction to provide methadone to a prospective inmate who relies on the medication to treat his addiction. Denying the treatment, the judge ruled, violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
“This is a very complicated case,” said Coppinger. “It will have not only statewide but national implications. No correctional facility in Massachusetts distributes methadone to male inmates.”
In September, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU) filed suit against Coppinger and Aaron Eastman, superintendent of the Essex County House of Correction, on behalf of Geoffrey Pesce.
The 32-year-old Ipswich resident is expected to plead guilty and could be sentenced on Monday for violating probation, and driving with a suspended license. The plea carries a minimum mandatory sentence of 60 days that would be served in Middleton, the jail Coppinger manages, according to the suit.
The ACLU complaint sought an end to the jail’s practice of denying medication-assisted treatment to inmates diagnosed with opioid disorders, even if it was doctor-prescribed.
Pesce has been in recovery for two years and receives treatment from a daily dose of methadone, a prescription drug that suppresses drug cravings and withdrawal symptoms.
But Coppinger said providing methadone to inmates creates problems. The fear among guards, he said, is security and safety.
“It can create a problem where the drug gets smuggled into correctional facilities,” he said. “There will be pressures on inmates to sell it or barter it to another inmate, that’s our big concern.”
If the jail is required to provide Pesce with methadone, officers would have to take him to a clinic daily to administer the drug, he said.
“He’s not considered a high risk inmate, but what if he were charged with murder,” Coppinger said. “Would we be bringing someone in chains to a clinic?”
MCI Framingham, a women’s prison west of Boston, is one of two houses of correction that provide methadone to pregnant inmates. The other one is South Bay House of Correction in Boston.
Jason Dobson, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, said inmates are given the drug at a jail health station each morning while staff supervise and properly dispose of the materials. He did not know how many inmates receive methadone, but it has not been a problem at the medium-security correctional facility, he said.
Coppinger said two-thirds of the more than 1,500 inmates in his jail suffer from a substance abuse disorder. His jail offers a medically-assisted treatment program using Vivitrol, a treatment to prevent relapse in opioid dependent patients.
The shot is administered once a month, and it blocks the brain receptors that react to opioids. When administered, it removes cravings for opioids, Coppinger said, and if they take opioids they will not get high.
The sheriff said thanks to his efforts along with the Massachusetts Sheriffs’ Association, the Legislature crafted a statewide pilot program to provide medication-assisted treatment being used in five counties.
“We are in favor of looking at all forms of medically-assisted treatment programs, but we need to do it carefully, because of security and logistical concerns,” Coppinger said.
