What's happening
This bill requires New York correctional facilities and jails to provide medication assisted treatment and transition services for inmates with substance use disorders.
Why it matters
Expands access to proven addiction treatments. By requiring all correctional facilities and jails to offer FDA-approved medication assisted treatment (MAT), the bill ensures incarcerated individuals with substance use disorders can access the gold-standard care shown to reduce overdose risk and relapse, both during and after incarceration.
Focuses on successful reentry and continuity of care. The legislation mandates reentry planning, including help enrolling in Medicaid, transitional housing/employment resources, and providing a week’s supply of needed medications upon release. This aims to bridge the critical gap when people leave custody—when overdose risk is highest—and reduce recidivism linked to untreated addiction.
Reduces punitive barriers to treatment. The bill prohibits denying MAT access due to positive drug screens or past disciplinary infractions, and prevents punishment for testing positive at intake. This shifts the approach from punitive to therapeutic, recognizing substance use disorder as a health condition needing treatment, not discipline.
Requires oversight and ongoing accountability. Annual reports on program effectiveness, including impacts on inmate behavior, health outcomes, and reentry success, are mandated. This data-driven approach will help ensure the program adapts and improves over time, and provides transparency to the public and policymakers.
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Who cares
Incarcerated people with substance use disorders
The bill would offer voluntary medication-assisted treatment in prisons and jails, including continuation of existing treatment, and prohibit exclusion based on positive intake drug screens or disciplinary infractions.
State corrections officials and parole officers
The bill would require a prison treatment program, release planning and procedures to help people who report relapse or fail a drug test receive substance use disorder support instead of arrest or incarceration.
County sheriffs and local governmental units
The bill would provide for jail treatment and transition services under locally developed plans, with funding available within appropriated amounts.
Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services
The bill would require the agency to help establish the prison program, implement jail-based services and develop funding criteria in consultation with local governmental units.
Headline styles
Medication for Inmates' Addiction Treatment
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
History
- Reported referred to ways and means
- Print number 8774b
- Amend (t) and recommit to correction
- Referred to correction
- Print number 8774a
- Amend and recommit to correction
- Referred to correction
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Add Treatment for Inmates
In Senate Committee · Rules · Sponsor Jamaal Bailey
Full text
4 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
8774--B
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
November 3, 2017
Introduced by M. of A. L. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Correction -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- recommitted to the Committee on Correction in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to the establishment of a program for the use of medication assisted treatment for inmates; and to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to the implementation of substance use disorder treatment and transition services in jails
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The correction law is amended by adding a new section 625 to read as follows:
§ 625. Medication assisted treatment in correctional facilities. 1. For purposes of this section "medication assisted treatment" means treatment of chemical dependence or abuse and concomitant conditions with medications requiring a prescription or order from an authorized prescribing professional.
2. (a) The commissioner, in conjunction with the office of alcoholism and substance abuse services, shall establish a program to be administered at correctional facilities within the department in the state, for the purpose of employing medication assisted treatment for inmates in such facilities who are undergoing treatment for a substance use disorder. Such program shall include all forms of medication assisted treatments approved for the treatment of a substance use disorder by the Federal Food and Drug Administration for the duration of an inmate's incarceration and shall provide an individualized treatment plan for each participant. After a medical screening, inmates who are determined to suffer from a substance use disorder, for which FDA approved addiction medications exist shall be offered placement in the medication
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13428-12-8
A. 8774--B 2
assisted treatment program. Placement in such program shall not be mandatory. Each participating inmate shall work with an authorized specialist to determine an individualized treatment plan, including an appropriate level of counseling. Decisions regarding type, dosage, or duration of any medication regimen shall be made by a qualified health care professional licensed or certified under title eight of the education law who is authorized to administer such medication in conjunction with the inmate.
(b) i. Such program shall also include conditions for a reentry strategy for inmates who have participated in medication assisted treatment. Such strategy shall include, but not be limited to, providing each participating inmate with information on available treatment facilities in their area, information on available housing and employment resources, and any other information that will assist the inmate in continued recovery once released. Such program shall also assist the inmate in Medicaid enrollment, prior to release.
ii. Such program shall provide participating inmates preparing for release from prison with a one-week supply of any necessary medication, where permissible under federal laws and regulations to continue their medication assisted treatment in an effort to prevent relapse.
(c) Reentry planning and community supervision should include a collaborative relationship between clinical and parole staff including sharing of accurate information regarding the inmate's participation in medication assisted treatment to ensure that their medication is not deemed illicit or illegal. Additionally, procedures shall be developed to assist any reentrant who communicates a relapse with their parole officer or who fails a drug test, to receive substance use disorder support in lieu of arrest and/or incarceration.
3. The commissioner shall submit within one year of the effective date of this section and annually thereafter, a report to the governor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the assembly on the effectiveness of the program established pursuant to this section. Such reports shall include an analysis of the impact of such program on the participating inmates, including factors such as institutional adjustment, behavior infractions, reentry rates, HIV and hepatitis C treatment, and program participation, among related relevant factors. The reports shall also include the impact on institutional safety and performance and any recommendations for additional legislative enactments that may be needed or required to improve or enhance the program as determined to be appropriate by the commissioner.
4. Participation in the medication assisted treatment program shall not be withheld from a qualified inmate. An inmate may enter into such program at any time during his or her incarceration. An inmate using medication assisted treatment prior to such inmate's incarceration shall be eligible to, upon request by such inmate, continue such treatment in the medication assisted treatment program for any period of time during the duration of such inmate's incarceration. No person shall be denied participation in the program on the basis of a positive drug screening upon entering custody or upon intake into the program; nor shall any person receive a disciplinary infraction for such positive drug screening. No person shall be removed from, or denied participation in the program on the basis of having received any disciplinary infraction: (a) before entry into the program; or (b) during participation in the program.
§ 2. Section 45 of the correction law is amended by adding a new subdivision 18 to read as follows:
A. 8774--B 3
18. Establish standards and guidelines for a program of medication assisted treatment for inmates in county jails and/or county correctional facilities equivalent to the program established in state correctional facilities pursuant to section six hundred twenty-five of this chapter and submit an annual report consistent with the requirements of subdivision three of such section.
§ 3. The mental hygiene law is amended by adding a new section 19.18-c to read as follows: § 19.18-c Corrections-based substance use disorder treatment and transi-
tion services.
1. The commissioner, in consultation with local governmental units, county sheriffs, the New York city department of corrections and other stakeholders, shall implement a jail-based substance use disorder treatment and transition services program that supports the initiation, operation and enhancement of substance use disorder treatment and transition services for persons with substance use disorder who are incarcerated in jails.
2. The services to be provided by such program shall be in accordance with plans developed by participating local governmental units, in collaboration with county sheriffs and approved by the commissioner and shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(a) Alcohol, benzodiazepine, heroin and opioid withdrawal management;
(b) All forms of medication assisted treatments approved for the treatment of a substance use disorder by the Federal Food and Drug Administration. Decisions regarding type, dosage, or duration of any medication regimen shall be made by a qualified health care professional licensed or certified under title eight of the education law who is authorized to administer such medication in conjunction with the inmate;
(c) Group and individual counseling and clinical support;
(d) Peer support;
(e) Discharge planning; and
(f) Re-entry and transitional supports.
3. (a) After a medical screening, inmates who are determined to suffer from a substance use disorder for which medication assisted treatment exists shall be offered placement in the medication assisted treatment program. Placement in such program shall not be mandatory.
(b) Participation in the medication assisted treatment program shall not be unreasonably withheld from a qualified inmate. An inmate using medication assisted treatment prior to such inmate's incarceration shall be eligible to, upon request by such inmate, continue such treatment in the medication assisted treatment program for any period of time during the duration of such inmate's incarceration.
(c) No person shall be denied participation in the program on the basis of a positive drug screening upon entering custody or upon intake into the program; nor shall any person receive a disciplinary infraction for such positive drug screening. No person shall be removed from, or denied participation in the program on the basis of having received any disciplinary infraction: (1) before entry into the program; or (2) during participation in the program.
4. Within amounts appropriated therefor, funding shall be made available pursuant to criteria established by the office of alcoholism and substance abuse services in consultation with local governmental units, which shall take into consideration the local needs and resources as identified by local governmental units, the average daily jail population, the average number of persons incarcerated in the jail that
A. 8774--B 4
require substance use disorder services and such other factors as may be deemed necessary.
§ 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made on or before such date.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
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