The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is beginning a pair of medical-based drug treatment programs in the county jail beginning next week.
The Medication-Assisted Treatment Units are funded by a more than a quarter-of-a-million- dollar grant from the University of Baltimore, one for male and one for female inmates. They’re for treatment of opioid addiction, which has become an epidemic in both jails and the general population.
MAT units use medical and mental health treatment together with behavioral therapy to reduce addiction and reduce relapses into drug use. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is one of 12 agencies across the country chosen to receive the grants to start these programs.
The program can treat more than 50 male inmates and 20 female inmates for starters.
Sheriff Baxter says it’s part of approaching the opioid drug epidemic head-on.