ATLANTIC COUNTY — Atlantic County will expand its Medication Assistance Treatment (MAT) program at the Atlantic County Jail with a new opioid treatment service facility that will provide medical, counseling, and related services for inmates.
The Atlantic County Justice Facility started the first MAT program in New Jersey for county jail inmates to address the opioid epidemic. Inmates with addiction can receive medication that helps reduce drug withdrawal symptoms from a mobile Recovery on Wheels unit.
“We were the first. And our program has been so successful, treating and providing referrals for more than 750 individuals, that the state has agreed to provide $8 million in funding for medication-assisted treatment at all county jails,” Dennis Levinson, County Executive said.
According to the John Brooks Center, the designated treatment provider for the Atlantic County Jail, nearly 80% of addicts released from jail are rearrested compared to just 45% of those who received treatment.
“We now want to provide an in-house opioid treatment services facility that will include a patient dosing station, physical examination room, phlebotomy room and counseling office,” Levinson said.
“There are very few of us who have not been impacted by the opioid crisis,” Levinson said. “In Atlantic County we are taking steps to help these individuals get counseling and treatment and break the insidious cycle of addiction.”
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