PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Takeo Toyoshima
AU  - Dale E. McNiel
AU  - Ariel Schonfeld
AU  - Renée Binder
TI  - The Evolving Medicolegal Precedent for Medications for Opioid Use Disorder in U.S. Jails and Prisons
AID  - 10.29158/JAAPL.200127-20
DP  - 2021 Dec 01
TA  - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
PG  - 545--552
VI  - 49
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jaapl.org/content/49/4/545.short
4100  - http://jaapl.org/content/49/4/545.full
SO  - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law2021 Dec 01; 49
AB  - Medications for opioid use disorder, also known as medication-assisted treatment (MAT), are critical in the treatment of opioid use disorder. Historically, inmates with opioid use disorder in U.S. jails and prisons have had difficulty accessing these medications, particularly methadone and buprenorphine. A series of recent legal cases, however, have set an evolving precedent for prisoners' rights to medications for opioid use disorder during incarceration based on the Eighth Amendment and the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition to reviewing these cases, this article evaluates the recent clinical and research landscape in which these cases arose and highlights the need for further study into the role of medications in reducing in-prison morbidity and mortality from opioid use disorder.