HARRISBURG, Pa. — As part of the Department of Justice’s response to the opioid crisis, the United States Attorneys for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of Pennsylvania hosted a virtual training this week to educate Pennsylvania’s state and local correctional facilities on their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to provide inmates with access to medication to treat opioid use disorder (OUD).
These medications include methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone, U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam said in a press release.
The training session, which was held on Tuesday, was open to all prison and jail staff. More than 100 participants, including wardens, security professionals and medical staff from across the Commonwealth, attended the virtual training session, Karam said.
The training follows recent federal enforcement actions involving the criminal justice system. In November 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania resolved an ADA matter with the Allegheny County Jail for failure to provide inmates medication to treat OUD.
In December 2023, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania filed a Statement of Interest in a matter against a Delaware County correctional facility to clarify state and local jails’ obligations under the ADA to provide inmates with access to medication to treat OUD.
In January, the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania, in partnership with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, settled a matter with the Uniform Judicial System of Pennsylvania (UJS) to resolve allegations that UJS courts violated the ADA by preventing individuals under court supervision from taking lawfully prescribed medication to treat OUD.
The Department of Justice has also issued public guidance on the ADA’s protections for those with OUD, Karam said.
Over the course of this enforcement work, the U.S. Attorney’s Offices discovered that correctional facilities across the Commonwealth have questions about their obligations under the ADA when it comes to medications for OUD.
To answer these questions and think through solutions, the three offices partnered to host this week's educational program.
During the webinar, Karam and fellow U.S. Attorneys Jacqueline Romero and Eric Olshan — the senior-most federal law enforcement officials in Pennsylvania — emphasized that individuals with OUD or being treated with medication for OUD are generally considered disabled and protected by the ADA.
Under the ADA’s protections, correctional facilities that provide healthcare services must offer treatment with medication for OUD to all individuals in custody for whom such treatment is medically appropriate. Facilities also may not change or discontinue an individual’s medication used to treat OUD, except upon a licensed healthcare provider’s determination that the individual does not require that treatment based on the individual’s current condition.
Most importantly, the ADA requires that correctional facilities provide individual assessments and not categorically deny access to OUD medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration that provide life-saving treatment for addiction.
In addition to this legal guidance, the training also featured remarks by Dr. Paul Joudrey of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on the science behind, and importance of, all three medications in the treatment of OUD.
Heidi Carroll, Diversion Program Manager for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Philadelphia Division, and Dr. Patti Juliana, Director of the Division of Pharmacologic Therapies at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, addressed recent regulatory changes designed to improve access to methadone in correctional facilities.
Dr. Bruce Herdman, Chief of Medical Operations of the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, and Anthony Cantillo, Deputy Commissioner of the Maine Department of Corrections, talked about their experiences implementing programs to treat OUD in correctional facilities and the practical lessons they have learned along the way.
“As we continue to vigorously prosecute those who traffic in and profit from drugs like heroin and fentanyl, our mission in fighting this epidemic requires we ensure individuals with OUD have continued access to medically prescribed treatment,” Karam said. “This training presented an opportunity for experts in the field of addiction, representatives from federal agencies, our own civil rights attorneys, and leaders in correctional facilities across the Commonwealth to come together to have questions answered, think through solutions, and initiate a local, state, and federal partnership. Our partnership is forged in the notion that medical treatment for inmates can dramatically reduce opioid overdose deaths.”
The training was coordinated by Assistant United States Attorneys Michael Butler, Lauren DeBruicker, and Adam Fischer, civil rights coordinators for the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Middle, Eastern and Western Districts of Pennsylvania, respectively.
