Opioid Addiction In Jails: An Anthropologist's Perspective
Dr. Kimberly Sue is the medical director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, a national advocacy group that works to change U.S. policies and attitudes about the treatment of drug users. She's also a Harvard-trained anthropologist and a physician at the Rikers Island jail system in New York.
Sue thinks it's a huge mistake to put people with drug use disorder behind bars.
"Incarceration is not an effective social policy," she says. "It's not an evidence-based policy. It's not effective in deterring crime. But we continue to rely on it for reasons that have to do with morality."
While a quarter or more of the U.S. prison population has an addiction to opioids, only 5% of those individuals receive medication for their chronic condition, Sue notes, despite the growing agreement among doctors that this approach to treatment saves lives.
