Opioid Users Are Filling Jails. Why Don’t Jails Treat Them?<br />When people run out of drugs, they’re going to start stealing, committing crime.”<br />Officials say the treatment has shown promise in reducing fatalities<br />and making inmates more likely to continue treatment once they are released, and Mr. Feliciano said the behavior of addicted inmates improved.<br />They’re like, ‘Oh, you junkies, go get your juice.’ Then they put all our names on the board so everybody in the dorm knows who’s on methadone.”<br />But for the first time in years, Mr. Mason has allowed himself to envision a future free of heroin —<br />and along with it, the hustles and thefts necessary to support an addiction.<br />A man with a longtime heroin addiction, Mr. Mason was entering one of the deadliest windows for jailed users returning to the streets:<br />the first two weeks after release, when they often make the mistake of returning to a dose their body can no longer handle.<br />When Mr. Mason landed back in jail on a probation violation, he got in a fight<br />and was rejected by the program, forcing him into methadone withdrawal, considered far more agonizing than heroin withdrawal.<br />In New Haven, Mr. Mason, who started injecting heroin at age 17, represents an unexpected<br />success, officials say, given the length and severity of his addiction.<br />Mr. Mason met up with his girlfriend, Dani Herget, who at the time also used heroin;<br />slept outdoors; panhandled for money; and used a wide variety of street drugs.
