Prior to the facility opening there were many positive statements about ensuring this facility is not a dead end for 95% of those who will leave, but a place where they can hit a reset button and leave better than they came in.

The reality is the drug problem is so pronounced and has been a huge problem inside the Beehive State’s prison system. The Utah Department of Corrections acknowledges the problem and I’ve seen them say that when many inmates are finally paroled, they are still addicted to drugs.

The recidivism rate in the state of Utah is currently 46%. Utah’s prison population has increased by 22% in the last decade. Eighty to ninety percent of the prison’s population in Utah has a substance abuse disorder. Many also suffer from health issues without proper care or prolonged health care and are being left untreated leading to a cycle of untreated substance abuse relapse.

Medication Assisted treatment (MAT) is the use of medications (suboxone) in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies to provide a “whole” patient approach to treatment of substance abuse disorder. Drug addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease because the abuse of drugs leads to changes in the structure and function of the brain.

MAT treatment should be implemented as soon as possible. Leaving substance abuse disorder untreated for days, months or years leaves a person at a much higher risk of overdose, death and brutal withdrawal while incarcerated.

MAT is evidence-based treatment that helps avoid criminal behavior, assists by curbing opioid cravings, allowing inmates to focus on reentry and rehabilitation. MAT is FDA approved. It does not substitute one addiction for another.

When someone is treated for substance abuse, the dose of medication does not get one high. It helps reduce cravings and withdrawals, and it enables one to live healthy and productive lives in the face of a disease that has permanently altered their brain chemistry.

MAT is fully endorsed by the Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the U.S. Surgeon General, American Medical Association and the American Association of Family Physicians. MAT is the standard care for treating people with substance abuse disorders.

Medication Assisted Treatment is a lifeline for incarcerated individuals struggling with addiction, reducing overdoses deaths, recidivism and health care costs while promoting long-term recovery and public safety.

So why are so many inmates denied MAT treatment in the state’s prison system?

Why does the Board of Pardons make substance abuse treatment most times a requirement prior to parole but the state’s prison system continues to deny inmates treatment?

If the inmates are acknowledging the problem and seeking help the correct way, is this not a step to becoming a better person than when they went in?

As of April 2025, Utah has received $81 million and is promised half a billion more in the next fifteen years from opioid settlements. These funds are supposed to be used to combat opioid and substance abuse disorders across the states. Dr. Jennifer Plumb, who heads the Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee, has said that the top priority for the money is to invest it in treatment and recovery programs, while other priorities include expanding needed services and prevention.

Inmates are being denied treatment and told the department does not have resources or funding to provide MAT to every inmate who has the disorder even if they have documented a risk to themselves or met criteria. They do, however, tell inmates they are focusing their resources on providing MAT to a selected few.

Another denial reason is they have been incarcerated for too long. Incarcerated for years in the pronounced drug environment with untreated health issues.

Why does one’s treatment mean more than another?

If funding and resources are the reason someone’s loved one is being denied access with evidence-based treatment, then I think other options should be available.

Families of the incarcerated can pay for the cost of the inmate’s prescription for roughly $30-$80 a month and it can be delivered at no cost to the prison from the outside pharmacy.

Not everyone who uses substances needs or wants treatment but it’s imperative that evidence-based quality care options be made available for those who do regardless of their involvement in the criminal legal system.

Misty Spell is a resident of Ogden.