Metropolitan Detention Center increases funds for addiction clinic

The Metropolitan Detention Center Healthcare Authority added nearly $700,000 to the jail’s addiction clinic for the next fiscal year — upping Bernalillo County’s overall budget by several hundred thousand.

The addiction clinic received $4.8 million in funding last year. In late July, the jail’s Healthcare Authority approved an increase of $700,000, for a total budget of $5.5 million for this fiscal year.

The majority of those funds will be used for methadone services at the clinic, which began under the University of New Mexico Hospital’s purview in February, according to UNMH spokesperson Chris Ramirez. Methadone is an opioid used to stave off withdrawal symptoms and to wean people off of other drugs like fentanyl.

The Behavioral Health Services Division, a branch of the state’s Health Care Authority, will pay out an additional $1 million to MDC to cover methadone costs, Ramirez said.

“That is great news,” said Kate Loewe, an attorney representing those incarcerated at MDC under a class-action settlement agreement. “The county and UNMH need to throw everything they’ve got at addiction treatment.”

Scientific studies show that addiction treatment for inmates saves both lives and costs.

A patient who receives addiction treatment in jail is less likely to die of overdose after release, according to a 2020 study published in the Journal of General Hospital Psychiatry. Treatment with methadone or Suboxone, another detox drug, also reduces recidivism, the likelihood of someone returning to jail, a UNM study found.

All in all, treatment can save the health care and criminal justice systems between $25,000 and $105,000 per person in lifetime costs, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry.

This past year, on average, MDC’s addiction clinic treated 137 people every day, according to Ramirez. In total, 2,121 people received care through the clinic last year, the majority of whom were treated with Suboxone.

Despite additional funding, there is still a waitlist for treatment at the jail, Ramirez said. The waitlist is due to “staffing spaces, coordination of medicine times, and other logistical challenges” that the additional funding does not address, he said.

Nearly 90% of the clinic’s $5.5 billion budget will go to staffing.

“I had a client recently who overdosed in the facility, needed CPR to come back and the hospital wouldn’t start her on (methadone or Suboxone) because the waitlist at the jail was too long,” Loewe said in a statement. “It’s a miracle she is alive, but now she is back in jail without (treatment) and is at risk for overdose again. This is ridiculous. MDC needs to provide this medical standard of care treatment for all — I hope this funding will help them do that.”

MDC has come under fire since a 2023 audit found that health care at the jail was “not adequate” under then-provider YesCare. The county then cut ties with YesCare. The provider’s departure marked the second company to leave before their contract was up. In July of 2023, UNMH took over health care at the jail.

Since 2020, while YesCare and a previous for-profit company ran health care at MDC, 30 people had died after being injured or falling ill at the jail, many of whom were detoxing at the time.

Though deaths initially went down after UNMH took over, eight people have died at the jail in the past few months.

The latest was Thomas Acee, 21, who died in his cell on July 23. Acee was awaiting trial for allegedly killing a 13-year-old boy. No cause of death was given for Acee.

Dr. Muthusamy Anandkumar, who audited the Healthcare Authority’s predecessor, praised the provider last year for implementing the addiction clinic, though he also expressed concern over faulty equipment and smuggled drugs causing overdose deaths.

Loewe said her clients’ biggest concerns are not receiving the medical care they need when detoxing, and follow-up treatment to make it stick.

“They fear overdose and death,” Loewe said. “They want to break the cycle. Why would UNMH not treat every one of these people? Hopefully the additional funding will let them.”