The Butler County Prison’s warden, Beau Sneddon, is visiting Franklin County on Sunday to learn more about medication-assisted treatment, or MAT.

At a prison board meeting Tuesday, Aug. 20, Sneddon discussed the county jail’s MAT program for inmates with substance use disorder.

MAT, which alleviates painful withdrawal symptoms and reduces recidivism among inmates, as well as the rate of overdoses, according to reintegration coordinator Matt Clayton, is available to inmates in the Butler County Prison with prior prescriptions. To qualify for the program, which includes one-on-one counseling, inmates must have a prescription and test positive for the medication by urine analysis to prove consistent use.

The jail does not currently offer MAT induction, meaning inmates can’t start taking the medication while incarcerated.

Franklin County Jail has implemented MAT induction, which is the crux of Sneddon’s visit.

“We just want to look at their operation,” he said. “I need to know going forward, if we do decide to go that way, what hidden expenses there are going to be, because an induction program would be, I would expect, much more expensive for medication, for manpower.”

“We would need a MAT director,” Sneddon said. “I just want to kind of get ahead of that.”

Sneddon said Tuesday the Department of Justice is “pushing” for correctional facilities to implement MAT induction, and referenced a federal lawsuit won against the Allegheny County Jail last fall.

In November, Allegheny County Jail agreed to offer MAT to all inmates with opioid use disorder, including those not treated with the medication before being booked. The jail also was ordered to pay $10,000 to an individual who was denied access to methadone in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Department of Justice stated.

The agreement to offer MAT and MAT induction came after the Department of Justice sued the jail. Opioid use disorder is considered a disability under federal law.

Sneddon said he received two phone calls last fall from the Department of Justice inquiring about the Butler County Jail’s MAT program.

He said a visit to the Franklin County Jail would show what steps would be needed in Butler County “if we decide to go that direction.”

“At this point, we’re just gathering information, gathering facts, so that if we do need to go down that road, we can make an educated decision,” he said.

When asked whether he would consider implementing MAT induction in the jail, Sneddon said it would be up to the prison board.

About 28 to 30 inmates currently are participating in the jail’s MAT program, he said.

“That would be a decision I wouldn’t make on my own,” Sneddon said. “That would be a discussion we would probably have here.”

“Not just here in PA — I’m not picking on PA — but across the country, (there’s) a lot of information out there about the direction that MAT is headed now,” he said. “So who knows what the future holds?”