Overview
For decades, people who use drugs have been harmed by policies that advance enforcement and punishment at the expense of community-based health services and supports. Incarceration is antithetical to any meaningful response to the overdose crisis—and may even exacerbate it. Substantial evidence shows that incarceration is associated with increased risk of overdose death due to a loss of tolerance to opioids, limited access to harm reduction and treatment services, and disruptions in health care and social support during and after periods of incarceration.Since 1980, as rates of jail incarceration have increased, so too have rates of overdose death.
Against this backdrop, communities of color have shouldered much of the burden of a punitive criminal legal system, while confronting deep inequities in access to health care and other social services. Preliminary data also suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to increased overdose death among people who use drugs, as well as untold suffering and death among people detained in America’s jails and prisons, who are disproportionately Black or Latinx and low-income.
As jurisdictions across the country face budget shortfalls from the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, they must reconsider how they can most effectively safeguard the health of community members.Jurisdictions must prioritize investments in community-based treatment, harm reduction, and recovery rather than incarceration. The data and resources provided in this special report are designed to help communities realize these goals. The data, case studies on New Mexico and North Carolina, and resources provided in this special report are designed to help communities realize these goals.