Distance to opioid treatment programs limits methadone access in many US jails

MedicalXpress | 四月 02, 2026

A new study led by researchers at Brown University School of Public Health found that more than half of U.S. jails are located at least a 30-minute drive from the nearest opioid treatment program—a distance that may make it harder for incarcerated people to receive methadone, a key medication for opioid addiction. The research letter, published in JAMA Network Open, analyzed 3,228 nonfederal jails and 2,096 federally licensed opioid treatment programs, or OTPs. The team from Brown, led by health policy researcher Brendan Saloner, along with collaborators at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, found that 51.5% of jails were more than a half-hour away from the closest program.