A bill that would expand access to methadone in the state’s correctional facilities easily passed the state Public Health Committee last week and should be headed for the General Assembly floor.

Raised Senate Bill No. 172 calls for a gradual increase in the number of inmates who can be treated with methadone, an opioid medication that reduces the symptoms of withdrawal, while incarcerated. Under the bill, the state Department of Correction would have until 2022 to make the program available for 100 percent of its population.

As it stands, the DOC operates such programs at five facilities: the correctional centers in Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford, York Correctional Institution in Niantic and Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers.

In general, the programs allow eligible inmates who already were on methadone to continue treatment during incarceration. The DOC also is looking to start some people on methadone as they near release.

The pilot programs — particularly the 4½-year-old one operating in New Haven — have produced great results: inmates receive fewer disciplinary tickets, are more likely to continue treatment upon release and are less likely than their peers to be rearrested. The programs have thrived with the help of community agencies such as Bridgeport-based Recovery Network of Programs, which administers the methadone and shoulders up to 75 percent of the associated costs.

State Rep. Sean Scanlon, D-Guilford, said inmate access to medication-assisted treatment is important because about half of those who fatally overdose in Connecticut have been incarcerated in the past. Research shows the formerly incarcerated are most likely to overdose within the first few weeks of their release.

He noted that many who recently were incarcerated "order" the doses they used to use shortly after release, even though their bodies no longer are used to those doses.

“It’s almost like somebody who has been on a diet, then goes to IHOP and orders 50 pancakes,” said Scanlon, one of six co-sponsors of the bill. “They’re getting out of jail and going back to what they used to do, and it’s killing them.”

In written testimony, the DOC said it supports the concept of the bill but is concerned about funding.

Assuming the cost is $100 to $125 per week per participant, the DOC estimated it would cost between $1.9 million and $2.5 million to run the program in its first year. As the DOC expands the program per the bill’s requirements, the cost would continue to rise.

To fund the program for 100 percent of those who need it, or an estimated 3,450 participants, it would cost between $18 million and $22.5 million annually.

For perspective, it costs about $172.5 million to incarcerate 3,450 people in Connecticut for a year.

The idea, Scanlon said, is that the upfront cost will save the state money in the long run.

If a person who struggles with opioid use disorder gets to start or stay on methadone while incarcerated — and continues to get treatment post-release — that person no longer will be the subject of repeat emergency responses and hospital admissions, and ideally won’t be incarcerated again.

In Rhode Island, where a medication-assistant treatment program began in all state correctional facilities in 2016, the results have been impressive. In just one year, the state saw a 60 percent reduction in post-incarceration overdose deaths and a corresponding 12 percent drop in overall opioid overdose deaths.

That’s according to Patricia Coyne-Fague, acting director of Rhode Island’s Department of Corrections. She submitted testimony on Connecticut’s bill.

“In Rhode Island — as in Connecticut — there is pressure on the state budget and spending on corrections,” Coyne-Fague wrote. “By far the best way to reduce spending is to improve inmate rehabilitation and reduce recidivism. Treatment does that.”

Coyne-Fague acknowledged the programs come with challenges. There’s the potential diversion of medication. And there are staffers whose long-held beliefs about addiction prevent them from understanding why medication-assisted treatment is helpful.

Coyne-Fague said the challenges are “not insurmountable” and the benefits “far outweigh the difficulties.”

Scanlon said he’s optimistic the bill will make it to the General Assembly floor. He also pointed out that, if it becomes law and the DOC runs into issues with the speed of expansion, legislators can revisit the language.

“We’re not going from 0 to 100,” he said. “That’s an attempt to make this easier budget-wise.”

Scanlon noted that the bill enjoys bipartisan support, as is true for many past opioid-related bills in the state.

“Myself and the chairs of the committee are certainly pushing for this,” he said. "The longer we wait, the more people will die. There are not a lot of times in politics where you can say, ‘This will save lives.’ But this is a bill that we can pass that will definitively save lives.”

l.boyle@theday.com