Treatment no longer behind bars

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http://www.wickedlocal.com/news/20160319/treatment-no-longer-behind-bars



Keriann Kilcoyne, a recovering addict who now works at a detox center in Boston, stands outside her Woburn apartment.

Treatment no longer behind bars
By Brittney McNamara
Posted Mar. 19, 2016 at 11:25 PM

FRAMINGHAM – Coming off of opiates is indescribably awful, Kerriann Kilcoyne said, like no flu non-addicts have experienced before. The best explanation she could think of for the feeling is like an exorcism - something awful ripping through your body. And that, Kilcoyne said, is how it feels in the ideal setting for detox, a treatment facility with nurses, comfortable beds and medication. In prison, she said, it’s even worse.

Detoxing from heroin in prison is one thing when you’ve committed a crime, Kilcoyne said. Section 35 of Massachusetts General Law Chapter 123, however, allowed a judge to mandate women who had never been convicted of a crime to come off drug or alcohol addiction in prison at MCI-Framingham if all the addiction treatment beds in the state were full. While some women are sent to the Women’s Addiction Treatment Center in New Bedford, where people civilly committed under Section 35 are intended to go and receive care and treatment for their disease, others were locked in MCI-Framingham where Sen. Karen Spilka said the treatment was lacking.

“If (a woman) was committed and taken to MCI-Framingham, she would go to the infirmary. She would get medical help for five days,” said Spilka, D-Ashland. “Unless a criminal charge was attached, she was not eligible for the full rehab that (she would have gotten) if she went to a … treatment center. That’s what was adding insult to injury. It doesn’t make sense.”

In January, the state Legislature passed a bill to end the practice of sending people with substance use issues to prison under civil commitments. Though the bill bans the practice for men and women, Spilka said it will most affect women because men were already typically heading to treatment. The new law demands the state find a treatment bed for women committed under Section 35, a measure Spilka, who filed the bill, said will not only make access to treatment more equal, but hopefully - coupled with the state’s new opiate bill passed by Gov. Charlie Baker - make for more successful treatment and recovery for more women addicted to opiates.