Senate votes to expand prisoners’ addiction treatment

Sen. John Rodgers, D-Essex-Orleans, vice chair of the Senate Institutions Committee. File photo by John Herrick/VTDigger
The state Senate has advanced a bill that expands medication-assisted treatment for Vermont prisoners who are addicted to opioids.
The version of S.166 that received preliminary approval on Tuesday would allow inmates to begin taking buprenorphine – also known as Suboxone – while behind bars even if they had not been receiving that medication before incarceration.