Various studies have shown that combining prison- and community-based treatment for addicted offenders reduces the risk of both recidivism to drug-related criminal behavior and relapse to drug use—which, in turn, nets huge savings in societal costs.
Despite efforts to promote recovery and reentry, when people who have opioid addictions are released from prison or jail, they often face a significantly higher risk of overdose and overdose-related death than people who were never incarcerated.