St. Mary’s County commissioners approved nearly $930,000 in combined state and federal funding for addiction treatment at the county detention center on the same day they proclaimed September as National Recovery Month.
At their Sept. 1 meeting, commissioners approved a $194,229 FY2027 Residential Substance Abuse Treatment grant application for the Sheriff’s Office, earmarked to fund nursing positions within the detention center’s Jail-Based Medication for Opioid Use Disorder Program.
They separately approved $736,230 in combined grant agreements between the St. Mary’s County Health Department and the Sheriff’s Office — $522,536 through the Substance Abuse Treatment Outcomes Partnership, or STOP grant, with the remainder through the Maryland Community Criminal Justice Treatment Program. The total includes $25,000 in county funds passed through the Health Department.
The funding supports a legally required program. Maryland law has mandated since 2019 that every local detention center implement a Medication for Opioid Use Disorder program and offer all approved forms of treatment, with a statewide compliance deadline of Jan. 1, 2023; access to the treatment is also protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. St. Mary’s County’s detention center was actually ahead of that curve — it volunteered to become one of only four pilot sites in the state and launched its program in September 2020, more than two years before the mandate took effect statewide.
A Sheriff’s Office representative described what the STOP funding specifically covers: “It pays for our medication-assisted treatment program, the counselor that we have for that, the clinician who is required by Maryland law. It also pays for substance abuse classes within the detention center.”
The program starts with clinical screening to determine whether an incarcerated person has an opioid use disorder and whether medication treatment is appropriate. Contracted nurses then administer and coordinate that medication, including on weekends and holidays, while care coordinators and peer recovery specialists work to connect people with outside treatment providers, housing, and employment support as they leave custody — the period when the risk of a fatal overdose is highest for people with a history of opioid use disorder.
Despite the legal mandate, the funding itself isn’t guaranteed year to year. The Sheriff’s Office has repeatedly had to pursue separate, sometimes one-time grants just to keep the nursing and peer-recovery-specialist positions funded, since the state requirement to offer treatment doesn’t come with a permanent, dedicated funding stream attached — a pattern this year’s RSAT grant appears to continue.
