Salt Lake County Expands Medical Detox and MAT in Jails

A new five-year plan out of Salt Lake County is putting $29.7 million behind a principle that addiction medicine has long supported.

Medical detox and medication-assisted treatment need to follow people through the entire continuum of care, including during and after incarceration. For Utahns struggling with opioid dependence, the policy shift could be life-saving.

What Salt Lake County Is Doing

Salt Lake County’s new investment will expand medication-assisted treatment in the county jail from 100 to 500 people and provide structured transitions, including housing, transportation, and ongoing care, when people are released.

The county is also building in what are called “warm handoffs” at the point of release, ensuring that someone leaving jail moves directly into care rather than back into the conditions that contributed to their addiction in the first place.

The funding comes from opioid settlement dollars, the same legal recoveries that counties and states have won from pharmaceutical manufacturers over the past several years.

Salt Lake County is directing those funds toward evidence-based treatment rather than enforcement alone.

Why the Post-Release Window Is So Dangerous

For people with opioid use disorder, the period immediately following release from jail or prison is one of the most medically dangerous of their lives.

Tolerance drops dramatically during incarceration, and many people return to using at the doses they were taking before custody. Without the same tolerance, what was once a regular dose can be lethal.

Salt Lake County’s own data show that people who receive medication-assisted treatment while incarcerated have an 18% recidivism rate, compared to roughly 70% for the general jail population.

That 52-point gap is not a coincidence. It reflects what medical detox and MAT are designed to do: stabilize the brain chemistry disrupted by addiction so that people can engage in treatment, maintain housing, and avoid the cycle of crisis and reincarceration.

Understanding Medication-Assisted Treatment

Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) combines FDA-approved medications with counseling and behavioral support to treat opioid use disorder. The three main medications are:

Buprenorphine (Suboxone): A partial opioid agonist that reduces cravings and withdrawal symptoms without producing a significant high. It can be prescribed by certified physicians in office-based settings, making it one of the most accessible MAT options.

Methadone: A full opioid agonist dispensed daily through licensed opioid treatment programs (OTPs). It is highly effective for people with severe opioid dependence and long histories of use.

Naltrexone (Vivitrol): An opioid antagonist that fully blocks the effects of opioids. Available as a monthly injection, it is particularly useful in re-entry settings because it requires no opioid in the system to start and cannot be misused.

All three are endorsed by SAMHSA, the CDC, and the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) as first-line treatments for opioid use disorder.

None of these medications should be confused with detox supplements, rapid detox procedures, or herbal cleanses, which have no clinical evidence behind them.

Why Utah Specifically Needs This Approach

Utah recorded 606 drug overdose deaths in 2023, the highest number ever reported in the state, representing a 14.3% increase from the year before.

Utah was one of only five states that saw overdose deaths increase even as the national average fell by nearly 24%, according to CDC data.

Despite the growing crisis, an estimated 73% of Utah residents who need addiction treatment are unable to access it.

As Lynn R. Webster, MD, a board-certified addiction medicine physician who wrote about the Salt Lake County plan in the Salt Lake Tribune, noted, the nation has relied too long on enforcement and supply reduction while neglecting treatment, housing and continuity of care. Salt Lake County’s approach directly addresses that gap.

Finding Medical Detox Centers in Utah

Salt Lake County’s investment is a model, but it does not reach everyone, and access to MAT and medical detox outside the jail system remains limited for many Utahns.

If you are researching options for yourself or a loved one, there are programs across the state that offer supervised detox and medication-assisted treatment at various price points, including Medicaid-covered options.

Search detox.com’s directory to find detox centers in your area. You can also call 800-996-6135(Sponsored) to speak with a treatment advisor who can identify medically supervised detox programs in Salt Lake City, Provo, Ogden and surrounding communities that match your coverage and clinical needs.