Philadelphia’s jails have ended a monthly buprenorphine injection program and returned to daily Suboxone pills for people receiving medication for opioid use disorder. Jail officials told The Philadelphia Inquirer that one in three of the 719 people prescribed the medication since the switch had been caught misusing it. That figure describes people caught misusing pills; it does not establish how often misuse occurs or whether the injection program’s end caused the reported cases.
A change against a long-standing treatment commitment
Philadelphia’s effort to provide addiction treatment in custody predates the current budget dispute. The city announced in January 2023 that its opioid-settlement spending plan would expand medication-assisted treatment behind bars, including increased buprenorphine dosage and methadone availability, according to the City of Philadelphia. The Department of Prisons had begun a buprenorphine pilot for women at Riverside Correctional Facility in 2018 and later expanded treatment to the men’s prison, WHYY reported.
The Inquirer reports that the jails’ Brixadi injection program served 563 patients before ending this year. The newspaper reports that Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration ended the program amid budget pressures.
Suboxone use and Philadelphia’s wider context
City officials told the newspaper that 1,200 to 1,400 people in Philadelphia’s prisons received Suboxone annually in each of the previous five years.
The existence of opioid-settlement funds does not by itself show how much was available for jail treatment. In October 2024, the Philadelphia City Controller reported that the city had spent almost $18 million of the $20.5 million it received through initial settlement payments. That is a dated accounting of initial payments, not a measure of funds available for the jail program in 2026.
The local public-health backdrop is serious, but it cannot be used to measure the jail program’s effects. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health reported 1,069 unintentional drug overdose deaths citywide in 2024, an 18% decrease from 2023. Those figures are citywide totals, according to the department’s report.
Diversion concerns—and what the evidence can establish
The injection program was intended in part to reduce diversion of daily medication.
A 2024 survey of correctional health professionals asked respondents about contraband medication for opioid use disorder in their facilities and whether long-acting injectable buprenorphine could help curb diversion. The survey, published in a correctional-health journal, reflects respondents’ reports and beliefs, not measured outcomes from Philadelphia’s program.
The effects of the new approach, including how many people remain in treatment, remain unresolved.
