Mason County considers contract to allow methadone initiation in jail under DOJ settlement

Mason County leaders reviewed a draft contract with Evergreen Treatment Services to bring methadone induction into the county jail, a change the sheriff’s office said is required by a Department of Justice settlement.

The sheriff’s office told the Board of County Commissioners the DOJ settlement requires the county to offer inmates their free choice of three separate medications for opioid use disorder and that methadone “is 1 of them,” a county official said. The proposed contract would let Evergreen initiate and provide methadone dosing inside the jail rather than transporting inmates daily to an external dosing site.

The sheriff’s representative described current practice as transporting inmates to a dosing bus each morning and returning them to the jail, and said that option did not satisfy the DOJ’s requirement that the county allow initiation of methadone. “That’s really the hurdle that we ran into,” the sheriff’s representative said, adding that Evergreen was the only provider the county could find that could meet the induction requirements.

Commissioners voiced support for approving the contract but questioned costs. One commissioner said the county had originally estimated the service could cost “up to $60,000 a year” but called that a “very, very high projection.” Another commissioner said the per-dose fee — discussed in the meeting as roughly $25 per dose — seemed “really excessive.” County staff said the estimate assumed a high daily caseload and that actual costs would likely be lower.

The contract would also change custody procedures by reducing the need to escort inmates offsite for dosing; county staff noted delivery or mileage fees are in the contract if Evergreen delivers medication to the jail, otherwise a staff member would retrieve doses daily from the dosing bus and hand them to nursing staff for dispensing.

No formal roll-call vote appears in the meeting transcript. Commissioners verbally indicated support for moving forward: multiple commissioners said they would back approval, and one asked staff to explore funding the contract from opioid-treatment funds so the general fund would not be affected. County staff said the contract and its costs had been reviewed by internal reviewers identified in the meeting as Tim and Nicole.

The sheriff’s office representative said other clinics contacted by the county did not have access to methadone and could not provide induction, and that other Washington counties were pursuing similar contracts.

If commissioners sign the draft contract, county staff indicated the sheriff would execute it and arrange service delivery; details in the contract include dose fees, delivery fees and mileage fees for medication transport.

The county intends to follow the DOJ settlement terms while monitoring actual utilization and cost.