Committee advances draft language to require MOUD reentry planning in corrections bill

House Corrections and Institutions members spent the April 23 meeting reviewing draft 2.1 of House Bill 32, concentrating on provisions that would require the Department of Corrections or its contractor to begin medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) before a sentenced person’s release and to coordinate continued treatment in the community.

The committee’s legal counsel, Katie McGlenn of the Office of Legislative Council, summarized the bill’s proposed MOUD language and stressed the way clinical decisions are framed: “The inmate may elect to commence MOUD if it is deemed medically necessary by a health care practitioner,” McGlenn said, emphasizing that desire alone would not override a clinical judgment.

The differences between sentenced offenders and detainees were a focal point. The draft would require the department or its contractor to provide reentry planning and commence MOUD for an offender prior to release; for detainees, the bill uses permissive language that would allow — but not require — the department or contractor to provide the same services. Committee members asked whether the permissive treatment of detainees…