Davidson County jail reports MAT program enrollments and VIVITROL shots; commissioners seek clearer exit metrics

Major Louis and partners briefed the Davidson County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 2 on the detention center’s MAT Care program, which began a soft launch June 25, 2024 and provides medication‑assisted treatment (MAT) with VIVITROL injections and wraparound services.

Major Louis said the program had enrolled 43 participants and recorded 69 injections in the detention center from launch through December 2024. He said staff imported treatment and appointment data into a custom MAT application and that the county’s application shows about 41–43 participants enrolled from roughly 3,690 inmates booked into the facility during the same period. The presenters noted a subset of inmates who qualified declined or later became nonactive; the meeting discussion clarified that 11 eligible people had declined enrollment and that approximately 20 participants were nonactive for varied reasons.

Louis told commissioners Davidson County applied for and received state funds through a North Carolina sheriffs’ MAT grant process. Presentation comments said a $2 million statewide pool existed and that Davidson County received “over half” of available funding; the presenter also described using county opioid settlement funds to start the program before state grant funds were received. County staff said the MAT grant award arrived in October 2024 and that the award comes with a 36‑month spending window (county officials said they projected spending the funds in roughly 24 months at current service levels). Louis reported $95,000 in program expenditures for June–December 2024 (initial period paid in part from opioid settlement funds) and said the county pays for VIVITROL injections as part of the program.

Commissioners asked for clarified figures on eligibility, enrollment declines and longer‑term tracking. Questions focused on how many of the booked inmates were opioid‑dependent (the numerator needed to calculate a conversion rate), how many enrolled but did not remain active after release, and how the county will track outcomes after a participant leaves the jail. Presenters said the intake screening process flags people who are clinically diagnosed with opioid use disorder or currently enrolled in MAT; those individuals are then screened for enrollment and the app records active, inactive and declination statuses.

The meeting also included short, on‑record remarks from two participants who credited the program and staff. Commissioners suggested changing a survey question that asked which entity “aided you most” to require a single choice or a ranking rather than a bundled “all of the above” option, so future reporting could attribute outcomes more precisely. Officials also discussed rising VIVITROL unit costs during the meeting: staff said the vendor's previous price figure was $12.75 per shot and that the current per‑dose cost had risen to about $1,400 per injection (presenters said the change appeared tied to purchasing volume and vendor pricing updates).

Ending: County staff agreed to provide commissioners with follow‑up data exports from the MAT app (including counts of eligible bookings, declinations, nonactive participants and post‑release tracking where available) and to refine survey items so the program can report which services most aided participants.