Cuyahoga County committee advances MetroHealth extension for jail opioid treatment

Cuyahoga County’s Public Safety and Justice Affairs Committee voted to send to full council a resolution extending an agreement with MetroHealth to provide opioid treatment and addiction support services inside the county jail and for some community outreach programs.

The extension, described by Brandy Carney, director of public safety and justice for Cuyahoga County, would cover services in the jail for 2025 and 2026 and continues funding of an on-site team and community components such as MetroHealth’s outreach RV. “This is a third extension of these services,” Carney said, adding the county intends to combine the addiction-services contract with the larger jail medical contract before the next procurement cycle.

Committee members pressed staff for fiscal and operational details. Council members asked how long opioid-settlement funds would support the withdrawal unit and related staff. Carney said the funding comes from opioid settlement dollars originally allocated after the county’s Bellwether litigation and that the county has used those dollars to seed staff and programs since 2021. “When this two or three years is up, you’ll have to fund that program,” she said, describing the settlement funds as one-time money and saying county leaders will need to determine long-term funding prior to the end of the extension.

MetroHealth manager Megan Raleigh described services delivered inside the jail’s withdrawal unit, including individual and group counseling, patient navigation for reentry and a seven-day detox regimen provided in a dedicated withdrawal pod, which opened in October. Raleigh recounted a case of a 53‑year‑old man who completed detox, entered residential treatment, and remained in care: “He is still there and he is a productive member of society,” Raleigh said.

Carney said the current agreement supports an 11‑person on‑site addiction-services team (patient navigators, nurse practitioners, paramedics and others) and that the new extension adds a dedicated nurse for the unit. The county reported that the withdrawal pod averages about 98 people per month, and MetroHealth and county staff described expanded in‑jail medication‑assisted treatment (MAT), including methadone begun in 2023, so people on community MAT can continue treatment while incarcerated.

The contract also includes funding for external outreach and community work, which Carney said amounts to $275,000 in the first year and $283,000 in the second year of the extension to support MetroHealth’s community efforts tied to the jail work. Committee members asked for cost‑savings data tied to reduced sheriff transports after the program’s start; Carney said earlier tracking showed a “significant decrease” in transports but that current year‑by‑year savings figures would be provided to the committee on request.

The committee moved the resolution to full council under second‑reading suspension; the committee recorded the motion and a second and then approved sending the item on.

The county and MetroHealth emphasized continuity of care and reentry navigation as goals of the extension; Carney said the county plans to consolidate addiction services with the main jail medical contract during the next procurement cycle. Committee members asked staff to return with metrics on transports and on how the program would be sustained when settlement funding ends.