A woman diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD) is at risk of painful and life-threatening consequences if she is denied medically necessary, physician-prescribed methadone during an upcoming incarceration at DuPage County Jail. The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Illinois, Legal Action Center, and the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center today filed a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit against the DuPage County Sheriff on behalf of Christine Finnigan to ensure she’s provided with her prescribed medication for addiction treatment (also known as MAT) while she is serving time on a February 2016 DUI.

DuPage County is alleged to have an unwritten policy that forces detainees to go through withdrawal, specifically refusing to confirm a plan for people facing imminent incarceration to be medically treated with methadone or another MAT medication known as buprenorphine. Other corrections facilities – including the nearby Cook County jail – provide these medications.  

“I am horrified and afraid of going through detox while in jail,” said Ms. Finnigan. “I have gone through detox before without medication and know the pain and trauma. I nearly died. I just want to take the medication that has been prescribed for me.” 

Ms. Finnigan was diagnosed with OUD in August 2019 and prescribed a daily methadone maintenance dose. This medical treatment is critical to her remaining alive. In 2016 she was charged with driving under the influence. She expects to serve 30 days in jail, starting February 25th.

“The opioid epidemic is ravaging our communities throughout the country, and jails and prisons are exacerbating the crisis by not allowing basic medication to treat opioid use disorder,” said Joey Longley, Equal Justice Works fellow at the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “Making sure that incarcerated people have access to Medication for Addiction Treatment (MAT) saves lives, with one study showing that it decreases mortality rates by as much as 74 percent. The tide is turning on this issue, and we look forward to the day that access to MAT is not up for debate.”

“The DuPage County Jail claims it supports addiction treatment but, in reality, it unjustifiably interferes with the life-saving treatment our client and others need,” said Rebekah Joab, staff attorney at the Legal Action Center. “DuPage’s practice is an example of the injustice that occurs when the criminal legal system inappropriately and dangerously derails someone’s health and recovery.”

“Opioid Use Disorder is a national public health crisis,” said Nusrat Choudhury, legal director at the ACLU of Illinois. “There were more than 2,000 opioid-related overdose deaths in Illinois just in 2019 alone. Medical experts make clear that medication treatment for addiction is standard practice. It is unnecessarily cruel that Ms. Finnigan and others are denied basic medication while at DuPage County Jail.” 

“Nearly all Americans have been touched by the opioid crisis in some way,” said Maggie Filler, staff attorney at the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center, and a fellow with Northwestern Law School’s Bluhm Legal Clinic. “Too many lives have been lost and too many families destroyed for us to turn away from this crisis. It is a sad reality of the current criminal legal system that many people suffering from addiction will at one time or another spend time in a jail or prison. To really address this crisis, the full range of medically approved treatments must be made available in these settings. We hope that this lawsuit will be an important step in the right direction.”

Ms. Finnigan is asking a federal judge to issue an emergency order requiring the DuPage County Sheriff and other jail officials to ensure she has access to her medication.  

The ACLU has filed similar litigation and won in Massachusetts and Maine. Additionally, the organization has filed similar litigation and settled after facilities agreed to provide MAT to its clients in Maine, Massachusetts, Washington, Kansas, and Montana.

A copy of the complaint can be found here.   

Earlier this evening, the Chicago Police Department filed a report with the federal court overseeing a consent decree aimed at improving systemic problems in CPD, problems that were detailed in a January 2017 Department of Justice comprehensive review of the Department. 

In response, Nusrat Choudhury, legal director at the ACLU of Illinois, issued the following statement:  

“The Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) report on its actions concerning the policing consent decree confuses activity with accomplishment. It counts as success the number of pieces of paper submitted to the Monitor and others about police reform and the number of hours spent in meetings. That is not success. The City’s broken policing will only change when CPD truly incorporates into policy and practice in the neighborhoods the views of those most impacted by policing that is unfair and hurts Black and brown communities.

It is especially perplexing that CPD talks about the number of hours of meetings with community working groups on use of force and police in schools. The report leaves out that CPD rejected dozens of carefully researched and considered policy recommendations through a press release issued a few minutes after a use-of-force working group meeting. In other words, Chicago police held meetings with community members and then ignored the substance. CPD also rejected community requests to include input from young people in its outreach on police in schools. And the City has entirely failed to engage with the coalition of community organizations that have repeatedly sought to discuss solutions to the well-documented problem of police raiding the wrong home.

The CPD report wholly fails to acknowledge the reality of Chicago’s policing in the past year, including police use of tear gas and baton strikes against protesters and systemic raids on wrong homes, which brutalize and stigmatize Black and brown communities. The report and practices on the ground show that CPD is not moving fast enough to grapple with its abuses and live up to the consent decree's promise of fair and impartial policing.” 

A federal court in Southern Illinois today denied the Illinois Department of Corrections’ request to dismiss a class-action lawsuit, Monroe v. Jeffreys, filed by five transgender women detained in Illinois prisons to reform the abysmal medical treatment that they and more than one hundred other transgender prisoners receive from the Department in its facilities throughout the state.
 
In 2019, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Nancy Rosenstengel ordered the Illinois Department of Corrections to overhaul its practices and policies for providing treatment to prisoners with gender dysphoria. Despite the Court’s order, the State has not yet implemented the great bulk of the changes the Court ordered. 
 
In response to the decision, John Knight, Director of the LGBTQ & HIV Project at the ACLU of Illinois, issued the following statement:
 
“The Illinois Department of Corrections was given a clear path forward by the Court more than a year ago – a path that would provide the basic medical care that transgender people who have gender dysphoria desperately need. After months of dragging their feet and ignoring the clear needs of our clients in their custody, the State instead sought to get out of the lawsuit, arguing that they were still planning and working toward providing the life-saving care that our clients urgently require. That is wholly inadequate for our clients, who continue to endure significant harm from existing Department policies.
 
We are pleased the Court soundly rejected the State’s effort to escape its constitutional duty to promptly reform its health care system and hope to have a chance soon to prove our case at trial.”