The prison board on Tuesday, Oct. 17, discussed using county opioid abuse settlement money to help cover the cost of inmate substance abuse treatment.

Warden Beau Sneddon said corrections officers spend four to five hours a day administering substance abuse treatment medication including Sublocade and methadone.

Inmates have to be searched before and after they receive their medication, and the entire process of administering the medications is taxing for staff, Sneddon said.

“Diverted meds,” substance abuse treatment pills that inmates manage to sneak back to their cells, continue to be a problem, he said.

Leslie Osche, county commissioners’ chairwoman, said labor costs for administering the medications should be calculated.

Sneddon said he and his staff are working on those calculations.

Commissioner Kevin Boozel said the county’s opioid settlement money can’t be used to pay for corrections officers’ labor costs.

Osche said the settlement money might be able to be used to cover the wages of nurses who administered the medications.

In 2021, the county received a $9.5 million, 18-year settlement over the distribution of opioids with several pharmaceutical distributors. The county’s settlement came from $1.07 billion the state received from a $26 billion national settlement.

The board approved paying a $37,334 bill for Sublocade, a monthly injection that costs $1,555 per dose.

In other business, the board agreed to hire Katara Krebs and Daniel Dodgson as part-time corrections officers and Elizabeth Foster as an irregular hours corrections officer.

The board also approved its 2024 meeting schedule, which sets each board meeting on the third Tuesday of each month.