Unlike some public health crises, opioid addiction strikes all without regard to income, age, or race. The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the grantmaking entity to state and local governments within the US Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, introduced the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program (COAP) in 2017. COAP is a coordinated response to the opioid crisis, providing leadership, evidence, grant resources, peer learning, and training and technical assistance to states and local jurisdictions. COAP was designed to forge partnerships, leverage local research expertise, enhance understandings of the problem, and help grantees make progress reducing opioid overdoses and increasing connections to treatment. COAP includes the development of a congressionally mandated report related to the scope, and impact of opioid use and its illegal distribution in the context of the criminal justice system. This report discusses the epidemic’s impact on health, well-being, communities, and the criminal justice system; describes criminal justice responses to the crisis; and documents DOJ’s investment in COAP and other efforts focused on the opioid crisis. This report provides policymakers with a concise overview of the causes, contours, and context of America’s opioid epidemic, with a focus on the criminal justice system, its practitioners, and its populations. Each chapter ends with key takeaways that underscore the report’s conclusions.
Resource Type