Western Massachusetts will soon have its own treatment facility for opioid addicts. The Stonybrook Stabilization and Treatment Centers will be in both Ludlow and Springfield.
Those ordered by the court into substance abuse treatment will be able to get recovery services locally through a state law known as Section 35. The only facility for court-ordered opioid abuse treatment is currently in Plymouth, more than 120 miles from Springfield.
“There is not a bed in Hampden County for Section 35,” said Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi. “There’s going to be 84 within the next couple weeks and months. We’re going to make sure we have beds allocated for Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Worcester counties.”
But the facility will exclude women. That's because the treatment center is considered a corrections environment under state law, said Cocchi.
“Now as you see, this is not a correctional environment, this is a hospital,” he said. “This building is a hospital. There's not any barbed wire; there's no fences; there's no locks on the doors. But that's what the law says.”
Cocchi said he plans to work with lawmakers to update Massachusetts laws that bar women from substance abuse treatment in a correctional environment.
Funding for the new facility came from within the Hampden County Sheriff's Department budget.
