Given the current state of addiction treatment in Chautauqua County, county legislators didn’t have much choice but to increase the pay for nurses who work in the Chautauqua County Jail.

In addition to medical and mental health assessments on the roughly 170 inmates housed in the jail each day, the jail also runs a Medicated Assisted Treatment program for those battling drug addiction. Last year the nurses in the jail’s health clinic saw 9,500 patients.

Pay increases approved last week by county legislators will impact the budget around $26,000 this year and around $53,500 in 2025. This year’s increase will be paid through savings from unfilled positions, but next year’s increase will come from new spending in the budget.

Competition within the industry and the county’s ability to hold the line on salaries in past years meant it was time to increase pay for nurses in the jail. Otherwise the county positions would become a revolving door as new hires leave for greener pastures as soon as a position elsewhere is available.

But there’s another, more insidious reason, why the county needs to keep qualified nurses available in the county jail. Medicated assisted treatment for those battling addiction is hard to get in Chautauqua County, with those who need such treatment often having to go to Buffalo or further away. One reason the Chautauqua County Jail’s nurses are so busy is they are one of the first steps to helping people who want to end their addiction to opioids because it can be so hard to get into a treatment facility locally. The jail nurses really are on the front lines of the addiction battlefield – making their positions essential.

The only way to change the role of jail nurses in the fight against drug addiction in Chautauqua County is a sharp increase in the number of treatment beds in Jamestown and Dunkirk – and that will only happen with state investment.

Jails have for too long been a key cog in the state’s mental health treatment infrastructure. That doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon.