No one has ever explained the logic of releasing someone from prison with a heroin addiction and an unmet need for treatment. But New Jersey does it.

And no one has ever explained why our Department of Corrections doesn’t mandate hepatitis testing — one-third of the prison population could have the virus — and then allows people with this deadly and infectious disease to go out into society untreated. But we do that, too.

No matter how hard New Jerseyans cling to the tough-on-crime rubric written by the same folks who authored the catastrophic War on Drugs, we can agree that this demented practice needs a correction.

So our lawmakers have proposed multiple fixes designed to end the ludicrous cycle of sending sick people back into the community without health services, without life-saving medication, and with no access to a doctor.

Essentially, this safety net comes in the form of eight bills that will significantly improve the health and treatment of offenders before and after they are released.

The premise is irrefutable: “There are no second chances if there is no access to health care,” says former governor Jim McGreevey, whose prison reentry program is a national standard. “So just as you want it for every able-bodied person, it should be available for those returning to society from a very difficult place.”

McGreevey led a commission that was tasked with studying reentry issues in 2018 — including addiction, treatment, and physical and mental health – and many of the panel’s recommendations were converted into bills by Sens. Joe Vitale (D-Middlesex), Brian Stack (D-Hudson), and Joe Cryan, the former Union County sheriff.

The bills passed Vitale’s Health Committee Monday, and they include pre-enrolling prisoners in Medicaid at least two months before their release date; implementing an opt-out screening protocol for hepatitis B and C, which our DOC doesn’t currently provide during the intake process; and offering all addicts medication-assisted treatment (MAT), which currently has a limited scope, even though an estimated three-quarters of inmates have addictions.

Other proposals focus on easing the transition of re-entry, including one that creates peer counseling programs, and another that provides two weeks of medicine upon release. “So when they are released,” Vitale said, “their first stop is their therapist, not their dealer.”

This package, which has been applauded by Americans for Prosperity — the advocacy group funded by the Koch Bros. — now moves to the Budget Committee. But this isn’t a complicated fiscal equation, as McGreevey points out: “This is a classic case of preventive medicine being uniformly less expensive than the alternative,” he says. “It’s the difference between treating hepatitis in an early stage and needing a liver transplant. It’s the difference between providing Suboxone or another MAT treatment and dealing with a full-blown addiction.”

A Rutgers-Camden study shows that poor health increases the chance that incarcerated individuals will return to prison, so the costs of this bill would be offset by savings derived from not having to re-incarcerate. It costs taxpayers $55,000 per inmate per year.

These are people who exist on the margins of society — poor, alone, and disenfranchised. The snake pit of challenges they face upon release can be overwhelming, because they usually lack a job, they probably need housing, they must re-integrate with their families and community, and their only sense of civic identity is the DOC ID in their pocket.

Now imagine what it’s like for someone who has undiagnosed and untreated hepatitis. Or a heroin addiction, which makes them 129 percent more likely to die of an overdose upon release.

For generations, we have debated the level of support for ex-offenders: Do they deserve interventions or second chances? Should they be left to fend for themselves?

This much is clear: If we believe the 9,000 who leave New Jersey’s prisons each year should be on their own, we must be willing to live with the consequences. The smart alternative is to pass laws that help their transition.

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