Jill Schramm/MDN Ward County Jail Commander Paul Olthoff speaks to the Ward County Commission Tuesday, Feb. 3, as MOUD officer Ashley Clouse joins him at left. Listening behind them is State’s Attorney Roza Larson.

The Ward County Detention Center is seeing success with an opioid use disorder treatment program that has been the first of its kind among jails in the state.

“We’re an emerging model for corrections and recovery support,” Ashley Clouse, Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) officer at the Ward County jail, said in reporting to the Minot City Council Monday, Feb. 2, and Ward County Commission Tuesday, Feb. 3. “We received some local, statewide and national recognition within the first year of the program.”

Jail Commander Paul Olthoff received the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Trailblazer Award for innovation in correctional-based MOU services. Clouse was featured in a docuseries highlighting corrections-based treatment.

Clouse added she visited facilities in Ohio and Virginia to view their medication-assisted treatment programs and bring back best practices to meld into the Ward County program.

“I want to keep applying all these lessons that we’re learning from other groups to make our program one to be followed,” she said.

MOUD was developed by the Ward County Drug Task Force with funds from Ward County’s and Minot’s participation in opioid lawsuit settlements. It also received a grant from state opioid lawsuit settlement funds and utilizes state Substance Use Disorder vouchers when inmates qualify for that funding source.

The program screens new inmates for opioid dependence, refers eligible candidates to medication treatment and provides access to peer support and harm reduction education to aid in compliance during incarceration and following release. Inmates who enter while already on medication treatment also maintain that treatment in participating in the program.

The program works with multiple community organizations that provide resources as well as with area law enforcement.

In 2025, the Ward County jail saw 3,184 bookings, with 320 individuals screened for substance use disorder. During the program’s first year, an estimated 6,551 doses of medication were administered to 148 individuals across 241 jail stays. Of these individuals, 60 began medications upon incarceration while 88 continued on previously established medication-assisted treatment.

“Ward County MOUD program also supported multiple agencies across North Dakota by courtesy holding inmates on medication-assisted treatment when other facilities were unable to meet their medical needs,” Clouse said.

Clouse reported Ward County had the fifth highest rate of overdose deaths in North Dakota for the period from 2019-23. That rate has been declining. She said there were 74 calls for reported overdose in Minot in 2024 and 33 calls last year. Of the 33 calls, five resulted in deaths.

Clouse said the 55.4% decrease in overdoses is attributable to all entities involved in addressing substance abuse working together to bring those numbers down.