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    Home » To heal Mass. and Cass: Public health, not handcuffs
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    To heal Mass. and Cass: Public health, not handcuffs

    morshediBy morshediAugust 12, 2025No Comments5 Mins Read
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    To heal Mass. and Cass: Public health, not handcuffs
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    I’m deeply aware of the challenges at Mass. and Cass and don’t dismiss their severity. I’m a lifelong Bostonian who skilled avenue homelessness and substance-use dysfunction. As an adolescent, I hung out in juvenile detention due to my substance use, and I used to be court-ordered into involuntary remedy for practically a 12 months. As an grownup, I started working within the substance-use subject, serving as coverage director for the Metropolis of Boston’s Workplace of Restoration Providers for 5 years.

    Within the years since I left my metropolis position, I’ve been writing about and documenting points at Mass. and Cass. I stroll the realm a number of occasions every week and preserve deep relationships with individuals who work and dwell there.

    Many South Finish residents — together with elected officials and political candidates — are calling for extra arrests and involuntary commitments of unhoused individuals at Mass. and Cass. Boston Metropolis Councilor Ed Flynn echoed this sentiment, suggesting that a public health emergency should be declared within the space.

    This shift is mirrored nationally. President Trump not too long ago signed an govt order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” that requires extra arrests and involuntary commitments nationwide, although crime is down in every category across the country. Trump’s dystopian decree additionally plans to defund confirmed public well being methods — like housing-first and hurt discount — and means that people’ personal well being knowledge be shared with legislation enforcement.

    Some native leaders have been eerily silent about how a lot federal interference they might help at Mass. and Cass. When MassLive asked Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft if he would help Nationwide Guard troops being deployed to the realm to deal with homelessness and public drug use, his marketing campaign didn’t straight reply the query and easily referred to Kraft’s public statements. After I requested Flynn — in a public Facebook exchange — if he supported Trump’s new govt order, he didn’t straight reply however wrote, “the established order is not an choice” and added, “this challenge will not be about politics.”

    Extra criminalization is not going to enhance Mass. and Cass, nevertheless. We can not merely lock sophisticated social points away.

    America has a protracted historical past of political choices creating dangerous and inhumane insurance policies. Earlier than the Sixties, involuntary dedication was the one means People handled psychological well being and substance-use problems. The brink for admission to asylums was low. Compelled institutionalization was typically prolonged — with out trigger — to poor individuals and undesirable members of the family.

    Individuals have been most frequently institutionalized by police. By the Nineteen Thirties, cops have been chargeable for 64 percent of state hospital admissions, with practically a 3rd of these dedicated spending time in jail in the course of the course of. In 1953, America had a report excessive of 559,000 people involuntarily committed.

    Public opinion began to show in opposition to involuntary dedication within the Fifties. People rightly thought-about it to be merciless and ineffective. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson each facilitated modifications to involuntary dedication by means of landmark civil rights and well being care laws. In 1967, California’s Ronald Reagan was the first governor to require more stringent criteria for involuntary commitment, inspiring different governors to deinstitutionalize their states.

    Incarceration for drug possession surged in the course of the “conflict on medicine” within the Eighties and ’90s, largely pushed by unsubstantiated, fear-based political rhetoric. This punitive shift didn’t lower the illicit drug commerce or enhance charges of drug use. As a substitute, it disproportionately incarcerated a technology of poor individuals — most of whom have been Black and brown — for low-level crimes.

    Today, an incarcerated individual is 40 to 129 occasions as doubtless as most people to die of an overdose upon release from jail. The first reason behind demise for individuals leaving incarceration is overdose, and the third commonest reason behind demise inside jails is overdose.

    Rising financial inequality, hovering housing prices, and dwindling living-wage jobs have led to record rates of homelessness in present-day America. In contrast to economically safe individuals, unhoused individuals don’t have partitions to cover their drug use, so they’re more and more conspicuous in populated cities. This visibility tends to make individuals uncomfortable. I incessantly hear “Why ought to I’ve to see this?” — the apathetic various to the extra humane query, “What social elements triggered this to exist?”

    People should prioritize public well being insurance policies which have triggered a drop in fatal overdoses for the primary time in a decade. Whereas not as extensively carried out as they have to be, elevated entry to naloxone (Narcan), fentanyl take a look at strips, and syringe entry have saved numerous lives.

    Boston ought to replicate the success of New York City’s overdose prevention centers, also referred to as supervised consumption websites. Since 2021, OnPoint NYC has reversed greater than 1,700 overdoses with out a single demise. Just one-third of their shoppers use the supervised consumption room; the others entry wellness helps like reiki, acupuncture, and remedy referrals.

    Boston has a a lot decrease charge of unsheltered individuals in comparison with the nationwide common, however there’s extra work to do. The town ought to broaden congregate housing choices that enable residents to cohabitate with a associate or pet; Victory Applications’ EnVision Hotel in Jamaica Plain is an instance of this. Moreover, Newmarket Enterprise Enchancment District’s proposed Recover Boston campus (supported by Kraft and Flynn) has the potential to assist individuals get stabilized of their restoration.

    If locking individuals up for utilizing medicine or being unhoused have been efficient, it could have labored by now. People can solely tackle homelessness and problematic drug use by following public well being knowledge and investing accordingly. A Band-Help will not be sufficient to deal with a bullet wound. If we spend much less money and time criminalizing poor individuals and extra on confirmed public well being measures, we’d all be more healthy and safer.





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