There never seems to be an end to injustice. Take the past month’s disgrace, five unarmed young black men killed by police: Ferguson’s Mike Brown; Staten Island’s Eric Garner; John Crawford from Beavercreek, Ohio; L.A.’s Ezell Ford; and in Victorville, California, Dante Parker. The pain is palpable. Just tune in to Twitter to see outraged people from across the country rightfully demanding answers and saying that peace will come only when there is justice. As Frederick Douglass said, “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
But now comes another variety of injustice that most of you might not have seen coming. And this one’s about women. It is also unsettling because it deals with an additional class of the unarmed: substance addicted persons who are suffering.
Photo from Inmagine.com
First some facts: Did you know that in Massachusetts, if a woman (or man, but for our purposes, think woman) on drugs or alcohol is deemed capable by the courts of risk to themselves or others, the court can involuntarily commit them to an inpatient substance abuse treatment program? This can happen per a little-known section of the Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 123, Section 35, which authorizes civil commitment for up to 90 days.
Here’s the catch 22: if no in patient-treatment facility exists, these women can be sent to Framingham MCI. Massachusetts is the only state in the nation that imprisons people for drug or alcohol addiction. Note I have not mentioned the word “crime.”
And once sent to Framingham—are you ready?—these women detox in cells without any medication as the Department of Correction is not licensed to dispense medications such as Methadone, Suboxone or Vivitrol, those often used for heroin withdrawal; they start out in the medical unit but then, these women cannot be mixed with rest of population, said Jessie Rossman, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Massachusetts, in a phone interview. After detoxing, Rossman said that they are “housed in the ‘Mod,’ a unit with bunk beds. They are forced to stay inside for 20 hours a day, they must have medications and meals brought to them, and they have virtually no access to outdoors with only 2 ½ hours six days a week of outside time and some recreation time.” They do not have access to the library. They cannot pray in the chapel. They cannot participate in programs. They are, in a very real sense treated more harshly than those convicted of crimes.
And if it wasn’t crazy enough, knowing that people can be committed by a relative, guardian, police officer, physician court official, or even by themselves, it would almost make sense if they could get treatment for addiction. But the most ironic part of all of this: for women who are sent to MCI Framingham to detox, there are absolutely no treatment programs made available to them. None of the anonymous programs like Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous. And why you ask? Aha, the icing on the Catch 22 cake! Drug treatment at Framingham is only available to prisoners who have been convicted of crimes and sentenced to prison.
For the past three years 2011-2013, 540 women have been in this exact situation, sent to Framingham where some served up to 90 days, and the majority averaged two weeks each. Sociologist Susan Sered, writing about this on her blog,said, “While the law requires that the court call for a psychological assessment, it is unclear what that assessment means. In any case, there is no trial, no due process, and no possibility for appeal.”
Justice? Not so much said a suit filed this past June by the ACLU, Prisoners’ Legal Services, The Center for Public Representation, and attorneys from the law firm, WilmerHale. The suit logically aims to have women get care and treatment for alcoholism or substance abuse in a Department of Public Health licensed facility in the community, as required by Section 35. It wants them out of Framingham as soon as possible. Recently the Boston Globe suggested that “the state could find another solution through private contracts that would preserve women’s rights and treat addiction as the medical condition that it is.”
Robert Fleischner, assistant director of the Center for Public Representation, put this into powerful words: “Imagine trying to get help for a child in a desperate struggle with addiction, and that the treatment facility you thought you were sending them to turns out to be a prison instead. It’s a parent’s nightmare.”
In a civilized society, black unarmed boys would not be shot by police officers without clear visuals of weapons and danger to one’s life, and even then, not six times in the head. In a civilized society, as Jim Pingeon of Prisoners’ Legal Services said, “No one should be sent to prison for a disease.”