The
following is adapted from a letter that I recently wrote to a judge on behalf
of a person who is currently trapped in the legal system due to their Substance Use Disorder which is an officially recognized condition by the medical community... Please also read the footnotes...
Many
thousands of people are dealing with Substance Use Disorder, an officially
recognized condition as described in the DSM-5. Virtually every illegal act that lands them
in the court system has its roots in this disorder.[1] Most want to stop using and move on to their new life
goals.
If
given the slightest opportunity to do so, a person's Substance Use Disorder
will win the battle in demanding that they continue to "take her medicine."[2] To whatever extent the court can serve as a de
facto physician[3] in
bringing about healing, I urgently and humbly ask that when the time is right, any person within the court's jurisdiction would be transferred directly to an
appropriate care facility that will serve them in a way that is best for them and
will truly help them achieve their goals for a new and productive life.[4]
This situation
applies to men and women.
Women in this
situation are forced to carry an extra dose of potential harm…
In
the absence of a predetermined place for a woman in this situation to go to
directly from her current incarceration, she will be released from RCF[5]
any time between 7pm and the middle of the night.[6] She will be provided with one token for the
bus which is available to her right off the jail grounds and will have little choice
but to return to Kensington. She will be
released without whatever personal effects she had on her when brought to RCF. These items, which include her ID and some
degree of cash will need to be picked up by her on some future business day
between the hours of 9:00am and 1:30pm.[7],[8] She will be required to hop on the visitor's bus and return to the same building in which she had been incarcerated for days or months.[9]
Between
her moment of release from RCF and retrieving her personal belongings, upon her
return to the familiarity of the streets of Kensington, with hunger setting in
and the call of her Substance Use Disorder screaming for attention, she will
have little choice but to succumb to her nightmare of humiliating herself by
'dating'[10]
so as to earn a few dollars for food and heroin.
In
the absence of the relative safety of community found within Emerald City[11],
her chance of finding any place to lay her head will be next to nil.[12] She will have little choice but to find someone's
residential step or piece of sidewalk upon which to lay and consume her first
doses of heroin for this round of homelessness.
During her incarceration, her body has 'reset itself' to its tolerance
of how much heroin she can safely[13]
handle. A 'normal' dose for her prior to
incarceration could easily end her life on this night and bring one more set of
loved ones together for a funeral that could have been prevented. If she has found an abandoned house to rest
in and inject her heroin, it may be days or weeks before anyone finds her decaying body.
She
may pass out due to her body having 'reset itself' and not being used to this
amount of heroin. In the absence of communities such as Emerald
City, she runs the risk of being attacked while lying unconscious in an area
less secure than a 'tent community.'
Do you see my point?
Let
us please work together to establish new ways of transitioning our sons and daughters
from incarceration to actual health care and to protect them from the symptomatic
behaviors of their officially medically recognized Substance Use Disorder.
[1]
This disorder almost always has its roots in some form of emotional
trauma. That's a subject for another
day.
[2] This
is a recognized pattern for any person who would be in this situation.
[3] acting
or existing in fact but without official sanction
[4]
The original letter to the judge, upon which this blog is based was written
almost three weeks ago. A direct transfer
was already part of the judge's plan for this person. So far, the judge and this person have fully
believed that the transfer would happen on two different dates. This person is still sitting in a 6x9 jail
cell at RCF. She is sharing this space
with another woman and being given no degree of counseling. In her own words through tears when I visited
her two days ago: "It's humiliating! There's nothing to do except sit. When either of us needs to do so, we are
forced to piss and shit in front of each other in the exposed toilet in our
cell." Is
this any way to treat human beings who are made in the image of God and who are
dealing with a recognized condition formally recognized by the medical
community as Substance Use Disorder?
[5]
Riverside Correctional Facility
[6] I
have been there to pick up three people upon release from RCF. The earliest was
approximately midnight. The latest was
after 2:00am.
[7] In
my recent visits to RCF, there have been more formerly incarcerated women on
the visitor's transport bus coming to retrieve their belongings than there have
been visitors coming to see their incarcerated loved ones.
[8] To
do so, she will need to ride public transit which costs money, money which will
most likely be earned through 'dating', an illegal act for which she could be arrested
and taken back to jail before her first 'freed' sunrise.
[9]
There is no reasonable purpose for expecting a person who has been declared
free of their charges or 'done their time' to return to the place of their
incarceration simply to retrieve their personal property which includes their
ID. This ID is required to be presented in various places so as to achieve
services that get these people moving toward the next healthy steps of their
life.
[10]
And please understand that in the process of 'dating' to earn funds that she
was not given upon her release, she may be picked up by police and charged with
prostitution and end up back in jail before the sun rises the next day.
[11] Which
was disbanded by the City of Philadelphia on January 31, 2019…
[12]
Established shelters will be filled to capacity at this time of night.
[13] I
know… It's a bit of an ironic and inappropriate word to use but it sort of fits
in this case.
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