Sheriff Nick Cocchi’s prickly defense of his Section 35 program at the Hampden County jail doubles down on his intention to play doctor. (“Sheriff rebuts columnist, says jail is committed to treatment,” Sept. 11)
Involuntarily incarcerated, imprisoned, jailed, committed — choose your favorite word — people at Cocchi’s jail are neither sentenced nor pretrial and should never be locked up in jail. WBUR has reported on the violence and trauma that occur in prison settings, and a class action lawsuit filed by Prisoners’ Legal Services is seeking to end the practice.
A Section 35 Commission established by law in 2018 studied involuntary inpatient treatment and its report in July 2019 called for treatment in clinics, not jails. Rattling off a list of supporters, Sheriff Cocchi drops the name of a CEO of Baystate Health. But Baystate is building a hospital in Springfield which will provide similar services to the jail’s. Once Baystate’s new facility has opened, behavioral health units at Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Baystate Noble Hospital and Baystate Wing Hospital will close.
Massachusetts county jails provide poor mental health and poor substance use disorder treatment for pre- and post-sentenced prisoners. MAT isn’t even an option at most jails, and where it is, it’s nothing like the medically-assisted treatment people receive on the outside. Why should voters trust jails to offer these treatment services?
This is not just a Hampden County issue. With declining jail numbers, Bristol County’s Sheriff Thomas Hodgson has kept occupancy up by adding roughly 200 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees. Even though Hodgson has the highest jail suicide rate in the state, he could easily join Sheriff Cocchi in declaring — “the sheriff will see you now.”
For desperate families who have made the tough decision to civilly-commit a loved one, jail is the last place a sick person should be sent for treatment. Now that we treat substance use disorder as a medical issue, the money being used to expand prison complexes in Massachusetts should be allocated instead to a network of community treatment programs and clinics. Treatment, not jails.
David Ehrens
Dartmouth