Our organizations were deeply concerned to read newly released details about Mayor Parker’s proposed treatment and wellness center in the news last week. The decision to locate the facility next to the prisons, to house more than 600 people in one facility and to place people there involuntarily is antithetical to the values that we hold and the recommendations that we provided to the Mayor’s Office over the past month.
Our organizations participated in two architectural planning meetings in May and June that were organized by the Mayor’s Office to vision what a treatment and wellness center should look like. One of the most important principles we articulated during these meetings was that people must voluntarily access the services. Successful recovery is built on trusted relationships in which people are treated with dignity and respect. Rarely, if ever, is successful recovery compatible with forced or coerced treatment.
In addition, the size and the location of the proposed facility would make it impossible to implement many of the critical recommendations we made. The location is both difficult to access and directly next to the city’s jail complex. Many people using drugs have experienced the trauma of incarceration in our city’s jails, and locating a treatment facility directly next door is incompatible with healing and wellness.
