Cells Are Not Solutions
Three officers guided an older African American man into the courtroom. The defendant was bound by cuffs and dressed in a stained hoodie and ripped jeans. He appeared to be intoxicated, on edge, and unable to fully grasp his surroundings.
When I prepared my court observation forms the night before, this defendant’s case was not on the docket. However, I quickly learned that he had been expected at court for some time. He was initially arraigned back in August of 2022, and according to the judge and prosecutor, the defendant had since failed to appear at court and report to probation on several occasions. As a public observer, it was unclear why he was picked up by officers. Was a bench warrant issued? Was it because he violated probation? The defendant’s charges and the issues of his case were never made clear to those of us in the courtroom who lacked prior knowledge of the case. Despite the confusion I felt as an observer, the prosecutor appeared assured in his decision to request that the defendant be held in jail.
The defendant immediately reacted to the prosecutor’s request. His head fell backwards in distress and he cried out that he is homeless, on drugs daily, was in treatment for some time, and that his wife was in the hospital when he was initially arraigned. He kept repeating, “my wife is more important than all of this.”
The public defender, who had never met with the defendant or engaged with his case before, urged the judge to allow the man to have one more chance so she could speak with him and try to get him to show up to his court and probation appointments. Both the judge and the prosecutor were resistant, but the public defender kept pressing. Finally, the judge allowed for the defendant to be released on his own recognizance on the condition that he appears at court when he is summoned next. Any further absences would lead to the defendant’s immediate arrest.
This individual, who appears mentally and physically ill, likely does not have access to reliable internet nor transportation. And yet he is required to get himself to court and to the probation office without issue. He did not even have the chance to speak with an attorney before the prosecutor threatened jail time. It is only because the public defender pleaded for his release that he was allowed to walk out of the courtroom a (temporarily) “free” man. In the eyes of the prosecutor and the judge, locking this man behind bars was the only immediate solution to his failure to show up to court. His cries for treatment and clear need for support were overlooked by a desire to punish him for these unexcused absences.
This case calls out for a different approach to crime. In an op-ed published on USA Today’s site on February 17, 2023, titled, “To fight crime, NY must invest in community-based treatment,” Brendan Fox, a retired Police Chief of Albany, writes, “Mental health issues, substance use disorders, and homelessness should never be treated as crimes, and we should not delude ourselves into thinking that jail and prison alleviate these root causes in any way.” Fortunately, the Dutchess County Department of Behavioral Health and Community Health is starting a Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion/Let Everyone Advance with Dignity Program (LEAD), which offers services that support individuals in situations like this to help ensure they appear at their mandatory court and probation dates. Ideally, this program intervenes before defendants are brought up on charges in court and face life-changing punishments. Similarly, proposed legislation in the NY state legislature called the Treatment Not Jail Act, would also “...dramatically expand access to treatment courts for individuals with mental health and substance use issues.” Both LEAD and the Treatment Not Jail legislation are essential to fighting the unnecessary incarceration of nonviolent offenders who desperately need support and treatment instead of jail time. To create a society in which we are all “safer and healthier,” we need to focus on rehabilitation outside of the prison cell.