I was in a Brewster back yard on a recent sunny Sunday afternoon that was made for the beach but was instead an introduction to some unfamiliar — to me — but important local politics. Two candidates, for district attorney and sheriff of Barnstable County, gave me a lesson on the significance of these offices.
Most citizens are unaware of their roles in our community. Together, the D.A. and sheriff probably have more influence over the current epidemic of substance addiction and the closely tied mental health crisis than any other officials in the county or the state.
When laws are broken, it is the D.A. who determines whether to pursue prison or treatment for the offender. And, if jail time is imposed by a judge, it is the sheriff, whose bailiwick is the county house of detention in Bourne, who ultimately decides whether punishment or rehabilitation is the primary purpose of time served.
These are not minor concerns. An estimated 60 to 80 percent of the inmates at the county jail are there because of addiction or other serious mental health disorders. And we know that in this population the rate of recurrence of criminal activity or mental health crises is very high. Jail is a great place to learn antisocial behavior. And locking people away has never been a productive approach to psychiatric illness or addiction.
Societal stress has increased markedly in recent decades, even before the acceleration that came with Covid-19. Many observers point to the growing inequality of wealth distribution, now at obscene levels. Living wages, housing, food security, and educational opportunity have become uncertain, unachievable, even unimaginable. And these stresses are reflected in the staggering increase in the number of patients with mental health issues — and in overwhelmed care providers in emergency rooms.
Law enforcement on the Cape reflects this same pattern. Police departments report that the overwhelming majority of calls are about domestic violence, mental health, and substance abuse. These are factors in most criminal cases.
Unless our responses can be improved, those who are prosecuted and locked up for their offenses will return from jail with even worse prospects than before their engagement with our criminal justice system. Most important, they will have a criminal record, which makes every job or housing application more challenging. But they will not be likely to have been connected to a support network that can help make meaningful changes in their life trajectories.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The district attorney’s office oversees the choice of criminal prosecution versus treatment, which might involve substance management or withdrawal, psychiatric support, social work, employment counseling, and housing assistance.
And for those whose criminal activity warrants jail time, each deserves to serve that time safely and decently and then to return to society, debt paid. That goal requires preparing and supporting each person both pre- and post-release. Successfully reducing the number of people who cycle repeatedly through the justice system would make a difference in their lives and in our communities’ sense of well-being.
I strongly subscribe to the understanding that escalating societal stresses must be addressed, both individually and as communities. The two people that I met and talked with on that sunny afternoon, Robert Galibois and Donna Buckley, running for D.A. and sheriff, respectively, recognize the need to change the model and are proposing specific reforms.
These offices have been in the same Republican hands for more than two decades. More of the same doesn’t seem a sane response to an expanding failure.
Brian O’Malley, M.D., is Provincetown’s elected delegate to the Barnstable County Assembly. Write him at [email protected].
