Changes to Section 35 are being reviewed by lawmakers. Here’s what you should know.

“Section 35 is meant to be a very limited application.” Boston.comDecember 1, 2021By Dialynn Dwyer Massachusetts ended the practice in 2016 of sending women to correctional facilities for addiction treatment when they are civilly committed. Now, an effort is underway to do the same for men who are involuntarily committed under the state’s Section 35 […]

Press Release: Public Health & Human Rights for Mass. and Cass Coalition calls on Mayor-Elect Wu to take a health-centered approach to Mass. and Cass

PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS AND ADVOCATES PRESENT EVIDENCE-BASED SOLUTIONS TO INTERSECTING CRISES FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BOSTON, November 3, 2021 – A new coalition of public health, addiction, housing, and civil liberties experts today called on Boston Mayor-Elect Michelle Wu to take a health-centered approach to the intersecting crises people are experiencing in the area of Melnea […]

Advocates decry practice of jailing men for addiction treatment

The Boston Globe June 26th, 2019 By Felice J. Freyer A 31-year-old man named Jonathan stood up before a crowd in a State House lounge Wednesday and spoke about a horrific experience. In April, he said, his family abruptly decided that he needed treatment for his drinking. So they took advantage of a state law called […]

Massachusetts Incarcerates Men in the Name of Drug Treatment—Now They’re Suing

Filter March 20, 2019 By Sessi Kuwabara Blanchard A 34-year-old Massachusetts man thought he was going to the Men’s Addiction Treatment Center (MATC), a facility where he had received treatment in the past, for his benzodiazepine and opioid use. Instead, he arrived at a state prison in the middle of a forest near the Massachusetts […]