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AS A PHYSICIAN, who treats and supports individuals battling substance abuse, I try to be available when the call for help comes, especially from those involved with the criminal justice system.
How long does it take for a paradigm shift to become policy? For the United States, it took 102 years to change our ideas around substance abuse and pass the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act (CARA).
Nearly three years ago, I wrote a TMM about Jorge. This is the beginning of that piece:
One in 29 adults in the United States experience incarceration in their lifetime; men, minorities and poor populations are overrepresented in the justice system, especially black men, with one in three men expected to be incarcerated in their lifetimes.
Among all of the terrific presentations, posters and discussions that I had the pleasure to attend in Chicago on March 21 and 22, I just can’t stop thinking about my experiences of Friday morning.
Recently, I analyzed a series of 60 cases (2009-2012) from 22 states that I have been asked to review. Thirty-eight of these resulted in death and 14 resulted in serious disability. Only eight had no discernable serious harm. Here are some remarkable findings.
