State officials promise large-scale involuntary addiction and mental health treatment at Salt Lake City’s edge. Critics see “a prison, or a warehouse.”
Needless to say, people don’t go by choice, can’t leave when they want. Might be a concentration camp instead of a jail, since there’s no legal reason to force somebody into it:
As Mr. Shumway describes it, nearly two-thirds of the 1,300 homeless people potentially sent to the site could be there for involuntary treatment. About 400 beds would be set aside for psychiatric treatment. Another 400 beds would provide substance abuse treatment “as an alternative to jail,” he said, with entry and exit “not voluntary.”
While a good idea to keep addicts and people with mental health problems out of jails, I do not trust this administration to take care of these people at all.
The usual pretext of being harmful to oneself or others isn’t even there. The “harm” is making people sad at the sight of a homeless person.
This, and our oppressors don’t want us to be reminded that Capitalism only works for the rich.