Candidates offer differing ideas on Mass and Cass

The race to replace DA Rollins is the one to watch. Hayden, a Gov. Baker Appointee, regurgitates the failed neo-liberal policies of the last three decades that have given us crowded prisons and the disaster at Mass & Cass.

Hayden thinks throwing pennies at programs that seek to address crime, mental health, and substance use disorder at its root while giving police an even larger budget is somehow going to work differently this time is an insult to our collective intelligence.

We need to realize that the police do not want to be nor can be the solution to every emergency. The answer is taking mental health off the plate of police and into the hands of a new group equipped and trained to handle these cases. The solution requires investment in programs that are proactive, not reactive as police are. We need to quit being moralists about proven methods of harm reduction thar save lives and invest in programs that directly address mental health, substance use disorder, and unhoused people.

Stop giving money to the police and expect them to solve everything.