Reflecting on Tuesday’s discussion, I started thinking about the  intersection between substance abuse, mental health, and imprisonment. Looking for further writing on the topic, I found the transcript of an interview that Michelle Alexander gave to PBS’ Frontline for a two-part series  called “Locked Up In America.” In my view, one of the most potent parts of the dialogue comes when she says that mentally ill people in ghetto communities

“have little choice but to self-medicate, and when they do, when they decide to turn to marijuana or turn to cocaine or turn to some type of substance we’ve designed, we’ve decided is prohibited, is off-limits, then rather than responding to these people with drug treatment and say[ing], “How can we help you cope with your crisis and help you through this period of time and help you deal with your drug addiction?,” instead we say: “Oh, the answer for you is a cage.”

Her suggestion that substances are “designed” to be “prohibited” hints at deliberately crafted policies and their harsh impact on poor, mentally ill blacks who enjoy less access to the prescription medications and therapy that their white counterparts enjoy. Alexander thus suggests that public officials can modify drug policy to ensure that law enforcement does not punish mental illness, while also expanding treatment options that understands addiction as a medical problem instead of a criminal behavior. I left reading the transcript of her interview questioning how state- and federal-level interventions can intersect to take mentally-ill drug offenders out of the prison pipeline and into rehabilitative programs.

For more information on the PBS series, check out the articles and films here.