WHAT WAS MARVIN BOOKER DOING IN THE DENVER JAIL IN THE FIRST PLACE?
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THE DEATH OF MARVIN BOOKER COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED IF THE STATE HAD PROVIDED ADEQUATE HOUSING & SERVICES ---The reality is people with mental illness, brain injury and developmental disabilities suffer a lot of abuse and neglect while incarcerated because they are so poorly understood by staff. ---WHILE more understanding of the jail and prison staff is important -- the real answer is for the State to provide housing and services in sufficient quantity and quality to meet the need.. THE CONSEQUENCE FOR THE FAILURE TO DO SO IN SOME CASES IS DEATH. Colorado like a lot of states is trying to do something -- but thousands of Coloradans with invisible disabilities go without adequate housing and services in systems that are poorly designed to serve them. And the end result is not uncommonly incarceration and abuse, and in extreme cases homicide. |
Marvin Booker --- Denver Post
Colorado Independent
----Excessive Force Trial Throws Spotlight on Notorious Denver Jail Prison Policy Initiative Police, courts, jails, and prisons all fail disabled people Police escalate to deadly force "Disabled people represent a disproportionate number of those stopped, arrested, and murdered by police. "This is partially because, as the ACLU of Southern California and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law report, the “war on drugs” and other mass incarceration policies criminalize behaviors related to disability: substance use (which is often a method of self-medication for pain and other symptoms), homelessness (as of 2015, the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated that 78% of people in shelters had a disability), and atypical reactions to social cues (which may be interpreted as “disorderly conduct”). "Societal attitudes towards disabled people, and the intersections of disability, race, and class, contribute to their criminalization: the Ruderman Foundation reports that in police use-of-force incidents, media and police often blame disabled people for their own victimization, especially by characterizing disabled people of color as “threatening” and “refusing to comply” with instructions." https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/08/23/disability/ Westword -------The Oddest Moment in Wade Gardner's New Doc, Marvin Booker Was Murdered |