By SAMRA BROUK / ROCHESTER BEACON
Currently, our prison system focuses only on punishment without considering its long-term consequences. Instead, we need to find ways to enable incarcerated people to grow and change. As chair of the Senate Mental Health Committee, I recognize that when we help individuals heal, we make our communities safer places to live.
We must support New Yorkers with mental health crises by connecting them to programming and treatment, acknowledging their positive transformation, and enabling them to rejoin their communities once they’re ready.
Not to mention incarceration is expensive, leaving less money for research-backed solutions: access to housing, mental health and substance use treatment, education, and employment…