Intersections & Injustice
Baltimore's attempt to treat drug users with compassion still centers courts and cops
For more than 30 years, judges and elected officials have heralded Drug Court and other diversion programs as a compassionate way to offer drug users quality care rather than incarceration. For some, they’ve failed.
Advocates call for state regulation of homeless shelters after survey emphasizes inhumane conditions
Complaints cited in the survey included infestations of bedbugs, cockroaches, mice, and rats. There were also reports of brown-colored water coming from showers, toilets and faucets, as well as expired or moldy food and a lack of wheelchair accessibility.
A deeper look into Baltimore's crackdown on its most vulnerable residents
As long as the city disregards the livelihoods of vulnerable residents while fueling drug-war policing and encampment sweeps, death will be the one constant in their communities. And that is unacceptable.
Harm reduction or drug war? Baltimore wants to have it both ways
Baltimore is reckoning with an unprecedented overdose crisis, but its leaders have failed to embrace harm reduction instead of punitive drug policy. Its reliance on drug-war policing is a recipe for disaster.
Baltimore Overdose-Crisis Meeting Hosts Plan to Arrest More Drug Users
The strategy depicted by BPD's top brass runs contrary to a consensus among public health experts and harm reduction advocates. For decades, they've warned that targeting drug users is futile and potentially deadly.
‘It’s easier out here’: Despite extreme temperatures, unhoused Baltimoreans often seek comfort, familiarity in anything but a shelter
The story of being unsheltered in Baltimore is one largely rooted in trauma and the government’s failure to protect its most vulnerable.