Khamis applauds County rejection of Ellenberg's jailbreak plan
Even though Susan Ellenberg and progressive advocates aggressively pushed for a county decarceration plan as part of their opposition to an improved county jail, Ellenberg lost the vote at the County Supervisors. Only Cindy Chavez voted with her. D1 Supervisor candidate and former SJ city councilmember Johnny Khamis analyzes the votes and corrects some of the dubious claims made by the decarceration advocates.
Opportunity Now: We've seen this phenomenon before; local media plays stenographer for progressive advocates, creating a false narrative that county residents support radical proposals. But when the media smoke clears, electeds can be reasonable and realize that the people making all the noise do not represent the sense of the community. On the contrary: Santa Clara County is much more centrist than its radical fringe and echo chamber in local media suggest.
Johnny Khamis: All human beings want to live in safety--arguably it's the fundamental reason we have governments and society. We don't want to live in lawlessness, and we don't want dangerous people on our streets. County residents are no different, and while many progressives feel that “de-Incarceration” will not lead to lawlessness, we have a terrifying case study to view in San Francisco that proves otherwise. Even the progressive mayor of San Francisco is trying to do a U-turn. Unenforced laws in her city have led to, open drug use and dealing on the sidewalks, property crime and car break-in increases, and shoplifting crimes running rampant, forcing retail outlets to close. The result is a tourism collapse and people moving out to safer suburbs. We don't need that here, and I'm thankful for the 3 county supervisors who understand we need to improve our correctional facilities as well as improving non carceral mental health service.
ON: Ellenberg makes a big deal on her medium account about how the county agreed with recommendations to do some reports, presentations, and study sessions on how to improve county treatment of the mentally ill, including those in the justice system. Why is this all of a sudden a big idea? Isn't mental health the county's job in the first place?
JK: Mental health has been the county's job from the get-go, but here's the truth: They haven't been doing an acceptable job with it. Because treatment of mental health is voluntary on the part of the affected individual, it's been very hard to administer. Only now after the county passed the temporary conservatorship law called “Laura’s Law” --a law I have been advocating for 6 years--does the county have a tool to help the “service resistant”. Laura’s law was originally opposed by Supervisor Ellenberg but is now being implemented, and our mentally ill, homeless population will finally receive the help they need.
ON: One of the false rhetorical moves that decarceration advocates made during the jail debate was suggesting it was a binary choice: you either do a new jail or you do dedicated mental health facilities. That's just not true, it's not an either/or. People in the justice system who are ill--whether it's a physical illness or a mental illness--deserve quality treatment, regardless of the fact that they're incarcerated. But that illness doesn't mean they receive a "get out of jail free" card. There is no reason we can't give our mentally ill members of the community the treatment they deserve within a correctional facility, is there?
JK: Let's be candid: there are people who are mentally ill who could be violent--and they are better serviced in a more controlled environment where they can't hurt others or themselves. They need and deserve treatment--but there's no reason it can't be done in a safe, managed environment of a correctional facility.
But for the non-violent mentally ill of course we should be pursuing treatment options that don't require incarceration. We don't put people in jail for being mentally ill, That's not against the law. We put people in the justice system because we think they have committed a crime. While in that system, they deserve dignified and treatment and care. While I support Supervisor’s Ellenberg’s ideas to build more non-carceral mental health facilities, we need to do that in a way that keeps our community safe.
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