We, the undersigned New Haven community members, write to demand accountability and transparency with regards to the state of justice and equity at the Connecticut Mental Health Center.
Three months ago, we signed a petition calling for the immediate elimination of CMHC’s metal detector policy guidelines for police personnel. This new policy would mandate all persons entering CMHC to place their belongings onto a conveyor belt of the X-ray style metal detector and subject all people to pass through a metal detector, handheld metal scanner, or a pat-down.
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The published evidence suggests that metal detectors do not keep us safe. Furthermore, we expressed our concerns about the additional “building and grounds patrol officers” as functional equivalents to police, increasing DMHAS police officer presence and thus retraumatizing our majority Black and brown patients and staff. We reiterate our belief that this policy is rooted in our nation’s long history of surveilling and stigmatizing people of color and people with disabilities.
We want answers. We underscore our initial concerns about enacting antiracist initiatives to uphold patients’ rights to humane and dignified treatment, practice standard of care, evidence-based medicine, and promote healing, not harm.
Kathy Flaherty, on behalf of CT Legal Rights Project
Deborah Dorfman, on behalf of Disability Rights Connecticut
