1984/03/01 by Rafik Wahbi, Leo Beletsky, G. Cooley +2 · 3 citations
Engineering · Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis #Drilling and Well Engineering #Education Discipline and Inequality #Homelessness and Social Issues
paper · doi:10.1017/jme.2022.5
openalex publication_date 1984/03/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
Involuntary commitment links the healthcare, public health, and legislative systems to act as a "carceral health-service." While masquerading as more humane and medicalized, such coercive modalities nevertheless further reinforce the systems, structures, practices, and policies of structural oppression and white supremacy. We argue that due to involuntary commitment's inextricable connection to the carceral system, and a longer history of violent social control, this legal framework cannot and must not be held out as a viable alternative to the criminal legal system responses to behavioral and mental health challenges. Instead, this article proposes true alternatives to incarceration that are centered on liberation that seeks to shrink the carceral system's grasp on individuals' and communities' lives. In this, we draw inspiration from street-level praxis and action theory emanating from grassroots organizations and community organizers across the country under a Public Health Abolition framework.