Seattle is Dying

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[Music] [Music] [Music] let me ask you something what if Seattle is dying and we don't even know it this story is about a seething simmering anger that is now boiling over into outrage it is about people who have felt compassion yes but who no longer feel safe no longer feel like they are heard no longer feel protected it is about lost souls who wonder our streets untethered to home or family or reality chasing a drug which in turn chases them it is about the damage they inflict on themselves to be sure but also on the fabric of this place where we live this story is about a beautiful jewel that has been violated and a crisis of faith amongst a generation of Seattle i'ts falling out of love with their home there is another part of this story - it's about a solution an idea for a city that has run out of them and I ask again what if Seattle is dying and we don't even know it I Drive my 12 year olds carpool through Yesler when we do carpool and it's a good talking point about you know what they're seeing what we can do to help you know how we can make a difference and honestly at this point I don't have a good answer for how we can make a difference the last five to ten years it's not the place that I grew up in and it's been really sad Matt Campbell lives and works in Seattle he's raising a family and like many others he's mad it's it's gotten to a point where I'm embarrassed of it I don't want to have my friends and family come here anymore people didn't use to use the word embarassing about Seattle but if you listen closely you'll hear it a lot now you know it's embarrassing this is this is one of the most beautiful regions in the entire world and right now with lack of a better word it looks like and it's embarrassing [Music] this is Mehrdad Derek Shaun day he runs an upholstery shop in ballard near the burke gilman trail see if you can't feel his frustration this is not right out his window he looks at this oh they're human yes I'm human beings you customers coming to his shop see the same thing I have known cops from Compton Watts South Central you have some power in their hand here you should want your twinkle toes running around here what the heck because they're on the city like that they're having problems they are having problems they're not having enough authority there were fires set outside his shop this past summer and mr. Derek Shaun day does not blame police he believes their power has been stripped away city mayor doesn't give the cops authority that's the problem we need somebody with some weights and tell them it's not legal living on sidewalk it's city ordinance it's not legal living here why can't we enforce the law last May 2nd at a town-hall meeting in Bali simmering anger boiled over into all-out rage so why do we see so many people living outdoors will you manage these camps and will you enforce the law there is evolved a profound disconnect and rarely has it been more vividly laid out than in this exchange poverty crime is candid violence is committed you need to call 911 you've lost all credibility when you say you said two words you said call 9-1-1 you understand that the police have told us to vote you all out so that they could do their jobs the way we're living in beautiful Siena people are angry furious about the way we are living let's look for a moment at property crimes for the 20 biggest cities in the country New York City in 2017 had 1448 property crimes per 100,000 residents Los Angeles was just over 2,500 Chicago 3263 and look at Seattle 5258 the only major city with a worse number is San Francisco which is dealing with the same problems for the same reasons that we are they topped the 6000 mark it's not your imagination the crime here the burglaries the theft the stealing of cars is worse than in other big cities and in most cases it's way worse and then you walk down the street and you see a wretched soul like this consumed by demons maybe madness maybe drugs maybe both this is what suffering looks like this is pain ranting and raving screaming silently coming completely unraveled before our eyes and then tomorrow he'll wake up and relive the nightmare all over again starving eating trash from a garbage can look at the people walked by of course they're not shocked how could they be they see it every day how can this be who we are how can this be what we allow how did the word compassion get twisted into this sickening reality the Puget Sound Business Journal estimates that Seattle in its outlying areas spend 1 billion dollars addressing and responding to the homeless situation every year and they say that number is almost certainly underestimated nonprofits city and county budgets police calls to homeless camps hospital services building tiny houses drug treatment and outreach picking up needles clearing out camps garbage details chain-link fencing and the more money we throw at the problem the worse it gets but of course what is happening in King County and on the streets of Seattle isn't about dollars it's about human lives how can this be the right thing to do how can watching human beings live and die in filth and degradation and madness be right the cost isn't a billion dollars a year the cost is quality of life the cost is people not wanting to take their families downtown anymore families not feeling safe in their own neighborhoods the cost is people no longer feeling like they are her no longer feeling protected the cost is people dying in the streets and the rest of us getting used to seeing it numb to the suffering the cost is incalculable how did we get to this point [Music] this is a list of familiar faces repeat offenders people who break the laws get caught get released and break the laws again and again and again there are a hundred names on the list Scott Lindsey is the man who dived into public records and researched the list take somebody into the jail don't give him meaningful help and then put him right back out on the streets we know they're going to commit the same crimes in the same places and our public records our criminal justice records really show that that's exactly what's happening look at the sheer volume of criminal cases Calvin a 68 criminal cases since 2002 repeated random assaults on random individuals drainin b54 criminal cases since 2016 michelle see 72 cases since 2000 and the list goes on and on Seattle's mayor says this it is wrong to conflate homelessness with a rising crime for at least 100 people it would at the very least appear to be a factor of the 100 that you looked at what percentage of them were homeless now from our criminal justice records one-hundred percent had indicators that they were currently homeless and what percent showed signs of addiction yeah 100 percent also showed signs of a substance use disorder and what percent were mentally ill yeah a little less than half had been evaluated by the courts formally for mental health conditions serious severe mental health conditions on average the people on the list had 36 criminal cases each in the state of Washington and seven jail bookings in the last year what this report also shows is that the police are working hard they're making contacts they're making arrests for criminal behaviors of again the same people in the same places over and over and over what I think we need to focus on is what is our criminal justice system doing to support those police officers the 100 names had between them more than 3600 criminal cases for the most part few have done serious time they are out in our community walking our streets the drain on the system the drain on resources and manpower is incalculably the fact that this system could go on with in effect a hundred percent failure rate for so long without anybody raising questions without city council at hosting hearings without any action being taken is something that it's hard for me to explain Richard Patton is 55 years old born and raised in Seattle he works for the county he looks around at Seattle's post-apocalyptic landscape and is amazed but this is this borders on the same I mean we're allowing ourselves to participate in an insane practice that that is affording people it's heartbreaking it's heartbreaking Richard started a Facebook page called Seattle looks like it's not meant to be funny it's meant to be sad pictures speak for themselves I started grabbing a few photographs in the area posting those and and that the name of the site as I Drive around look I just say to myself so yeah it looks like we're fed up with it I was fed up with it that's why I started the page day after day one after another the pictures on the page from every corner of the Emerald City being a picture of rots and filth that is being allowed to fester on the streets and in the lots and under the overpasses of a once proud City it looks like a third-world it looks you know junkyard [Music] I'm not heartless but I don't see I don't see that what we're doing now is helping anybody and it hasn't gotten better Seattle police are afraid to speak out for two years we've tried to get cops to talk about what they see every day about what's really happening on the streets and behind the scenes more than once the word terrified was used cops are terrified of losing their jobs and pensions terrified of retaliation and so we put out some generic questionnaires which were filled out by completely anonymous police officers their responses are i opening frightening and at i'm sad one officer wrote simply yes I am frustrated because I'm a law enforcement officer that is told not to enforce the law another wrote it's simple start keeping criminals in jail judges need to stop giving them ridiculously low sentences and prosecutors need to stop accepting cheesy plea deals and actually lock people up when they commit a crime that's all it would take to drastically lower Seattle's crime rate another officer said people come here because it's called free adil and they believe if they come here they will get free food free medical treatment free mental health treatment a free tent free clothes and will be free of prosecution for just about everything and they're right it didn't used to be that way law enforcement officers used to be able to enforce the laws this officer continues in the last five years there has been a culture shift and it started with the legislature decriminalizing felonies and dumping convicts onto the streets and then there is this an officer says even if quality warrant arrests are made the judicial system sees fit to let them out of jail within a couple of days often the next day why are we risking our lives take felony level fugitives into custody if they're just going to be released prosecutor's office and judges alike seem to be drinking all the kool-aid causing a huge disconnect and a broken system absolutely no teeth that is Travis Bergy stretching out before we interviewed him he came from Reno four years ago he's a musician a big personality and he has problems you're a user right what um what's your drug of choice um I use methamphetamines yeah and I try to at least use it once a day but I don't really consider myself a drug abuser the shit is amazing you like the man I love it remember that list of familiar faces Travis is on it thirty-four criminal cases in four years things like assault attempted rape trespassing you're on a list you know nice there's a list of the the 100 they came out with the hunt 100 frequent flyer brilliantly faces everything of all these where which one am I which number on the list yeah oh you're up there nice you're up there I was just saying like I've definitely been the most in Seattle guaranteed Travis put the bike down Travis this is body cam footage of an incident on 1st and pike a little more than a year ago Travis put the bike down it started with property destruction and escalated into assaulting police officer a bunch of cops were deployed where you spit on that pop them hey no biting it lasted hours well I'm actually not even high right now Travis is outrageously unapologetic about his life and his world he could care less about yours do you steal for your habit I actually just started stealing last Monday I started stealing and f oh my god dude that was one of the hardest sacrifices is to like do unrighteous things in front of my dudes Travis just relax Travis do you want a smoke Travis you want a smoke or a candy bar oh but um will you continue to do that oh I'm having a blast now it is so much fun what should the system do with a guy like you um I think that this system has has done what any viable legitimate system would and they've really like exalted me and like some deference and and love towards me like I don't feel like I'll ever be arrested again I haven't been in jail for like a year and three months or so you know so a change like that responded to big change definitely shows that I have conquered the criminal justice system want to know the sad part the truly frustrating part he's probably right [Music] there was a police officer named Todd web key he prided himself on getting his boots dirty on meeting the people on the fringes in the camps he tried to find common ground as human beings and he tried to police he wrote a blog for a long time first-person musings about patrolling what happens in the dark shadows of West Seattle not long ago he wrote this this week I dealt with crisis with narcotics with heartache and with Liars sometimes all at once sometimes one at a time I am helpless to unlock the doors when dealing with a person trapped in a horror inside of their own mind lord I try but I am a limited man with just a little skill I still love coming to work we have an awesome city with the ability to adapt and overcome the only way to lose is to not try we are trying to solve this crisis and we will not lose and then one day this past October Todd Webb he was told by one superior to impound an RV and clean up the spot and when he did it's another superior scolded him for doing so because of new protocol he had a belly full and he walked into HR and he quit retired just like that I feel like I abandoned the ship that I walked away that and I did because I couldn't do it anymore it was just the bureaucracy built up to the point where I felt like I was no longer necessary as a police officer that the system had a different idea of how they wanted to handle it and I was in appendix I needed to be gone so I'm gone ask anyone they'll tell you this was a good cop the kind we won out there the kind we need but I will tell you that there is no morale there's a love for the job he says the drugs the camps the theft the rot and the disgrace of it all don't have to destroy Seattle they're being allowed to everybody's trying to do the right thing it's just coming out wrong listen to these next words carefully let them sink in you know I've said it before and I'll say it again that the only thing I can equate it to is we're running a concentration camp without barbed wire up to and including the medical that experiment of poisoning these people with drugs I I don't know how else to put it and it's infuriating every camp I walk into there was a weapon multiple weapons I found modified weapons I was constantly on the side of the road talking to people that were swinging machetes holding an axe armed with knives our city has even gone so far as to say well this much of narcotics on your person's okay three grams yeah hey that's okay so that's user quantity so you know when you start you know that process and people feel secure and okay having their drugs on them what's to stop them from doing it how do you now you're pretty much okaying narcotics and the same officers that used to go out there and arrest them are now rendered impotent and can't do anything about it and it's just a matter of political will on the part of our city to go out there and say hey you can't park your motor home in this driveway with no engine in it with all this filth around it you can't do it it's wrong and stop them I gotta say man this is really now I am in heaven he's in Hobart now he bought a horse ranch and shares it with his family and these friends so this is Griff here the white guy all right they're little nervous of the camera so horses are amazing they they are 900 pound chickens and before we left this good cop who is now an ex-cop there was one more question for him and if you live in the city that Tod we be used to Patrol if the people you love and take care of our here with you trying to live a good life then his answer should send shivers down your spine let me ask you this knowing what you know having seen what you've seen if you had a young family would you raise them in Seattle right now absolutely not if it no no [Music] there is a cemetery in Seattle a Jewish cemetery campers and RVs parked next to it and stay this man Arie Hoffman this shouldn't be happening in civilized society says the cemetery has been violated repeatedly prostitutes were working the woods drug addicts were working the woods our grounds keepers come in on Monday morning and they find everything from a weekend of fun which is needles on the ground crystal meth on the tombstones other drugs garbage they leave their garbage outside they see feces on the tombstones that's left over from whatever happened the night before by the way the name of the cemetery is beaker Halim it means helping those who are sick you're mad aren't you I'm furious I'm beyond furious this has pushed me to a whole new limit let's get the sandbags off this one we're gonna pull the whole thing forward ari has a company that sets up bouncy houses at concerts and festivals he says it's not just the Jewish cemetery that's being desecrated it's everywhere and I used to say this place is great because the streets are so clean it's so beautiful you walk down the streets now they smell like urine the cemeteries are being desecrated people can't go to parks with their kids because there's needles everywhere my office bullets come flying through the windows at us it's out of control it's non-stop and this we we deserve better and it's all preventable it's all avoidable it's all fixable it didn't have to get like this I wish I had faith in my government but after two meetings with council members and nothing's changed I don't really expect anything to change we're gonna have to do this ourselves thanks for coming down guys a couple of months after that interview was done ari Hoffman who was thrust into the spotlight because he voiced his outrage who had no political aspirations of any kind and who was urged by friends and frustrated citizens decided to run for City Council and he has no future political aspirations beyond the council the other day he said I want to fix Seattle and then go back to work a report received is when police file a report of a case requesting that the City Attorney's office file charges on behalf of the city back in 2006 for every 100 reports received 25 of them didn't get filed how times have changed in 2016 the latest data we have for every 100 police reports 46 of them almost twice as many didn't get filed nothing happened at all they were completely ignored of the remaining 54 of the original 100 one third of them were then outright dismissed thrown out another third were listed as other with no resolution so only 18 of the original 100 reports filed by police actually result in convictions 18 and of those 18 convictions after plea deals and lenient sentences very few cases end up with anyone really being held accountable those are 2016 numbers we have no reason to believe the trends haven't continued since then the real homeless you don't see out-of-work truckers or construction workers who've run into bad luck don't live like this in tents on mud patches this is something different this is drugs heroin meth citizens know it this is also a drug problem I've only heard it being mentioned as a housing problem this is a drug problem the quote-unquote homeless know it too I have not met anyone else on the street who's not in some phase of addiction I mean of use of serious use then I think that that's the starting point you just have to address that you have to figure out that out so I want to make sure I got that correct I would say a hundred percent of the people that I have met out here are in some level of addiction a hundred percent yeah every single person every single person on that out of here but listen closely we constantly refer to it as a homeless crisis not a drug crisis the fractured siloed of homelessness in our region help combat the homelessness epidemic homelessness crisis you have a crisis around housing and homelessness if we won't even name the thing that is destroying Seattle what hope do we have of fixing it [Music] Matt Markovic is a reporter for Como he's out in the camps amongst the homeless and the addicted almost every day that's a woman I've been talking with right over there she's running they're trying to make this a park and she's leading the spearheaded effort that woman lives right there right what will it take for you to get off the street Matt is responsible for Como's projects Seattle stories his is a unique perspective a frequent witness to the underbelly of the Emerald City with the eye of a reporter it's a miserable life it really is you have no place to go to the bathroom fires are prohibited most places your biggest thing is theft everybody complains about theft there's no safe spot here at all he's seen it all the rats the human waste the cold the torment you wouldn't wish this life on your worst enemy no right no but it's remarkable that people are choosing this even though you hear the statistics from the city that all people don't want to do this that they're it's miserable there's a compassion for people the people you see and I see in camps many of them are choosing to stay this way because of all the drug habits they have that's all driven by the drug yeah well drugs drives drives everything we see here right I would pretty much say that substance abuse heroin meth even marijuana to some extent is the driving factor why they stay out here you sat down with the City Attorney you've asked him about repeat offenders who get arrested 6070 times the thrown back on the streets what does he say you can't you you you can't arrest your way out of this problem that's a firm belief of his why is the question should we hammer him now when the entire criminal record that you're citing is proof that what we've been doing hasn't worked do you ever hear about actual meaningful intervention taking place I really haven't I can't say a one case I've been covering for the last year and a half that I know of somebody who's gotten treatment and has gotten off the streets police say that on July 20th of 2017 this man Luis RB the 3rd 41 years old removed the screen from a woman's window at an assisted living facility in SeaTac and crawled in the woman inside was brutalized for an hour she was raped and beaten and choked and robbed police say Lewis RB also urinated on the floor afterwards police say he left through the same window he'd entered through the victim was treated for bleeding on the brain a broken nose and other injuries she was 71 years old it was a shocking and disturbing crime but perhaps we shouldn't have been all that surprised just four days before the rape just 96 hours before police say he scarred one woman's life forever Lewis RB the third was arrested here sitting next to the fountain right outside the King County Courthouse police say he was selling methamphetamine that's him in the back of the squad car after the arrest he was booked and then released almost immediately our criminal justice system decided that he shouldn't spend even 24 hours in jail but even a brief look at his record would have shown that Lewis RB had come from California murid spent 19 years in prison for kidnapping robbery and carjacking and had prosecutors looked a little more closely they'd have known that RB was the only suspect in a case three months prior in which a woman was taken hostage forcibly shot full of drugs and viciously raped and beaten for fifteen hours the King County Prosecutor's Office says in this case we had information that he had a 1995 California conviction for kidnap to commit robbery and other offenses the prosecutors assigned to the investigation had no knowledge of other pending investigation and so we are left with a question how is it that a man is arrested in front of a courthouse in possession of a deadly drug that destroys lives how is it that this man who has a long history of violence doesn't even spend 24 hours in jail how is it that he is sent right back onto the streets one Seattle police officer told us anonymously I would say all of the people living in sidewalk tents doorways and encampments suffer from drug addiction or more rarely a serious debilitating mental illness another officer put it this way intervention of some sort has to be made on the people who were involved if there is no intervention there's no solution it's that simple this officer continues I used to be proud of the hard work I did and actually thought I was doing something important I took pride in working hard and making good arrests while treating everyone with the respect they deserved now it's just about trading hours for dollars and it's frustrating to me knowing I am becoming more apathetic and caring less about doing a good job another cop said homelessness and drug use have become such politically charged issues politically charged in the facility administrator have ceased to be interested in policing this population in a misguided attempt to help this population the city has allowed the streets to be essentially taken over the city is falling apart and becoming more unsafe due to politics surrounding low-level criminal activity and homelessness we don't want to screw over the homeless population we just want the ability to police them and yet another officer told us this drug dealers selling crack meth and heroin are evil people preying on the weakest part of society and belong in prison we arrest them and nothing happens to them they are back out on the street immediately we need to acknowledge the disregard for human life inherent in selling life-ending drugs and lock the dealers up for serious time [Music] campers show up they eventually get moved they show up again they set up where they please in front of tourists next to businesses it doesn't matter and they know that a lack of political will or an overwhelming of resources or indifference disguised as compassion will allow them to stay and don't think for a moment that the visitors to our city don't notice oh it's kind of surprising I don't know why the city would let that happen I mean this is your touristy spot you know what I mean this family is from Tennessee they seem genuinely confused I just don't understand isn't it trespassing you know what I'm saying so so how can they they stay there why does this city put up with it why'd it I mean that's a public spot why does somebody get to stay there I don't understand that I I would be arrested I thought my town if I did that I mean right by our parking garage it's there's just trash and the sound was oh my god the smell is horrible in any stairwell you go into around here oh let me ask you something do you think they'll be back to visit again in the last three years you know it just has gone Danyelle Steve Danner Scheck has spent his whole life in Seattle he says when misdemeanors stopped being enforced it was the beginning of the end and at that point everyone got the message it's a free-for-all down here it's a Wild West no laws apply do whatever you want I could go down here and pee on the street or crap over there or smoke a joint I have no one's gonna get arrested for doing that because they're not doing that they're not arresting anyone if I was a city council member I might say well we're overwhelmed we've got this homeless up no no no no no the City Council is not overwhelmed by anything the City Council are idiots they know that there are solutions out there they simply have turned their back on the solutions [Music] we don't sweat the small stuff anymore in Seattle small acts of incivility are ignored and here's why if someone say urinates in front of the Nordstrom store they used to be issued a civil infraction a twenty seven dollar fine it used to be that a civility charge would become a criminal charge if you didn't pay the fine but the City Attorney's Office stopped filing civility cases they are dropped now almost without exception urinating or defecating in public sleeping in parks obstructing sidewalks failure to pay infractions all of it will get you nothing and so the police have stopped issuing the tickets altogether what's the use small acts of incivility things that communally affect all of us no longer have any consequences in Seattle the businesses of our city big and small are fit to be tied Bob Donegan is the president of Ivers the conditions being allowed around our businesses are one thing there's needles in rats and garbage and feces it's not acceptable in a major urban city to have those kind of problems where there are lots of people but then with online shopping already threatening their existence along came a hoard of shoplifters stealing every day to feed their addiction I would love to hear what the total is and if all the beings in the business and the downtown car would put their loss of theft millions and millions ago a year just kind of if they could compile that stat we would all just probably drop dead after we heard what the total was one of the officers who replied to the questionnaire we sent out agreed the amount of money lost due to thefts downtown he said is staggering unfortunately the businesses take the hit and the person caught stealing rarely has to deal with any consequences Denise Moriguchi is the CEO of Awadh jamya the grocery shopping hub of the International District the system's broken and I think that's creating the boldness Hadj Amaya called 900 599 times over a 19 month stretch their bold when they get caught they kind of just you know they don't really care and and they oftentimes that we you know will put in a police report and they'll get a trespassing notification but then they'll just walk right back in and they and it's kind of like oh well you have this trespassing okay what are you gonna do call the police and if you're wondering why that boldness she talks about exists of those 599 reports of shoplifting in her store in a 19 month stretch about eight of the cases ended in some form of prosecution most of those because they also involved assault it's huge and it costs these businesses small mom-and-pop businesses and large retailers alike it costs them millions and millions of dollars per year and you know what the businesses don't like to talk about it themselves because nobody wants to say how much they're losing but we know it is millions of dollars citizens and shop owners had waited for the people running our city to come up with something a plan and then one day last May a group of construction workers got tired of waiting and took action for this important discussion as you know I'm also a rank-and-file member of the labor movement on that day the tide turned against Seattle's proposed business head tax to pay for homeless services and affordable housing but if we fight against each other the bosses when the City Council which had passed the tax unanimously you can say exactly what do you think but rather than chanting against each other let's hear each other out was forced to repeal seventy five million dollars worth of business taxes and for a moment in time anyway it felt as though something had changed was this your dream the shop yeah it's hard I mean it's hard emotionally because I've been such a part of the neighborhood here you know Karen Dannenberg ran her boutique in Belltown for many years and then things changed it was a guy shooting heroin or whatever he was shooting on the sidewalk I was in flip-flops walking by there was urine all over the sidewalk mattresses a pile of trash that was overflowing and it was appalling she called the police she wrote letters things only got worse and I go to Bellevue and it's calm and it's quiet and there's none of this stuff going on and it's a joy being over there I I never thought I would say I'd be ready to leave Seattle but I am true to her word she left four stories in Bellevue now and it's thriving [Music] amongst the responses to our questionnaire one anonymous Seattle police officer said there has to be some sort of intervention to break the cycle or people will continue to do what they do the addict won't quit because it has become too easy for them to use and the dealer won't quit as the consequences of getting caught are minimal another said Seattle needs leaders who are willing to stand up for what is right and by doing so will ultimately help those who can't help themselves and hold accountable those who are hiding behind tents reading through the responses to things are crystal clear the level of frustration and the fact that in spite of it all they still care deeply one officer said crack cocaine heroin and especially meth use are on the rise unless someone contacted for low-level amounts of drug has a warrant they're not taking the jail they know this and have no problem using in open air drug dealers have caught on and have changed the amount they keep on them it is currently impossible to combat the open-air drug market in the city that officer was referring to the fact that in King County three grams of heroin or meth won't get you prosecuted or probably even arrested it's unofficial policy it's only the much larger quantity say 20 grams that get prosecuted and the dealers and the users know it three grams of heroin by the way is equal to thirty doses one officer summed it all up like this let's spend the millions of dollars on mandatory inpatient treatment programs instead of making excuses for their addiction and/or crimes the option should be treatment or jail the cycle has to be intervened on or it will never end and maybe you're wondering why didn't they show the positive responses to the police questionnaire the answer to that is simple there weren't any [Music] they use deadly drugs and they sell those drugs for 10 bucks a dose and over and over they steal us blind to get the 10 bucks and they pollute our streets and parks and neighborhoods and they live in filth and despair like animals and we allow it all the ways we used to talk about compassion and when the madness that is always patiently waiting off in the distance finally moves in and wraps its arms around them and in the end it always does the suffering escalates exponentially until the misery is a white-hot pain that never stops never rests this man in the downtown core of our city was suffering in distress once he fell down he couldn't get back on his feet again so he sat there for a long time at the exact same time just across the street there was another man also apparently in the middle of a drug crisis staggering out of it lost in some of the world you can see the same thing on a lot of corners every single day to leave them alone is a death sentence sooner or later they die on the streets or in tents or in low-barrier tiny houses to leave them alone is to shame ourselves and that's why they need help they don't need camps and injection sites and bags of free socks they need help the kind that takes courage that gives them and Seattle a fighting chance they need intervention [Music] and so the city of Seattle and King County seemed to be struggling mightily to find answers we came all the way to the state of Rhode Island looking for answers and we may have found some right behind those prison walls Providence is a medium-sized city in our tiniest State what they are working on here while not outwardly revolutionary or mind boggling at first blush is a bold step towards saving lives and cities and giving tortured souls who succumbed to the hell of heroin a fighting chance and in Providence is a man who will tell you about the program they have developed but first he will tell you his own story I didn't have to do what I did I wanted to be something that I couldn't be only to emulate to all the fellas in the neighborhood his name is Michael Manfredi he used heroin for 35 years I became addicted out of everyone at the age of 15 I was a full fledged I went at it this is his mugshot from the last time he came to the Rhode Island Department of Corrections 20 years of his life had been spent locked up well nothing seemed to work it was a life reeling out of control when I got the handcuffs put on me at my house that day when he kicked my door and I looked at the lady detective and I said thank you she looked at me like I was crazy should get punished this guy's nothing like she see well I said you just saved my life because if she didn't stop me via I won't be seen here today how would he be dead I'd be doing life the question facing Rhode Island is similar to the question facing much of the United States how do we protect our society while at the same time showing compassion towards those who are sick and struggling it may be the question of our time I've wanted this program basically since the day I started dr. Jennifer Clark is the head of what is referred to back east as the mat Grahame medication assisted treatment we can't just ignore our way out of this we can't arrest our way out of this people are dying and there's something we can do to stop that it starts out here really because the first thing that they do in Rhode Island is enforce their laws drug dealers and the people who steal and commit crime to get their drugs eventually end up in this place the Rhode Island Department of Corrections it's not a nice place it's a prison but inside the walls something amazing happens every day the inmates who are in the mat program line up and they take their medicine there are three opiate blockers that work methadone suboxone and vivitrol they are FDA approved they get people off heroin they save lives prisoners who enter the program choose which medicine they want to use Michael Manfredi chose vivitrol he remembers when he first started taking it near the end of his last stint behind bars and one night I got a call was about 6:30 come to the front desk I said oh hey but what I do know I know I didn't do no wrong but they said go see the nurse I tears in my eyes I know it was time to get that pill really this is the perfect setting because there isn't as there's not as much distraction actually Linda Hurley is the president of a nonprofit called Kodak it's been around for 50 years on the outside the state of Rhode Island hired Kodak to distribute medicine inside the walls of the prison all three medications you carry on your life it's no different than if you were utilizing lisinopril or something I don't know a blood pressure medication or insulin you have a family you have a job you build your life it what it does is it stabilizes it stabilizes us physically so that we can do the emotional work that we need to do to heal from the disease I started messing around with the pills and everything and then once I found opiates that was I was the end of it you know Ray Vincent has been behind bars for three years he was stealing to support his habit for a while then he upped the ante to robbery maybe if I didn't come in here I'd probably be dead so you think getting arrested was a good thing for you I think it saved my life ray takes suboxone he knows he may take it for the rest of his life you sound optimistic at yeah well you know I don't I don't want to continue to I don't want to continue come here the rest of my life you know and if this medication is a stepping stone I need I'll do it that's the bottom line inside the prison inside the mat program the inmates have counselors there are one-on-one meetings with recovery coaches and group meetings as well they hit addiction with every tool they can throw at it in the recovery coaches come in and meet with anyone who's willing and interested in meeting with them so that they can develop a relationship with them on the inside and then have that relationship sustained on the outside Kevon Tanguay says I wasn't arrested I was rescued no were you stealing - yeah that's that's my main thing what I do was i shoplift on the shoplifter he's been in prison eight of the last ten years he's on methadone we get it at 12 o'clock and we we're monitored like we get those evaluation is like the the doctors the counselors that we stay in touch so that they can know if we're on that as far as the dose is holding me keeping me like so that I'm not really feeling that bad the match system is a lifeline and these men are holding on for dear life I'm not afraid of a lot of things but I'm a little concerned about like I don't want to go back to it I don't want to go back to it because you don't even know what's real anymore and I'm just I'm a little afraid of that to die alone you know I want to kind of try to put things together my mother is still alive I want to kind of like make some kind of amends before something happens to one of us you know [Music] look at this place look at all the buildings the infrastructure what if this was a specialized facility where we could use all of our resources and knowledge to fight this thing that is happening what if it was a place where doctors and counselors and case workers were available along with the treatment drugs that we know work the ones we know save lives what if this was a very specific place where sick people learn how to live life again job training therapy treatment all of it in one place it would have to be a place where the patients couldn't simply get up and leave if they wanted because the sickness is such that that doesn't really work but eventually they would leave and have jobs and families and maybe continue to use methadone suboxone or vivitrol for the rest of their lives the way some people use insulin what you're looking at is McNeil Island completely abandoned for the most part you might call it an answer waiting for the right question it wouldn't have to be here it could be somewhere else but maybe that billion dollars that we spent last year could be spent on a tough compassionate concept that actually works that saves lives [Music] as Seattle and the rest of the West Coast wander in the darkness searching for answers it's important to understand that the genius of what they're doing in Rhode Island isn't just that there is full drug treatment inside the prison walls the genius is what happens when the inmates leave priority number one being how they going to continue their medication the minute someone shows up in a program in the community they have to be registered in that database so we know if they're showing up or now the numbers going up the figure that I saw yesterday was 93 percent of the people who leave here on MIT are following up in the community that's amazing 93 percent are following through michael Manfredi is one who stuck with the program after he was released he's alive to talk about it would I be where I am today if this program was implemented no I wouldn't be here today honest to god I'd be there this is a kodak center they are sprinkled throughout Rhode Island there are seven of them in Providence alone once you come into the Department of Corrections and are medicated under methadone or suboxone or vivitrol you become a kodak patient you have a patient ID number in our system and our agencies were throughout Rhode Island are all connected former inmates or anyone else in the program show up anytime any day take home bottles and they get their medication no red tape no questions asked no doctor's appointments no vouchers they're in the system they get their meds it's that simple Josh Broadfoot overdosed 12 times and somehow survived he got three years for selling drugs I'm grateful that I was arrested and taken out of the situation I was in because I mean it sounds retarded to say I'm grateful I was arrested I'm taking away from my family but I might not even be there to ever see my family again if that situation I had it happened I might be going completely analyst a josh is on methadone the mat program he says gives him hope you got to get out there and do different but at the same time you're we have a little bit of help the way we have this counseling we have something that we know is helping us to stay away from opiates and people that care and so that's an age of help on the outside those group meetings continue and so does the counseling that is so very important up to three times a week my psychiatrist my caseworker my man my case manager in my doctor that describes my pills all in one facility I don't have to go all over the state of Rhode Island facility you know with all the counseling and and all the support that I have it's like it's a very smooth transition you know I don't know how would be if I wasn't on medication because I don't know if somebody if the next day I get out I see a bag of heroin you know somebody I know just sees me on the street yeah yeah you gives me a high-five or something there's a bag of dope in his hand you know I don't wanna it's scary to think about but that's reality brave Vincent got out of prison 19 days after we spoke to him he's going to school to become a welder he gets his medicine at a Kodak Center every week it saves lives so I don't think of it as being soft or compassionate it is the right thing to do it is what we're obligated to do as healthcare providers it's the smart thing to do Patricia coin Fang who runs the entire Correctional Facility knows that one of the ways of measuring success is looking at the death rate for those leaving prison as I've seen it work when you see the numbers people who would be dead or not because of this program leaving the walls behind is dangerous because addicts who are clean will use the same amount of drugs they used before and then overdose the rate of that happening is way down in Rhode Island and what we found was a 65 percent decrease in mortality for people with a history of incarceration 65 percent and the program is still only about three years old and maybe it's just a coincidence that it's been a group of women who have spearheaded a program that is tough compassionate and innovative all at once maybe it's a coincidence maybe not michael Manfredi has a job now he goes to meetings he's reconnected with his family he's productive he's happy he's alive my biggest thing is my granddaughter she's two milks my mom she lost my heart man and absolutely I never been happier in my life because I've never lived a productive life like I am today my life's great man I can't I can't thank everybody enough man because it all was for this m80 program Michael wouldn't be here today I'm proud of myself part of my family and I'm part of everything I've done and that means so much to all of us me and the people who work in the program to do this work because the other reason we do it what they've done in Rhode Island's and in other places can be boiled down to two simple concepts enforcement and intervention Seattle and King County have retreated away from those things we've left sick tortured souls to wander the streets to rot in filth and die before us we've turned over our city to those who would steal from us and a dick to her children we've turned away from simple concepts that bind together society and keep it safe things like enforcement and intervention [Music] a city is a living thing it has a rhythm and heartbeats a kind of soul it is a collection of ideas that we protect and defend old ideas and new ones and over time the ideas blend into a collective living ever-changing dream and the dream is nothing more and nothing less than a better life for our children but behind the beauty and the ideals behind the bridges and the ballparks and the beautiful buildings the dirty work is the fight great dreams and great cities don't survive without a fight Seattle is dying maybe with all the wealth and growth we became so pleased with ourselves or so busy that we forgot about the hard part maybe good people who go to work every day and raise families and pay taxes the ones who built the city and dreamed the dream forgot about the dirty work maybe we forgot about the fight [Music] you [Music] [Music] you

Info

Channel: KOMO News

Views: 4,810,123

Rating: 4.7032194 out of 5

Keywords: homeless, seattle, homelessness

Id: bpAi70WWBlw

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 60min 36sec (3636 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 19 2019

Reddit Comments

I saw this a few days ago and I'm confused about one part. They keep saying "We cannot arrest our way out of this problem" but isn't that exactly what they're doing in Rhode Island? Arresting their way out of the problem by offering either jail or treatment?

👍︎︎ 504 👤︎︎ u/bennetfoxy 📅︎︎ Mar 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

Come to Albuquerque. We’re already dead.

👍︎︎ 55 👤︎︎ u/Nacho_7258 📅︎︎ Mar 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

Was anyone creeped out by Travis Berge's unrepentant attitude and his professed love of meth?

👍︎︎ 54 👤︎︎ u/veritasius 📅︎︎ Mar 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

Where I live the government is using a concept called "housing first". And it works very well, as it's much easier to get your act together when you have a safe place to sleep, rather than the other way around. The concept doesn't originate from here though, it came from the USA.

👍︎︎ 123 👤︎︎ u/HelenEk7 📅︎︎ Mar 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

I have a simple solution. Bring back the mental hospitals. We used to have public sanitation laws that prevented mentally ill and disturbed people from wandering the streets and being a nuisance.

👍︎︎ 233 👤︎︎ u/knita4life 📅︎︎ Mar 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

I know snohomish county just north of Seattle, will not book someone in jail if they are using opiates. The jails turned into giant detoxes, and overwhelmed the medical system. A few inmates died over a few year period, due to withdrawal and other drug related issues, and the families sued the county every time for millions and millions. Seattle is basically doing the same thing, releasing most drug offenses.

👍︎︎ 29 👤︎︎ u/sverre054 📅︎︎ Mar 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

Also, Portland, San Francisco, LA, and San Diego. All the same.

👍︎︎ 19 👤︎︎ u/Silenti88 📅︎︎ Mar 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

I smoke meth everyday, but I don't have a drug problem.

👍︎︎ 35 👤︎︎ u/Philatelismisdead 📅︎︎ Mar 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

Just came back from a business trip to Seattle. It’s like DC in the 80s.

👍︎︎ 8 👤︎︎ u/ArtBooksMusicHugs 📅︎︎ Mar 30 2019 🗫︎ replies