Stop Treating Homeless People Like Outlaws. It’s Killing Them
Maria DeSersa was 34 years old when she was found dead of a fentanyl overdose in an apartment laundry facility in Federal Way, Washington. She had been a defendant in 24 cases over the span of seven years. Research Fellow and Program Coordinator Marsha Michaelis explores Maria’s tragic story to expose the failures of a lenient criminal justice system and what happens when we treat the addicted and the homeless like outlaws instead of providing them with the help and accountability that could set their lives on a new trajectory. Transcript “Babe, get up.” Those were the last words ever spoken to Maria DeSersa. But she couldn’t get up. She lay late last March on the grimy laminate floor of Read More ›