"...it's all a sham; a way to get drug addicts out of Puerto Rico."

November 14, 2016 3:14 PM

The Air Bridge: A paid one-way ticket from Puerto Rico to mainland American cities, including Philadelphia, promises heroin-addicted citizens good treatment at resort-like estates and even jobs; but many end up at unlicensed and unregulated treatment centers and wind up addicted on the streets or even dead.
posted by daninnj (18 comments total)

Isn't this what the state of Nevada was doing a couple years ago? Exporting the mentally ill to LA with a one-way bus ticket.
posted by Bee'sWing at 3:38 PM on November 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

This American Life ran a story just like this one. More here and here.
posted by dogstoevski at 3:48 PM on November 14, 2016 [4 favorites]

Yeah, I was just gonna say: I thought it was Chicago they were getting sent to? But I guess it's everywhere, basically.

This whole thing is super fucked up.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:11 PM on November 14, 2016

Mod note: A few comments deleted; sorry, just gonna rewind this and try it without the immediate election-related derail.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 5:50 PM on November 14, 2016 [3 favorites]

That seemingly endless game in which our society continues to play hot-potato with people.
posted by nikoniko at 6:00 PM on November 14, 2016 [3 favorites]

I can't help but wonder if this kind of shuffleboarding of the poor and needy and vulnerable is gonna become a bigger -thing-, in our future.
posted by Archelaus at 6:15 PM on November 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

From the article

"Last winter, managers in the house forced him to work clearing snow from properties in the neighborhood, then took half the cash he earned. "I never even saw snow before," he said through a translator. "I didn't have a coat.""

The second they made them work and kept a portion of their income these horrible people went from horribly abusive to human traffickers. They belong in prison.
posted by Tarumba at 6:30 PM on November 14, 2016 [14 favorites]

Here (Chicago) i can name at least two major places that take part of income for activities worked in shelters/programs for substance use. It's a common practice unfortuately for rent or other services rendered.
posted by AlexiaSky at 7:04 PM on November 14, 2016

This isn't limited to drug addicts- my friend's mentally ill mother was packed up in one county in California and dropped off at my friend's place in another county two hours away. Apparently the social worker driver her own car. It was their way of solving a problem.

This isn't a problem we can just throw money at (though that's a start). Do we can to go back to the days when we basically had jails for mentally ill or addicts? Who decides who goes and must stay in a place against their will?
posted by Monday at 7:08 PM on November 14, 2016

The second they made them work and kept a portion of their income these horrible people went from horribly abusive to human traffickers. They belong in prison.

I wonder how well organised this whole thing is. There must be serious kickbacks going to the recruiters in Puerto Rico, but is it a multi-level criminal enterprise or just an organic, ad-hoc one? Given that it's promoted and financially supported by the government, there's good reason to think that it may be one of those public-private partnerships we keep hearing about.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:09 PM on November 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Nothing I saw was new to me aside from the plane ticket. Even hospitals and nursing homes will sometimes drop a patient of at another location and/refuse refuse to take back. I've seen it.

Word in the street: I've heard about places that hire clients for less than minimum wage, have them perform services for the building/location, then take between 25 - 50 percent on top of it. Heard about the food stamp thing as well. Have seen issues with signing over SSI abs SSDI and not giving then back appropriatly upon discharge.

The religious component happens far too often as well. Thinking of a very large shelter here. But also within treatment. The FDA(? Maybe wrong regulatory body) is beginning not to fund treatment centers that only use a 12 step method, and unregulated half way homes/group homes are a step (pun not intended) below that.

It is really really stark the difference in treatment in substance abuse aimed for poor and aimed for the middle class.
posted by AlexiaSky at 7:57 PM on November 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

things americans do filter
posted by lastobelus at 8:42 PM on November 14, 2016

Do we can to go back to the days when we basically had jails for mentally ill or addicts?

Jail is exactly where a lot of them end up anyway.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:28 PM on November 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

I used to fool myself into believing that some elected official would just show up and shut these places down. Anymore; this stuff just seems like par for the course; not the same as a police shooting; but just another eyeblink of news and its forgotten tomorrow type of occurance.
posted by buzzman at 9:29 PM on November 14, 2016

Reminds me of the "Greyhound Therapy" that occurred when I worked in social services 35+ years ago. This "treatment plan" was an option for people whose mental-health issues were beyond the scope of the agency I worked for, but not so severe that they were a danger to themselves or others, i.e., not a candidate for involuntary hospitalization. The doctor/clinician on duty made the decision, but the despicable task of driving those poor souls to the bus station fell to the lowliest staff members.

The goal was to make the person presentable enough for Greyhound standards (which could be a challenge—and that says volumes about these folks' state of mind) and buy them a ticket to a town a couple of counties or so away, where they would be somebody else's problem.

I used to think that the general public would be outraged if they knew how people with mental illnesses are treated. I was clueless to the point of stupid when I was young.
posted by she's not there at 10:38 PM on November 14, 2016 [5 favorites]

There must be serious kickbacks going to the recruiters in Puerto Rico

I doubt it, honestly. It's much cheaper to spend a bit of money and get rid of a "problem" citizen for good than to help them. This only requires a willingness to put one's head in the sand and the ability to see people as problems.
posted by explosion at 12:28 PM on November 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

I wish the article gave a little more mention to the fire code and rental occupancy violations these houses undoubtedly have as that seems to be the only way to get any agency to look into things. You have to call in a fire code violation and say things like FIRE HAZARD, BLOCKED EXITS, exposed wiring, improper ventilation, etc to get someone with any authority over to the places and then hopefully the trafficed can talk and be referred to real services.
posted by WeekendJen at 1:41 PM on November 15, 2016

And they wandered in
From the city of St. John
Without a dime

Deponypressing.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:04 PM on November 15, 2016