I would like to commend The Alpena News for the article about our jail. It seems jails and people incarcerated in them are often overlooked by society, especially by people who have never personally experienced incarceration or know someone who has.

I appreciated Corrections Officer Trainee Terri Haken’s statement: “I thought the job would give me a chance to help people”. Helping people who find themselves in jail is a good idea. There are many benefits to helping jailed individuals, both for themselves and for society. As the article indicates, the jail houses people accused of drug trafficking, beatings, sexual assault, and other serious crimes. Society and even the mental health community has failed to recognize until recent years that the people who commit these crimes often suffer from challenges including unresolved trauma and/or mental illness and/or addiction. While I’m not saying that people who commit crimes should go unpunished, I am saying it would be beneficial to understand and address the underlying causes of criminal behavior.

Studies indicate that a high percentage of incarcerated people come into the criminal justice system with backgrounds of abuse. Abuse causes trauma in some people, unresolved trauma continues to negatively impact its victims until they receive appropriate and effective treatment. Many traumatized people never receive treatment. Unresolved trauma causes people to operate in their sympathetic nervous system (SNS). The SNS is designed to cause us to fight, flee, or freeze when faced with danger. Left untreated, traumatized people go through life feeling afraid, angry, triggered, anxious, and generally “on alert” to perceived threats. They fight, flee, and freeze. They often self-medicate with alcohol or other drugs in order to feel relief from those feelings.

I am hopeful my letter will spark interest in considering the needs for effective treatment that incarcerated people have.

PEGGY BRIGGS,

Hubbard Lake