SPRINGFIELD — Former patients of a treatment facility run by the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department are going to bat for the program, as lawmakers weigh moving all Section 35 involuntary commitment centers for substance use out of jails or prisons and into facilities approved by the state.

Ludlow’s Stonybrook Stabilization and Treatment Center serves men struggling with substance use disorder who have been involuntarily committed for up to 90 days under the state law known as Section 35.

Bills from Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-4th Middlesex, and Reps. Marjorie Decker, D-25th Middlesex, and Margaret Scarsdale, D-1st Middlesex, ( S.1401 and H.2197 ) would require that facilities where men are sent for treatment not include “any jail or correctional facility or any other facility funded, c

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