This quote is from Joey Thompson’s column in the Province of Friday June 20, 2008.

“In the meantime, I’m with Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu: Send them off to jail, and make sure facilities offer them plenty of treatment and recovery options.”

So neat, so tidy, so simple why have we not solved these problems this way? Because Reality, as it so often does, intrudes.

Faced with the suggestion that we begin locking all these people up for long terms I thought it prudent to check the number of spaces available in our prisons. According to the research I did on the web our prisons currently runneth over with inmates.

These repeat offenders are released time after time due to a lack of space in the prison system. So where are we to put all the new prisoners resulting from this “…purging Vancouver streets of 379 prolific offenders…”?

We could raise the $$$ billions needed to build more prison spaces and the $$$ millions needed yearly to operate the new prisons through tax increases or by redirecting current funds spent on law enforcement into prison building and operating.

I wonder what percentage of the Vancouver Police budget Chief Chu is prepared to forgo so it can be spent on prison construction and operation? Just how much more is Ms. Thompson willing to pay in taxes to fund the major expansion in prison spaces to incarcerate these criminals?

Alternatively we could lock these prolific offenders away and let others who have committed lesser numbers of crimes free.

Of course currently priority is given to locking up those who are violent and dangerous, resulting in those who commit property crimes, even repeated and multiple offences, getting little or no jail time. A policy of releasing those who commit property crimes and locking up those who assault people seems an intelligent choice to me.

However if we would rather protect property rather than people by changing our incarceration policies we can. I just wonder what killers, rapists, child pornographers and other violent criminals Ms. Thompson and Chief Chu want to release from prison in order to make room to lock up those dare steal our precious stuff.

The problem with the Vancouver Police Department report is it fails to address the underlining complex reality of a statement as simple as “Send them off to jail”, much less the far more complex problems connected with “…and make sure facilities offer them plenty of treatment and recovery options.”

It misleads the public into thinking that the solution is simple, straight forward and easy when that is not the reality.

The public perception of simple, straight forward and easy answers becomes another barrier to our ability to get on with the hard, messy and complex tasks required to put in place the recovery based systems and supports to address addiction and help addicts get into recovery.

If we seek to address the social ills associated with addiction, such as property crime, we need to address getting addicts into recovery and the complexities of addiction recovery systems and supports.

While this will not be as easy as “Send them off to jail …” it is the only approach that will, if we are patient, persistent, creative and focused on the goal of recovery, achieve the results we want

I do not have all the details involved in the preparing and serving of the New Year’s Day feast at the Abbotsford Salvation Army, so if I get details wrong I apologize.

My understanding is that sisters, members of our Sikh community, wanted to serve a meal for the hungry. They were looking at Christmas, but Andy Kwak, the new man in charge at the Salvation Army suggested New Year’s Day would be better. Great suggestion Mr. Kwak and thank you for allowing the use of the meal centre.

Family and friends of the sisters pitched in to help and from all the people who were there preparing and serving the food, the sisters have a lot of family and friends.

They served up lots of great East Indian fare. Enough so that people were waddling out the door unable to eat a single bite more. Many left with sandwiches and/or ‘takeout” for supper that night.

Keeping it simple I will merely say that I heard from many people how much they enjoyed and appreciated the food, expressing their Thanks.

What a great way to start out the New Year; and the food wasn’t bad either.

This is the kind of spirit and community initiative we need to make a start at ending homelessness, addiction and hunger in Abbotsford.

Truly a great, an energizing beginning for the New Year.

Thank you all very much. For the food, the thoughtfulness, your company and your generosity.

Thank you.