View From the Homeless Streets

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

Alas, poor Fred! I knew him, fellow SCN readers: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: before these tragic circumstances befell the now lost soul:

Addict: a person who is addicted to an activity, habit, or substance: a drug

addict (verb used with object); to cause to become physiologically or psychologically dependent on an addictive substance, as alcohol or a narcotic; to habituate or abandon (oneself) to something compulsively or obsessively.

Video game addiction, also called video game overuse, is a form of psychological addiction composed of a compulsive use of computer and video games. Sometimes the addiction will manifest itself as part of excessive Internet use.

Most notable are massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), and related to Internet addiction disorder. Instances have been reported in which users play compulsively, isolating themselves from social contact and focusing almost entirely on in-game achievements rather than life events.

WebMD: At an addiction treatment center in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, teenagers and adults begin detox by admitting they are powerless over their addiction. But these addicts aren’t hooked on drugs or alcohol. They are going cold turkey to break their dependence on video games.

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or multiplayer online role-playing games. Carl Jung

First he abandons his loyal readers, spending less and less time on SCN as feeding his addiction requires more and more time. Then it begins to affect his work as he becomes one of those undependable employees he recently decried in SCN.

Before long his poor roommate has to throw him out in favour of a roommate who works and can pay his share of the rent and the poor guy becomes one of the homeless, a member of that underclass that has graced the pages of SCN. The upper crust of that underclass as, like a turtle, he carries his home around with him as he drives from location to location to meet his needs.

Unfortunately it is his addiction that dictates his needs so instead of concentrating on employment and the path out of homelessness he focuses on finding internet connections to allow him to feed his habit.

Before long the car is gone as his focus tightens more and more on finding sources to satisfy his cravings, his addiction.

Living on the streets, hygiene challenged, soup kitchens for food – still his addiction drives him, consumes him, destroys him.

We loyal SCN readers need to stage an intervention to force Fred to confront his addiction, to encourage him to seek help in getting into recovery from his addiction.

STOP! THINK Fred: recall the sad state of those further along the path of addiction whose addictions had led them to homelessness and life on the streets. Reach within; find the strength to find help and recovery.

Addiction is a stone cold bitch whether to drugs, to work or to role playing games. Do not listen to the sweet siren song promising you Kingship of fantasy lands, lest ye continue down the path that leads to despair and utter hopelessness.

Take personal responsibility for you life and addiction, save yourself and find Wellness and Recovery. You have the strength Fred.

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post scriptum:

While written tongue-in-cheek there is a disturbing truth in what I wrote. Nobody says to themselves “I think I will become and addict” or “I think I will become homeless”. Addiction, mind altering substances, gambling, online gaming or work, is an all too easy downward slide whatever your starting point.

It is a sweet siren song luring you on until it is to late when it reveals its true nature as a stone cold bitch.

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. Aesop

Fred's original article that inspired this can be found at: http://www.somethingcool.ca/editor281.htm