No sooner is Sam’s CAST program tossed in the bin than we see police chief Chiu lobbying for prison instead.CAST may have been a deeply flawed program but it was at least humane and an attempt at a solution other than warehousing people at $45,000 per year.Foolishly,some of us had dared to hope that the NAOMI program would have been re-opened and some other solution found.How can anything be worse than tossing people into prison when this has been tried before and is common practise in the US.Is there anyone so jaded that they think the situation down south is better?Prison is the answer to nothing.There are people too dangerous to be among us and it’s these folks that prison’s were made for .To suggest that we throw small time thieves in federal prison for petty theft,no matter how many,is giving up.If we really want to give up why not just prescribe them what they want?How can this be any worse than life on the installment plan which is what addicts were faced with when we jailed them federally in the past.Asking the government to change the law so that federal prison is allowed for petty theft is a cowardly and evil way out of a nasty problem.If Chiu is so far out of his depth that he has to request a change in legislation.Why not ask for drug reform instead of asking to warehouse people once again.How many times does something have to be shown to fail before people like Jim Chiu get it?With drug treatment success statistics at below 10% for hard core addicts.Suggesting this as an alternative is disingenuous and wrong.We need a police chief with vision and drive.Not a man with no ideas asking us to take a step back and put sick people in jail.