Recommend listening to the video. Bragg gives two imaginative anecdotes of how the program will go. It answers a lot of questions. In both anecdotes he doesn’t actually suggest any outcome. He paints a picture of prolonged sustaining of adverse situations and mitigation of problems, rather than treatment or a solution based around the larger public sphere and their place in it. It’s not that this isn’t a noble stance - it has a place in any city. Compassionate people connecting those in need with services are important. But…

1. That’s already being done and $9 million being sent to a separate new program with growing pains, rather than established private non prof orgs who do it better than the city, is not well thought out.

2. This isn’t the mandate of the DA. The court side of this program is an extension of his dept’s policies towards prosecution (not here to argue if that’s good or bad btw). Beyond that, this program is out of his wheelhouse. He’s putting his face on it as an activist, not as a DA. Why don’t we meet the people in charge instead?

3. His examples of how he thinks this program will run are going to be rare and best case scenarios. What’s the plan for the worst case scenarios? Will this program have any crossover with the mayors or is this actually an alternative suggestion?

4. He cites recidivism three times as a major point of this program, but what I heard doesn’t seem to tackle that issue at all. It only suggests getting the same resources they offer outside the court, inside the court as well once arrested.

Other questions include: Does he have a plan for ongoing funding? Staff attrition and turnover? Violent crime situations?

As with many things from Bragg and a lot of activists in his inner circle, I commend them for what they want to do, but they seem to ignore reality and call it compassion just a bit too much. Just my $0.02.