.jpg;w=960)
David (not his real name) is from Sudbury, and he is likely homeless right now. He is one of 3,900 people per year who are released from a corrections facility in Ontario who are without housing, and have no support waiting for them.
He was released from jail on Dec. 26, Boxing Day, when every service provider and government office is closed. He has mental health issues and an addiction, as well as a late-in-life diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD); all of this has created a person who is not able to live within society’s rules in his current state, or with his adopted parents.
And so, David will be homeless, with nowhere to go, and nothing but the clothes on his back. If those clothes are not sufficient for the season, and there are no service providers open to offer a coat, David would have been given an orange jumpsuit to wear for his entrance back into society. The jail he is in is paying for a bus ticket to Sudbury, returning him to the place he was arrested, and coincidentally, his hometown.
Details of David’s life were shared with Sudbury.com by a close family member concerned for his well-being.
And his story, sadly, is far from unique, Sara-Jane Berghammer, CEO of the John Howard Society, told Sudbury.com. Though she did not speak specifically of David and his situation, she did note the general challenges with people who are released from custody without support.
“We run into some folks that are quite independent, they have support when they're released; a place to go, they can return to possibly a job that they had before,” said Berghammer. “But by far, the people who find themselves in provincial custody may not have access to what we call pre-release planning, which becomes problematic.”
Berghammer said that as provincial jails are typically remand centres, in that there are short term stays likely lasting from 10 days to 120 days there is not a lot of time to do pre-release planning. But a stay in jail that lasts even 60 days is enough to lose an apartment, and a job.
“So for many folks, if they don't have access to pre-release planning, then they are released from jail and they start from scratch again, starting over, and starting over from the bottom,” said Berghammer. “And if you throw addiction or mental health into the mix, sometimes we've lost some before we could even set up a plan.”
In addition to the short term stays, the increasing number of lockdowns in jails is becoming an issue. Lockdowns in the Sudbury jail and the North Bay jail have happened this year, both due to COVID-19 outbreaks but also staffing shortages. This leaves service providers on the outside, unable to work with those in custody.
“Especially for folks that have extensive issues going on, it's really important that they have a plan for their release, because they get sidetracked so quickly,” said Bergahmmer. “So setting up a plan is something that gives them the best chance for success.”
Another concern is ill-equipped provincial ministries.
“When someone finds themselves in custody, it's not the Ministry of Health that then oversees their health, it's (the Ministry of) corrections,” said Berghammer. “Corrections are not equipped to deal with the extensive health issues, physical or mental health, that a lot of our clients have. And especially because the Ministry of Health and Corrections do not freely share information, sometimes when people are arrested, they don't have access to the medication that they were taking on the outside, or vice versa. Or, they were put on medication while inside and then once they get out, they don't have access to that medication anymore.”
Then there is the aspect of care that is reliant on someone volunteering for services. There needs to be consent.
“So even if we are able to go in and set up a plan, services are voluntary,” said Berghammer.
“Even sometimes when we have a plan in place in the jail, because of the issues that they have, they get sidetracked quickly, and then all of a sudden, they're out and they're not interested anymore in service.”
The release process is a bit arbitrary, said Berghammer, and based more on the needs of the jail, like current overpopulation or an influx later in the day, which can have people released even quite early in the morning. Also, released in a different season then they were arrested, with only their possession from the day of arrest. “We have had some clients that are released blatantly early in the morning to 6 a.m., they're walking down the steps of the jail with nothing open,” said Berghammer. “But sometimes they've been held for several hours, then we've received a phone call, ‘can you drop off a coat to the jail or shoes at the jail’.
While Berghammmer said the jail is not to release someone with nothing at all, the options provided are not ideal.
“Sometimes, they will provide them with the orange jumpsuit or something like that,” said Berghammer. “It is not really the image that our clients want when they're released. It's a fresh start. It shouldn’t be a big sign on their back saying that they've just been released from custody.”
That, and those who require treatment for mental health and aren’t receiving it, lose the ability to fully understand the harm that could come to them. “It’s a real issue if the illness is not properly medicated, or they don't have coping skills to deal with it, because we've lost them before I'll even start,” said Berghammer. “If they're not medicated properly, they refuse service. They need it, but they refuse it and it's their right to do that.”
Even those who want treatment do not always have access to it. “We've lost many folks, because they have a release date from the jail, they wanted to go to treatment, but now there are waiting lists,” said Berghammer. “They'd be released in the community for a number of weeks or a number of months, before they could be taken in. And by then, we've lost them, they should have gone right from jail into treatment.”
Berghammer said she can completely understand families trying to help their loved ones, having to see them fall over and over, what she calls “the revolving door of recidivism.”
“Sometimes people don't understand until you get a taste of the justice system, either yourself or through a family member or otherwise, they don't necessarily understand,” said Berghammer. “But it's a very challenging system. It's a very challenging system to navigate for, for many reasons.”
Berghammer said that the conditions can change, and that advocacy is the way to ensure that each person released from jail does not have to enter what she calls “the cycle of recidivism.”
And though the John Howard Society is available for those who need it, it is up to them alone if they will take the help. But that desire for help, the hope for change, can be achieved, said Berghammer.
