Advocates say that prisoners need help as Barrie starts a shuttle to take them back to their homes
Since 1995, people who get out of a nearby jail and don’t have anyone to pick them up are dropped off at the Barrie bus station with enough money to get to their home towns.
Now, the city has decided that this has to stop, citing a lack of social services, more people living on the streets, and concerns about public safety.
Starting in September, Barrie will pay for a pilot project that will pick up inmates from the Central North Correctional Centre (CNCC) in Penetanguishene, Ontario, and drop them off closer to their home towns instead of at Barrie’s central bus terminal.
Advocates for social services say they hope the pilot is a success, but some are worried it won’t do much to fix what they say is a lack of support and programming, which puts people back in jail.
“It’s hard when there isn’t a solid plan and they’re dropped off without support,” said Ryan McPhail, who started PeerConnex, a program in the city that helps people with addictions and mental health issues.
In 2019, McPhail was let go from CNCC.
He said that putting former prisoners back in their home towns would be a “huge step forward,” but that there also needs to be “more communication between the jails and the service providers who help these people after they are released.”
The jail doesn’t have enough staff to plan for release: corrections office
One corrections officer at CNCC said that there aren’t enough people working at the jail to help inmates with their plans for getting out.
Richard Dionne said that the province is the one letting former prisoners into Barrie without those supports and leaving the city to pick up the pieces.Dionne is also the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 369, which is the union that represents jail workers.
He said that the province needs to hire more people to set up programs and plans for when a prisoner gets out, so that they can get the services they need.
He said, “The ministry isn’t doing enough to get them back to their home communities.” He said that all ministry shuttles should drop people off at their homes instead of in Barrie.
Dionne said he has driven the shuttle to Barrie more than 20 times. He said that former prisoners are dropped off and may have another ticket to their home town, but it is up to them where they go. “We try to help them plan their discharge.”Staffing is a problem that keeps coming up year after year,” he said.
Dionne said that the union has been “arguing” with the Ministry of the Solicitor General, asking for more staff to give soon-to-be-released inmates more programming to reduce the number of people who go back to prison. “It just hasn’t happened,” he told her.
In a statement to CBC Toronto, the ministry said it is hiring more correctional staff across the province and, “when operationally possible,” helps inmates plan trips back to their hometowns and connects them with resources.
It said it will “make reasonable efforts to help inmates get to their home communities if they don’t have their own way to get there.” This could mean getting them to the bus station or buying them a bus ticket.
It also said it will continue to operate its own shuttle to Barrie from the correctional centre.
In response to Dionne’s comments about lack of staff, it said “the recruitment of new correctional officers is ongoing, and since July 2020, over 1,800 new correctional officers have graduated training and been deployed to work.” It said it has “dedicated staff” that assist in reintegration and that the ministry “regularly” meets with OPSEU to discuss inmate programming including reintegration.
It did not explain how the shuttle works or the rationale behind it when asked by CBC Toronto, or why it has relied on the Barrie drop-off when the city has complained to the province about the practice.
Barrie resources stretched, says mayo
Alex Nuttall, Barrie’s mayor, told CBC Toronto the release of former prisoners into the community over many years has strained the city’s resources and impacted local businesses. It’s an issue he promised to fix when he ran for mayor.
On average, about three to four people are dropped in Barrie from the shuttle several times a week. Of those, about half stay in Barrie, though they are often not originally from the city, said Nuttall. According to the city, there are about 700 homeless people in Simcoe County and half identify as living in Barrie. About 38 per cent cite “health or correctional issues” as to why they are living on the street, according to the city.
“And so after 15 years you can see the effect that you can have,” Nuttall said.
“We want the first interactions after release to be with individuals who can help plan out a better future going forward,” he said. “What we don’t want is the first interactions to be with members of organized crime.
“We have an incredible set of social services, but we are over capacity,” he said. Nuttall added that the city had been asking the province for support for a decade before it partnered with them to launch the shuttle pilot project.
Currently, the province provides former inmates with a Metrolinx or Ontario Northland pass so that they can take a connecting bus from Barrie to their destination.
But advocates like Hayley Murdoch-Fyke, the executive director of the John Howard Society of Simcoe and Muskoka, an advocacy organization for released prisoners, said simply providing fares is not sufficient. The process of taking multiple buses to get home can pose barriers to former inmates with mental health issues, she added.
Barrie has not finalized how the shuttle will connect passengers with social services. But it is expected to cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Nuttall.
The city needs to have those details nailed down for the shuttle to be a success, said McPhail. He said he needs to see Barrie ensure the new bus will connect people with services in order to support former inmates with their plans after release.
“They have goals they want to work on, they want to either maintain their sobriety or their mental health,” he said. “I know a lot of people that don’t have the family support that I did.”
Former inmates will still come to Barrie: service worke
Murdoch-Fyke told CBC Toronto that the current shuttle system that drops people in Barrie does so with an “extreme lack of dignity.
“All of their property is put into a clear plastic bag, and you’re released with your jail shoes,” she said. “You’re hit with that stigma of people knowing that you were incarcerated.”
The John Howard Society works with former inmates to provide support, including clothing, food, shelter if possible and safe consumption material for those dealing with addiction, she said.
Many people stay in Barrie because there are barriers to getting on that next bus, especially if your hometown is several buses away, she said. “Some people don’t have the skills to follow through on all of those steps,” she said.
“You also may not have any food. You may not be wearing the appropriate clothing for the weather. Are you going to hike around trying to find a different bus if you’re cold?” she said.
While Murdoch-Fyke hopes the pilot shuttle is a success, that won’t stop many from coming to Barrie, she said.
“We still have a population who are homeless and in conflict with the law and they will remain here, so the support still has to be in place for them as well, ” she said.