“The system…often makes the most vulnerable women go to the most dangerous places to find safety.
An advocate says that the fact that an Inuk woman says she was left vulnerable and almost sold into slavery just days after getting out of jail shows that the justice system in Manitoba needs to be changed.
Jessica LeBlanc spent 11 months at the Women’s Correctional Centre in Headingley while she waited for her court date. When she went to court, she was found guilty of resisting arrest and given just two days in jail.
She was let out of jail on a Friday after 5 p.m., and she said there was no plan for her transition or release.
“They keep giving women away for nothing,” she said. “I was just on the street with a bus pass.”
She said that LeBlanc, who is 29, was diagnosed with schizophrenia while she was in jail and was taking medicine for it.
She got out of jail without any money, a health card, a prescription for her mental illness, or a safe place to stay the night.
She said, “They hadn’t given me the money from the job I had in the jail as a trustee.”
“They gave me three days’ worth of the medicine they said I had to take in jail, and I was still wearing the clothes I was arrested in.”
She said that she was dropped off in Unicity that night with a bus ticket and left to figure things out on her own.
She said, “It was very worrying that they would let someone out so late at night and especially on the weekend, when no mental health or social services are open.”
LeBlanc could have gone to a homeless shelter, but by the time he got downtown, they were all full.
4 days on the stree
She slept on the streets for the next four days.
Within a few days, a man picked her up and took her to a hotel, where they stayed for a week. Then, for the next three weeks, he took her to live in an empty house.
She thinks he tried to get her involved in the sex trade.
After seeing a St. Boniface Street Links van driving around and calling for help, she finally found a safe place.
They helped her find a place to live and a part-time job, and she started to get her life back on track.
LeBlanc said she would have never thought she would be where she is now.
She has a college degree and was working and traveling the world before the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the pandemic hit, she was kicked out of her apartment. To stay off the streets, she moved from couch to couch.
She said that if it could happen to her, it could happen to anyone, and she wants the justice system to change before another woman gets hurt or dies because of it.
Marion Willis said that LeBlanc’s story is not unique enough.
“I think about the files of murdered and missing Indigenous women, and when you really think about Jessica’s situation and how vulnerable she was when she was released, it’s not hard to see how so many women go missing and sometimes die,” Willis said.
She said that LeBlanc was let down over and over again by a system that was supposed to protect her.
Willis said that many of LeBlanc’s legal problems were caused by her undiagnosed and untreated schizophrenia, but once she was diagnosed, LeBlanc stayed in jail instead of getting treatment in a proper facility.
Willis said that during those 11 months, no one thought ahead to make sure that she would have help when she got out.
“She ends up being very vulnerable because of the system that is supposed to keep everyone, including Jessica, safe and secure,” she said.
Willis said that her team has helped too many people who get out of jail but don’t know what to do next. She said that in the end, it makes people lose their homes and live in encampments. They often fall back in with the wrong crowd and commit crimes again or become targets.
“In the end, the system often forces the weakest women to look for safety in the most dangerous places and with the most dangerous people, and that’s a big part of Jessica’s story. She said, “That’s awful.”
“The justice system made it possible for her to be used and even killed on the streets, and that’s what gets to me.”
The province wouldn’t say anything about the details of LeBlanc’s case, but a spokeswoman said that staff at Manitoba Corrections work closely with inmates to make plans for their release.
Release plan
The spokesperson said that when inmates leave jail, they are given medicine to help them transition to primary care. However, Corrections does not give out prescriptions because “the justice system can no longer supervise or provide medical care.”
A spokesperson said in an email that the plan for release includes places to stay and help in the community.
“This includes working with inmates to get them a Manitoba health card or with another jurisdiction to give them options for a primary card when they get out.”
But LeBlanc said that was never true.
The spokesperson also said that Manitoba Corrections doesn’t help people find shelter housing because “once they’re out, they’re free.” There are other social supports in place, but once they get out, they are just like any other Manitoban.”