Northern Ontario group meeting with solicitor general to set plan for released prisoners

After more than a year in lockdowns, the world is starting to pick up the pieces.

That includes a return to school for some, back to in-office work for others.

For most people, it's back to normal.

But what if you're on society's fringes?

A group in northern Ontario is fighting to ensure people released from prison have a chance at reintegrating into the community.

Mike Nadeau, CEO of the Sault Ste. Marie Social Services Administration Board, said representatives from various social service groups across the region finally have some face time with Sylvia Jones, Ontario's solicitor general, a meeting they've been looking forward to for over a year.

"In conversations with some of my colleagues across northern Ontario, we just noticed that as the pandemic started to really ramp up, there was some time when people were being released from correctional institutions," Nadeau said. 

"It may have been a bit earlier than normal. And they were going to our shelters. And it really wasn't just a proper discharge plan that we were used to."

The group, called the Northern Ontario Service Deliveries Association (NOSDA), advocates for a collaborative approach between levels of government. They represent paramedics, homelessness networks, child care services and employment services.

It was community shelters where they noticed a big surge in people coming through, but not necessarily being able to access the best services. That included prisoners, who were being funnelled directly to shelters without a coordinated plan to get them on their feet.

"How can we better work together to make sure that the people being released from correctional institutions are not released into homelessness?" Nadeau said. 

"And how can we make sure they're actually discharged and released with a proper plan to make sure that we can try to wrap services around these folks to ensure that they're successful upon their release?"

Services would include access to employment, or a quick move into housing.

They've served their time, so to speak.- Mike Nadeau

So far, what the group is advocating for has the support of most communities, including Indigenous support groups and police services.

"We're really trying to figure out how to develop a holistic approach to serving the individual," Nadeau said. "It's not that there's a set path for each person. The person will determine their path."

"We're really trying to support the person where they're at, but to move them ahead so that they're successful, they're contributing back to the community. They've served their time, so to speak."

A meeting with the solicitor general, he said will hopefully lay the groundwork for a new plan to ensure that people released from prison don't slip back through the cracks.

"How do we all work together to make sure that we're supporting the person for the job so that they don't end up reoffending and they don't basically wind back up incarcerated sometime in the future?" Nadeau said.

"We're looking at trying to fix the system."