Features
Better Discharge Planning Needed for Inmates: Study
Offenders often released from jail with little choice but to live on the street or in homeless shelters, sociologist says
BY DEIRDRE HEALEY
Inmates are often released from jail with no other choice but to live on the street or in homeless shelters because of a lack of discharge planning and support from the institutions, says Prof. Bill O'Grady, Sociology and Anthropology.
In a study that involved interviewing more than 100 male inmates and releasees, he found that at least half had experienced homelessness.
“There's a direct relationship between incarceration and homelessness,” says O'Grady, who worked on the project with Steve Gaetz of York University and researchers from the John Howard Society. “It's a vicious cycle. Homelessness can lead to incarceration, and incarceration can lead to homelessness.”
The study, which was funded by the National Homelessness Initiative, included interviews with convicts incarcerated in provincial jails in Ontario and British Columbia. It also involved interviews with inmates who had recently been released and were living with friends, had found their own accommodations or were living on the street. Twenty-eight per cent of the study participants didn't have their own home before they were arrested.
O'Grady says half of the men interviewed reported that they didn't receive any type of help in preparing for their return to society. The province does have a mandate to promote successful reintegration, including in-prison discharge planning, but for whatever reason, “there is a lack of congruence between policy and practice,” he says.
“If inmates don't receive discharge planning, they are released from jail without housing, without employment and without a lot of family support. Sometimes all they have are the coveralls they're wearing and a bus token. They end up turning to crime just to survive.”
The inmates interviewed who did receive discharge planning often received the service as part of addiction counselling, “which means if you don't see an addiction counsellor, you lose your chance of getting lined up with housing,” says O'Grady.
He adds that the system is also failing those who haven't been convicted but are waiting months in custody for a court date. This group makes up 60 per cent of jail populations in Ontario, and they aren't even entitled to discharge planning unless they are eventually convicted and serve time. After spending months behind bars, these people often lose their home and face the possibility of living on the street, he says.
“The longer you're in custody, the greater the chance that you will have lost your job and your home when you get out.”
In addition to housing, discharge planning can involve setting inmates up with welfare, finding them a source of employment, connecting them with family or giving them clothing, transportation and money for food, he says.
In their report to the National Homelessness Initiative, O'Grady and Gaetz recommend that measures be put into place to ensure that all inmates receive discharge planning before their release date. They also recommend discharge planning be extended to people who aren't convicted but are kept in custody for months awaiting a court date.
“It's in the best interest of the public,” says O'Grady. “They are eventually going to get out, and if they get out with little or no discharge planning, then a lot of them will end up reoffending.”