Housing needs in our community will only increase with Bill C10
From Prison to a Place Called Home: A Forum for Federally Sentenced Women – Remarks given by Alison Pedlar at the event on Wednesday January 25, 2012.
Why is a housing forum especially necessary at this time? Not only necessary, but critical in terms of the kind of society we may become or indeed are becoming, and in terms of the wellbeing of our community, and all the members of it, including all of us here today and those we represent, ranging from criminalized women, to service providers, to ordinary Canadians everywhere.
So, again, the question, why this forum? Some background may be helpful. In a nutshell, in 1990 the government of Canada accepted the recommendations contained in a report entitled, Creating Choices, Changing Lives: The Transformation of Women’s Corrections in Canada. This landmark report was welcomed in Canada and indeed was hailed in many other parts of the world, for its insight and relevant recommendations around women’s corrections. It ushered in a major shift in how we addressed women who had come into conflict with the law, in ways that recognized gender and conditions that lead women to prison. The Creating Choices philosophy was embraced and honoured in practice in women’s corrections. It was recognized as the right thing to do, and it did indeed encompass appropriate approaches with positive outcomes.
Fast forward to 2011-12, and the advent of Omnibus Bill C-10 (the “Safe Streets and Communities Act“) which as we know has been met with lots of debate from many different perspectives, including crime prevention organizations, people with extensive knowledge in criminal justice and law, parole, correctional investigators, some police groups and others. There is widespread fear that the adoption of the Safe Streets and Communities Act very likely will dramatically reshape the Canadian criminal justice system with some pretty devastating outcomes, particularly for the most vulnerable members of our society. Equally though, there have been dissenting views expressed by those who believe the government is doing the right thing in bringing in this legislation, and indeed is doing what it promised to do when elected with a majority last May.
So, at the end of the day, whatever one thinks about Bill C-10, it is pretty clear that we as a community have to deal with ensuring availability of housing as more and more women end up incarcerated for offenses that will increasingly, I fear, not be examined or dealt with at their root cause, namely poverty, abuse, and neglect.
And as more and more women end up in prisons that were never intended to house these sorts of numbers, so too more and more women will eventually, God willing, return to our communities. And this is the challenge we face now and for the indefinite future – we must find ways of supporting and accommodating women on release. Right now, as you have heard this morning, the options are not huge, in fact they are dreadfully limited. And if we want to help keep our communities safe, and part of that is helping criminalized women return to some kind of decent existence with decent and safe housing, then we have work to do.
Presumably, most if not all of us are here today because we recognize that housing is essential to a healthy environment that can foster reintegration. Housing on release ought to come in a range of shapes, forms, and sizes, such as halfway houses, such as rental apartments, such as private home placements, such as shared family homes and so on – but none of this can happen without appropriate resources and funding. Resources and funding ought to be a no-brainer when one considers that today to house a woman in prison for a year costs over $210,000 and the cost to taxpayers will inevitably increase with the anticipated increases in prison populations and staffing. I have a hunch, and in fact research likely indicates, that these dollars would go a long, long way in supporting and housing a woman in community. So it is astounding to realize that as recently as a year ago we failed to get a halfway house for women off the ground in this community because the funding available was so unrealistically low it was destined to have the initiative fail. Other options like private home placements as well as other halfway houses have had similar experiences with funding struggles, and indeed critical support and outreach services that support Aboriginal women have met insurmountable funding challenges.
However, today we have an exciting opportunity to revisit and explore possible alternatives and options that we as a community can work toward in the development of the sort of housing landscape that needs to be available for women coming out of prison. It’s time we got with the program, and as I suggested a moment ago, with the arrival of Bill C-10, we absolutely have no alternative but to move forward with housing and resource services for women who will ultimately move out of GVI into community. So that’s why we are here today.
In summary, then,
- What we have heard this morning indicates to us that, with 75% of women in prison being mothers, we need to address the issues around reuniting mothers with their children;
- There are women with nowhere to go, how do we end that situation?
- Alternatives like halfway houses and Private Home Placement programs need to be funded realistically.
- Do we need to do better around issues of addiction and mental health?
- How do we ensure women have sufficient $$ to live a decent life?
- How do we ensure women have access to resources and support services, including housing, that are essential aspects of healthy and safe community life?
Alison Pedlar is a Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of Waterloo. Prior to retirement she conducted extensive research with federally sentenced women examining reintegration. Some of her work can be accessed at Uncertain Futures: Women Leaving Prison and Re-Entering Community. She currently serves on the Citizens Advisory Committee of Grand Valley Institution for Women.