I just finished watching, listening to and reading about CBC‘s documentary, Killing Time, regarding Philip Pynn’s incarceration, as we face yet another possibility of Christopher being incarcerated for a crime he committed trying to feed his addiction. I contemplate how effective that’s going to be for Christopher and/or for community as a whole. Christopher hasn’t spent as much time as Mr. Pynn in the prison system but one thing he said really hit home with me, he said “…you just had me for eight years…” as if, you could’ve done something in those eight years to rehabilitate me. Christopher spent eight months in Her Majesty’s Penitentiary in St. John’s many years ago. Following his release, I ended up on the phone with a high-ranking official at the Department of Health because we were told his referral and approval process to an out of province addictions centre, completed before his incarceration, would have to start all over again because of the duration since its’ completion. My argument to the government official was similar to Pynn’s… “We knew he qualified for addictions rehab prior to his incarceration and we just had him for eight months why couldn’t we have used that time for…” I was interrupted at that point by the Dept of Health official with “Wait now Ms. Power, we never had him, the Department of Justice had him.” That statement encompasses one of the biggest problems with “the system”. WE all need to work together to help rehabilitate OUR citizens.
This CBC documentary states the average annual cost to incarcerate a male inmate in Canada is $112,000 and a female is $119,000. Imagine what you could do with that much per person in a community rehabilitation program; instead of “warehousing” them as Mr. Pynn states in his interview the prison system does. I’m sure front line community organizations like the John Howard Society, Stella Burry Community Services and Choices For Youth would confirm if they had that much per person annually for programming they would have much better success at rehabilitating individuals than our present prison system.
When I think about and budget what could be done with $100,000 annually per person living in a secure house with ankle bracelets and electronic monitoring instead of a year in an overpopulated, under resourced prison I feel our tax payers money would be a lot better spent. I will admit I thought it would cost a lot less than $100 000.00 per person but research on costs for such community services did reveal close to all that money would be needed to do this effectively. I looked at a budget for Gander, for four clients I’ve worked closely with in the past who I think would be good candidates for a community solution instead of prison (obviously, not everyone who breaks the law would be a good fit). Staffing, a min of two workers 24 hours around the clock, a mix of security, peer support workers and a Social Work Manager; rent, including insurance fees, utilities, maintenance, etc.; cost of the ankle bracelets and electronic monitoring; transportation and other related costs for services plus a 10% contingency puts me a little less than $400 000.00 a year; using 20% contingency (which is probably more realistic) puts me over $400 000.00 a year. Not a whole lot of savings but I can guarantee a better rehabilitative experience for inmates; definitely more real rehab services than the approximate 40 hours, an HMP manager and I worked out as the total number of hours in programming Chris got during his eight month stay at HMP.
The four individuals I used in my scenario have been in and out of prison several times, repeat offenders; they never did make much progress… it’s the two steps forward one step back story… although, two steps forward, three steps back happens a lot as well because the exposure and comradery they find in prison often leads to more criminal behaviour and connections after release. Two of the individuals I used in my scenario have since passed away from accidental overdoses; the other two are still in and out of incarceration, in and out of homelessness and on income support. One of them told me it’s easier to go to jail for the winter because he can’t afford to live in the winter on income support rates. When I asked him about his addiction he stated when you’re as familiar with the prison system as he is, his fix is just as easy to get inside as it is to get outside so that wasn’t a factor.
Philip Pynn talks about how being in jail around criminals isn’t going to help you be a better person; he poignantly talks about how the prison system as it exists now, cannot fix his own reasons for criminal behaviour… what’s obvious to Mr. Pynn, others like him and many professionals working in the system, is that what is really needed for rehabilitation is not available. It would be easy and cost nothing to change a few things… many say you can’t force an addict into addictions treatment but if their behavior due to their addiction forces them in to incarceration then certainly it’s ok to force them to clean the facility they are living in, do their own laundry, prepare their own meals and do a few hours of work a day…. none of which Christopher ever had to do while inside.
CBC did a good job on Killing Time, it was a powerful message told from an important point of view. I know Newfoundland has made improvements since Mr. Pynn’s first run in with the justice system, they have the new Mental Health and Drug Court but it’s more for first time offenders and catching things early. There have been improvements and more convergence between Health and Justice systems/services but I still feel the silos exist. I can say with 100% surety that if Christopher goes to prison again in a facility like HMP, it will be at least one step backward for his recovery, most likely, more than one step.
In a CBC interview with a well-known NL defense lawyer, Bob Buckingham, following this documentary they asked him if he saw many people who got out of jail and were actually rehabilitated, his answer, “…very few…”. I can say from my experience working in the system for almost 20 years, I’ve seen less than 20% actually turn their lives around following release. Yes that’s a guess and not a confirmed stat but the individuals I have experience with, end up re-offending, often due to addictions. I had an RCMP officer tell me one time, “Joanne, Christopher is not a criminal, Christopher is an addict, he needs to get help for his addiction, not end up in Whitbourne”. (referring to NL’s youth correctional facility). Back then I took solace in that statement, still naive, believing my son was not a criminal, I’ll take Chris home again and not push this arrest, he is an addict, he doesn’t belong incarcerated we just need to get him some addictions treatment…. how funny is that now, over a decade later and we are still facing the same hard decisions about what is best for him within our province. Reality is… people who suffer from addictions often break the law and end up in the criminal justice system, therefore, the criminal justice system needs to find a way to treat addictions during incarceration in order to lower crime rates.
We all know incarceration alone can’t cure addiction but at $100,000 a year per person there has to be a better way to do this; there has to be a more humane way to do it than what Mr. Pynn and many others describe the prison system to be like. Let’s look to models that are working around the world, like Portugal’s model, ‘Portugal has showed that, without spending significant sums, governments can give drug users the tools to put their lives back on track. But to do so, it will have to stop treating them like criminals.” (Time, August 1, 2018)
I don’t know, again surmising, maybe 50% of the criminals that are incarcerated should actually be incarcerated due to safety concerns for the rest of society but for the other 50% can we find a better way? Christopher’s 40 hours of rehabilitative programming with no real-life responsibilities forced upon him, except to clean his cell and take his turn cleaning one small common area in eight months, just isn’t good enough!
Long Form text documentary, Killing Time
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/philip-pynn-documentary
Interview with Defence Lawyer, Bob Buckingham
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1694493251917
Time article, Portugal
https://time.com/longform/portugal-drug-use-decriminalization/
Over Half Way 