Out of prison, but then where? Canada’s halfway houses brace for COVID-19 releases with fewer beds and uncertainty

The federal parolee spent the long weekend at his family home with his sister. They continued renovations, did some painting, filled boxes and bags with donations.

But on Sunday night he had to report back to the GTA halfway house, to resume spending his weeknights in the small room he shares with a roommate.

No more social distancing.

Halfway houses are where federal inmates live when they are released on day parole, the first step in re-integrating them back into the community from prison. Some are otherwise homeless, some are elderly and some have substance abuse or mental health issues - requiring extra support.

The GTA parolee - the Star has agreed not to name him because he fears that would impact his parole and the privileges he has earned - hasn't been out of prison long after serving time for a non-violent drug offence. He was quickly granted day and weekend passes allowing him to leave the halfway house during the day, until his 10 p.m. curfew, and overnight to go to the family house on weekends.

But, despite repeated requests, he has not been allowed to spend his weeknights at home, even with the offer to use an expensive and more restrictive electronic monitoring system or with additional phone check-ins.

"It just doesn't make sense. The Parole Board deemed us safe to go home," he said. "I don't see why you can't be on day parole, except you are at your house."

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair has asked the Correctional Service of Canada and the Parole Board of Canada to find ways to release low-risk, non-violent inmates but weeks later there is still no announced plan. Meanwhile, there's still the question: Where are those inmates going to go?

Are halfway houses able to handle a new wave of releases - especially as they face their own challenges in implementing infection control measures and physical distancing? Are they even able to handle the normal flow of releases?

Federal inmates continue to be granted releases on parole or, by law, at their statutory release date at two-thirds of their sentences. Those releases have not stopped; typically, an inmate is first released on day parole to a halfway house and is only much later granted full parole, which can be served in a private home.

Since the pandemic began, lawyer Simon Borys has observed an increase in the number of people granted day parole straight to a private residence. But for many inmates, halfway houses remain the only place to go after release.

Meanwhile, inmates who have been granted parole over the last few weeks are still waiting for beds to open up at halfway houses. Borys, who is based in Kingston and frequently does parole hearings, has a client who has been waiting for a halfway house bed since the end of February. Long wait times were a problem before the pandemic - but the stakes are much higher now that at least 91 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at five prisons across the country, he said.

Prison inmates are already scared because of the lack of sanitation, inability to physical distance and poor health, he said. Imagine being told you have gotten parole and your risk is manageable in the community - that you have behaved, done your programs and worked hard to improve yourself, Borys said. But now you have to just sit tight.

"It is the kind of thing that leads people into despair," he said. "I am very concerned about where this is going to take us if this keeps going."

Due to COVID-19 safety measures, the number of available beds in halfway houses has decreased by an estimated 20 per cent across the country, according to Anita Desai, executive director of St. Leonard's Canada and chair of a working group looking at the issues halfway houses are facing.

Corrections Canada has also said reducing capacity is one of the measures halfway houses are taking to ensure safety of staff and residents.

Currently there are no COVID-19 cases in any of the St. Leonard's facilities and, as of late last week, very few cases at halfway houses across the board, she said. CSC could not give a number of cases in halfway houses, which they said would be part of local health authority numbers.

"We are managing well so far," Desai said, thanks in large part to staff at the halfway houses working "under an immense amount of pressure" with "little to no" personal protective equipment.

Desai says that as far she knows halfway houses are still accepting new cases - but they are facing new challenges, including over concerns about the screening when prisons released parolees. One major issue is that inmates typically take public transit from prison to the halfway house, something that is now considered high-risk.

Halfway houses have always had a right of refusal - they decide if they want to take a particular inmate. This decision is more difficult now, as staff and resources are already spread thin, said Desai. This is why ensuring that prisons are thoroughly screening inmates who are being released is crucial, she said.

"Prison health is public health. Whoever we are releasing from prison, our halfway houses have to be confident in those intakes," she said, warning that the risk if protocols are not followed is that COVID-19 could be imported from prisons into the halfway houses, themselves a vulnerable setting.

It also highlights the need to let halfway house residents move out if they "have good supports and a home they can go to," she said.

The Parole Board of Canada has said it is "looking at efficiencies to expedite those decisions" and is working with CSC to allow offenders to move from halfway houses to their homes where that is "risk-appropriate," according to a spokesperson.

They are also expediting "parole by exception" hearings for inmates who are terminally ill or who would suffer serious mental or physical damage through continued confinement. The health risk posed to an inmate by the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the criteria the parole board is considering when deciding whether to grant parole, the spokesperson said.

The parole board has also allowed area parole supervisors to grant medical leave passes from halfway houses for up to 30 days to residents who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19, allowing them to go home.

Ryan Johnson, the executive director of St. Leonard's Hamilton, said that rather than having someone take public transit to a halfway house, they have been sending someone to pick inmates up from the prison. As a part of physical distancing measures, they have also made their two-bunk rooms single rooms - a reduction of 12 beds out of 50.

St. Leonard's was fortunate to not be at capacity before the pandemic, so they have not yet had to turn anyone away, he said. Corrections Canada has cancelled in-person group education and programs, but their locations are still offering counselling by phone where possible, and through funding from CSC have stocked up on cleaning supplies and other necessities.

The priority is "ensuring the safety of residents and staff," Johnson said.

Desai said that it has been reassuring that CSC has been in communication with halfway houses and have said they will continue to fund halfway houses at or above their December capacity, even if their current number of residents is below that.

Halfway houses obtain funding based on the number of people they have in beds, she explained.

"A concern at the onset of this was, what if we have to shut down because we can't take anybody," she said. "Or what if we can't take as many guys?"

Being able to maintain funding and get additional money for things like cleaning supplies has been extremely helpful in the short-term, she said. It is also important for people who work at halfway houses to not be overlooked when CSC orders masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment, she added, though she is optimistic that more supplies will be made available when possible.

At the GTA parolee's halfway house, residents are banned from leaving unless they have jobs or specific permission. Otherwise, they can leave for errands for half an hour a day.

There are no more programs, no communal meals and limited communal space, but there are still shared rooms and shared bathrooms. And smokers still congregate outside.

He says his roommate has a job at a restaurant and regularly sees his family; he doesn't know what kind of physical distancing he does. At the halfway house, he says there is no screening done for residents returning for the night and, inside the facility, there isn't much physical distancing being done in elevators and the shared spaces that remain.

"Everyone is stressed, everyone is bored," he said. "If they have a home, they want to go home."

The suspension of programs and resources at most non-profits and at halfway houses means he has not been able to get help applying for jobs - not that there is much work available now, especially with a criminal record.

"They should be taking steps to see who can be taken out of that house to live somewhere else where they are not creating that community risk and risk to themselves. This is a vulnerable population," his lawyer said. "If you have people who can extricate themselves" that is what should be happening."

The parolee's sister looks at the devastating outbreaks in long-term care homes and fears the worst as they continue to wait.

"We already know what happens if we don't get out ahead of this virus," she said.

Alyshah Hasham is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and court. Follow her on Twitter: @alysanmati