Walking through prison gates for the first time is a terrifying experience, regardless of the length of sentence. Walking back out again as a free individual can be just as terrifying, and traumatic. Voices Inside and Out talks with people who’ve actually walked through those gates, both those who’ve walked out again and with those who are still waiting for that day. We look at their personal stories, the strategies they used to get to where they are, their successes, and their failures. By looking at the common and unique themes from these individual stories we can create stronger support systems for prisoners, their families, and their communities once they reenter them. The language and views shared are those of the speakers and may not reflect the position of the JHSC.
Publisher
John Howard Society of Canada, Catherine Latimer, Lawrence Da Silva
Joseph Lauren Part 2: Post-custody Employment Challenges and Solutions
After a high-profile conviction for insider trading, finding employment after custody was a challenge for Joseph Lauren. He was handicapped both by a criminal record and a significant presence on google searches. This led to a change of name, starting his own consulting company, and "Collared" a documentary about his crime. Joseph shares with us his journey to earn a living, experiences in prison, and advice for others on how to make it after prison.
21 May 2020
Joseph Lauren: Post-custody Housing Challenges and Solutions
Joseph Lauren was rare among federal prisoners having been convicted of a white collar crime. Little did he know the challenges he would face in the prison system and afterwards trying to secure housing and find employment with a criminal record. In this episode, he tells us about the unforeseen consequences of his crime for others, his experiences with the correctional system, his challenges finding housing after custody and his current involvement with Restorative Justice Housing Ontario.
6 May 2020
Commentary: COVID-19 and Unrest at Donnacona
Renford Farrier, a prisoner at Donnacona Maximum Security Institution in Quebec, describes how gas and rubber bullets were used to quell a protest by prisoners on April 20, 2020. He explains how the usual protocols of discussion and de-escalation were not followed before force was used on men who were posing no risk to the correctional officers. He questions why he was shot in the leg when he was complying with instructions and leaving his cell with his hands in the air telling them not to shoot. Discussed are the rising tensions behind bars due to the extended periods in cells, limited access to families, activities, programs and routine.
29 Apr 2020
Garry Glowacki: Part 2: Welcoming Prisoners Back - Community Support
In this episode, Garry talks more about his early funding from the Anglican Church, communities welcoming prisoners as a support to successful reintegration, and restorative justice. He stresses the importance of inreach into prisons and discharge planning. Many shout outs to those organizations (churches, CSC, provincial corrections and prison that gave Garry an office inside the prison), companies (Moores, Boston Pizza), and individuals (MP Bragdon for PMB seeking a federal framework for reintegration and Dr. Ujjainwalla) and all of those who help former prisoners return to communities.
14 Apr 2020
Commentary: COVID-19 Outbreak in Federal Prisons
There has been an alarming rate of increase in federal prisoners infected with COVID-19 at Mission Medium Institution. From April 10 to 11th, the reported confirmed cases of the virus rose from 25 to 35 prisoners, a 40% increase, with 5 prisoners being transported to a local hospital. Other federal prisons in Quebec and Ontario are also reporting COVID-19 among the staff and prisoners. Why was the federal government so slow to follow the advice of epidemiologists and safely reduce the number of prisoners? Why has there been so few prisoners actually tested for the virus? What is being done now to protect them and the community from COVID-19; and what further steps could be taken?
10 Apr 2020
Garry Glowacki - Helping Prisoners Return to Communities
Leaving his own conflicts with the law long behind, Garry found meaning in helping people leave custody and return to their communities. With decades of experience and his gruff yet caring style, Garry seems to have found a winning formula. With $100,000 of funding, remarkably he kept 28 former prisoners housed and employed for a year. Now retired, Garry is at University studying criminology but we could all be learning from Garry.
31 Mar 2020
Commentary: COVID-19 in Port Cartier Federal Prison
Former Port Cartier prisoner, Lawrence Da Silva, provides insights into prison life at that maximum federal institution and advises on how prisoners there could be better protected.
31 Mar 2020
Emily O’Brien on Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship
Have you ever been convicted of a crime for which you have not received a pardon? An innocuous question on most job applications unless of course you’re someone who has to check the box marked yes. A virtual brick wall for former prisoners seeking employment.
For many the strategy turns toward self-employment and entrepreneurship, betting on oneself when no one else will. In this episode, Emily O’Brien takes us through the opportunities that entrepreneurship and self-employment can offer.
23 Mar 2020
Tim and Doug: Part 2: Lifers Share Advice for Other Lifers
In this episode, we continue our discussion with Tim and Doug, both lifers, recorded at Kirkpatrick House in Ottawa. In this part, they share advice about how to keep motivated, prepare for life in the community, and cope with the challenges of life on the outside. While Tim continues to do excel in the community, we were disheartened to learn that Doug has had his parole suspended and is back in custody between the recording and airing of this episode. A life sentence truly is a life sentence and we wish him all the best.
16 Mar 2020
Tim and Doug: Part 1: Lifers Experience an Ottawa Halfway House
Tim and Doug are both lifers, having been sentenced to life in a Canadian criminal court, and are both now facing challenges on the outside after prison, both living at Kirkpatrick House in Ottawa, and both are now doing well.
Tim committed his crime when he was just a juvenile and spent the first two years in youth custody before being transferred to an adult facility. Doug is an Indigenous man who has already served 34 years of his life-sentence both on the inside and out, and that has included trips back to prison for various breaches.
Now, Tim stays busy, all the time, with a combination of work and school. Doug does enjoy his employment, but he prefers to fill the rest of his time with friends, cultural activities, and fishing.
No two stories are the same and in this episode we look at the different paths two men took to wind up in the same place, and how they continue to pursue a life on the outside.
9 Mar 2020
Rick Sauvé: Part 2: Helping Others Return to Communities and Endure Prison
Rick Sauvé truly deserved to be honoured with the Ed McIsaac Human Rights in Corrections Award. Not only did he win voting rights for prisoners in the Supreme Court, we learn in this episode of his commitment to helping prisoners. Among other contributions, Rick has provided peer support through LifeLine, assisted at more than 400 parole board hearings and helped prisoners leave gangs. As a person who has been behind bars and successfully lives under sentence in the community, Rick has terrific insights into the challenges fellow prisoners face and significant credibility with them. He shares information about the prison programs he has delivered and the other efforts he has made to help those still behind bars find their way.
2 Mar 2020
Rick Sauvé: Part 1: From Prison to Living as a Lifer in the Community
In Canada, a life-sentence does actually mean life. It might not all be spent behind bars but someone serving a life-sentence is never truly free. In 1978, Rick Sauvé was then a member of the Satan’s Choice MC who was convicted of first degree murder in the killing of a rival gang member, a conviction he contests.
Rick has twice taken the battle for prisoner voting rights to the Supreme Court of Canada, and won both times before earning parole after serving 17 years of his life sentence under the now defunct “Faint Hope Clause”. For winning voting rights for prisoners and his work coaching other “lifers” he earned the Ed McIsaac Human Rights in Corrections Award, the first time a former prisoner had ever won the humanitarian award.
In this episode, Rick talks about his own experience as a “lifer” and about the challenges and conditions that anyone serving a life-sentence faces, knowing full-well that a breach of any of those conditions could land them swiftly back in prison. In the next episode, we discuss the programs that Rick provides, designed to help lifers, inside and out, cope with the stresses of their lives.
24 Feb 2020
Jamaal's Journey: Charged and Transferred to Provincial Custody at Warrant Expiry
Imagine a situation where you fall asleep on the city bus and don’t wake up until the end of the line, on the other side of town, a long way from home. It might be a little scary, but thankfully you can buzz up an Uber, call a cab, call a friend, or just hop back on a different bus heading the other way. Heck, you might even be able to walk back.
Now imagine that sleep you took was a 15-year long nightmare of violence and hopelessness, and instead of being on the wrong side of town, you were in a completely different province with no idea how you were going to get home.
Jamaal Desmond spent 15 years in Canada’s federal prison system - the vast majority of that time in maximum-security facilities. Near the end of his sentence he was transferred out of province to New Brunswick to face assault charges surrounding a prison fight he didn’t start. He was eventually released from a provincial facility in New Brunswick with nothing. No parole or probation officer. No finances. No family close by, and no way to get back to his home in Quebec.
12 Feb 2020
Introduction - Lawrence's warrant expiry release and continuity of medical care
There isn’t a simple or generic solution for succeeding “on the outside”, and what works well for one person won’t for the next. Co-hosts Catherine Latimer, Executive Director of the John Howard Society of Canada, and Lawrence Da Silva - a man who served 19 years in Canada’s penitentiary system, explore concepts around successful release and the problems and stigmas attached to community reintegration.
Lawrence shares the story of his own release, three-and-a-half years ago, at the expiry of his warrant. This meant no parole and no community support. In fact, he was met by the police at the gate of the prison, placed in handcuffs, and brought to court to have further constraints placed on his liberties not based on what he had done but on the fear of what he might do in the future. (s. 810.2 of CCC) With heightened police scrutiny and without continuity of needed medicines, facing reintegration was a daunting challenge particularly for someone who hadn’t seen modern society in nearly two decades.
Those men and women who have made the journey from incarceration back to the real world have a wealth of knowledge, personal insight, and experience to offer, both to those coming out of prison, and those outsiders looking in trying to find their own answers.
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