New video that shows more detainees from correctional facilities being dropped off in Edmonton’s Chinatown has prompted the city’s mayor to call on upper levels of government to address release protocols.
On Wednesday, CBC News reported on surveillance footage showing a provincial corrections van dropping off a former detainee in a private parking lot in Chinatown. On Sunday, CBC News received new footage, recorded Friday evening, that shows at least seven more former detainees being dropped off in a Chinatown parking lot.
At a news conference on Monday, Mayor Andrew Knack said he believes the provincial government needs to show exactly how it plans to address the issue, including what supports people receive after they leave custody.
“It’s one thing to say the words that, ‘We see this problem, we’ve identified the problem,’” he said.
“It’s something else entirely to say, ‘And here’s the sequence of actions we’re going to take.’”
Last week, after CBC News first reported about the drop-offs in Chinatown, a statement from Alberta’s Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Services said the department is “reinforcing expectations with staff that releases occur at appropriate public locations and not on private property.”
Knack said a plan for someone leaving a correctional facility needs to include reintegration and followup.
“How are we ensuring that person is getting all of the necessary supports and care so they’re not falling back into maybe a place of homelessness, that they’re not falling back into issues like mental health and addictions?” he asked.
Knack said he wants the Alberta government to provide information about timelines for addressing shortages in housing, recovery and other supports.
‘We have the solutions’
Knack said Edmonton has an unusually high concentration of correctional facilities, with eight such facilities. He said the city is also a northern Alberta hub for social services.
“The disproportionate pressure that our city faces due to the concentration of these services means that we need a uniquely Edmonton approach,” he said.
Coun. Anne Stevenson said the city has seen at least a dozen people released into Edmonton in what she described as a state of “incredible vulnerability.”
She said the city is asking the province for a “reintegration co-ordination framework,” pointing to non-profit organizations already doing this work.
“We have the model, we have the solutions,” Stevenson said.
Knack said the city has already made land available for affordable and supportive housing and is working toward community health hubs, recovery spaces and other supports.
But he said those efforts cannot replace provincial and federal responsibility for people leaving custody.
“We don’t have the same legal tools as the provincial and federal governments,” Knack said.
“This is ultimately with them on that. But we’re not going to sit back and just say, ‘Do it yourselves.'”
Release plans can be complicated
Kathryn Quinlan, vice-president of the Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association, said there is no single process for releasing someone from custody, and that a blanket release plan would not work because people’s circumstances differ.
People can be released on bail, after serving a provincial sentence, or from federal custody through parole, statutory release or the expiry of a sentence, she said.
Quinlan said she has represented clients who were dropped off in public areas. That practice works for some people but creates significant barriers for others, she said.
Some people may have supports in the downtown area, she said, while others may have family or housing elsewhere in Edmonton or outside the city.
“It’s the individuals who don’t have that same access who would struggle,” Quinlan said.
A person leaving custody may not have access to a cellphone, which can make it difficult to contact family, arrange transportation or access services.
A surveillance video obtained by CBC News shows a former detainee being released from a van, marked as a provincial corrections transport vehicle, into a parking lot in Edmonton’s Chinatown neighbourhood. CBC News has blurred the detainee’s face because neither his identity nor the circumstances of his release have been verified.
Quinlan said better-funded release planning could address some of those gaps.
She suggested a worker at the Edmonton Remand Centre could speak with people before release to determine what they already have in place and what they need to access those supports — potentially something as simple as bus fare or an Arc (reloadable transit fare card) card.
In a statement, the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Services said correctional staff work with people before release to identify available services and consider transportation, their home community, immediate needs and available supports.
The province said about 80 per cent of people in custody are on remand, meaning their release dates may not be known in advance.
In its statement, the ministry said it understands concerns raised by Chinatown residents and businesses and is reviewing practices.
“We recognize the important role Chinatown plays in Edmonton,” the ministry said, adding that it will continue working with community partners to ensure release procedures balance community concerns, operational requirements and connecting people with available supports.
Knack said the city wants to see those commitments translated into action quickly.
“We need the two orders of government who have the actual levers to solve this to be the ones leading the charge,” he said.
CBC News reached out to the Edmonton Police Service but the police department said it was unable to comment.
