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| John Chaif |
The problem is that prison walls lack porosity. The walls inhibit, restrict, constrict, constrain and prohibit the movement of information and personal contact between these organizations and the very prisoners they want to help. Contact and the flow of information are important elements of transitions for incarcerated people. It takes time and interactions to build trust between the organization and the prisoner. This trust is an important element within the decision-making of both parties. Successful support requires the engagement of both parties in the work that must be done. Each party must have some degree of trust in the other if they are to work together to address the obvious hurdles and the sometimes subtle obstacles to a successful transition.
In the past, a catch-22 situation existed. Without personal contact, a relationship was difficult to establish. The incarcerated person was dependent on word of mouth from others who were incarcerated, which wasn’t always up to date and accurate. Without knowing which organization was which, and who was whom within the organizations, it was difficult to reach out and make the initial distant contact. It was difficult to arrange a personal interaction with an in-reach worker, someone from the organization who would visit the incarcerated person. If the incarcerated person doesn’t have some sense of what the organization is and what it has to offer, how would they know if they could work together towards a successful release? Yet the restrictions on the organization’s ability to penetrate the walls and the shortage of funding within the organizations meant that neither could meet with regularity, familiarity or constructively, all of which are critical to the development of successful release planning.
John Howard Society of Kingston set out to address these roadblocks to support. Someone presented the idea of a pre-release fair. The gathering would be structured on the job fair model, except the booths would be manned by those organizations committed to reducing crime by supporting transitions from prison to community. Because a pre-release fair was open to the entire prison population the organizations could meet hundreds of incarcerated people in one day. During a scheduled visit to the institution, an in-reach worker could possibly meet with as many as 10 incarcerated persons. The fair allowed organizations short of funds to optimize their exposure to the incarcerated people while reducing travel and associated costs.
In 1999, Joyceville Medium Security Prison held its first pre-release fair. Over 70 organizations met in the gym. These organizations included such diverse areas of assistance as the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, the Canadian Association of the Deaf, health organizations for diabetes and hepatitis infections, self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, mental health associations, branches for the Salvation Army, John Howard Society, St. Leonard’s Society and many halfway houses as well. Pamphlets outlining the area of expertise each organization offered, the assistance possible and, most importantly, the face-to-face conversation were made available. The theme for the 1999 event was “Getting Out Is An Inside Job.” The theme for the second annual Pre-Release Fair was “Working Together.”
Correctional Services Canada (CSC) is responsible for operating the federal prison system, which houses those incarcerated persons with sentences exceeding two years in length. CSC still struggles with supporting these efforts toward the successful reintegration of the incarcerated. Recent information indicates that fairgoing organizations must now accomplish all they can with members of the prison populations in a very compressed time frame of 90 to 120 minutes. The early fairs would last up to five hours with seminars on reintegration processes and information relevant to community support. The organizations involved lament the present reality of diminished time frames imposed by CSC.
Networking possibilities exploded. Organizations from a single community discovered it was possible to walk an incarcerated person from one table to another to integrate different areas of expertise in a cohesive plan for the person’s release. Not only did the incarcerated people benefit, but the organizations developed a better understanding of the strategies and tactics each offered to the incarcerated people within the community.
The John Howard Society of Kingston continues, to this day, to co-ordinate pre-release fairs in the prisons within Ontario.
In 1983, at the age of 27, John Chaif was sentenced to life in prison with 25 years until parole eligibility. In 1988, he escaped from Collins Bay Institution in Kingston, Ont. He was later rearrested in the United States and spent six years in the federal prison system there before being transferred back to Canada. Chaif has spent a great deal of time inside advocating against systemic abuses, including abuses relating to prison labour. His advocacy has at times attracted the attention and opposition of prison authorities. Last year he won a Federal Court challenge he brought after being denied day parole (Chaif v. Canada (Attorney General), 2022 FC 182). Chaif was subsequently released from prison on day parole at the age of 67. He now continues his activism on the outside as a vocal proponent for the human rights of prisoners.
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