Labor shortage | Halfway houses on the tightrope

Transition houses in remote areas are a hair’s breadth away from being staffed to cover all their shifts. In Gaspésie, the labor shortage recently got the better of the peninsula’s only institution.

Both for the social reintegration of ex-inmates and for the safety of the public, this is not good news, warn several directors of halfway houses in an interview with The Press.

On March 31, the L’Arc-en-Soi halfway house in Maria, in the Gaspé, closed for good after a year of intensive research to fill key positions. The Gaspé Peninsula thus lost the only service of its kind in its territory.

Halfway houses – also called community residential centers (CRC) – are places offering accommodation, support and supervision to offenders in the process of gradual release. A process that promotes their social reintegration and helps prevent recurrences, according to the Association of Social Rehabilitation Services of Quebec (ASRSQ).

In Quebec, these organizations follow in the community a little more than 5000 people on release, indicates David Henry, criminologist and director general of the ASRSQ.

The Ministry of Public Security (MSP) learned with “tremendous regret” the closure of L’Arc-en-Soi, said Louise Quintin, public relations officer for the MSP, by email.

Hundreds of kilometers

The closest halfway house is now in Rivière-du-Loup, in Bas-Saint-Laurent. To access it, former Gaspé prisoners will have to move away from their families and wait before finding a job or housing in their community, deplores Lorraine Michaud, general manager of L’Arc-en-Soi.

“Someone who comes to a halfway house, who works on him, who finds a job, housing, when he goes back to his environment, to the community, it’s a lot safer than someone who goes out directly from detention and which had no buffer zone,” she said.

“What saddens me most about this is that fewer people are going to have the opportunity [comme moi] to improve like no other, to Maria, and get your head above water,” said André Ouellet, a resident of Amqui who went through the services of L’Arc-en-Soi at the time of its closure.

“I was one month away from a break in service”

L’Arc-en-Soi is not the only organization to have labor-related glitches. “Last year, I was ready to say: there, we close, we consolidate, we hire, we train, and after that we will reopen,” says Chantal Lessard, general manager of the CRC d’Amos, in Abitibi- Temiscamingue. “I called Correctional Services to say that if I didn’t hire, I was one month away from a break in service. »

The organization has managed to avoid the closure, but is struggling to keep its head above water.

To complicate their task, halfway houses must operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to ensure the safety of inmates and the public.

“At midnight, if your worker can’t come in, and you don’t have a backup, it’s difficult,” adds André Bonneau, from the CRC in Roberval, in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean.

This halfway house has no one left on its recall list. “Tomorrow morning, someone falls ill, is injured, things are not going well, adds Mr. Bonneau. I haven’t seen this often in 36 years. »

Find, Train, Retain

In the past, halfway houses attracted new graduates from CEGEP or university who could then migrate to correctional services, explain the directors.

Now, the correctional services themselves are struggling to hire. Result: a turnover of about 50% of the staff in the halfway houses, says David Henry.

“We find ourselves with half of the workers in halfway houses who have little experience working with residents,” he warns.

At the same time, the experiences of ex-convicts are increasingly complex, adds Henry. “Residents come out of detention with more acute problems than before – substance abuse, mental health, sexual delinquency, etc. Is there less support than before? Do the substances you use cause more problems? I have no response. »

In Abitibi-Témiscamingue, this combination worries. “I can’t afford to put a [employée moins expérimentée] alone on the floor with 15 guys, so I have to double, illustrious M^me Lessard. The community sector has a reputation for always adapting, but at some point, we will come to the end of our rope. »