Halfway preposterous Proposal gives new meaning to term 'there goes the neighbourhood'
Recently, residents of two quite different southwest neighbourhoods, Sunalta and Scarboro, were stunned to learn who their new neighbours might be.
Namely, serious criminals given early release slated to serve their time in a local halfway house -- just blocks from two local schools.
This proposal gives whole new meaning to the phrase, "there goes the neighbourhood".
Before readers conclude the vigorous united opposition from both communities is a classic case of NIMBY, it's important to recognize these communities are already home to one homeless shelter, one drug rehab centre and an addiction-treatment centre. None of which were opposed.
While Scarboro and Sunalta are different demographically, they have something in common. Kids, and lots of them.
Both communities are home to young families, busy schools and paths snaking around the neighbourhoods where kids walk to school and back again.
I remember like it was yesterday being a police officer and learning of the brief but terrifying abduction of a young girl outside a grocer in Inglewood. She would have been taken from her parents by a sex offender residing at a local halfway house had it not been for the quick thinking and brave intervention of a neighbour.
The incident caused me to doubt the wisdom of community halfway houses. A doubt crystalized when I was elected to Parliament, and found out why we have halfway houses at all.
Under the Trudeau government, fundamental changes were made to the prison system, including early release, where inmates serve some of their remaining jail time outside of jail. While used infrequently at first, early release soon became common --then quota-based.
In other words, justice officials had an incentive to create revolving door prisons, kicking as many inmates out on early release as possible. That created the need for halfway houses -- a service now operated not by prison officials, but by third-party contractors.
Trudeau's government further set up the system to wash its hands of inmates when they left it up to municipal planners to pick the location of halfway houses. I have great respect for city officials who are skilled at traffic planning and municipal affairs, but not the impact of dangerous federal criminals on residential communities.
Residents of Scarboro and Sunalta weren't experts at that either. So they hired the world's foremost geographic crime profiler, Dr. Kim Rossmo, to study the neighbourhood. He determined Scarboro/Sunalta was a disastrous location for felons.
That wouldn't surprise sensible people, but it provided some ammunition against the practised and well-resourced arguments of the third-party halfway house contractor who argued against them to the city committee.
Needless to say, I support the residents of Scarboro and Sunalta as they wage their volunteer-based, grassroots campaign against city hall and the halfway house industry.
But it's not just their fight. All Calgarians should care.
Because a halfway house could be coming to your neighbourhood next. Don't bother asking what kind of criminals you'll get as neighbours, because the halfway house provider won't tell you, nor are they obligated to do so.
But if the existing Bedford halfway house is any indication, a significant number of these federal offenders will be murderers, sexual offenders and pedophiles.
Given the current early release system, there are two options I favour for the future of halfway houses.
Either make them part of the prison system by creating minimum-security facilities immediately outside of federal pens where some community life can be replicated.
Or, if halfway houses must be within city limits, put them in industrial areas away from families and where inmates interact with the community and adult residents only during the day. I bet you'd get support from Scarboro, Sunalta and every other neighbourhood in Calgary for that proposal. Perhaps that should be a plebiscite question in the upcoming municipal election.
In the meantime, let's support the residents of Scarboro and Sunalta.
My suggestion to the city decision makers -- don't approve this halfway house.
This isn't a simple zoning issue, the future of two different but equally vibrant, child-centred communities is in your hands.
The Calgary Sun, Guest Column
