We know that reentry follows a pathway rather than being a single event. Stepping back out of a court, jail or prison is just the first step in getting free and finding home.

And, as a recent Canadian Civil Liberties Association report points out, for people from rural and fly-in communities the lack of transit and transportation supports mean that one’s physical home can be an inaccessible hundreds of kilometres away.

Last month we presented ideas for strength-based reentry to the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Professional Planners (NLAPP) as part of their Planner’s Plate speakers series.

We shared ideas for strength-based reentry, based on postdoctoral fellow Rachel Fayter’s research, including:

• humanizing people who are released from prisons;

• building on strengths and capabilities;

• focusing on community needs;

• supporting peer-to-peer programs;

• promoting social connections and inclusion.

And highlighted potential roles for planners in this process including:

• working in solidarity and as supports;

• working on housing supplies from designated reentry housing, to increasing affordable and decommodified housing overall;

• supporting rural transit;

• supporting programs for meaningful employment, and arts;

• coordination and technical support for decarcertaion.

• roles for funding and as a funder

The audience shared their own ideas including thoughts on how to use the tools of planning to expose more people to ideas around abolition, and we’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

***

Thanks so much to NLAPP for the invitation, our only regret was that we couldn’t find an excuse to join in person in St John’s!

But next year we’re inviting you all to Ottawa for our two-day, in-person Pathways to Community Safety Workshop, February 14+15 (Welcome celebration on the 13th).

Deadline for applications is December 15.
We’ve also updated the FAQs page based on questions and comments during our information session, and we look forward to hearing from you.

à bientôt
planningforabolition@carleton.ca

Learning + Action

Last month a powerful disability justice activist passed away. There are so many important connections between carceral violence and ableism, and lessons for abolition in disability justice. So this month some remembrances and reminders of the connections and lessons, with the content warning that most include stories of harm alongside care.

• Alice Wong was for Crips, eSims for Gaza, and Everything to Us [postcards from the end of the world - Substack]

• Saskatchewan Training School: ”You cannot just walk away” [Invisible Institutions]

• On the Outs: Reentry for Inmates with Disabilities [Rooted in Rights]

• Prison Project [Disability Justice Network of Ontario]

• New Report Further Reveals the Unusual Cruelty of Canadian Prisons [Spring]

• Why Can’t I Find Any Accessible Housing in Toronto? [Brampton Guardian]

• The Prisoner’s Herbal [Solidarity Apothecary]

• Alternatives to Policing Based on Disability Justice [issuu + The Abolitionist and Disability Justice Coalition]

• Skin Teeth Bone [Sins Invalid]