Harm & Harm Reduction in The

Harm & Harm Reduction in the

Criminal Justice System

8th National Conference on Critical Perspectives:

Criminology and Social Justice

June 21 & 22, 2018

Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada

We would like to acknowledgethat we are in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship” which Mi’kmaq Wəlastəkwiyik (Maliseet), and Passamaquoddy Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1726. The treaties did not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognized Mi’kmaq and Wəlastəkwiyik (Maliseet) title and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations.

Les Méfaits et la Réduction des méfaits dans le système de justice pénale

8e Conférence nationale de Perspectives critiques: criminologie et justice sociale

A Joint Conference of the SMU Department of Criminology, the Nova Scotia Criminal Justice Association, and the National Committee of the Critical Perspectives Conference/ Une conférence conjointe de la SMU Faculté de criminologie, l’Association de justice pénale de la Nouvelle-Écosse, et du Comité national de la Conférence de Perspectives critiques.

Sponsored by:

PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS

1.1.A Criminalization of People in Poverty

Adamson, Kelly, Out of the Cold Shelter

Criminalization of People Who Use Substances While Experiencing Homelessness

People who are experiencing homelessness with concurrent problematic involvement with alcohol and/or drugs are some of the most marginalized and vulnerable groups in society (CoumansSpreen, 2003). While homelessness works to render individuals invisible, this presentation will explore how those same individuals, when engaged in concurrent substance use, become much more visible when use occurs in public spaces. Societal norms dictate that substance use should occur in the privacy of one’s home or regulated establishments, and public use is criminalized. Such criminalization leads folks who live in public spaces to come into conflict with the law at increasing rates. Our criminal justice response is to coerce individuals to cease or reduce their use, with little regard for individual autonomy and/or acceptance of continued use. This presentation will examine alternatives outside of this dominant discourse that embrace harm-reduction principles and meet people where they are at, working to shift the onus of change to the system rather than the individual.

Hessian, Chris, Out of the Cold Shelter

Criminalization of Homelessness

Homelessness is a prevalent issue in Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). In 2015, 1,508 adults, youth and/or children accessed shelters, while a Point in Time count showed that 284 individuals were sleeping rough (Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2017). Traditionally, homelessness has been viewed through an individual deficit-based lens, as opposed to looking at the structural/systems issues that contribute to and perpetuate homelessness in our communities. Utilizing a structural lens allows us to move away from blaming individuals and further examine the impact systems have in the creation and maintenance of homelessness. This presentation will look at how the criminal justice system not only contributes to system harms but maintains structural issues that preserve issues such as homelessness. We will explore the impact of increased monitoring, over-policing, and incarceration on individuals experiencing homelessness. We will also examine how, once involved with the criminal justice system, reintegration post-incarceration becomes more difficult for those who have previously experienced homelessness. Embracing a structural approach, grounded in conflict theory, will allow us to look at innovative harm-reduction policies and programs that can reduce systems harm, thereby reducing homelessness.

Jonsson, Eric, Out of the Cold Shelter

Criminalization of Low Income Housing

The average cost of a bachelor apartment in Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) is $758.00/month, yet the monthly allowance for a single person on Income Assistance in HRM is $575.00/month (Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2017). Once people leave homelessness they are likely to be housed in substandard housing; given the disparity between income and rental costs, rental options in HRM are severely limited. Individuals accessing subsidized housing are often clustered in communities that become the focus of increased surveillance and over-policing. Through a structural lens we see how these criminal justice practices can lead to the continued criminalization of people living in poverty. This presentation will explore how short-term solutions to homelessness that push people into substandard housing fails to address systemic issues and re-creates system harms that perpetuate criminalization and produce extreme poverty and homelessness. We will examine alternative system responses that address structural issues surrounding homelessness and housing, shifting away from short-term solutions that focus on correcting individual deficits.

1.1.B Ceasefire Halifax

Lucas, Mel, Ceasefire Halifax

The CeaseFire Halifax violence prevention program started after several Halifax region homicides in 2011 to deter gun-related violence. Delivered by the Community Justice Society and funded by the Nova Scotia Department of Justice (and formerly by Public Safety Canada’s National Crime Prevention Strategy), the program follows Chicago’s Cure Violence model. The model applies a public health lens to the problem of high rates of interpersonal violence in marginalized communities. The conference’s presentation will review the model and CeaseFire Halifax program specifics including staffing, resources, challenges, and successes.

1.1.C Substance Use

Hayle, Steven, University of Toronto

From Leader to Bystander: The Politics of Safe Injection Site Resistance in the United Kingdom

Countries around the world are struggling to overcome opioid epidemics, in which increasing numbers of their citizens are dying from accidental overdose on illicit substances such as heroin and fentanyl. Some governments are becoming increasingly supportive of harm reduction strategies, which aim to reduce the risks associated with substance use without necessarily requiring people to completely abstain from taking drugs. One example of such a strategy is safe injection sites, which are places where individuals can legally inject illegally obtained illicit drugs under medical supervision. This controversial strategy has been adopted in numerous countries around the world including Canada, Australia, Norway, and Switzerland. One country that is notably absent from this list is the United Kingdom. Historically, the British government has been a leader in establishing harm reduction strategies for intravenous drug use. These include heroin prescription, needle exchange programs, and heroin assisted therapy clinics. Despite this, to date the government continues to oppose the establishment of a safe injection site in the United Kingdom. Drawing on social constructionist theory and documentary evidence from government records and newspaper articles, this presentation will explore the socio-political conditions that help to explain the resistance to safe injection sites in the UK.

Forsey, James, Department of Justice

Bodily Substances Screening

In 2016, the Attorney General of Canada was notified of Nova Scotia’s intention to make regulations under the Federal Samples of Bodily Substances Regulations to develop a corrections-based drug screening framework. Providing a framework for probation officers to screen community-based offenders for drugs will promote deterrence of substance use and reduce harm to our communities. Using Core Correctional Practices, probation officers will administer drug screening practices to monitor substance use, with a focus on offender rehabilitation, while promoting a drug- and crime-free lifestyle. Effectively using authority, probation officers will have the option of notifying the Court of any violations of failing to abstain from drugs or attend treatment. Probation officers may also choose more restorative approaches, including the use of Adult Restorative Justice Programs. Drug testing encompasses a point-of-care saliva screening tool, with laboratory confirmation testing, and medical officer review. Nova Scotia Correctional Services endeavors to pilot a drug screening program in the Cape Breton region in 2018. Considering this region’s socio-economic challenges, investing in programs focused on reducing substance abuse will equate to decreased harm to public health, public safety and environment resulting in gains to government economics and community prosperity.

Merrick, Roger , Department of Justice

Strang, Robert, Department of Health and Wellness

Nova Scotia’s Response To The Opioid Crises: A Justice Perspective

Canada is in the middle of a crisis of overdose and overdose deaths due to illicit fentanyl and other high potency opioids appearing as part of the street drug picture. This is on top of an ongoing increase in opioid overdose and overdose deaths from prescription opioids. Through contamination of other street drugs, the rise in illicit high potency opioids places occasional street drug users (often youth or young adults) at risk, along with, chronic opioid users who have developed a dependency. In response government developed “Nova Scotia’s Opioid Use and Overdose Framework was released on July 19, 2017. The framework focuses on five key areas: understanding the issue, prevention, harm reduction, treatment and prescribing practices, and criminal justice and law enforcement. Justice has implemented numerous harm reduction projects and has been working with courts, law enforcement and many other stakeholders. As co lead of the provincial Opioid Misuse Strategy the Department of Justice has been working with Health and Wellness along with seven sub-committees to respond to this crises. Access to naloxone for the public, take home kits for offender reintegration and Drug Treatment Court Programs are some of just a few key pieces of the strategy.

1.1.D Penal & State Harms

Doyle, Aaron, Carleton University

Criminalization and Punishment Education Project: Challenging the Harms of Criminalization and Punishment

The Criminalization and Punishment Education Project (CPEP) is a group started in 2012 by professors and graduate students at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa along with community members, in order to get criminologists more involved in community issues around imprisonment. I will discuss our group's ongoing four year campaign against crowding and inhumane conditions at the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC), our series of public events about OCDC and other efforts to work for change. I will discuss the history of the provincial task force created in 2016 to deal with issues at OCDC, as well as our response to plans to build a new jail in Ottawa.

Ricciardelli, Rose, Memorial University of Newfoundland

The Negotiation of Vulnerabilities in Federal Prison

Drawing on data from two distinct datasets, both based on interviews with former federal prisoners now on parole or statutory release in Canada, I examine the diversities of "vulnerabilities" experienced in prison. The datasets include (i) 56 male former Canadian federal prisoners and (ii) a longitudinal interview study with male and female federal releasees over a three year period. Recognizing the intersectionality of risk, harm and safety, I first conceptualize how former prisoners understand risk, operationalized by feeling or not feeling safe/vulnerable. I unpack the types of risk experienced and negotiated in prison living. I argue that prisoners rely on ever evolving strategies of risk mitigation that they must understand, develop and learn---toolboxes of skills and practices that also change in accordance to changes in the prison context. Emphasis is placed on possible policy or needs that may assist in the reintegration of prisoners into the community post-federal incarceration.

Walby, Kevin, University of Winnipeg

Using Harm to Advance Debates about Police Abolition

Debates about public police abolition have risen to prominence along with struggles for justice led by Black Lives Matters after police shootings in the United States. Claims about police abolition are also put forward in Alex Vitale’s The End of Policing and other recent academic works. However, Vitale’s arguments in particular are neither systematic and comprehensive nor connected to debates about prison and penal abolition. In this paper, I extend arguments about police abolition in three ways. First, I argue public police can be critiqued for growing disproportionately in relation to other public sector organizations. This position entails a critique of police budgets, and a focus on how these budgets can be reduced and minimized. Second, I argue public police can be critiqued for growing disproportionately in relation to criminalized harms that they can reasonably be expected to adequately address. This position entails a critique of police claims and evidence about crime control, and puts emphasis on diversion and other alternatives. Third, I suggest that a focus on the notion of harm or the harms of policing draws attention to the long-term implications of public policing and criminalization for communities and neighbourhoods (many of which are already marginalized). This position entails drawing parallels to arguments advanced by prison and penal abolition scholars about the erosion of community that criminalization causes. I conclude by anticipating rejoinders to these and other arguments for police abolition.

Walby, Kevin, University of Winnipeg

and Brendan Roziere

Police Militarization in Canada as Harm and Violence

Despite extensive analysis of police militarization across the United States (US), the issue in Canada has been overlooked. This paper conceptualizes militarization within Canadian police forces as organized harm and violence. Drawing from data on deployments disclosed under freedom of information (FOI), findings reveal that use of special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams have escalated in many major Canadian cities. Public police now deploy SWAT teams for routine law enforcement activities such as warrant work, traffic enforcement, community policing, as well as responding to mental health crises and domestic disturbances. Delehanty and colleagues (2017) show use of SWAT means police are much more likely to shoot and kill citizens. Thus, increasing deployment of SWAT has implications for the harm and violence that police perpetrate. Engaging with social theories of harm and violence, the paper then considers citizen experiences of what is referred to as “composed carnage” executed by police personnel. This paper concludes with reflections on the implications for public policing and avenues for future research on police militarization and police violence in Canada.

1.2.A Partnerships & Public Safety

Simmonds, Dean, Halifax Regional Police

White, Matthew, Nova Scotia Health

Giacomantonio, Christopher, Halifax Regional Police Research Coordinator

Police Community Partnerships Helping to Reduce Harm

In this breakout session participants will learn about non-traditional partnerships being embraced at Halifax Regional Police both organizationally and by individual officers which help to reduce harm. Panelists will touch on the integrated health/police response to citizens experiencing a mental health crisis, the variety of endeavours undertaken by HRP community and school officers, and the evolution of academic research and related partnerships with the police service.

1.2.B North End Community Health Centre

Fraser, John, North End Community Health Centre

Atkinson, Jacqueline, North End Community Health Centre (MOSH program)

Harm Reduction on the Street: How to walk the talk/ North End Community Health Centre

Harm reduction is a pragmatic, non-judgmental approach to providing care that accepts a person’s right and capacity to make choices regarding their health; acknowledges the social context affecting those decisions; and offers strategies to maximize health given those choices. Controversy continues to exist regarding harm reduction, its benefits, and its application: What is it? Does it prevent or impair recovery? Does it support or enable “bad” decisions to the detriment of the person? In this symposium, the presenters will explore the barriers to providing harm reduction services, at both the personal and the system levels. They will describe a successful street-based, harm reduction program designed for a marginalized population. Finally, they will present specific examples of harm reduction strategies, focusing on the immediate period after release from correctional institutions.

1.2.C Gender, Sex & Law

Boillat-Madfouny, François, University of Montreal

Sex, Intoxication and Capacity to Consent

This presentation will focus on sex, intoxication and capacity to consent. After briefly explaining the actusreus and mens rea of the offense of sexual assault in Canadian Criminal Law, I will explain the role that intoxication (by alcohol or any drug) plays in the prosecution of sexual assault cases. At first, I will describe how the intoxication of the victim can – or should – affect his or her legal capacity to consent, regardless of factual consent. Parallelly, I will explore how the intoxication of the accused can complicate matters, especially in cases of severe intoxication. It is following these introductory comments that I will explain my belief that there is a justice gap for sexual assault victims who were severely intoxicated. The presentation will explore the different causes of this justice gap, before proposing different approaches that Parliament may take to close it. They are, however, many different concepts and perspectives that will have to be considered before attempting any legislative reform. Indeed, any criminalization of human behaviour most be thoroughly examined considering (1) the intricacies of human interaction, especially in sexual contexts, as well as (2) the seriousness of being declared guilty of a criminal offense.

Mouland, Carolyn, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law

Immunized from Prosecution, But Not From Persecution: Harms of the New Sex Work Laws

When the Supreme Court of Canada struck down prohibitions against keeping bawdy-houses, living on the avails of prostitution, and publicly communicating for prostitution in the 2013 case of Bedford v Canada, Parliament responded quickly to try to cure the violation of the Charter right to life, liberty, and security of the person. Intervening with a brand-new policy aim to protect sellers of sex through immunity from prosecution, the new criminal offences instead directly target purchasers and exploiters of sex with prohibitions against purchasing sexual services, receiving a material benefit from sexual services, advertising sexual services for sale, and by modernizing the procuring and communicating offences. With exceptions that purport to permit sellers of sex to work indoors, as well as to hire bodyguards and drivers, the new laws ostensibly reflect the Supreme Court of Canada’s concerns in Bedford. However, I will canvass the indirect ways in which the new statutory regime reproduces and generates hazards to life and health by honing in on what is practically required for successfully enforcing and prosecuting the new offences.