Canada: Ottawa gives $7.48M for sex offender reintegration program

A Canadian initiative that helps reintegrate convicted sexual offenders back into society — an approach that cuts recidivism rates by anywhere from 67 to 92 per cent — has been granted $7.48 million in funding by the federal government.

Circles of Support and Accountability, which has 14 sites across the country, will received the money over five years to fund its National Capacity Project, Public Safety Canada said in a press release Friday.

The previous Conservative government had scrapped funding for all but one CoSA site in 2015, leaving the rest to scramble for other sources of income.

“Re-establishing funding for this important Canadian-made program demonstrates our commitment to evidence-based criminal justice policy,” Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Ralph Goodale said in the release.

“This project will help reduce victimization and keep our communities safe by holding ex-offenders accountable for their actions and giving them the support they need to become responsible and productive members of society.”

CoSA co-founder Harry Nigh said the announcement was “wonderful news.” A recently retired community chaplain, Nigh helped lay the foundations for what would become CoSA back in 1994 when, as a Mennonite minster in Hamilton, he built a community support network around serial child molester Charlie Taylor after Taylor was released from jail for the fourth time.

Taylor, who died 12 years later, never hurt another child again.

“(The announcement is) gratifying, because 23 years ago when Charlie came out, I thought we were going to be run out of town, and now we have . . . become an international model of how the community, with the support of the authorities, can really have an impact,” Nigh said in a phone interview Sunday. “So I’m very, very grateful.”

“The bottom line for the circles has been, ‘No more victims’ . . . how do you put a dollar value on that?” he added.

“What’s the benefit of that, except that when we compare groups of men who have come out of prison without a circle versus the groups who have had, their recidivism rate is cut by 75 per cent, roughly.”

Although CoSA sites get “quite a few clients whose victims were children,” CoSA Canada Chair David Byrne said the sites work with all sex offenders, which can trigger a knee-jerk reaction amongst the public when the issue of government funding is brought up.

“There’s probably a sense that maybe we’re advocating for the release of these types of people, but at the end of the day, we’re only working with people that are going to come out into the community whether we like it or not,” Byrne said.

“There’s nothing any arm of the justice system can do; they’re going to be among us, and so CoSA’s focus is going to say, ‘Well, if they’re going to be here, what can we do to make it most likely that they won’t reoffend again?’”

CoSA’s model is based on having two “circles” of support in place for newly-released — and often repeat — offenders who often find themselves ostracized due to the nature of their crimes. In the “inner circle,” several volunteers work with the person to address practical needs — housing and employment, for example — while also serving as an emotional support network that celebrates successes but also challenges problematic behaviours. The “outer circle” is made of professionals who can offer training and advice to volunteers as needed.

The approach has proven effective: according to a 2014 report by the Church Council on Justice and Corrections, 2 per cent of CoSA-involved offenders sexually reoffended again within three years of leaving jail, compared to almost 28 per cent of offenders who did not have CoSA — a reduction of more than 92.8 per cent. That rated dropped to 74.5 per cent over five years and 67 per cent over a decade.

Eileen Henderson, manager of CoSA for Toronto, Hamilton and southwest Ontario, said she was “very relieved, very excited, very encouraged” by Friday’s news. Henderson, who also sits on the board of CoSA Canada, said the funding will go toward supporting existing sites, but also research into CoSA’s model as well as setting up a national infrastructure so sites can communicate and share resources effectively.

She remained cautiously optimistic for the future.

“Certainly it breathes life into most of us, but we know that five years comes and goes pretty quickly, so we’ll always be looking at, ‘What’s next, after fives years?’ ” she said.

“But we’re excited about the present funding, excited for another opportunity for more research to be done on a model that we’re pretty passionate about.”