Advocates call for empathetic police practices after Fredericton woman left stranded by jail staff
New Brunswick's ombudsman is questioning why a woman was recently left stranded by correctional staff outside a gas station with no way of getting home.
Serena Woods was in police custody for panhandling and spent the night in a Fredericton holding cell because she couldn't pay $200 in fines. The following day, she was transported to the New Brunswick Women's Correctional Centre in Miramichi and almost immediately released.
Woods was then left at a nearby gas station 200 km away from her home, with less than $20 in her pocket and no way of getting home.
"I had nobody to come pick me up, they just drove me to ... the gas station and pointed in the direction of which way I should hitchhike," she told CBC News.
Ombudsman Charles Murray says officials should have responded to the distress Woods was in and could have reached out to government or volunteer agencies that could have helped.
"People need to just take off their hats as employees and put on their hats as New Brunswickers, or as human beings, and say, 'What can we do now?'" he tells The Current's guest host Laura Lynch.
He's considering an investigation into the incident and says the province needs to do better to ensure the safety and proper treatment of people in custody.
Going beyond protocol
Murray says it's not being soft on crime to treat people with humanity "in a way that reflects our values as a society."
"It's not about the criminal. It's about who we are as a people."
He applauds the truckers who offered Woods a ride home late at night.
"It's not their job to transport this woman but they saw a person in need. And they stepped up," he tells Lynch.
"The disappointing thing in this case is that the people we employ as a province to look after these people didn't see their duty in the same way."
In a statement sent to The Current, the New Brunswick's Ministry of Justice and Public Safety said: "Upon completion of sentence staff within the facilities work with inmates on discharge planning. We can not keep them an extra day or extra time, this is true whether they are in jail one night or two years."
In addition, they said correctional staff can offer assistance connecting the inmate with family of community resources and "if an inmate cannot develop a transportation plan, the correctional facility will transport him or her to a central transportation location within the community, for instance to a bus station."
- CBC News: Fredericton woman says jail staff left her stranded at gas station on outskirts
- CBC News: Minister doesn't want anyone else stranded at night by jail staff
While standard protocol was being followed to transfer Woods to Miramachi, Murray argues Woods could have been spared the distress of being left outside far from home if someone made a phone call to the facility to discuss how to handle her situation.
"Had that call been made, the people in Miramachi would have quickly confirmed she will now get credit for that time served and be released immediately," he says, adding that he intends to follow up with the department about why that call wasn't made.
Murray tells Lynch the government needs to create a culture that fosters empathy — a culture, he says, "where people feel that they have empowerment to do the right thing — to do the thing as human beings that they feel should be done — and that the department will back them when they do that."
Punishing the poor
To Doug King, a lawyer who advocates for low-income and marginalized people, the province's responses so far aren't enough.
"Why was this person in custody in the first place?" he asks, adding that Woods shouldn't have been arrested for panhandling.
"That's really survival behaviour," King tells Lynch.
"People who are in poverty who are living on the margins, they engage in this type of behaviour because they have to. But we continually create laws — bylaws especially — which punish that behaviour."
He argues creating bylaws that give police the power to arrest somebody for panhandling needs to change.
"It's easy for politicians to create a law that says everything is illegal and we'll let police sort it out," King explains.
"We should be looking at targeted laws that really get to the heart of the problem and not be simply passing on the power of police to use their discretion in cases like this."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this page, where you can also share this article across email, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.
This segment was produced from The Current's Idella Sturino and Halifax Network Producer Mary-Catherine McIntosh.