EDMONTON — Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis says he was deeply disappointed and outraged when he was informed that corrections officials had dropped recently released inmates into Edmonton's Chinatown, though his deputy minister has determined it was a matter of human error. A pair of instances from Edmonton in September sparked concerns about Alberta’s inmate release program, after a Corrections Services van was caught on video release individuals onto the street in Chinatown on two occasions. In one instance, seven people were released from the van on the sidewalk in front of a store and walked away. ."That is not a direction that I certainly have given," said Ellis when asked about the situations by Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack at the Association of Alberta Municipalities convention on Friday. "I can tell you that the deputy minister immediately convened a meeting with all of the executives. What they determined, especially in those two incidents, we're all human beings in this room, that unfortunately that was a human error." Knack asked Ellis what he and the UCP were doing to end such uncoordinated drop-offs and ensure the efficient, safe release of inmates. Ellis said the government has developed the Alberta recovery-oriented system of care, and Therapeutic Living Units inside of correctional and remand centres. "It's remarkable work that's being done," Ellis said. "It is unfortunate that those two individuals were dropped off, but that is not certainly a direction of this government, and I can tell you that the deputy minister has committed to making sure something like that does not happen again." .Global News asked Ellis at a press conference later on Friday about information that told them similar instances had happened in Grande Prairie. Ellis said he was unaware of said instances.ABmunis President Dylan Bressey said the issue is not unique to Edmonton. "This is an issue that we do see in communities around prisons and jails and across Alberta," said Bressey. "I know, in my own community, I'm aware of it happening at times as well, where we have people getting out of the criminal justice system.""We also have people getting out of the healthcare system that are still in crisis or don't have the resources they need to be successful, and they're getting unloaded on our city streets where there isn't adequate social services for them, and it's creating social chaos as well as costing a lot of money, and police, fire, and parks response." .Ellis emphasized that he has been working to create a system to support individuals inside of corrections facilities, and to help create a "warm handoff" when they are released. "If you're talking about a warm handoff, in that somebody needs to go to a recovery community if somebody chooses and wants to go to that shelter, it's doing that warm handoff because in those shelters we've made sure that resources are available to folks so that they connect them to the system of care that has been created," Ellis said."So again, they are in a better path than which they started. What I am trying to do, and what I have been trying to do the last four or five years, is to stop the cycle of abuse and stop the recidivism."
