Unlocking the Gates: From corrections to community
People with prison experience are disproportionately affected by hepatitis C. Criminalizing drug use leads more people who use drugs to end up in prison settings, where a lack of access to sterile needles, syringes and tattoo equipment increases the risk of hepatitis C transmission. Barriers to care in prisons—and the many challenges people face after release—often lead people to go undiagnosed and untreated.
Unlocking the Gates is a peer-led organization in British Columbia that supports individuals being released from corrections through a variety of services, including pre-release planning and transition support, probation/bail resolution and warrant support. To better understand what’s needed to support people after their release from prison, CATIE spoke with Mo Korchinski, executive director of Unlocking the Gates.
How did Unlocking the Gates start?
While I was incarcerated at Alouette Correctional Centre for Women (ACCW), the provincial prison for women in British Columbia, ACCW had a participatory research program through the University of British Columbia. I learned the power of research and how it can make a difference when fighting for policy changes. After my release from prison, I was hired to sit at the bus loop in Maple Ridge and interview women as they came out of prison. Women were getting dropped off in taxis and left at this stop, not a clue what bus to get on or how to get home. Most of them only had the clothes they were wearing.
Unlocking the Gates (UTG) started as a pilot project to address the barriers women were facing post-release. Me and the other UTG peer mentors would look up the court registry every day to see who was in custody and we’d mail thousands of letters into ACCW to get the word out about our services. Sometimes the letters would end up in the men’s prisons because the court registry doesn’t indicate sex, so that’s how we expanded the program to include men.
Our relationship with corrections changed during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, because people were mass-released out of corrections into community to follow public health guidelines. All of a sudden, our services were really needed. We had to start building relationships with corrections to get people safely into the community. Along the way, corrections realized that having us support people coming out of jail was actually a good thing for everyone involved.
What are some of the most common barriers faced by people post-release?
The biggest challenge post-release is having somewhere safe to go. We know there’s a housing crisis and no one’s going to rent to somebody who’s been incarcerated. When they get released, they have no job and only a little bit of money from income assistance. It’s the basic needs that we all take for granted. You know, being able to wake up in a warm bed and be able to walk in and have a shower or go to the bathroom. This population, when they get released, they don’t have that option without somebody supporting them. So, we always say, ‘Reach out to us as soon as possible so we can support you better.’
Why do you use peers to support people transitioning back into the community?
You can’t teach somebody who hasn’t been to prison what it’s like being released. It’s a feeling, the mindset that stresses you out. I’ve been out 19 years now and I still remember the feeling of walking out of those gates – the anxiety, you have nothing. You have no money, you have no place to go and a lot of hopelessness. We try to give people hope and dignity the day they get out. We remove the stigma because all of us in UTG have been incarcerated. All of us have used drugs. It’s client-centred – everybody’s needs and issues are different and you’re meeting people where they’re at. And I think the biggest thing about people with lived experience, is we generally really care for our peers. None of us forget what it was like being hungry, not being able to get food, not having clothing, not having somewhere to stay. It’s such a hard life. Having a staff made up entirely of people with lived experience gives them hope.
We want to make sure that UTG staff who already beat that cycle don’t get stuck in it again. Of course, our lived experience matters, but it’s also important to keep people safe. So, we require one year of recovery and one year crime-free before hiring anyone, because usually at that point, people are ready to get back into life. We get told we can’t do anything with a criminal record, so it’s a great steppingstone for somebody who’s never had a job. I never got my record sealed, meaning that it’s accessible to the public, and I’m a registered social worker. Your criminal record shouldn’t stop you, but we get told it does. For me, I had one person who believed in me, which changed my life. I didn’t want to let this person down. Most people with prison experience have never had anybody be there for them. We make sure everybody knows that they matter.
How did you identify the need to integrate hepatitis C into your programming?
I was super proud when I got out of my addiction that I didn’t have hepatitis C. Then I got a tattoo at someone’s home and ended up getting the virus. I found it so hard to get treatment and even navigate the health system. Even though it wasn’t the main focus of our ‘Doing Time’ study, we also found that while interviewing the women, many of them said they had hepatitis C and identified a need for medical care post-release. People with prison experience hate healthcare, so being able to do pop-up hepatitis C testing in tents and U-Hauls with a nurse, offering food and a gift card, creates a low barrier, one-stop shop. My staff can also do point-of-care testing during jail pickups and connect clients with the nurse if they’re antibody-positive. If their RNA result comes back positive, we’ve already done the work behind the scenes to get authorization for the medication and coordinate dispensing. We give cell phones out to stay in contact with people and consistently go back to our pop-up locations every two weeks so people can find us.
How does offering hepatitis C treatment open doors to other services?
Hepatitis C is just the start because people have lots of other health issues. Building that relationship allows us to address other concerns, to say, ‘Hey, this wasn’t a bad experience… have you had a mammogram? When was the last time you had a pap test?’ Hepatitis C is a great gateway for people to have a better experience with healthcare. Most of the time, the people I talk to don’t feel like anybody cares. Luckily, the team that I have is amazing; the nurse that comes and draws blood remembers everybody’s names and faces. It’s rewarding to have them phone me and go, ‘I just took my last pill. I’m finished! And I’ve never finished anything in my life.’ It does so much for a person’s self-esteem and motivation. And it builds our connection to them too. We become their cheerleaders and we listen to them. It’s important to listen to their stories because they just want their voices to be heard.
Mo Korchinski is the executive director of Unlocking the Gates. Drawing from her lived experiences with substance use and incarceration, Mo has dedicated her life to helping others break the cycle of incarceration by addressing trauma and supporting healing. She is a strong advocate for policy change and increased resources for her community.