Q: What is a halfway house?
A halfway house is a community based residential facility for offenders who, having been sentenced to a term of incarceration, are serving a portion of their sentence under supervision in the community. Halfway houses can also be defined as a places where offenders work and pay room and board while undergoing programming, counseling and job training for the purposes of re-integration into the community.
Q: How does a halfway house work?
Offenders in halfway houses are simply on conditional release from prison. When offenders are granted (or, in the case of statutory release, when they become entitled to) conditional release, the National Parole Board or other responsible authority may impose a variety of conditions on their release.
Standard conditions include requirements to travel directly to and from one’s place of residence and to report regularly to a parole supervisor. Additional conditions may include a requirement to obey a set curfew, to abstain from alcohol or other drugs, to attend substance abuse or other treatment, to attend school or other programming or to stay away from certain neighborhoods or people.
In addition to conditions of release, all offenders in halfway houses are expected to follow house rules. House rules may include shared cleaning tasks or maintenance of one’s personal living and sleeping area. Offenders may be required to pay a certain room and board fee toward the cost of maintaining the house. Halfway houses that grant weekend passes may also require offenders to follow certain rules regarding coming and going on weekend passes.
Offenders who do not follow the conditions of their release can have their release revoked and will be returned to prison if they are believed to present an undue risk to the public.
Q: Does a halfway house nearby affect the safety of my neighborhood or the value of my property?
No, research has shown that halfway houses do not contribute to increased crime rates or to decreased property values. Although it is commonly believed that halfway houses attract a “criminal element” to a neighborhood, it is more likely that they attract a pro-social element. Such persons include community police officers, probation case managers, community member volunteers and religious leaders.
In some cases, property values actually improve where halfway houses have been responsible for the cleaning up of a blighted area. They also can help with the installation of attractive and well-kept grounds, improved lighting and visible presence of law enforcement.
Q: How successful are halfway houses?
Success rates are excellent for offenders who are released back into the community through halfway houses. The Correctional Service of Canada keeps track of success rates for offenders on various forms of conditional release, and offenders on day parole (which most often means offenders who undergo gradual release through a halfway house) are consistently the most successful.
Over 80% of offenders successfully complete day parole. This is in comparison to rates of around 70% for offenders on full parole and around 60% for offenders on statutory release. (National Parole Board, 2000)
Even among offenders who do not successfully complete periods of conditional release, the majority of offenders who fail do so because they violate a condition of the release (such as failing to attend school or other programming or failing to return to the halfway house before curfew time), not because they commit a new crime (Correctional Service of Canada, 2001)
Q: Where can I find more information?
For more detailed public information, try starting with our recommended links page, which can point you to useful websites data relating to Halfway houses and correctional services in Canada.