The Soberhood Society of Edmonton is working on a proposal for a community hub that would help people leaving custody connect with housing, recovery coaching and other supports. The group’s leader, David Wruth, says it is also working with people inside Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre, Edmonton Institution and the Edmonton Remand Centre to develop plans before they are released.

Wruth, 41, has experienced addiction and incarceration himself. He says footage showing inmates being dropped off in downtown Edmonton and Chinatown brought back memories of his own release. His last time in custody was two years ago in Fort Saskatchewan, and he says he was driven to Clareview Station in Edmonton and left there.

“I was introduced to drugs and alcohol at a very young age, and it led me to 25 years of addiction. And within that addiction, there was incarceration, there was crime, there was a life that was hard,” Wruth told CTV News Edmonton on Monday.

“I just got dropped off at Clareview Station. They just said ‘Goodbye. See you later.’ They drove me from Fort Sask. to Clareview, and that was it.”

Wruth is now two years clean. He heads up the Soberhood Society, which provides sober support groups, sober events, volunteer opportunities, recovery coaching and a podcast called Soberhood Talks. The podcast features people at different stages of recovery sharing their journeys.

“There’s about 40 hours a week that people can get volunteering with us,” he said. Wruth said volunteering helped him find purpose and gave him something to anticipate each week, forming the foundation of his recovery.

The society recently supplied all 70 volunteers for a free concert and community event at Churchill Square over the weekend. The event was part of Recovery Day, an annual celebration of people’s journeys to recovery and sober living, and included performances by Sloan and Bif Naked.

Wruth described the gathering as a mental health and addiction fair, with more than 50 resources represented. Local artisan booths and food trucks were also part of the event. “It was beautiful. It was an amazing day. Couldn’t have had better weather either,” he said.

The group sees its work with people in custody as a way to prepare for the transition back into the community. Wruth said he is already working with people at Fort Saskatchewan and Edmonton Institution and at Remand to help them develop a plan before release.

“We want to be able to go into the Remand and Fort Saskatchewan and build a rapport with people before they get out, so they feel more inclined to getting a hold of us when they do get out,” he said.

The proposed hub would provide a place where people could be dropped off and receive help with immediate needs. Wruth said the society could assist with finding housing, offer recovery coaching and connect people with supports from the building.

He presents his own experience as evidence that a person who has spent time in custody can contribute to society after changing course. “I’m a huge advocate for somebody getting out of jail and changing their life around. That’s the best story out there,” he said.

“When somebody can go from being a delinquent and not being a member of society and turn their life around within a couple years and now are doing amazing things, then that’s exactly what we want.”

Edmonton Police Service Chief Warren Driechel also says transitional services are needed for people leaving custody. He spoke to reporters Thursday after an Edmonton Police Commission meeting, saying police expect a stronger connection between corrections and available services.

“Our expectation is that we’re doing a better handoff to services,” Driechel said. He said partnerships are a focus of the community safety and well-being strategy, but acknowledged that the system still has gaps and faces limits in capacity.

Driechel said greater coordination is needed among police, social groups and the provincial government when someone is released. He described the consequences of releasing someone directly onto the street, where police may become involved if that person causes problems.

“By simply dropping them off in the street, corrections feels that they’ve ended their custody and care of that individual, they now likely become care and custody of the police service because they’re on the street if they’re causing problems,” he said.

Driechel said the videos prompted many calls from community partners and people at different levels of government to discuss the response. The province says it is reviewing existing procedures for inmate releases following the recent footage.

“The recent incidents do not reflect our intended practices or the considerable work undertaken by correctional staff every day to connect individuals with available supports as they leave custody,” Arthur Green of the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Services wrote in an email to CTV News Edmonton. “We will continue working to strengthen processes that support both community safety and successful reintegration.”

The CTV News Edmonton report included files from Jeremy Thompson.

Based on reporting by CTV News Edmonton.