An Alberta mentorship program for people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is reporting lower reoffending among participants as it expands across the provincial correctional system. Since 2025, 13 per cent of 400 people enrolled in the program have reoffended. By comparison, an average of 30 per cent of adults released from a provincial institution are reconvicted of another crime within three months.

The Transition Mentorship program now operates at all 10 provincial correctional institutions, including facilities for young offenders. It connects people with supports as they prepare to leave custody and adjust to life in the community. Alberta Correctional Services associate director of programs Michael Stansberry said outcomes differ because FASD affects each person uniquely.

“Success is connecting to long term supports. Success is family reunification. Success is getting a job. “Success is staying out of trouble,” Stansberry said. The program’s measures of success can therefore include connections to ongoing help, reunification with family, employment and avoiding further trouble.

Katlin Sharko, now 40, had been caught in a cycle of committing crimes, being arrested and serving time, then struggling after release and reoffending. While in Edmonton remand centre, he attended a seminar about fetal alcohol syndrome, or FAS, with a couple of friends. “I was in the Edmonton remand centre and they were putting on a seminar for FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome) or people with FAS,” Sharko recalled. “I went and sat in with a couple buddies.”

After the seminar, he took pamphlets back to his cell and recognized himself in the information. “I took the sheets and reviewed them in my cell and saw how it related to me.” FASD is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disability caused by alcohol exposure in the womb. According to the Mayo Clinic, fetal alcohol syndrome is at the severe end of the spectrum.

FASD affects each person’s brain and body differently, creating individual combinations of strengths and daily challenges. In general, it can affect physical development, thinking, learning and behaviour, as well as a person’s ability to function and cope in daily life. Sharko said he recognized many of the symptoms in himself, including trouble choosing friends, managing money, arriving on time and keeping jobs. “Making bad friends, poor money management, not on time, hard to keep jobs. I don’t like large crowds, bright lights can bother me.”

His mother had died, so Sharko asked his father whether she might have consumed alcohol while pregnant. His father confirmed that it likely happened and encouraged him to seek help. Sharko contacted the Willow Winds Support Network in Edmonton, which provides services for people affected by FASD, and enrolled in its Transitional Mentorship program.

Willow Winds arranged assessments with a doctor and psychologist. Sharko was diagnosed with FASD, depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A transition worker with expertise in FASD built a relationship with him while he was in custody and helped prepare him for release.

Julie Nanson-Ashton, executive director of the Central Alberta FASD Network, said workers help clients secure housing, income and food, and access substance use and mental health assistance. They meet clients at the correctional facility when they are released, show them their new home, arrange appointments with doctors, therapists or banks, and drive them to meetings. The work is intended to bridge a gap that advocates say can lead people with FASD to reoffend.

“If we miss the individual when they leave that door, then what choice do they have? They’re walking into homelessness, they’re looking at re-offending, they are looking at re-engaging with substance use, and then their mental health deteriorates, right? Whereas they’ve got some hope,” Nanson-Ashton said. She said many people with FASD who offend have difficulty maintaining support networks after past relationships have broken down. “They make decisions that are rash, impulsive, and they don’t understand what the outcomes are going to be. “They’re also easily persuaded by others to commit crimes.”

Nanson-Ashton described the reduction in reoffending associated with the program as “absolutely amazing.” Stansberry said community supports have costs, but added: “We know that there are costs associated with supporting people in the community, but those costs are miniscule compared to the public costs of housing somebody, the costs of the criminal justice system, police costs,” he said.

Eight months after his release, Sharko is rebuilding his relationship with his son and continuing to work on his sobriety. He calls the program life-changing. “They helped me immensely. I’m very grateful. Things have been going really good for me.”

Based on reporting by Global News.