Cliff Strong just spent two weeks in the hospital with his latest bout of pneumonia. He has a litany of illnesses now, at 78, including the Parkinson’s disease that requires him to use an electric wheelchair to get around.

Strong is also on day parole for second-degree murder, living at a halfway house in Peterborough that is specifically designed to provide supportive and palliative care to former inmates on parole.

It’s the kind of place you wouldn’t hear about until you — or someone you care about — needed it.

Resources for elderly parolees is one part of a new guidebook released by the Provincial Human Services and Justice Coordinating Committee on Monday that provides a crash course in navigating the criminal justice system for people with age-related illnesses and their caregivers. It’s also intended to be an educational resource for service providers, police and lawyers with a section about various possible illnesses to screen for.

“There really isn’t a lot of information out there for family members or caregivers of people that are caught up in the justice system, or are getting out. What supports or resources are available in the community on their release?” said Jeff Morgan, a case manager at Haley House, the halfway house where Strong has lived for the past four years.

“Odds are their heath cards expired so they can’t see a doctor. They don’t know how to start up their old age or CPP (Canada Pension Plan) because that’s been suspended,” he said. “Where do they turn for housing or getting their ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) started up again?”

There is a growing number of inmates over the age of 50 in the prison system — now 25 per cent of the population, according to a 2019 report from the Office of the Correctional Investigator. Prisons are increasingly being called on to care for inmates who have serious age-related illnesses, or require end-of-life care, and there are not enough community-based options.

According to the Alzheimer Society, there are 564,000 Canadians currently living with dementia. In 15 years that number will be 937,000.

The increasing number of people with age-related illnesses such as dementia and Alzheimer’s is one reason service providers have documented an increased number coming in contact with the justice system as a result of their conditions.

“If you have an increase in population and no increase in services, you are going to see this type of effect,” said Sara Dias, co-chair of the committee that released the guidebook. Aside from the demographic changes, there has also been an underfunding of mental health and addictions supports for several years resulting in an overburdened system that has not been able to provide enough specialized services to older adults, she said.

The criminal justice contact happens in many ways. Sometimes it is through domestic violence, which is a growing problem among seniors. Or it is related to wandering, or assaults in long-term care homes or hospitals.

Once this happens, there can be a number of outcomes, often depending on how knowledgeable police officers and lawyers in a particular region are about how to respond when the incident is related to an illness, Dias said.

“The Criminal Code is the Criminal Code and the processes are the processes and they should be the same everywhere,” she said. “I think this guide helps that consistency in best practices.”

Strong is on day parole again after serving 36 years in prison. His first parole was revoked many years ago, after he committed two sexual assaults. As he began to develop mobility issues, stemming both from aging and a serious assault he suffered, he found that it was hard to get a cane while in prison because it could be considered a weapon. The electric wheelchair he uses now would not have been permitted in custody.

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He’d have had to have a manual wheelchair and with his tremors “it would be a little difficult,” he said.

Strong said he does not know what he would have done upon being released on parole if Haley House hadn’t been there — an option more inmates should know about and have access to, he said.

For Strong, the biggest difference in how he was treated inside and outside prison is not the medical treatment, it’s the compassion shown by the staff at Haley House.

“The general overview of imprisonment is not to be kind and caring and compassionate, you know. That’s just the way it is,” he said. “But it behooves us to understand the kinds of things our aging population are living with and dealing with inside.”

Morgan, who was a police officer in Peterborough for 32 years, says he has seen an improvement in the understanding that many of the people who come into the criminal justice system are sick and should be given treatment, rather than being punished. There are now therapeutic courts — including mental health court and courts specializing in addictions — and diversion options that can result in no criminal record.

When asked what he’d say to anyone trying to help a loved one navigate the criminal justice system, Strong wryly said: “Get a good lawyer.”