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Keith Gerein: Inmate dropoffs in Edmonton's Chinatown are a systemic choice, not 'human error'

Did two different crews of correctional officers coincidentally both get lost on their way to the Hope Mission? Did they accidentally leave their GPS back in the office? Run out of gas? Simply forget the preferred release procedures?

In the wake of video footage showing correctional officers dumping recently incarcerated people on to Edmonton Chinatown streets late at night, it was good to hear provincial Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis express some outrage over those incidents.

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Even better were the minister’s comments that his ministry is taking action to better ensure a “warm handoff” at shelters or social services for such people, rather than just sending them off into the wilds of the urban landscape.

“That is not a directive coming from me,” Ellis told a news conference. “This is what I am vehemently opposed to, is just dropping people off where they have no supports.”

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