Rebulding The House: Canada's Justice System

Rebulding The House: Canada's Justice System

From The Human Challenge by Vanessa Ferlaino

February 19, 2026 · 47 min

About this episode

Sara shares her journey from a traumatic childhood to advocating for social justice and reforming the justice system.

Since childhood, Sara developed maladaptive behaviours growing up in a tiny shack with no electricity and an abusive father who sold her to the sex trade at the age of three. In and out of foster care for much of her life, it was finding herself in prison where Sara finally decided it was time to seek support and services for her mental health. Initially denied, she fought for access to services, and for what she couldn’t receive, she taught herself. Since her release, nothing has stopped her from fighting for justice. In her role at Northpine Foundation, Sara has served over 7500 formerly incarcerated people, reduced homelessness by 86%, lowered recidivism to 4.7%, and saved taxpayers over $1.13 billion of incarceration fees per year, over $68 million per year in hospital stays, and over $43 million in emergency visits. She also raised median income for formerly incarcerated people from $14,000 to $58,000. But her biggest impact has been looking into the eyes of the prison guard who sexually assaulted her and countless women in prison, and saying that she believed in him and forgave him. In this episode, Sara tells her story from the greater thread of social justice — from the…

People in this episode

Host: Vanessa Ferlaino

Guest: Sara

Topics covered

  • social justice
  • mental health
  • prison system
  • colonization
  • recidivism
  • support services

Keywords

  • justice system
  • mental health
  • foster care
  • recidivism
  • social justice
  • Northpine Foundation
  • support services

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Northpine Foundation

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