Medley arrives at halfway house
Violent offender released two days early from penitentiary in Laval
A man who served nearly two decades behind bars for having beaten, raped and tortured runaway teenage girls in his Notre-Damede-Grâce apartment was released Friday to a halfway house in eastern Montreal.
James Medley, 57, was sentenced in 1997 to a 26-year prison term after being convicted on several charges involving the abuse he inflicted on five teenagers during the 1990s. The victims were lured away from Quebec’s youth protection system by Medley, who exploited weaknesses in the system.
The Parole Board of Canada turned him down for release in 2007. Because he was never granted parole, Medley automatically qualified for a statutory release once he reached the two-thirds mark of his sentence. That date was supposed to be Sunday, but Medley was released from a penitentiary in Laval two days early because Correctional Service Canada does not have staff available to process releases on weekends.
Shortly after he left the Federal Training Centre, a medium- and minimum-security penitentiary, Medley was driven to a halfway house run by Correctional Service Canada in the Mercier–HochelagaMaisonneuve borough. He arrived late Friday morning.
Because of the length of his overall sentence, Medley now finds himself in the very unusual position of being required to reside at a halfway house for the next nine years. It was a condition the Parole Board of Canada imposed on him this month. In reaching its decision, the board noted that his “risk of reoffending remains at a moderate to high level for sexual and violent recidivism. You have shown to have a sexual disorder which includes a sadistic component. Although your sexual deviant behaviour has been the target of numerous programs, your file shows that you continue to have dark thoughts about violence and sex.”
The written summary of the decision includes other reasons why the board imposed the condition requiring that Medley reside at a halfway house for the nine years remaining on his sentence.
“You are bound to be faced with stressful situations which will surely test your coping skills and your problem-solving abilities, to name a few. Moreover, you currently have very few support systems in the community apart from (a relative) you would like to visit from time to time. Given these elements, a gradual reintegration back into the community is advised,” the author of the summary wrote.
Medley had no comment when he was approached by a Montreal Gazette reporter seeking his opinion on the length of time he is expected to spend in a halfway house.
The Montreal Gazette also sought to ask Medley about an interview he requested with the newspaper several months ago. At the time, he said he wanted to discuss how he was having difficulty accessing rehabilitation programs in English. He said French-speaking inmates in Quebec have quicker access to such programs than anglophones do, even though penitentiaries are run by the federal government. For reasons that were never made clear, Medley backed out of the interview.
“Don’t even think about it” was all Medley said when approached for an interview on Friday as he was about to head into the halfway house. He made the comment when he apparently realized he was being photographed.
Another reason the parole board cited for imposing the condition involving the halfway house was that Medley reoffended in the past while out on two previous statutory releases. His criminal record includes a conviction from 1993 for having beaten his brother and another man repeatedly with a baseball bat.