Imagine a situation where you fall asleep on the city bus and don’t wake up until the end of the line, on the other side of town, a long way from home. It might be a little scary, but thankfully you can buzz up an Uber, call a cab, call a friend, or just hop back on a different bus heading the other way. Heck, you might even be able to walk back.

Now imagine that sleep you took was a 15-year long nightmare of violence and hopelessness, and instead of being on the wrong side of town, you were in a completely different province with no idea how you were going to get home.

Jamaal Desmond spent 15 years in Canada’s federal prison system - the vast majority of that time in maximum-security facilities. Near the end of his sentence he was transferred out of province to New Brunswick to face assault charges surrounding a prison fight he didn’t start. He was eventually released from a provincial facility in New Brunswick with nothing. No parole or probation officer. No finances. No family close by, and no way to get back to his home in Quebec.