Evidence of meeting #2 for Public Safety and National Security in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was health.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
There was a request for a short question here. I have one.
One of the things we were told as we were travelling is that the people who observed the mental health issues in the prisons indicated that they were never, ever separated from drug issues, and that the drug issue always preceded the mental health issue. In your experience, is that true?
5:15 p.m.
Clinical Professor, Department of Family Practice and Collaborating Centre for Prison Health and Education, University of British Columbia, As an Individual
Sorry; you said the mental health issue preceded the drug issue?
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
5:15 p.m.
Clinical Professor, Department of Family Practice and Collaborating Centre for Prison Health and Education, University of British Columbia, As an Individual
I would say they're associated. I don't know if you could say the timing on it. I don't think so, but they're certainly associated. They certainly go together.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
Thank you, Chair.
I'm very glad that Mr. McColeman raised the important public debate that's taking place right now about longer sentencing in general. He referred to it in terms of providing enough time to help reintegrate those who are incarcerated. I'm glad that he's put it within that context, because, unfortunately, most of the debate is around sloganeering--“You do the crime, you do the time”--so it's about punishment. It's also often about that issue of security: we're scared of these people, so let's segregate them for as long as possible.
Ms. Christie, you would have been a poster child for those arguments five years ago. You were in and out 30 times.
Something changed. We heard what changed: the programming. A different approach made that change in your life, and you said you could fill this room with other examples of women whose lives have been changed.
In that previous time, when you were in and out and in and out, if you'd been incarcerated in those previous circumstances for a longer period of time, would that have broken that cycle for you? Please give us a quick yes or no.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative