Public Safety committee  That's right, and it includes not only existing staff but staff who had retired as well.

Public Safety committee  It was 12 who committed suicide, of which seven were existing employees.

Public Safety committee  They covered the range of security levels, and they were across the country.

Public Safety committee  I think there are definitely things that can be done in relation to the specific items you mentioned. We've reduced levels of double bunking, which relieves some pressures in the institution—those kinds of things. One of the things that's important to remember in this discussion is that what we're calling “occupational stress injuries” can come as a result of many things, some of them more physical in nature, such as assaults and seeing others assaulted, to situations where....

Public Safety committee  The situation in the community was the murder of Louise Pargeter in Yellowknife. She was doing what we call a home visit, following up with an offender who was in the community and who had been released by the parole board. He was serving a life sentence already. During that home visit, he went off to make a cup of tea, came back, murdered her with a hammer, and then sexually assaulted her body afterwards.

Public Safety committee  Exactly.

Public Safety committee  Mr. Chair, I think everybody has a copy of my brief in English and French. If it facilitates the question period, I could just pass on reading it out and allow more time for questions.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee. I'm pleased to be back here before you. I always enjoy appearing in front of this committee and all the honourable members to talk about this serious issue that you've taken on to study, because it does affect a number of staff in Correctional Service Canada.

Public Safety committee  It's a really good question. When I talk to my colleagues around the world, probably the common theme that is coming up at their management tables is the issue of segregation. Part of the reason it's at the table is there is a misunderstanding about what's going on, so I think that even having someone appear before you to talk about what segregation is, and what happens federally, provincially and around the world would be a good start to getting some facts out there.

Public Safety committee  There are a couple of components to that. Actually, over the last year or so the population has been coming down. As of this morning, the incarcerated population sits at 14,613. This is down from a peak when it was at just over 15,200, so it has been coming down over the last year.

Public Safety committee  Under the current funding model, in order to go forward I would need additional funding.

Public Safety committee  Thank you for the question. As I briefly mentioned at the last appearance, we've made a lot of progress at the federal level in terms of how segregation, or solitary confinement, as some people call it, has been used. We have put in place a series of additional, internal, oversight processes.

Public Safety committee  I cannot stress enough how important that is. My staff, on any given day, face unbelievable situations that have tremendous impacts on their mental resilience. The way we talk about it now is on how we build and sustain the mental resilience of our staff who have, as I would argue, one of the toughest jobs in the federal public service.

Public Safety committee  There are a couple of issues there. The research is clear that delivering programs for low-risk offenders will not do anything. The research shows clearly that we run the risk of pushing them in the wrong direction. We have stopped providing those kinds of programs to low-risk offenders.

Public Safety committee  Yes, this is something we've been examining in detail. We have a few research reports and some research that we have been leading. We currently have 13 individuals who fall under the definition of individuals who have been convicted of terrorist acts. Our population base at this moment is small.