Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon.
It's hard to believe there are nearly 20,000 people incarcerated in federal institutions, according to your page 3, and you have 14,000 out on some sort of supervised parole. You have 15,000 workers and are costing nearly $2 billion a year to the Canadian taxpayer.
Unless I'm wrong, when a prisoner is incarcerated, when he goes to his first federal institution, a file goes with him. His future, in terms of getting early parole or in his relationship with the system, is dependent upon how that file is accessed, who puts things into it, and whether or not the information that's in there is correct concerning both parties that are involved.
It's very easy for a guard, for example, to put something into that file that would be a major factor in whether that prisoner would have a request for parole accepted after his minimum time has been served.
We have files that are there for the prisoners, but how does a prisoner get redress, if he's had difficulties with one or two guards who can put things into the file that the prisoner doesn't agree with? What access does he have to get his file seen, and secondly to get redress for something that he feels is not the true report of the situation that's been filed?