No, we're on record taking a position against mandatory minimum sentences generally, because of some of the issues we've already raised.
To pull back to some of the discussion around the table a little while ago and to some of the examples we talked about in our brief, at this time when we're seeing crime rates and rates of imprisonment generally in other areas going down, we're actually seeing the rates of imprisonment of women going up. It's not because there's a crime wave. It's not because there are increased numbers of women committing offences per se, but we are seeing it linked very much to the cuts to social services, the cuts to health care, the cuts to other support services that have been taking place across this country.
When we look at the system's statistics in terms of who's coming back and the related issue of repeat offences, less than 5% of the individuals in prison are coming back for new offences. The stats from the National Parole Board on those who have been released and have come back for committing violent offences show they are less than half of 1%.
Even though the rates of imprisonment of women are greater, when we're talking about the issue of whether or not mandatory sentences would have any impact, I think it just falls away completely when you realize that the majority of women are not there because of anything more than.... I mean, they're there and they take responsibility; many of them plead guilty to the offences they're there for, but the judges take into account the circumstances now of why they're there, unless it's—