Thank you to all the witnesses.
Professor Brodeur, on the remarks you made just now that some of the studies cancel each other out, I've seen studies that say there is a deterrent effect, and other people say there is no deterrent effect. Have there been any studies that you know of, or that any of our witnesses know about, that speak to the effect on crime when high-risk offenders and recidivists, people who are continually committing crimes, people with long criminal records, are behind bars, when you take those people out of society?
The reason I ask is that we did hear testimony from the chief of police from Toronto about the effect in some communities when those who were committing the crime were taken off the street. In one way or another, they were off the street for some time, and he found there was a corresponding drop in the violent crime rates there. So quite apart from the deterrent effect, we could argue back and forth, if I'm at risk of getting a one-year sentence versus a 10-year sentence, whether I would be more or less likely to commit a crime. What about when we take a high-risk offender out of society and put that person into prison?