I've sat back and listened to the arguments today, and perhaps I can make a point here.
There's always the defence of more or less the status quo, but there is a problem in that offenders really aren't necessarily held accountable for all they do. One thing that has come up repeatedly is that prisons are not doing the job they're supposed to be doing. If prisons are not doing the job they're supposed to be doing, then maybe we have a prison problem and we should be doing something differently in the prisons.
Secondly, this country does not have any kind of drug strategy to deal with the drug problems that are ever before us, and that, as Mr. Thompson mentioned, certainly play a big part in the crimes committed. The drug issues are destroying so many lives now, not only of the people involved in committing these crimes but also of the individuals who have crimes committed against them. This is a growing problem, and ultimately we're not fully addressing that problem either.
So what do we do? Nobody talks about.... Well, they do talk about prison; many witnesses have told us not to send anybody to prison because it's a school for learning more crime. Okay, then, maybe we should be concentrating in those areas.
That's just another point.
Mr. Lee, the floor is yours.