In my experience of working in and around the system with young people, men and women, for the last 27 years, I would agree with that. It's part of why women are the fastest-growing prison population yet not perceived as the greatest risk to public safety. Women who are poor, who are doing things for which they can be criminalized to put food on the table, to pay the rent, are in prison. We know there are women who carry drugs across borders for all kinds of reasons who are in prison. We know that the majority of those are not perceived as an ongoing risk to public safety.
That doesn't mean we don't think they should be held accountable. That's why we talk about community-based options, where they can be contributing to the community and being held accountable without it being the kind of drain that the Parliamentary Budget Officer has articulated is the drain when we unnecessarily incarcerate people, rather than hold them accountable and allow them to contribute to the community in different ways.