Maybe I'll start with some of the specific ones. I talked about the more static interventions. I could ask Mr. Foss to talk a little bit more with respect to the program interventions.
I think you might be referring to my opening comments about the resources we've put toward security intelligence. We have had a security intelligence officer assigned to parole districts for just a few short months now, for about eight months. Before that, we had them assigned only to institutions, so we weren't sharing information, both with our partners inside the institution and with our partners at CSIS, in Canadian border security, and in policing agencies, on the level that we really needed to be.
In a very short time, in that short eight months, the results of putting resources there have been that we know exactly the numbers of those gang members, who they are, where they're residing, what the incompatibilities might be, and in particular any residual problems there might be. Already in those eight months, we've seen huge differences. In an even shorter period of time--I'd say four to six months--we've also had criminal community analysts who've been able to work to assess and analyze some of the situations involving the gangs.
The importance of this, though, is that it's really enabled us to establish even better credibility with our policing agencies and with prosecutors, with people who work in that side of the business. It's been really good from that perspective.
The other part I really want to highlight is the community correctional liaison officers we now have in all of the districts. They're actually serving police officers, who are, if you will, seconded on an intergovernmental exchange from one department to the other.
We began that almost two and a half years ago. We had an arrangement both with the Edmonton police and with the Calgary police. I note that both chiefs are going to speak to you later today. They may want to talk about that. We've had that for just over one year and now have that same agreement with the RCMP, so we've been able to reach out beyond the major urban cities to work with that.
We have a lot of data. To answer your question more specifically, we're researching that. We're evaluating that. It's important right now because that was done with Treasury Board funding that we received only for a very short period of time, so that's being evaluated to determine if it would continue.
If I'm allowed to say so, I would say that this has been a wonderful initiative. What has been important about our work with the police and with people who do interventions is the recognition on both sides of the fence of the importance of prevention programming and suppression--that we can't do one without the other. We need to recognize that there is a need to take a strict approach with some really difficult guys we work with--and I say “guys” because the vast majority are male--but we also need to recognize what Hugo has said and the importance of that program.
What I've learned through this and through the research we're conducting is the importance of a balanced approach. I hope that answers your question.