I think, suffice it to say, there are few things that would be more important to a person than to be able to recognize or pick out the person who caused them harm. Where periods of time have elapsed or the individual may in fact have made deliberate efforts to change their appearance, there is, I think, a right that an individual should enjoy to be able to take whatever necessary steps to protect themselves. The very least is to be able to identify the offender.
As far as other steps are concerned, that knowledge of what those conditions of release may be, whether it be earlier in the process, during, for example, pretrial, pre-sentencing, or after release, the conditions that the individual has to adhere to, including stay-away orders and certain conditions that would apply directly to their residence, to their children, to their place of work, that type of information being relayed accurately and in a timely way to a victim is extremely important.
I might add, practically speaking, this does happen for the most part. Much of what we are entrenching in this bill is done regularly and routinely across the country. This is meant to bring together and consolidate a greater flow of information and a greater flow of confidence to victims and to those in the system and to the public at large, as you've just said.
I wouldn't want this to ever be construed as a damning criticism of those who are working hard in the system every day. This is all about ensuring that we're doing everything possible, and everything now through a federal bill, that will bring about greater compliance and greater protection for victims overall.