The conditional sentence order was an elegant solution introduced by Parliament in the 1990s to address the problem of overincarceration. Why it was elegant is that it was a scalpel instead of the sledgehammer of jail.
What it did is tailor a sentencing option to people who were, first of all, non-dangerous; second of all, who could be properly managed in the community; third of all, who had committed an offence deserving of less than two years in jail that was, fourth of all, an offence for which the deterrence and denunciation requirement could be addressed by a community sentence.
That was incredibly innovative and important progress in the law because it addressed a subsection of offenders who had committed a mistake and had done something terrible in their lives but who had a great prospect of rehabilitation. It's the kind of thoughtful, insightful criminal law policy that distinguishes us from other jurisdictions like our neighbours to the south, who take much more of a sledgehammer approach than a scalpel approach. I think it is more appropriate to our system.