Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you as well, Mr. Sapers and Mr. Zinger, for appearing before our committee today. It's very much appreciated as we embark upon this study.
I think one of the things we're seized with on this side in examining this issue is the trajectory of where this is all going, if we take a look at policies that have been brought forth over the last while—these “tough on crime” policies that are increasingly doing what the Americans are now undoing, which is more and more mandatory minimums, longer sentences, and more incarceration.
We can paint a picture of where this is heading. You have a situation where the system is overburdened. You've described, really, jails being used as hospitals. You now have more and more inmates coming into the system for longer and longer periods of time. You have things like the two-for-one remand credit being eliminated, which again means additional stresses on the system, yet the underlying conditions, which are so bad in remand and led to those credits existing in the first place, not being dealt with.
So when you look at that and you look at the case of what happened to Ashley Smith, if we continue that, what is your projection for where this is all going and how many more Ashley Smiths there could be or how many more tragedies we could have if we don't fundamentally change the way we're headed right now?