Yes. In terms of the first point that you raised around segregation, you're absolutely right, the correctional investigator pointed that out in his testimony to this committee.
One of the problems we've always had in corrections is that when individuals act out, our first response is to respond to that outward behaviour. Sometimes that behaviour is violent and could result in harm to others or harm to the individuals themselves. Our response has always been to try to contain that behaviour so that we can move in the direction of stabilizing the individual and then making the best assessment or determination of what next steps to pursue.
Now, unfortunately, with individuals with mental health problems, we sometimes find ourselves in a bit of a recurring situation. The individual acts out, we take the appropriate measures, which may include placing the individual in segregation, get them stabilized, release them back into the population, and then that behaviour starts again. Unless we have the means to get these people plugged into some of the more specific programs they need to keep their behaviour stabilized, or get them access, for example, in some of the more severe cases, to our treatment centres, our psychiatric centres, we have some problems in terms of this cycle.
It is a challenge. It's a challenge every day for the women and men who work the floors of these institutions, because there is no question in my mind that they are trying to find the most humane, safe, and secure way to deal with that behaviour and be respectful to the individual. It is a challenge with some of the more severe cases.
In terms of your question around the issue of access to programs, particularly for mental health offenders, I think one of the things I would definitely plug is the need to have support, and continued support, for the initiatives and for the funding we got for our community mental health initiative and our institutional mental health initiative. We're still a far way from having the absolutely 100% right formula for everybody, but these are very critical steps in terms of our addressing the problems that we have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.
This funding has allowed us to move light years from where we were 10 years ago. We still have a long way to go, and we have as much work to do in terms of making sure there's support beyond the correctional system, so that when these people do return to the community they stay out longer and eventually, hopefully, do not come back into conflict with the law.