Maybe you can get back to me on this, because it's probably not something you can answer immediately now, but what I think the committee is really going to need to know is how we fix this. If you have individuals who are entering our facilities with issues on which they clearly need help if they are to be redressed, and if we're not dealing with them in the correctional facility, they're going to be reintegrated, and the likelihood of their repeating an offence is exceptionally high. I think we need to know what Correctional Services Canada would need to make sure that everybody who needs programming gets it. That's an area of deep concern for me.
I'll talk just for a second about substance abuse. We heard from the correctional investigator that over the last five years a very large amount of money and effort has been put into keeping drugs out of prisons. The result of testing has shown that in the overall prison population, drug use has gone down by 1%. Could you tell me how much STDs have grown in that same five years—hepatitis, AIDS, and HIV? What kind of growth have we seen?
I didn't hear a lot about the strategy of breaking the cycle of addiction; I heard more about just keeping the drugs out of the facility. Is that very realistic as a strategy? Do you see that correlation—that the more we clamp down, the more dangerous these desperate individuals, who need help, become and the higher the rate of infection? I believe 30% of inmates are faced with hepatitis right now. These individuals are coming back into society and infecting the general population; this is becoming a huge health concern.
I'm interested in your thoughts.