I can give you one or two examples of people who benefited from the accelerated parole review procedure. These are recent examples given to me by colleagues, particularly the example of a young 26-year-old women who was arrested in Aruba for narcotics trafficking and importation. She was given a long prison sentence — eight years. She had come under the influence of her lover. When she was in jail, she realized that she was pregnant. She was able to be transferred back to Canada fairly quickly, given her circumstances. She benefitted from APR and was released to a halfway house. She had a lengthy term of day parole, because the longer the sentence, the longer day parole and community supervision last. So, she benefitted from that procedure, was released and was able to care for her child in the halfway house.
I have another example for you. It involves an individual, a working father who had significant financial problems and whose house was contaminated by fungi. The legal procedures were long and costly, he lost his job and things went from bad to worse. He lost, not only is job, but his spouse. He went through a marital separation. That was when he allowed himself to be tempted by a childhood friend who proposed that he get involved in narcotics trafficking and, in particular, growing cannabis. Thanks to APR, that individual was able to be released on day parole.
The young woman I referred to earlier had no history either of violence or any other type of crime.
As for the man, he had a history of simple possession of drugs and theft, but other than that, he had no other history. He was therefore able to benefit from APR and was released to a halfway house. There he took advantage of the resources available. He received help to better manage his finances and other advice, to try and get his life back on track. He would never have received these services had he remained in jail for a long period. As others stated before me, the longer people stay in prison, the greater the danger of their contamination by criminals.