Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for the invitation, and thank you for the recognition of the challenges of it being such short notice.
I appear on behalf of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies. I bring regrets that because of the notice I'm unable to appear with one of my board members; they are from across the country.
As many of the committee members are aware, we represent 26 members from across the country who provide services predominantly to women and girls who have been marginalized, victimized, criminalized, and who have been institutionalized.
It's in that capacity that I offer our comments. I will be very brief.
I wish to recognize that our organization does not support this bill. When you look at the reintegration potential that Corrections recognizes women have, that certainly our organization recognizes, it's a very high potential for reintegration.
In fact this bill will impact many women. According to Corrections' own research, 61.6% of those who are eligible for APR, accelerated parole review, are women. That will significantly impact the release because many of them are eligible very quickly and they have very few issues once they're released into the community. Their reintegration potential is high, very few are breached, and when they are breached they tend to be breached on conditions as opposed to any new offences.
We have a very low breach rate, a very high reintegration rate, and a very good success on the use of accelerated parole with women. And, as one of my colleagues in Corrections said to me today, if this bill goes through, we'll probably need at least several more prisons fairly quickly to incarcerate the women who will be held for longer periods of time.
Thank you. Those are our comments.