Thank you. I'd like that chance to comment.
I agree that our criminal justice system is about balance. This is something that we spend a lot of time thinking about in law schools. Law professors think about it a great deal. You have to balance appropriate punishment for people who have offended and you also have to think about fair treatment of accused and our inmates.
As a society, I think it is extremely important that we maintain this balance. As I said in my earlier comments, we have, for many years, seen a decline in crime rates in Canada, yet at the same time, we're seeing an increase in our prison population, an increase that is projected to be as much as 10% over the next few years. The government has also increased the budget for the Correctional Service of Canada by 27% over the next two years. In all of this, we also see a government that is determined to close these prison farms, notwithstanding all of the evidence we've heard today that demonstrates how effective these farms can be.
So I would only suggest that somewhere along the line we may have lost that balance. I think we ought to restore it.
Thank you.