Thank you.
My name is John Leeman. I'm an offender who served a life sentence and I wanted to come here today to speak on behalf of the inmates who have benefited from the farm.
When I was in higher-security facilities, we had a lot of trades in them. I was a person who was very motivated to do them, but as we all know, when you are in higher security, it's more about focusing on punishment. The shops only open up for maybe two hours in the morning and maybe an hour and a half in the afternoon. They may be locked down for periods of time.
I will stress this, because I ended up picking up all four welding tickets while I was inside. I also got my autobody licence while I was in higher security. There used to be almost every shop that you could have to teach inmates a trade. While I was in, I watched these shops—welding, carpentry, painting, and masonry—all disappear. Among all of them, the farm program has succeeded. I believe the reason that the farm had one so is the reintegration process.
I grew up in a foster home on a farm. I milked by hand, so when I went to the dairy farm, the first thing I was doing was looking for a pail and a stool, and I found out that wasn't going to happen. Even with the welding tickets that I brought in there from the machine shops, to use when the machines were breaking down, I was never able to utilize the trade I had; I found out while I was in there that a farm boss had to teach me how to re-weld some of the stuff, because welding two plates gets you your ticket, but it doesn't give you the experience.
As I say in every talk I give, I take my hat off to the farmers; they've taught me life skills. They taught a lot more than just farming; it was the work ethics. Being up at four o'clock in the morning is pretty shocking for anybody coming down through the system. I've been out for 19 years now--
[Applause]
--and I utilize those tools today in my daily work ethics.
I would like to see some people from Parliament come down to see just how that whole operation runs. It's a phenomenal thing. It's not geared to just one specific inmate; it runs from a two-year sentence right on to the longest sentence you could ever get. We've seen guys who never got along together taught by the shop bosses how to be team players and take animosity out of the institution. I've been reading the papers today and I still see the same messages coming back in the newspapers: they are rewarding the same things. The insight is there.
I just can't emphasize enough that I feel, as a former inmate, that this is a bad mistake for inmates. It has more than just a trade.... As I say, not everybody is going to come out and become a farmer, but a farmer teaches a lot more than just farming. There are a lot of related trades in there that are being implemented in the community today.
Thank you.