I want to join my colleagues in saying thank you so much for coming today, and for sharing your stories and these real-life experiences, which we are already learning from—I most certainly am.
If I may, I'll share with you some of the testimony that we've heard from various witnesses. I'm going to pull various threads and themes that we've heard. I want to reassess those themes with you to see if you agree or disagree with them.
We've heard that 80% of the people who become incarcerated, at the time of their crime, were under the influence of drugs and alcohol. That was a significant influence on them, which is why they were involved in that crime.
We've also heard that upon entering the facility.... The Conservative government approved $122 million in additional funding some three years ago, which has contributed to the possibility of these drug prevention programs, as well as the health assessments and mental health assessments that are now going on within 90 days of the inmate's incarceration.
We've heard from the head of Corrections that this has resulted in a decrease in inmates participating in drugs and alcohol within prison, from 12% of testing to 7.5% of testing.
We've heard that the prisons have now become a target—the men's prisons more than the women's—as a hub for criminal activity, as Mr. Putnam was saying.
We have also heard that the inmates want treatment, and in some cases they even want to stay to complete their treatment. Whether it's because of a transfer they're coming up against, or because their time is up, they would actually prefer to stay that extra couple of weeks or a month, or whatever it takes, to complete their treatment.
Would you agree with some of these things that we've heard? Has that been your experience?