Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson and Mr. Skinner, for being here and for the expertise you're bringing.
We're studying quite specifically the whole issue of drugs in prison and the effect they have, not only on the inmates but on the staff, the officers--the whole picture of drugs in prison. One of the issues with any kind of addiction is enablers--those individuals who are around the addicted person and enable and almost help them. Sometimes they have the best of intentions, but they help the person in a system to continue their addiction.
We've all seen the show Intervention, where families have to come together to create a bottom line so that people who are addicted say “Okay, I'm going to get treatment because there's really no other option”. You transfer that whole idea into the prison system, where you already have people who have kind of reached the bottom already. Their addictions are probably in many cases what caused them to commit crimes or assist in crimes, so now they're in prison.
I wonder if you can answer two questions.
First of all, what can we do as legislators to help families who are maybe smuggling in drugs for various reasons? Many times it's that same enabler mentality. They love their family member and are concerned about them. Maybe they're feeling pressure. There are so many issues surrounding why people who are not addicts would enable an addicted inmate who might be a family member or a friend. Are there things we as legislators can do to assist enablers and empower them to stop what they're doing? We need to make sure drugs aren't getting into the prisons.
Secondly, are we doing anything in these prisons? Are we enabling prisoners and sometimes giving them a soft landing when they need more of a harder floor or a harder bottom?