Thank you, Chair.
I'd like to go back to trying to break the whole chain of indigenous people being incarcerated. When we looked at self-reported data from inmates, we saw that half had been in the care of the child welfare system, 96% indicated that substance abuse was related to the current offence, 88% reported they had a family member struggling with alcohol or drug addiction, and nearly one-third of the sample indicated they were first introduced to indigenous cultural teachings in prison. It seems to me that we're trying to correct in the prison system a problem that began long before people got there. I'm impressed with the prison system. I've seen it. I believe your people are doing a tremendous job, but we need to break that pattern at home.
We used to see it years ago with family violence in the home. If people were part of a violent family as they grew up, it was only natural they would continue on that path. Once we can break that, then we break the system of people coming in. It's almost recidivism by family as opposed to by individual.
Have you any suggestions on what we might do to try to break that at its source in a far more effective way than spending money and time and maybe not being successful at the far end?
Maybe the witness from crime prevention is a good place to start.