Certainly, Mr. Chair.
Upon admission to federal penitentiaries, 60% of the inmates have an employment issue that requires some attention. We've talked about young people. When we conducted our study, what we found was that the majority of young people were not registered in programs or meaningful work. Most of the institutional work is a menial kind of work.
There is a prison industry called CORCAN, which has some good, well-equipped facilities with outstanding facilitators, but that involves less than 10% of the inmate population. When we look at women, for example, we see that they typically work only in stereotyped work, such as textiles, laundry, and sewing, and there are some pictures in my annual report to show these kinds of things.
Government after government has always thought that work would be useful for improving rehabilitation, that it would increase the skill level and then increase the likelihood of returning the person as a law-abiding citizen who is better equipped. I think work has to be significantly looked at, and this committee could certainly reflect on it and provide some guidance to the Correctional Service of Canada.