Thank you, Dr. Zinger.
Just before I go on to geriatric inmates, when I was at Grand Valley I saw the prison needle exchange program and I spoke to the nurse there. It's been extremely successful. My understanding is that there have been no incidents.
I acknowledge the fear that exists in the institutions that don't have it. Certainly at that institution there were stickers all over, opposing it, but when I spoke to the nurse and the people actually administering it, there had not been any issues in the institutions.
Your report talks about the average age being 45 to 50. All of us sitting in this room think to ourselves that this is not very old.
The fact is, I had an awakening when I went to Millhaven, Dr. Zinger. I saw an inmate and a group of inmates who I thought were in their 80s. They could have been at a table in a long-term care home. I found out that they were younger than I am.
The horrible food—it's difficult for Canadians to understand just how bad the food is—the conditions, the confinement and the lack of physical activities mean that these inmates are aging much faster than the general population.
Do you think there would be a benefit of a continuum of care by developing partnerships in the community to enable these inmates who are not posing a risk to society to be in long-term care homes or some kind of long-term care facility?