Yes. I think many of us agree that there is a better way to spend the money. We know that incarceration in fact makes most offenders worse. It further fragments family systems that have already been fragmented enough due to colonization and the residential school system.
To back up and answer your questions about recidivism, our recidivism rate is 17%. Compared to male offenders who do not go through our program...it routinely hits about 50%. I was speaking specifically to that one program and the recidivism rate there.
But I think what we really need to attend to, which John Howard has been attempting to do for a while, is assisting with reintegration for those offenders who we do put into the correctional institutions. We're not saying that people should not be held accountable for their behaviour--that's not what we're saying--but we are recognizing that people do need more resources to facilitate their reintegration into society.