With regard to the effectiveness of these programs, CSC has reviewed its programs for both indigenous and non-indigenous women. The problem it has in evaluating the programs' effectiveness is that women, overall, have very low risks of reoffending, so in taking a program, it's hard to show a reduction once they've been released.
They found for indigenous women the programs were, however, effective in reducing reoffending risk, but for non-indigenous women, they didn't necessarily find the effectiveness. We recommended in our report that they also evaluate how good their programs are at targeting the risk factors and addressing risk factors like substance abuse, which is a very high risk factor for many women offenders for reoffending. They have not evaluated how well their programs address those risks.