Mr. Speaker, we recognize that our prisons have some of the wrong people in them, people who are imprisoned because of their financial situation, because they cannot afford a good lawyer, because they have done petty crime due to their financial situation. We have to recognize that there is a better way of dealing with those people rather than throwing them into a prison system.
As a parent I know that when my children damage something, I expect them to use part of their allowance, not necessarily all of it, to reinforce that what they have done is not acceptable.
If the people who are getting minimum payment in prison for jobs have to give a small portion of that amount to the victim or into a fund that would go toward victims' restitution, they would be constantly reminded that what they did was not acceptable. It does not have to be a large amount but it is a constant reminder that there are things in society that are acceptable and things that are not.
I think the message is more likely to get through to the individuals so they do not offend again if we treat them in that manner.