Mr. Speaker, unlike the New Democrats, who time after time raise the issue of increasing rights for prisoners, our Conservative government is primarily concerned with the rights of victims. The NDP has in fact voted against giving victims more information about criminals convicted of victimizing them and ending early parole for white-collar fraudsters such as Earl Jones. The New Democrats even opposed and voted against my own private member's bill that stopped prisoners from making frivolous complaints. I would add, despite the objections and the adamant opposition of the NDP, that I am proud to say that my bill received royal assent in 2013.
Since the member for Alfred-Pellan has asked what our government does to ensure the correctional system actually corrects criminal behaviour, I am more than happy to tell her.
The Correctional Service of Canada offers a wide range of interventions to convicted criminals sentenced to federal time and has long been recognized as an international leader in the development and delivery of correctional programs. Indeed, evidence consistently demonstrates that our programs contribute in a very significant way to ensuring that when criminals are released from prison, they do not go back. This is shown by a lower likelihood of recidivism.
Our correctional programs enhance public safety results for Canadians by making criminals accountable for their behaviour and by teaching skills that can be used to help them become contributing members to Canadian society, in some cases for the very first time in their lives. Additionally, those criminals who have been identified as requiring specific correctional programs, such as mental health and drug services, will be afforded access to these programs throughout their sentences.
To this end, the Correctional Service of Canada began piloting the integrated correctional program model in January 2010. It was designed to enhance program efficiencies, program effectiveness, and public safety results by combining the most effective aspects of existing interventions with the most promising innovations in the area of correctional programming.
Members of our government are very pleased that our measures to combat crime are working. Recidivism is down. Crime rates are also down.
I call on that member to stop opposing us on all of these measures and to get on board with making our communities safer.