Justice committee  If I may, when we're talking about the judicial process, we now have victim impact statements in court. Perhaps it's time for a community impact statement to be entered in court and to be given weight by a judge when the decision for a punishment is ready. Perhaps that might serve to identify who should be put in jail and for what length of time.

Justice committee  We do have evidence that it does take place. Particularly in the case of young people, in their first and second exposure to jail, they learn their craft from the experts they meet in jail. They increase their network of contacts. In fact, we're seeing an increase in the areas in Canada in which we find gangs.

Justice committee  I would have to verify it.

Justice committee  Yes, there are minimum sentences.

Justice committee  I haven't personally. I have some statistics here. Perhaps there might be some here that you're looking for. I have weapons offences for 2003, 2004, and 2005.

Justice committee  I didn't research those.

Justice committee  Not that I know of. It perhaps has been done somewhere. My personal experience is that incapacitation does work. When the person is in jail, they can't commit other offences. If you can identify, as you say, the most prolific offenders and keep them in jail the longest, then you're going to have a significant impact on crime.

Justice committee  No, not at all.

Justice committee  As you said, there will be more trials. When there are more trials, that means police officers will have to attend court to give evidence, and there will be more police officers in court than on the street. So if they're in court, those resources will be utilized on an hourly basis--

Justice committee  As I said, we haven't made that kind of assessment. We would have to study the environment to determine how much more it was going to cost.

Justice committee  We broke down some of the root causes, but perhaps I can put it in perspective by making reference again to the crime reduction strategy. The police component of the crime reduction strategy in fact is hard-hitting enforcement of the law. We identify victims, and we work with them so that they become more able to deal with their environment and minimize their victimization.

Justice committee  I'm not sure. It's--

Justice committee  I think they would, yes.

Justice committee  A criminal organization, by definition, would allow it to fit into the definition of organized crime.

Justice committee  Yes, they would.