Public Safety committee  Unfortunately, no. We could do some digging to look and see, but the sentences are shorter coming in. That's what we're seeing now.

Public Safety committee  We have a challenge with our infrastructure's capacity to deal with our mental health offenders. For our women in minimum and medium security, we have a good program in place. Our structured living environments work well, and we've been commended for them. In fact, a recent revie

Public Safety committee  This is an area we've been looking at since I've come to this position. We've done assessments of some of the infrastructure requirements in connection with the types of women we're having to work with and the challenges they present. We'll have to work through the normal Treasur

Public Safety committee  Partners like the Elizabeth Fry Society, the John Howard Society, and then we try to hook them up with the services that exist in the communities as well.

Public Safety committee  That's a big part of discharge planning with our offenders, when they're in an institution, to try to work with.... With some of our challenging cases, the institution in fact works closely with the parole staff who are preparing for an offender to return to the community, dete

Public Safety committee  I believe 61% of the women coming into our institutions now are serving much shorter sentences, less than four years, so that means we have less time to work with them inside to prepare them for their return to the community. It's another challenge that we face.

Public Safety committee  In fact, with respect to a mother-and-child program in our five regional women's facilities, we do have that program. We made a few changes to it about two years ago, but the program is there. It does exist and it's available to women.

Public Safety committee  I'm only speaking on behalf of the federal offenders. Since its inception, there has never been a large number of women who have taken advantage of the program.

Public Safety committee  You can ask, but--

Public Safety committee  --to be honest with you, I don't know why that is. However, right now--and I can verify this for you--I believe we have only one person participating in the program.

Public Safety committee  We offer programs with respect to parenting for the women. The whole decision around whether or not the child remains with the mother is based on what's in the best interest of the child. The community is involved in the entire process when making that decision; it's not only the

Public Safety committee  The thing about programs in the community is.... The challenge with women offenders, of course, is that they're geographically dispersed and their numbers are smaller. It presents greater challenges for us. We have a maintenance program with respect to substance abuse that we ca

Public Safety committee  To note some of the history around women's corrections, there was of course a call for closure of the Prison for Women for many years before it finally took place and we developed the five regional women's institutions. As with anything, there are always some hiccups and challeng

Public Safety committee  I think the opening of the five regional institutions has been a positive experience.

Public Safety committee  As you know, there were quite a number of recommendations. Although CSC did not accept all of them, the vast majority were supported, and most of them have been implemented. The nature of some of the recommendations are such that the work will continue to be ongoing. For exampl