Public Safety committee  There's only one forensic bed on a contract agreement. There might be two, actually, between the Correctional Service of Canada and the Royal Ottawa group at their treatment centre, the St. Lawrence Valley treatment centre in Brockville. That's different. There is a unit for wome

Public Safety committee  No. The capacity is nowhere near adequate to meet the demand. In my remarks, I mentioned the Correctional Service of Canada's optimal care model. This is a new model they've imposed that they claim will better allocate mental health resources, and my worry is that it's actually g

Public Safety committee  Yes, false positive detection is a problem, and it's a problem that's part of a much larger set of problems that has to do with maintaining family contact and support. Prisons are not welcoming environments. They're not designed to be. Prison walls are designed to keep people out

Public Safety committee  I think it would be a great idea to review the technology from a number of standpoints. One is to make sure that it's an appropriate use of technology and consistent with the law. Number two is to see whether or not the cost of that technology is proportionate to the benefit it b

Public Safety committee  Yes, and it's very complex. I know I'm supposed to give brief answers, and I'm sorry. Access to programs and program capacity: that is an issue in general. Making sure that people get access to programs in a timely way, that the programs are, very importantly, delivered by some

Public Safety committee  Thank you for your question. I'll tell you that I was immensely impressed with the insight that the Auditor General's report demonstrated in the area. Many of the findings are consistent with the findings of our office. In fact, all the findings are consistent. The recommendatio

Public Safety committee  The minister is certainly aware of the recommendation and the importance that we attach to it and has undertaken to discuss that recommendation. I know that the Correctional Service of Canada continues to be resistant. In fact, their arguments are that it is already a file that i

Public Safety committee  As an ombudsman, we can deal with complaints directly from inmates. We can take complaints from family members. We can also take a complaint from the Minister of Public Safety. We also have the ability to investigate on our own motion. We receive information from Corrections Can

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  Well, it's pretty straightforward. Inmate allowances for work inside the institutions and for program participation were set in 1981. Since 1981, there has been an increasing financial burden on federally sentenced offenders to pay for things such as telephone calls. Also, a prop

Public Safety committee  No.

Public Safety committee  Well, the most money you can make, the top of the salary range, if we can put it that way—it's not a perfect characterization—is $6.90 a day. If you look at the contributions to inmate committee funds and the other expenses I was talking about, such as telephones, etc., you'll se

Public Safety committee  You realize that you asked about six questions in that one.

Public Safety committee  I'll try to be as quick as I can in addressing the issues, because they are significant. In terms of equity employment, the Correctional Service of Canada does well. In terms of how well it reflects the client population, they don't do so well. The question I have about that,

Public Safety committee  The office was first established after a commission of inquiry into a riot at Kingston Penitentiary in 1971. It was established to address the findings of that inquiry, which in part concluded that the riot, which led to loss of life and massive property destruction, was ignited