Mr. Speaker, I can make a commitment that I would work to make sure that there is effective support, and counselling, to inmates as a way to assist in the rehabilitation of inmates.
I think it is important to recognize that all the counselling, and rehabilitation, in the world will not help, unless it is done in a relevant, or cultural, context which is what the Member asked in a question earlier. It is a rather long winded answer to the question that would be required, so I chose to take it as notice. In my view, the rehabilitation is required, along with the counselling and support services, both during and after incarceration.
The larger question that arises is, if the system is so foreign and alien to all of the inmates, then how relevant are the support programs, the rehabilitation programs, and the counselling programs, going to be? So, that is a more fundamental question, and I do not think there is time to do justice to it right now.
I should raise to the Member, as well, that what I understand with many of our inmates, is that there are inmates in the federal institutions, and I think they are the ones that are considered in the eyes of the law to have committed much more serious crimes. They are concerned about the inability of our systems to have any say on whether, or not, these people have to be subject to counselling and rehabilitation programs, because I understand that the prospects are fairly low in that area. Thank you.