The inmates are made aware that at a certain point in their term of imprisonment, they will be eligible to go to a bush camp if they wish to, and the camp of their choice. We have had complaints from certain operators that perhaps they are not getting enough inmates.
On occasion, in response, we have made a special effort to go through the inmate population again. I have directed this at least twice to see if there are any inmates who are interested in going to a certain place. At the end of the day, it is voluntary.
Now, we are doing things in a certain fashion. Some inmates, not every single inmate that we have is deemed appropriate for the bush camp experience. That is a policy decision and one would have to change that. One would have to make a serious policy decision to say that the bush camp experience would be more beneficial to an inmate than would the closer supervision one would get in incarceration. I am not sure that would be the thing to do but we are supporting this program.
We are one of the very few jurisdictions in the country that does have such a program and we support it. It is working very well and we are trying to ascertain what the results of the program are now in terms of measures. Are the people who go to the bush camps succeeding better than those who do not go to the bush camps? These are issues that we have to deal with.
With respect to one other issue, the Member said we are going out and advertising for more bush camps. My understanding is that the contracts are up and they are all out for proposals again this year.