Public Accounts committee  It's a fair question. With regard to the issue of segregation, this is something that's been occupying a lot of our time and attention. A lot of effort has gone into reducing the number of offenders in segregation. Again, there's been a lot of progress in improving the conditions of confinement, and we continue on this path.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely. There are a number of reasons why somebody could be placed in segregation. One is, for example, when we receive a threat that somebody is going to kill a particular offender. Until we do an investigation and find out what's happening, yes, some offenders are placed there for their own safety.

Public Accounts committee  This goes back to a comment I made earlier. We opened these regional facilities to keep the women in their home communities and allow them to have visits, and if they have children to allow the children to visit them. So—

Public Accounts committee  Yes. For example, in Quebec, we have fewer aboriginal offenders, but we still have enough that we need to do something. Some of them, obviously, want to go back to their communities, and that's why we are putting into place these aboriginal intervention centres, so that we can offer the appropriate programs and services to those aboriginal offenders.

Public Accounts committee  We actually have a series of programs. Again, we have an engagement program for all women offenders. We have moderate and intensity programming, as well as community maintenance programming for offenders. I'll turn it over to Dr. Blanchette, who can elaborate.

Public Accounts committee  Mrs. Wheatley will comment.

Public Accounts committee  I'll start with the answer and then turn it over to Dr. Blanchette. There are two things. For the initial security classification, to classify a woman as maximum, medium, or minimum, we use the custody rating scale, which, if I am not mistaken, was validated for women offenders.

Public Accounts committee  The report clearly establishes that improvements must be made. For us, it is important to make improvements. Based on certain data, we are on the right track. The number of inmates who have benefited from day parole has increased considerably, while the number of revocations has declined significantly.

Public Accounts committee  I will begin by saying that the lone prison for women, which was in Kingston, was closed precisely so that we could have establishments in all the regions, thus enabling the women to remain close to their family and see their children. It is clear that the highest proportion of indigenous offenders is in the Prairie and Pacific regions.

Public Accounts committee  I will say that 10% of CSC staff are aboriginal. We always try to recruit aboriginals to work for us. Ten per cent is a pretty good number. In fact, that percentage is higher than the workforce availability, which is 6.4%. There are specific positions for aboriginal people. The positions of community liaison officers I mentioned are positions for aboriginals.

Public Accounts committee  We have a healing lodge for women in Maple Creek. The women who go to the healing lodge have to be medium- or minimum-security women. Again, the healing lodge is where they can practice their aboriginal culture. I'm not sure I would say that it's softer. Certainly, it's also because the security classification of the women is lower.

Public Accounts committee  I would say it's focus. For us, this is really important. What's happening in the aboriginal intervention centres is that we are tracking. We're tracking when they're coming in, when they're being assessed, when they're being placed in the program, how long the program is, and, when the program is completed, how long it takes before they're reassessed.

Public Accounts committee  We certainly have a lot of tools. We track our progress in a number of areas, actually. You mentioned mental health more specifically. I'll turn it over to Jennifer, because we do track that as well.

Public Accounts committee  You're right. There has been an increase. Actually, I have the warrant of committal admissions for the last 10 years. Between 2006-07 and 2016-17, for all women, there was an increase of 30%. This is, again, warrant of committal admissions. For aboriginal women, the increase was 37%.

Public Accounts committee  I think what you're talking about is a healing lodge. We have one for women, and that is a culturally appropriate environment where they can practise their culture and their teachings, and where there are ceremonies. It is steeped in aboriginal culture. Aboriginal intervention centres are a little different.