According to Corrective Services NSW, 42.9 per cent of women released from NSW prisons are returning to the system. It’s a trend Insight encountered while filming Lockdown, a two-part look inside a women’s maximum security prison.
Susan’s* story falls within these figures. She has been in and out of jail, mostly on dishonesty charges – larceny, drink driving, break and enter – every year, for the past 16 years.
The repetitiveness of her misdemeanours has earned her the title, ‘frequent flier’. “I have [enough] frequent flier points I should be due a trip probably over to Europe and back,” she tells Insight host Jenny Brockie.
Susan says she has never been able to complete rehab to treat her alcoholism, which is connected to her crimes. “Why do I keep going back to the drinking when I know where it's going to put me?” she says. “It's going to bring me back in here or it will end up killing me. That's basically it.”
She also says prison provides a break from the demands of everyday life; almost as a retreat to safety for her mental health, too.
“In a way, coming back in here, it's safe, you feel safe,” she says. “You don't have to have the stress of all there is to living out there, like paying rent, your bills ... chasing your drug of your addiction every day, like twenty four hours a day.”
“In here, you can just think oh, it's over now, you know? Like, you can just come in here and rest and the majority of the time is eighteen hours a day you're in your cell, you can just laze about and get that rest, so in a way it's quite comforting.”
of female prisoners report histories of mental health problems, and many of the women Insight talked to spoke of ongoing problems with anxiety and depression. More serious disorders such as borderline personality disorder, major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder have also been seen as characteristic of women in jail. of women in Australian prisons take medication for mental health issues.
'Susan', on Insight Source: Insight
They are also more likely to experience a high level of distress when leaving prison than men.
“I'm pretty scared to be honest,” says Shannon*, a fellow inmate of Susan’s who is being released the day after her interview with Insight. At around 10:30am the next morning, she will be given her freedom. “I don’t know if I’m going to turn left or right at the gate, really. I really don’t know.” Shannon was back at Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre after deliberately breaching her parole.
“Knowing that there’s no responsibility on the outside anymore, it becomes really scary for me,” Shannon says. She is worried she will turn back to the drugs. “I do so well in here without them … I'm scared of myself, yeah.”
She is also sceptical of rehab, to treat to her ice addiction. “I'd rather be in jail any day than rehab,” she says, claiming there to be “nothing to prevent you from doing [drugs]” in the programs she has been admitted to.
“At least you know where you stand here.”
“Even maximum, security you'd rather be in this place?” Jenny Brockie asks her.
“I'd rather be in maximum security than minimum security … Better structure,” she explains. “I'm really good when I'm told what to do in these sorts of situations. I like the fact that there's authority.”
“I don't want it to be such an easy ride for me while I'm in here.”
Does the prison system work to dissuade recidivism?
“Do you think prison works in the sense that it might change people for the better?” Insight’s Jenny Brockie asks Angela, an Assistant Superintendent at Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre.
“No,” she replies after a moment’s thought.
“That’s just my personal opinion. I don’t think there’s enough programs available to make these people change their lives,” she says. “I don’t think there’s enough incentive to entice them to change their ways and you can see that via the high rate of recidivism.”
In response to Angela’s comments, Corrective Services NSW noted to Insight that:
The NSW Government in August announced a record $237 million investment into reducing recidivism rates through a new plan that targets offenders who pose the greatest risk of reoffending.
The new plan will provide more rehabilitation programs and enhanced supervision for priority offenders, and will have a particular emphasis on the critical period before and after they are released from custody.
They also provided Insight with an extensive list of the programs offered at the prison, which included services to combat addiction for women in remand; skills-based behavioural therapy; and numerous mental health units targeted at specific conditions. There were also a number of educational programs offering qualifications from Certificate I to Certificate III in areas such as literacy and numeracy, English as a second language, IT, visual arts, as well as distance education opportunities with universities or other education institutes.
However, in May 2016, the NSW state government it would be overhauling many of its education and training programs to better focus on literacy and numeracy skills to be carried into life after prison. This would be done by outsourcing the courses to “specialist training organisations”.
"Corrective Services is a small education provider so inmate programs often reflect the skills of teachers who are available at a centre, not necessarily the needs of inmates,” says Minister for Corrections, David Elliot. “For example, between a quarter and a third of vocational programs are in art and music rather than areas linked to inmate employment."
However, the announcement was not welcomed by the 158 teachers then employed to work in the prisons, after it was they would be sacked, then have to reapply for the 20 remaining full time positions. These positions would service over 12,300 inmates. These changes are expected to come into force in early 2017.
More on women in prison
Call for prison rethink amid soaring recidivism
Last week, criminal law specialists SBS World News Radio following the first episode of about prison’s ability to provide a pathway out of crime.
"Prison can't deal with the issues that women face in the community - housing, lack of employment, trauma, mental illness, addiction,” Professor Peter Norden, a former prison chaplain now specialising in criminology at RMIT University, told the program. “These problems have got to be dealt with through community corrections, not prison."
"Imprisoning people actually adds to the cycle of dysfunction,” Diana Johns, a criminologist from the University of Melbourne, also noted. “You are removing them from their children. You are just whittling away their resources and their capacity to return to these relationships in a way that's functional and not involved in crime.”
Angela believes “that you choose what you want to happen in your life,” when looking at how the women she oversees come to be behind bars. “I know not everyone chooses to be on drugs or they might have ended up on drugs and that led them to breaking the law, they probably didn't want to but … something I say to the inmates is only you can change your life. I can't do it for you, no one else can do it for you. You have to do it, you have to want to change.”
Jenny Brockie asks one inmate, Meagan*, whether her time in prison has changed her. She is currently serving a sentence for reckless wounding.
“It’s made me look at things in a whole different perspective,” she says. “Now I will stop and think. I want to now better me so I don't end up back here. I don't want to ever come back to this place.”
“Realistically, do you think you might be back?” asks Brockie.
“I'm saying no but you know what? You can't never really say never, can you. Because one tiny thing can put you back here.”
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*Names have been changed
