Incarceration rates In the Northern Territory are amongst the highest in the world, with more women being jailed than ever before. What's more, the number of Aboriginal women behind bars has more than doubled in the last three decades. Advocates are calling for an overhaul to the way women are being dealt with by the law.
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00:00Debbie Kilroy's life behind bars began at just 13 years old.
00:10I was that child that was locked up in a children's prison for truanting school.
00:14Trauma and criminalisation hung over her formative years.
00:18Then and out of children's prisons until I was 17 and then in the adult system.
00:22And you finish your parole too.
00:2450 years on, Debbie now heads Sisters Inside, an organisation focused on freeing women from incarceration.
00:32I want you to live and be happy.
00:34Women need support in the community, not to be further harmed by being caged.
00:40Women make up the fastest growing prison population in the Northern Territory.
00:45Nationally, the number of Aboriginal women behind bars doubling in the last three decades.
00:53In Central Australia, the Cunga Stopping Violence program is working with Aboriginal women in jail.
01:00We run a 20-day grief, loss and trauma program for 10 women twice a year in Alice Springs Correctional Centre.
01:09The Territory's prisons are maxed out, reaching record highs last month.
01:15Without warning, female prisoners in Alice Springs were moved to Darwin to make space for male inmates.
01:22There's no certainty when or if the women will go back.
01:26When we isolate someone away from kin, country and community, there is no mechanism for healing.
01:32Rachel Neary says moving female prisoners away from their children and support network can have wider ramifications.
01:40And says careful planning is needed when women are released.
01:45Do they need us to assist them to get a DVO in place?
01:49If they've experienced violence from their partner and potentially they plan to go back to their partner.
01:54The typical prisoner in the Alice Springs Women's Correctional Facility is an Indigenous mother around 30 years old.
02:02She can't speak, read or write English well.
02:05She's been abused either as a child or young adult and the charge that likely landed her in prison involved violence.
02:13It may be that she's acting in self-defence and has been misidentified as the primary perpetrator.
02:19Some experts argue well-intentioned reforms, including a push for proactive policing of family violence
02:27and an increased use of domestic violence orders, are working against marginalised women.
02:34Many women don't leave the abusive relationship, but if you don't separate,
02:38there's also a constant risk of ongoing use of violence, including defensive use of violence.
02:44Advocates are urging policy makers to invest in alternatives to custody,
02:49easing pressure on the prison system and improving outcomes for families and their communities.
02:55If we're able to help these women at that crisis point, then the community benefits.
03:02A call for rehabilitation where incarceration has failed.
03:08For more UN videos visit www.un.org