Australia has seen a dramatic increase in the number of women held in prisons in the last twenty years. One former inmate is using her post-incarceration success to help released prisoners find a new start and overcome the stigma of jail time.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Spending precious time with her baby boy.
00:05These are the moments Talia Isaac didn't think she'd get to experience.
00:11I just set my life on fire.
00:13So I was being really destructive, taking cocktails of drugs.
00:19I thought that it was over.
00:21In 2017, Miss Isaac was jailed for drug offences.
00:25When released, she struggled to find a job.
00:29You're told no, you don't belong anywhere,
00:32you are shrouded in so much shame and stigma and discrimination.
00:38She's launched a not-for-profit support program,
00:41aimed at helping female prisoners transition back into society.
00:45Prisons aren't very therapeutic
00:48and they don't offer women the chance to heal from the life that they were living.
00:54It's very hard for women to break that cycle
00:57once they're in the criminal justice system
00:59because very little changes for them when they exit prison.
01:02The Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals that nationally
01:05the female prison population grew by about 62% between 2009 and 2024.
01:12For those who are in prison, almost 70% have previously been inside.
01:17Experts say to lower recidivism rates,
01:19there needs to be more long-term coordinated support,
01:23which is more effective when led by those with lived experience.
01:27Automatically, you get a synergy when there's that shared experience
01:31and a shared goal as well of getting on with life
01:34and not having to get caught up in that cycle.
01:37Miss Isaac wants others to rediscover a positive life,
01:41in the future just like she did.
01:44I feel like I'm accepted in my community
01:47and I have a group of friends and, yeah, life's pretty good.
01:51There's a huge lack of people whoãy in the end.
01:52And my father can always run away from that kind of thing
01:55that fare before I use a proportion with my children.
01:57If you've heard about Anybody