The number of women being incarcerated in Australia has been exponentially increasing in the last decade, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women accounting for much of the growth.
Consider this, between 2009 and 2019, there was a 64% increase in women’s incarceration compared to a 45% increase in men’s incarceration. And even during the lockdowns, back in 2020 and 2021, there was a 5% increase in the female population, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women comprising 10% of the total female prison population.
Moreover, evidence suggests that an overwhelming majority of women in prison are victims of domestic violence, with 70-90% of them experiencing some kind of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse as children or adults.
We talked with Debbie Kilroy, OAM, abolition activist, lawyer, and CEO of Sisters Inside, about the importance of including lived experience perspectives and voices – especially in any work related to the criminalised community; how the criminalised community is being actively discriminated against when advocating for their rights; how the intersecting oppressions feeds the incarceration cycle of women and how the women’s specialist services could do more. And lastly, Debbie invites us all in reimagining the carceral system of punishment and incarceration and advocate for a future focused on healing and love instead.
Source: Reimagining the systems of incarceration and punishment. — WESNET