Does finance play a role in Indigenous women's prisoner rehabilitation?

The Australian Productivity Commission is struggling with the cost of imprisonment at $5.2 billion per year and a lack of evidence-based research to guide their decision-making (Australian Government Productivity Commission, 2021). Indigenous women make up 39% of the women prisoner population, the fastest-growing prisoner cohort; by comparison, Indigenous Australians are only 3.8% of the general population (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2023). This disproportionate prison representation indicates there is systemic inequality and has been referred to as a “national disgrace” (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018). Still, Indigenous women in prison are largely invisible to policymakers whose focus has been on male prisoners (Bartels et al., 2020). The reason why women go to prison is different to men. Women’s theft has doubled since 2006 and theft is the number one cause of women being imprisoned (Hidderley et al., 2022).

The role of prison is punishment, community safety, and rehabilitation (Australian Government Productivity Commission, 2021). Recidivism rates of 40-60 percent for women indicate there are weakness in the rehabilitation approach (Hidderley et al., 2022). Gendered issues of women prisoners such as domestic violence, mental illness, and substance abuse are now starting to be discussed in the literature (Bartels et al., 2020). Women prisoners are mothers and carers, “We know that when we incarcerate a woman, we often are truly incarcerating a family in terms of the far-reaching effect of her children, her community and her entire family network” (Bartels et al., 2020; United States Department of Justice, 2016)