BY MARYCLARE MACHEN
& NATALIE BLOK
MELBOURNE -- Women are dying within hours, days and months of leaving prison in Victoria, according to community activist and member of STOP (Surviving Time Outside Prison) Catherine Gow. In 1999, in a six-week period, eight women died shortly after leaving the Metropolitan Women's Correctional Centre.
“We believe that in the last 10 years, more than 120 women have died in Victoria alone shortly after leaving prison. The deaths raise serious concerns not only about the adequacy of pre- and post-release services but also the general issue of women's imprisonment”, Gow said.
STOP is a Melbourne-based alliance of ex-prisoners, families and friends of women in prison or have died since their release from prison, community activists, students, academics and other concerned supporters.
The vast majority of women in prison are imprisoned for drug- and alcohol-related crimes, come from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and have suffered sexual, physical and/or psychological abuse.
Prisons do not work: 66% of women re-offend; according to recent international research, prison does not make the community feel any safer; and prisons are costly and direct money away from more effective crime prevention.
Women leave prison with a plastic bag of belongings and little else. For many families, the stigma of having a family member who has been in prison is too much and the released woman is left to struggle alone without support.
When women who have “paid their debt to society” and are released soon realise that it is a lifetime debt. “Our prison sentence does not end the day we are released from prison and we continue to pay for being poor and in pain for the rest of our lives. Surviving time outside prison is exactly what each of us face every day ... The reality is that most of us will not be employed and that society looks down on us no matter how hard we try. It is no wonder that many women have given up the struggle not long after their release”, explained Julie, an active member of STOP.
Community support services for women leaving prison are largely non-existent and the few services that are available are vastly under resourced. Spending money on new prisons is not the solution. Rather, as Julie stressed, “it's a question of human rights and equal opportunities. Housing, employment, women's shelters and drug counselling services must be made available. If women had access to livable incomes, affordable housing and a range of community services, then they would not be forced to commit `criminal offences' in order to survive.”
STOP is organising a one-day forum on August 4, 10am-1.30pm, at the North Melbourne Town Hall.
If you would like to find out more about, or become involved in, the STOP campaign, contact Victorian Deaths in Custody Watch Committee at PO Box 1467, Collingwood 3066, email <pjan@vicnet.net.au>, or visit <http://www.geocities.com/custodywatch/>.
