Cell, street,
repeat
STORIES
BY ANNA SAUNDERS
Thousands of women are being set up to fail by being released from prison into homelessness, advocates say.
On the May afternoon that Gloria Larman pulled up to Silverwater Prison in Sydney, the wheels of justice were turning slowly.
The community worker and chief executive of the Women’s Justice Network (WJN) had arrived to pick up Tania*, a prisoner who was being released at 4pm. But by 5pm there was still no sign of her.
As the sky began to darken, Larman started to worry. She’d organised to take Tania to a rehab centre, which had a strict 8pm curfew. If she missed it, Tania had nowhere to stay.
So, Larman hit the phones and, after two hours, managed to secure a night’s emergency accommodation. When Tania finally emerged from prison, she drove her straight there, promising to ferry her to rehab the next morning.
If Larman hadn’t been there – if Tania, a drug addict, had been released alone and homeless into the night – the evening could have unfolded very differently.
In Australia, nearly half of all prisoners are released into homelessness or short-term or emergency accommodation, with many unable to arrange their first night’s accommodation until after they’ve left prison.
Meet The Women Making Thousands From Their Wardrobes
BY CAROLINE ZIELINSKI
Arrow
Little wonder, advocates say, that around
45 per cent
of all prisoners end up back behind bars within two years of release.
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