Plans For Indigenous-Led NSW Prison Pilot Criticised By Advocates

Criticisms have been launched against a plan to create an Indigenous-led prison program in Sydney.

Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) has floated the idea of introducing a specialist facility would see Indigenous offenders overseen by Indigenous staff at Lidcombe’s Mary Wade Correctional Centre, with plans to expand if successful, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Corrective Services Minister Geoff Lee said the move would “investigate innovative solutions to help reduce reoffending in NSW”.

“Indigenous incarceration in NSW is too high, so I welcome any evidence-based solutions from CSNSW to tackle this difficult problem,” he said to the publication.

However, advocates have pointed out that prisons cannot be used to fix the problem at hand — prisons themselves.

“Carceral solutions to colonial problems can’t bring positive change for the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” said academic and writer Latoya Rule on Monday.

“It is harmful to place any Indigenous person inside a prison — as a manager or prisoner — because of the context of that space. We mustn’t normalise it!

My old people did not lay down their lives to protect our culture and lore only for some people to use it to cage mob under colonial law many years down the track. This proposed “Aboriginal prison” in NSW is an insult to our ancestors and to our people

SHAME

— Disposable Human (@haveachattabs) August 14, 2022

A similar model has previously been employed at the West Kimberley Regional Prison in Western Australia, and the former Yetta Dhinnakkal Centre in regional NSW,

Lawyer and activist Debbie Kilroy reflected on similar efforts in the 90s in Canada, which she said removed Indigenous communities from management after the initial planning stage, and didn’t address incarceration rate overrepresentation. 

“It was a failure — this is a window dressing by Corrective Services, and it will not address incarceration rates across the state,” said the Chief Executive of prison abolition advocacy group, Sisters Inside, to the Daily Telegraph. “Prison cannot be the default response to social issues.”

Kilroy instead wants to see the funds put towards communities and social services, calling for better accomodation, mental health facilities, and health care for Indigenous people to prevent criminalisation.