Thread by @KirstiMiller30

As someone who has managed 5 prisons the main thing I learnt during my career is that prisons don't reduce crime, they don't rehabilitate & they don't make the community safer.

The solutions need to be community-designed and driven, with govt support.

https://twitter.com/kirstimiller30/status/1271198424285626368?s=21

https://twitter.com/KirstiMiller30/status/1586919533285371905

Australia cannot afford the social, health and economic costs of over-imprisonment. Strong, healthy & connected communities are the most effective way to prevent crime & make communities safer.

Research has found a large portion of prisoners come from and return to a small number of inadequately resourced neighbourhoods and communities.

It is well known that prisons are filled with people who are disproportionately disadvantaged and who have unmet social, health and disability-related needs.

dote.org.au

Government funding priorities across Australia has effectively criminalised the consequences of marginalisation & failed to address the causes of offending.

Research has shown that prison does not reduce crime. It actually perpetuates cycles of poverty, disadvantage and reoffending.

theconversation.com/the-evidence-i…

Governments in Australia continue to lavish resources on incarceration despite empirical research that re-offending is better addressed by rehabilitation programs, education and vocational training, stable housing, and employment.

We have to break the cycle of poverty, unemployment and incarceration they are all linked to disadvantage. The more disadvantaged the more crime, the more people locked up it’s the revolving door syndrome.

Building more prisons for 230+ years has resulted in Australia’s First Nations People to be the most incarcerated Indigenous Community on this Planet with a life expectancy a full decade less than white 🇦🇺 Sadly #Budget2022 fails to address this Australian tragedy.