Why are so many women going to jail? | Four Corners

okay I've been to prison four times I was in prison for drug dealing the hardest thing about staying out of prison is dealing with the isolation the judgments the stigma [Music] or exam - I had the perfect life I had two beautiful children I had a husband that doted I had a nine-to-five job we had a little house you know not far from the school and I thought I was the luckiest woman in the world things started to change my son passed away when he was 19 we were holding each other up from the death of our son and then my husband was diagnosed with dumb renal cancer he passed away and we buried him with my son and it was actually one of my one of my cubes friends introduced me to ice not long after my husband passed away inside I was just falling apart I was an absolute mess and the more I took guys the more I wanted to take ice I couldn't get enough of it you know I just want to sit dead in any pain anything I could [Music] friends would come over we'd all throw out money in and then I'd get it and then we divvy it all up you know and in essence that made me a drug supplier yeah I was a drug supplier from that moment onwards yeah and then of course after that their friends like my friends told their friends and then their friends told other friends and other friends told other friends and before I knew my my half was like Central Station it was it was absolutely ridiculous and I was getting more and more sick by the day it was eating me from the inside out literally I ended up with sepsis in my in my own blood so those marks on your arms what are they from that were from the sepsis due to the house yeah did the poison my whole blood became toxic it was literally toxic and I knew every day when I opened my eye here I would be wondering is today the day dawn am I gonna die or I'm gonna be arrested I'm gonna die I'm gonna be arrested you know and each day was a you know I knew one of those would happen yeah and I was praying that it would just happen soon [Music] when I came out I had no home no money a change of underwear but that was basically where I'm living now is not safe I am absolutely desperate so we're off today to speak to someone in the Uniting Church about a home having home for me and regardless of where it is what it looks like it could be the biggest dump in Sydney but yeah it was just me you can make it your home yeah you're looking well we'll go in and meet Chum see what the housing is all about it's an insulin one with a couple of my friends so first of all I'll show you around so I'll show you a couple of rooms we've got here there's a kitchen here we provide a microwave and bar fridge because you know we've got the kitchen downstairs and then there's bathroom but actually the unit isn't quite small so we don't sorry I don't know do you have a requested dog sandwich said it's not really suitable for me which is a shame because it's so small and I sort of got really excited and I said I have a little dog and indecent we can't have dogs here and I just thought Fran it would be lovely to be able to help her she's a person that's in housing need it's really sad and you want to help everybody but you can't it's really difficult for people a friend to feel really safe you need housing like everybody deserves somewhere that they can put the head down every night and feel safe and for most people coming out of prison that doesn't happen yeah and they don't get their parole if they've got nowhere to go some women give up they just can't cope with the fact that they've got no mentor they don't want to be on the street and be homeless and be unsafe talk to bit more about so I just thought I'd bring out application fatality okay so if you get this filled in we can have a look and see what might be available nothing might be available immediately but you know have a look and the important thing is to get she's the sort of person that we would like to help can't promise anything because it's difficult we might not have anything in the area that she wants to go to but we can there's not enough housing available so yeah I walked away thinking nothing was going to nothing was going to come of it yeah that's you know someone may be able to come in and join and benefit from what Katherine's offering but it wasn't going to be me and I said two forms of ID and income I've been to prison five times I've been to prison for breaking into driving while disqualified driving under the influence of ice and escaped police custody the hardest thing about coming out of prison is being homeless and the stigma [Music] [Music] [Music] on Wednesday I've got some underwear some papers my release papers and $50 yeah that's what we call and I've been inside for six months now so it's great to be it's fabulous like I'm really and it's so good to have my mom yeah I feel really excited I guess there's a little bit of anxiousness there but we you know it's new beginnings for you and and for us as a family yeah every time I get out mums been there and tried to get accommodation for me because I couldn't go home to Dad's because that's where I like I just Rob cheesy-ass really so definitely last for years but before that really since I was 16 when I drink I have diminished capacity so I made really poor choices to that I get drunk and go and hang out with people that are on ice and then I get on the ice and then I don't sleep for days and then I'm a drunk again and next thing I know I'm stealing cars and [Music] really dangerous behavior this is the last time I have to talk to you on the phone the impact for myself for Vicky's prison terms has been time and cost and heartache but mostly it's been the heartache around it you know having to talk about the with your friends that you know I'm going to visit my daughter in prison today it's a real shame things and leaving her there when you leave you know it's it was really hard I am never going back to prison I have had enough I've definitely grown from this experience and I I yeah I just I'm not coming back I can't I cannot go back so it's just that there's no if that is not going back Becky and I have just moved into a new place on the south coast of New South Wales and I guess if I didn't think she'd turned over a new leaf and was ready to make some positive changes in her life I wouldn't have done that when Becky was using because she was such an opportunist thief she would I would hide things like my car keys my wallet my phone laptop under my pillow whenever you know I went to bed I have had a very tense relationship with my mom in the past but I am rebuilding mom has given me more than a few chances and I have let her down more than a few times a few years ago now Becky stole some freshest and irreplaceable things from a house that I was looking after and for me it really gutted me at that particular time she'd stolen lots of things before in the past but that particular occasion it was Mother's Day and we'd been out for a lovely lunch but that night when I went off to work she came back to the house and and took those things and with it my trust that you know she stole to trust that other people hating me and that was really really tough and I went into a bit of a spiral myself at that point I have done a lot of personal growth my self-esteem was shocking like in my and I'm pretty good now I was six when I was sexually abused the effect that that had on my life I was like devastating my dad wanted to believe me my mom just flat-out no did not believe me which was really hard and then my parents actually got divorced not long after that I don't even know if the abuse affected me as much as not being believed I went from the little happy girl to a really um I started to compulsively eight I go out to a little fat kid I just thought everyone loved me because they had to love me I feel a lot of regret and shame around that I didn't believe Becky when she told me she was sexually abused as a young child I had no reason to believe that that could possibly happen you know I just didn't I was very naive I do wonder if we as parents had believed her earlier and acted on that that maybe just maybe it wouldn't have gone as badly as it has if I could change one thing in my life and hers I would go back and fix that and make sure I never having if Becky hadn't been sexually molested I'm sure her life would have been better she wouldn't have hung around with the people she did I had such low self-worth I thought I was unlovable I didn't really get to do or things that 16 year-olds did because of my involvement with a pretty violent relationship I think Becky was attracted to violent people to protect her because I'm not a violent person and all of a sudden protect her I have 100% years they do it against them four sorts of things so from justifying stealing their cars to just find them to giving me money so when I would go to jail I would use that against them like this is your fault she's breaking into my house at least fifty times just stolen and to get into the house she's broken window she's broken locks she's gone through walls we spent about ten grand on the ground floor to put security screens on doors on all the windows and doors we put a five thousand dollar camera system in we put lights to light up at night it's just horrendous you go cold at night when you hear noises when you it's it's just it's just bad news all around security screen that day all put on anyway Savannah Boni Becky stone for me over these Oh estimate over a hundred thousand possibly more he's actually that's the door to my bedroom so and I used to have a key to that but I've broken through the interior walls of the house everyone in our family has got a key lock on their door because I had little a deadlock and a key lock a deadlock key locks because I had actually broken into everybody's rooms I would pick the locks but then also I I cut through the plasterboard from one room into the other room um it's a killer drug yeah [Music] my sister was sigh time for me she refused to come to the jails the last couple of times as I was in she'd had I got full and so she wrote me a letter and she said you know I heat you are not the only person that's been abused you're not the only person that's had trauma yes I feel for you and yes it sucks but you actually you need to just get over it because you can't keep doing this and I was like oh I really can't keep doing this anymore like yes [ __ ] happens but there is a lot more [ __ ] that has happened to other people in the world so you can definitely move through trauma there's no point in holding on to it and me being a victim of it because some it was actually destroying my life women's prisons are filled with stories of people like me so people that have had trauma abuse really violent relationships and like and I said to the girls actually this last time I said you know we're actually pretty lucky that we get to jail because a lot of women don't even get here a lot of women killed through domestic violence a lot of women are broken and and are in prison in their own house so for me it's really sad like it's actually very sad to think that um that we end up in prison after such hectic pasts yeah I've been really more than 30 times I went to prison for aggravated assault and police officers um stealing cars bring honest the hardest thing for me to say to prison is being judged from a criminal history yeah well my family of beans download my siblings um my mother my stepfather yeah well being a prison that's probably my earliest memories as a child is visiting my mom in prison and the people in prison like who I called my onliest now you see anyone in your family who hasn't been to prison yeah my babies are some prison to me is it just seems normal like everything just seems no it's just the only thing I know in life is that why you kept going Becky I'm that and plus I had nowhere to go probably Donna came into care as a little seven-year-old girl because her mum went into prison there's a number of messages in Donna's story I feel the biggest message is survival even though I know that sometimes Donna has thought that she wasn't going to survive but she survives the most horrific violence that a little girl and a woman can experience I was sexually abused a number of times when I went to care it's just the age of move 1314 I've lived on the streets sleeping rough on the streets I got attacked a number of times there'd be times where I would find myself alone and sleeping at a bus stop or sleeping someone where I thought no one would see me and someone stumbled over me and being so small and looking so young maybe yeah being attacked was something that happened a few times growing up and has that impacted on you going to jail do you think yeah not maybe by the retaliation um so yeah being violent is what I became I used to be a really hater I used to hate everyone a lot of people [Music] good how'd you do place yeah yeah this is um when you go place random all your photos your Arne Eggen Donna now lives about an hour north out of Brisbane which is very new for her because she lived on the streets in the 42 Valley in Brisbane City predominately all her life how long you been in there for four I'm since the mid October now awesome yeah buddy you you feeling proud of you oh yeah I'm gay coming along oh I've come a long way okay it's pretty tough coming out of prison it's nice and full Debbi curious helped me stay on the straight and narrow immensely just with the support just help of direction Donna's life is so similar to so many women's lives who are in prison we have a massive over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait island in our prison systems across this country we know that 74% of Aboriginal tasha are women who are in prison today have been in prison before it's some you show me yeah hmm a different lifestyle a life that you want to live yeah yeah yeah yeah a life worth living yeah I know yeah I want you to live and be happy happy tears yeah what's been inspiring and heart fell for me is that Donna has a first home yeah which is just beautiful one day at a time one hour at a time it's the first time she's ever had a home that she feels safe in because if this is your home no one can take this off you dear I mean you've got this it's really special yeah yeah I finally have something to lose my life that's scary yeah maybe hmm yeah exciting and scary yeah with support Donna can and is right now turning her life around I was just wondering would you have any work at the moment no thank you Donna's gonna hit speed bumps there's gonna be ups and downs there's no doubt about that but I believe that Donna is a strong black woman and she's going to be okay hello my name is Becky how are you good thank you I really need to find a job so I've decided to be proactive have you guys been looking for anyone or are you actually okay cool so I worked in Baker's I have never worked to move me and knives I worked at the bank so I am great great customer service how's the battle really yeah you've got I'm happening me and I can so this thing is with me I've actually just I've got a criminal history I've been released from prison so I'm still clean I haven't used in 7 months so for me this is about getting back on my feet and that's my story if so if you would like to have a think about it that would be fabulous I can't call it happy give you a trial okay fabulous thank you Thank You Erica take care see you that's nice to meet you bye thank you I'm having a trial at the butchers today I'll do fine Isaac I'm okay we've the people butterfly Peggle in women coming out of prison do find it hard to find jobs because a lot of people do do police checks but I think that if you're upfront and honest about it first that people will give you a go I mean we all do stupid things so I felt like everyone deserves a second chance Thanks she looks great she's very friendly and to be honest I don't really care about people's history I care about what they're gonna do with us and in the future I feel wrapped about getting their job so amazing it's um I just like there's a lot of weight lifted my boss is amazing Erica is fabulous she has given me the chance to really have a new life Trane's amazing because she survived and she survived with humor and she survived with her humanity intact she hasn't crawled into herself she's a full person and she survived years in jail I've been friends mentor for two and a half years yeah my whole life is gonna change them and to do that I have had to cut ties with everyone that I know virtually apart from family everyone that I know I no longer associated with you know so which is very lonely I've learnt heaps with Fran she's taught me so much stuff I can't believe how resourceful she is and she's funny we'd get on well together she won't go back to prison I'm aware of saying that in paper a little girl yeah yeah yeah yeah yet she will not go back to prison she's had enough she is had enough but I couldn't down without you Mary yeah don't know playstation with that no I thought I was gonna get locked up that day but then you had that good experience with that sergeant Mary Mary's my angel she's my knight in shining armor if I didn't marry I probably would have ended up back in jail Mary's she's taught me a completely different way of looking at the rules now which is probably the right way and the way normal people look at things you know not saying that I'm abnormal but I have been known to yeah not look at things quite right maybe back yes so she's taught me she has taught me so much who was thought an old girl like see you can teach all cozy tricks [Applause] Fran is desperate to get a job because getting a job means that she can live like a human being she can get some money she can buy adequate food she can go out the odds are really stacked against her she is almost 60 and getting a job when you're home and when you're 60 isn't easy and then having a police record it gets to the almost impossible stage no one wants to employ you when there's a hundred other applicants that don't have criminal records so why would they want to employ you sometimes I feel like I'm just beating my head against a brick wall hi Mary nice to meet you see here Fran and I recently went to a charity that finds jobs or attempts to find jobs for women coming out of prison when we arrived she was a bit nervous but really enthusiastic and I bet you're just starting to get to work yeah I'm willing to give a hundred and fifty percent you know yeah just look there are employers out there that will hire we just have to find them we do and that's what we're going to try and okay what I do you know I scrub toilets I you might want to turn the cameras off but you know I scrubbed faces I scrubbed vomit I scrubbed toilets I scrubbed urine I scrubbed everything in there you know and and I did it with a smile on my face you know and I was paid $23 a week for doing that yes and so yeah I I would certainly do it for you know 500 no I don't need your sincerity or your you get to work as if a meeting progressed you could see her anxiety and her tension rising it sounds to me friend that you're really experienced you have a lot of skills and maybe some of these skills you don't even recognize you have possibly possibly okay so um so can we have a job next week why don't we do this well Angie really really came to it now I'm coming out now eight months eight mom yeah okay let's do absolutely anything and it was painful to watch and I felt her exhaustion watching her go through that and thinking don't get mad Fran don't get impetuous just hang in there in fact that's what a lot of mentoring is about is saying just hanging there but unfortunately have to start with a piece of picture so let's lesson on that yeah well that's exactly Fran deserves a break she really deserves a break she's been in prison sure but she's paid the penalty little bit to get you that's right exactly yeah [Music] I'm not gonna drive until 2042 so I'll be almost 60 by the time I can get my license back my driving record is horrendous so I've lost my license about 11 times for it suspended from speeding or in PE play it's pretty radical stuff when I was 18 - I had mine 31 so sure I was about 28 probably really like this horrendous driving record and then I got done driving under the influence so the influence of methamphetamines so I was picked up five times for that driving under the influence of ice is I wouldn't recommend it to anyone because you've got no feeling or no like you've got no conscience of what you're actually doing so you when you drive erratically when you put people's lives in danger and I'm definitely not proud of of doing that and you don't care and like you just the ice takes every feeling it numbs everything you've got it's like you've got no responsibility you're invincible [Music] the rules don't apply to you yeah it's just tough to think that I was so careless with life he's tough I have to go to court at the end of January welcome come on through please thank you Becky's facing four charges so to relate to driving while disqualified and to Accord taken drive conveyance which basically means that you're driving a stolen motor vehicle or you're a passenger of one so what a different place to me since Becky's been released in November she hasn't committed any more offenses the offenses we're dealing with actually relate to before she was incarcerated the last time so there is potential that I could go back to jail there is Becky that's that's a certainly a real possibility you have been in jail on I think five occasions you've told me so for very similar offenses to what you've pled guilty for on this occasion so there is a real risk but Becky knows going back to prison would just be absolutely horrific for it sending you back to jail again is going to be another band-aid it's not gonna help a long term in fact it's just gonna make her career prospects and her chance of fitting into society so much less successful I Catherine rang and she had a place that she would like to offer it would like to know if I was interested in and my door just hit the gray [Music] today are moving into my new home it's a dream come true she wasn't exactly weeping with joy on the phone but she was laughing and laughing and I couldn't believe it either I was almost weeping it was just the greatest gift it was wonderful it meant a whole new life accommodation means that because without it you're stuffed really I just can't wait to say in your place you're gonna love it Mary he's just gonna love it when I first saw it I thought the people from the block had beaming there and there it looks beautiful it is a whole new chapter in my life it is absolutely it's only good things can come from here I've got a I've got such a good feeling but such a good feeling is it's giving me hope it's one of the wonderful things about doing this job more than I even dare to dream it was just everything that I could have dreamed of yeah it was absolutely everything I don't like to show my emotions but I just couldn't hold back the tears it was just it's been so long so long since you know I've that I felt I belonged that I belonged yeah if if we figured about you that I yeah so today is my big day accord I'm feeling fairly anxious I don't know what the outcome is gonna be but so great use two of the four charges have been dropped I am pleading guilty to one drive while disqualified and one stealing a motor vehicle so these offences happened before I went to prison so they happened early May so for me to go back to prison would be devastating I can't even actually imagine it like I actually cannot even think about that because for me it's it's not an option I am NOT a menace to society anymore so now that how you feeling I'm a little bit anxious because I think you'll be good but there's always things that she's work so hard this time to change your life I don't think it'd do the state any favors for her to go back to incarceration because it's not going to help it would just break her soul if I just do all the right things and I am I be good and I stay away from people that are using then I and praying with all my heart that I don't go back to prison my buddies see you Vicki welcome good to see ya come on I received an intensive corrections order for 12 months if I step out of line I will be going straight back to jail so I'm not going to jail so no more jail

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 202,757

Keywords: Australia, Four Corners, Prison, Jail, Women in prison, Women inside, Reoffending, Rehabilitation

Id: eYJ7BddxpT4

Length: 43min 39sec (2619 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 25 2019