Tahlia Isaac

We also see a higher increase in low-level offending.

We also see strengthening bail laws, which means that people aren't getting the presumption of innocence.

They are just getting incarcerated.

Yeah.

And the deepening poverty and the deepening marginalization of certain groups of women.

Well, I mean, there was plenty of people in there with privilege, you know, being committed for fraud and, you know, other offences.

But the majority are low socioeconomic cohorts of people, like women from, you know, who've had years and years of institutional contact.

31, I think, at the last count.

Probably fluctuates, but that's at the last count, I think, yeah.

Yeah.

We think about mums who are in prison often, like the majority of mums, so it's over half of the women in prison that are mothers.

Often the majority of those mothers, their children are being cared for by grandparents or the father.

Yeah.

if their father is present or they are being taken into care or they're being looked after by themselves.

So like the mum might only be doing a couple of months and she's telling the police like, no, my sister's coming to look after them and they're teenagers so they're just looking after themselves, you know, because she knows that child safety will get involved and they'll get taken or put into foster care while she's in prison and she knows once they're in there she's never going to get them back.

And they're probably better off looking after themselves.

And even if they're in foster care, they usually are looking after themselves or in resi care, you know.

So, yeah, so the impact that that has on the next generation, and it is one of the indicators.

of incarceration is that it's like a criminogenic factor is that if you have a parent that's been incarcerated, you're more often than not likely to go to prison.

Yeah.