The Quality of Prisons for Indigenous Persons in Custody: Determining How Prison Impacts on Culture, Community Life and Recidivism?

Australian penology lags behind international research on prison quality and Indigenous spirituality and its applicability in custodial institutions. This lack of knowledge makes prisons complicit in high Indigenous imprisonment rates.

Until the Indigenous experience of prison is understood and enmeshed in Australia' s occidental custodial system, prison administrators are hamstrung in the contribution a custodial sentence has on crime reduction. The aim of this research is to improve prison outcomes, crime reduction potential and reduce Indigenous suffering though determining what prison quality is for remote Indigenous people, how spirituality presents itself in prison quality and how these two features can combine to reduce recidivism.

Project Leader

Dr John Rynne (Griffith University)

Project Team

Professor Cindy Shannon (University of Queensland); Professor Paul Mazerolle (Griffith University); Emeritus Professor R. Harding; Professor Richard Wortley (University College London); Professor Alison Liebling (University of Cambridge)

Industry Partners

Department of Corrective Services (Western Australia); Department of Correctional Services (Northern Territory Government)

Project Value

$278,000

Type of Funding

Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project

Dates

2015

Theme/s

Justice, Law and Society; Corrections and Sentencing

Aims

  • Define moral prison performance, that is, what is important and what matters in the lives of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders from remote communities while in prison
  • Develop a method of assessing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PQ
  • Develop an understanding of how elements of Indigenous culture like spirituality and symbolic healing can be utilized in prison quality to empower post release potential
  • Finally, develop and promulgate to all Australian custodial jurisdictions a model of Aborigine and Torres Strait Islander correctional best practice based on prison quality and Indigenous culture that complies with the United Nations (UN) Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples