The National Network of Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls rejects the Northern Territory Government’s plan to expand prison capacity in Mpartntwe through a new women’s facility.
‘We know the truth: more prison beds will always be filled. Every time governments expand carceral infrastructure, they guarantee more Aboriginal women will be locked away, more families torn apart, and more lives destroyed. New prisons are never the answer to an overcrowding crisis,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘The NT has an incarceration crisis because the Finocchiaro Government has a love affair with imprisonment, particularly the mass incarceration of Aboriginal people. This is not about safety. This is about disappearing Aboriginal women into cages, erasing them from community, and entrenching colonial control. The government is actively creating this crisis, and then pretending to fix it with more bricks and bars, more razor wire, more prison beds,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘Women in Alice Springs Prison are currently held in overcrowded conditions, forced to move through men’s areas, subjected to harassment, denied privacy, and shuffled between Mpartntwe and Darwin in traumatic transfers – moved around like they are cattle. These conditions are unacceptable. But the solution is not another cage,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘What we need is a decarceration strategy, a clear plan to reduce the number of people imprisoned, not an expanded system that is harming women,’ said Tabitha Lean. ‘The National Network has proposed therapeutic bail programs and community-based supports that actually keep women safe, connected to family, on Country and able to heal,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘Instead of pouring tens of millions of dollars into concrete walls, the NT Government must invest in public housing, health services, domestic violence supports, and education: the real pathways to safety and justice,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘We cannot cage our way out of the NT incarceration crisis. We must think beyond the prison walls. We must invest in our communities, our people, and our families. That is how we build safety,’ said Tabitha Lean.
For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226
