The National Network of Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls is devastated by the death of a 35-year-old Aboriginal woman at Bandyup Women’s Prison in Western Australia.
The woman was reportedly found unresponsive in a single-occupancy cell early Monday morning.
‘While authorities have stated that preliminary reports indicate no suspicious circumstances, the National Network raise serious questions about the conditions in which she was being held,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘We do not yet know whether this woman was being held in solitary confinement, why she was in a single cell, or what circumstances led to her death,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘What we do know is that prisons in Western Australia, and across the country, are dangerously overcrowded, placing immense strain on the women inside,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘Overcrowding creates conditions of heightened distress, isolation and neglect. It reduces access to health care, mental health support and meaningful human contact,’ said Lorraine Pryor, National Network member, and Founder of WA based Aboriginal corporation, Voice of Hope.
‘These conditions are not incidental, they are the predictable outcome of policies that continue to expand policing and imprisonment, including increasingly punitive bail laws that are driving the imprisonment of more women, many of whom are themselves survivors of violence and poverty,’ said Lorraine Pryor.
‘Aboriginal women are particularly impacted by these policies. They are the fastest growing prison population in Australia, and their deaths in custody continue to expose the ongoing violence of a system that was never designed to care for them,’ said Lorraine Pryor.
This death is not an isolated tragedy. It is part of a pattern.
Every death in custody raises the same urgent question: why are we continuing to warehouse women in institutions that are incapable of keeping them safe?
The National Network of Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women & Girls reiterates that the only meaningful response to these ongoing harms is decarceration. ‘Governments must urgently reduce the number of women in prison by ending the over-use of remand, repealing punitive bail laws, and investing in community-based supports,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘At the same time, while women remain inside prisons, governments must ensure that organisations led by women with lived experience of imprisonment are resourced to provide support to women inside prison. Peer-led support and advocacy are critical in ensuring women have someone they trust to turn to and in holding prison systems accountable for the treatment of those in their care,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
The death of this Aboriginal woman must not simply be absorbed into the growing list of deaths in custody.
The deaths must end.
For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Lorraine Pryor on 0457 455 019
