The Northern Territory Government’s decision to open its first so-called “dedicated” women’s prison facility next week is not a milestone to celebrate, it is an indictment of a government addicted to punishment and the mass incarceration of Aboriginal people.
‘In the Northern Territory, the government’s law-and-order agenda means Aboriginal people are offered two paths: incarceration, or a job within the prison system. Be caged or be paid to manage the cage. That is not an employment strategy, it’s a national disgrace,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘The only reason the Territory “needs” a dedicated women’s facility is because successive governments have pursued a relentless law-and-order agenda that criminalises poverty, trauma, and survival, and disproportionately cages Aboriginal women. This is not reform. It is expansion,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘Rebranding an old men’s prison, spending $8.1 million on renovations, and calling it “rehabilitation” does not change the reality: more prison beds mean more women behind bars. We know this from decades of evidence. When the state builds cells, it fills them,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘This is a mass imprisonment crisis. It is also a human rights crisis,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘Aboriginal women are the fastest growing prison population in Australia. Many are imprisoned for offences linked to poverty, homelessness, coercive policing, and criminalised survival. Many are victims of violence themselves. Locking them up does not make communities safer, it deepens harm, fractures families, and entrenches cycles of trauma and state control,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘The government’s language of “better opportunities”, “training”, and “rehabilitation” cannot obscure the truth: prison is a site of punishment, deprivation, and control. Moving women “out from behind the wire” but keeping them inside a prison fence does not address the structural violence that led them there. It simply makes incarceration more palatable to the public,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘This expansion sits within a broader Corrections Infrastructure Masterplan that treats imprisonment as inevitable rather than as a political choice. It normalises the idea that the answer to social crisis is cages,’ said Tabitha Lean. ‘If the Northern Territory Government was serious about the safety and wellbeing of women, particularly Aboriginal women, it would stop pouring money into prisons and start investing where it actually matters:
- Safe, secure housing
- Accessible, culturally-led healthcare
- Trauma-informed mental health and AOD services
- Education, income support, and community-controlled programs
- Decarceration strategies led by Aboriginal women and communities.’
‘Prisons do not heal. They do not address violence. They do not create opportunity. They warehouse human beings and call it justice,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘The opening of this facility should be recognised for what it is: another step down the path of carceral expansion, another failure to confront the root causes of criminalisation, and another missed opportunity to choose care over punishment,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘The Northern Territory does not need more prison beds for Aboriginal women. It needs courage to dismantle the systems that keep putting them there,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226
