Part 1 — Women’s Stories

49

Australia

Breaking the cycle of drugs, crime and prison

Jenne Perlstein

The state of Victoria, Australia, has about eighty women in prison. Comparing this figure with the total of two thousand male prisoners in Victorian jails, one can understand that correctional and other authorities would easily forget about women prisoners. Or is the size of this group the real reason for their neglect? It is more likely that these prisoners do not get the same opportunities or assistance as male prisoners because they are women.

But before considering discrimination within the correctional system, it is important to realise that the typical female offender is, in many ways, different from the typical male offender. Women who commit crimes are often single, economically self-reliant, and responsible for dependent children. They are less likely to commit violent offences "against the person" (these are the domain of male offenders) than crimes like theft, burglary, drug offences and prostitution. Statistics about female offenders often hide the fact that possibly eighty per cent of women in jail are there because of drug-related offences. ¹ These women are committing crimes in order to support illegal drug habits; currently, however, there is no drug rehabilitation programme for women in Victorian jails. The authorities appear to deny the fact that female drug users exist. ²

Women are, often enough, placed in jail as social "rejects" because there is nowhere else for them to go. Prison administrations seem to place little value on the fact that these women, once released, will have to earn a living: the prisoners are not taught marketable job skills, but rather are given domestic tasks. The only realistic present attempt at "rehabilitation" is one good education centre for women prisoners. By contrast, male prisoners have opportunities to gain education or trade skills, or engage in other activities more realistically aligned with their needs for financial independence upon release from jail.

Drug abuse by women is often related to background family problems, especially physical and sexual abuse. According to one inmate, seventy to eighty per cent of women prisoners she had talked with had been physically or sexually abused, or both. The connection between this abuse and criminal behaviour among women has long been established³. Yet women in Victoria are being punished for social problems out of their control. They are considered "undeserving" of help. The high levels of recidivism (repeated

50

offending) among women are therefore not surprising. The 1984 prison census⁴ shows that 42.6 per cent of female prisoners in Victoria have been in prison before. Women are particularly vulnerable to recidivism within the first three weeks of being released from jail, as there are no transition facilities for ex-prisoners upon release.

There is little assistance for female prisoners with dependent children, although children may be allowed to stay in jail with their mothers until they are two or three years old. Many researchers have found that some female criminality is motivated by the economic pressures associated with dependent children. These pressures are particularly serious because many of the women are not married and do not have steady relationships with supportive men⁵.

A small group of women in Melbourne, Victoria, is trying to attract government funding in order to establish a residential house for newly- released female prisoners. This would enable women to cope with the frightening experience of re-entry into society, provide some financial assistance, accommodation, drug rehabilitation and emotional support for this vulnerable but resilient group of women — and hopefully break the cycle of drug addiction, crime and imprisonment.

Notes

1. HANCOCK, L., ed. Prisoner and female: the double negative. Centre for Urban Studies, Swinburne Institute, Melbourne, 1982. See also this researcher's Economic pragmatism and the ideology of sexism: prison policy and women in Victoria (Australia), unpublished, also for the Centre for Urban Studies.

2. This conclusion is further substantiated by the fact that there is one drug rehabilitation programme for women only in the whole state.

3. See, for example, LONG et al, "The psychological profile of female first offender and the recidivist". Gender issues, sex offences and criminal justice, no 9, 1984, pp 119-123.

4. BILES, D, Victorian Prison Census, 1984, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra.

5. HANCOCK, op cit (1982 and 1984).