'[T]hey Say "You're Going Home, You're Going Home" ... But I Don't Have A Home... I'm Getting Out, But I'm Not Going Home, There's No Home...'

Abstract

Recidivism and reincarceration are a significant national issue. In 2020, the Australian Productivity Commission reported that almost 55 percent of people released from prison returned to prison, or received a community corrections order, within two years of their release. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has the highest rate of return to corrections, at 71 percent. Whilst reincarceration rates can offer policymakers a reasonable measure of determining whether prison works, re-offending is a complex issue involving a range of variables, such as unemployment, drug use, mental health issues, homelessness, and an absence of social supports. There is little recent qualitative Australian research on the experiences of people once they leave prison and the challenges they face re-entering and (re)integrating into the community. Adopting a qualitative research design, this pilot project investigated the experiences of people following their release from the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC), the ACT’s only adult correctional facility. The project aimed to further understand what service providers they engaged with post-release and how they felt this engagement assisted them to re-enter society and take steps towards leading a crime-free life. The findings are based on face-to-face interviews conducted in 2019 with 11 people who had spent at least one month in the AMC and were interviewed within six months of their release. Show more