00:00I actually just wanted to give up because I just thought I've got no hope in health.
00:11And then it was thinking about my kids, that's when I thought, okay, I need to fight.
00:20I didn't know if I was going to be looking at 10 years, if I was going to be doing five
00:24years.
00:27Heavily pregnant and facing drug charges on remand, Crystal Roberts withdrew into herself
00:33as she prepared to give birth as a prisoner.
00:36With no guarantee she could keep her baby, the fear was palpable.
00:41I wasn't sure if I even wanted to hold him once I gave birth because I thought it might
00:49be too hard on me.
00:53A last minute push by lawyers allowed Crystal to keep Chase after he was born, the pair
00:59eventually serving out her sentence at home.
01:03Now under a supervision order, Crystal considers herself one of the lucky ones to make it out.
01:10I sign in fortnightly, I do drug testing weekly or fortnightly.
01:16I'm not allowed out after 10 o'clock at night.
01:21I'm wearing an ankle monitor as well.
01:23Crystal spent almost a year on remand waiting to be sentenced.
01:28In serious cases or when there is a flight risk, judges frequently detain people in jail
01:33while they await sentencing and are still legally innocent.
01:37But in the NT, courts have been unable to keep pace.
01:42It's taking longer to resolve matters and that is because the system is clogged.
01:50Statistics show record numbers of people who haven't been sentenced languishing in NT prisons.
01:57The average number of days people are spending on remand has also skyrocketed to 100.
02:02Late last month, prisoner numbers reached an all-time high, peaking to over 2,300, with
02:09almost half on remand or in watch houses.
02:12The system is at breaking point.
02:15There are people sitting in custody who have barely spoken to a lawyer, who have barely
02:19received legal advice.
02:21This year, Northern Territory courts lost almost $1.5 million in funding and it's getting
02:26harder for lawyers to access their clients in crowded jails.
02:30If we're unable to get those visits, it causes a further adjournment, which causes a longer
02:36remand time.
02:37We're not seeing that there's a huge increase in crime and certainly not to the same extent
02:42that we're seeing the remand population increase.
02:45That's where the real increase is happening and the pressure on the courts.
02:49The country Liberal Party won government on a platform of law and order, promising to
02:54drop the age of criminal responsibility to 10 years old and toughen bail laws.
02:59If they haven't been found guilty, then they've spent a really long time on remand in extremely
03:03onerous conditions that is really psychologically damaging.
03:10Prisoners on remand aren't given the same access to support as inmates who've been convicted.
03:15Crystal couldn't access rehabilitation inside jail because she hadn't been sentenced and
03:20says it made no sense.
03:23If there's say 80 women, you could expect that about 60 of those will be on remand and
03:3020 will be sentenced.
03:35Crystal now spends her days juggling full-time work around motherhood.
03:40She calls Chase her little miracle for giving her a new lease on life.
03:45I just see a lot of hope that wasn't there one year ago.
03:52A lot of opportunity.
03:54Giving it her all to rebuild, Crystal wants the system to change as well, for the sake
03:59of so many others.
Comments