00:00Debbie Kilroy's life behind bars began at just 13 years old.
00:10I was that child that was locked up in a children's prison for truanting school.
00:14Trauma and criminalisation hung over her formative years.
00:18Then and out of children's prisons until I was 17 and then in the adult system.
00:22And you finish your parole too.
00:2450 years on, Debbie now heads Sisters Inside, an organisation focused on freeing women from incarceration.
00:32I want you to live and be happy.
00:34Women need support in the community, not to be further harmed by being caged.
00:40Women make up the fastest growing prison population in the Northern Territory.
00:45Nationally, the number of Aboriginal women behind bars doubling in the last three decades.
00:53In Central Australia, the Cunga Stopping Violence program is working with Aboriginal women in jail.
01:00We run a 20-day grief, loss and trauma program for 10 women twice a year in Alice Springs Correctional Centre.
01:09The Territory's prisons are maxed out, reaching record highs last month.
01:15Without warning, female prisoners in Alice Springs were moved to Darwin to make space for male inmates.
01:22There's no certainty when or if the women will go back.
01:26When we isolate someone away from kin, country and community, there is no mechanism for healing.
01:32Rachel Neary says moving female prisoners away from their children and support network can have wider ramifications.
01:40And says careful planning is needed when women are released.
01:45Do they need us to assist them to get a DVO in place?
01:49If they've experienced violence from their partner and potentially they plan to go back to their partner.
01:54The typical prisoner in the Alice Springs Women's Correctional Facility is an Indigenous mother around 30 years old.
02:02She can't speak, read or write English well.
02:05She's been abused either as a child or young adult and the charge that likely landed her in prison involved violence.
02:13It may be that she's acting in self-defence and has been misidentified as the primary perpetrator.
02:19Some experts argue well-intentioned reforms, including a push for proactive policing of family violence
02:27and an increased use of domestic violence orders, are working against marginalised women.
02:34Many women don't leave the abusive relationship, but if you don't separate,
02:38there's also a constant risk of ongoing use of violence, including defensive use of violence.
02:44Advocates are urging policy makers to invest in alternatives to custody,
02:49easing pressure on the prison system and improving outcomes for families and their communities.
02:55If we're able to help these women at that crisis point, then the community benefits.
03:02A call for rehabilitation where incarceration has failed.
03:08For more UN videos visit www.un.org
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