Rehabilitation access plummets in Northern Territory as prisons overcrowd

3 months ago

As Northern Territory prison numbers continue to reach record highs, data reveals that access to rehabilitation programs is plummeting. Correctional facilities have regularly been forced into lockdown, and prison health researchers say depriving prisoners of supports will increase their risk of future offending.

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00:00During her final year in prison, Beryl Dandy noticed a drastic change.

00:08Some of the girls were sleeping at reception and when I was there I used to stay in a block

00:15and we used to share with other girls and the other girls used to sleep on the floor.

00:20She says the prison was regularly forced into lockdown due to staff shortages, prisoner misbehaviour

00:27and for prisoner headcounts among other reasons, preventing the delivery of rehab programs.

00:33Actually there was no program like AOD, Family Violence Program and Triple S and Women of Worth, there was none.

00:46NT corrections data shows that in the six months to March 2025,

00:5010 of the 11 sessions scheduled as part of the Addictive Behaviours Program were cancelled.

00:55Of the six sessions of the Safe, Sober, Strong Program which provides skills to improve pro-social behaviours,

01:01five were cancelled.

01:02Overall, 34 of the 46 scheduled psycho-educational programs across the six month period were cancelled due to lockdowns.

01:10Professor Stuart Kinner, an expert in prisoner health, says the lack of addiction treatment and counselling programs

01:16is something the public should be concerned about.

01:19The healthier people are when they return to the community, the better we provide them with services to meet their health needs,

01:26particularly mental health and substance use treatment needs, the less likely they are to re-offend.

01:31In other words, better health, less crime.

01:34Outside prison, wait times for residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinics like Banyan House are getting longer.

01:41Demand has significantly increased and we've got a lot of demand, especially from the criminal justice system right now.

01:49Everyone wants to get into rehab as soon as possible and that's the expectation,

01:53but we can't meet that expectation at the moment due to the demand.

01:56But the government says that won't stop at implementing its suite of tough-on-crime measures.

02:01We make no apologies. We're going to make sure that the territory is safe.

02:04If you commit a crime out there, there's going to be a consequence.

02:07If you get ordered into detention by the courts, there's going to be a bed.

02:10There has been some movement on rehab.

02:13Last month, Mr Maly announced a $2 million pathway program for helping prisoners develop skills to help them get jobs.

02:20But for Beryl, treating addiction is key.

02:24If we don't have access to the program in Sector 4, the ladies and me probably will keep going back to jail.

Rehabilitation access plummets in Northern Territory as prisons overcrowd

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