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Current Situation
Women are dying - its time to take a stand on women's lives
Although the deaths of women shortly after leaving prison has been identified for a long time as a source of considerable concern, it is a problem that has yet to be recognised by Government, prisons, prison operators and other correctional agencies despite the fact that:- Between 1987 and 1997, at least 93 women have died shortly after leaving prison in Victoria alone.
- Of the 62 deaths under investigation 73% were drug related, and nearly 50% died less than three months after being released. 13% died within two days of release.
- In the last six weeks alone [late 1999], 8 women have died shortly after release from the Metropolitan Women's Correctional Centre. Some within hours/days of release.
- To date there has been no public recognition of these deaths and it raises the question about the duty if care [or lack of] within the prison system and the immediate post-release period
- Housing, health, employment and financial assistance are major barriers facing women leaving prison. As a consequence, women leave prison with no place to go, no money, no food, no clothes, without their children and family, and with little or no support.
- Women prisoners are
the most disadvantaged in our society. Most come from
backgrounds of extreme social and economic disadvantage; sexual,
physical and/or mental abuse; unemployment and
minimal education.
- The impacts of powerlessness, deprivation, brutality, assaults and exclusion in prison have devastating effects on women prisoners, their lives and their deaths.
For more information contact the Victorian Deaths in Custody Watch Committee.
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