Contact: Victorian Deaths in Custody Watch Committee,

The movie fundraising night was a huge success! The Nova Cinema was packed with over 200 people who all came along to show support for the campaign and approx $1,000 was raised on the night. The fundraiser was 'officially' opened by Julie who in an opening speech [published in this edition] thanked everyone for supporting the campaign, and crucially reminded us all of the difficulties of surviving time outside prison that many woman face everyday!

A BIG, SPECIAL THANKS to Claire for all her hard work organising the night and to Julie for delivering a very powerful and compelling opening speech. The S.T.O.P. Campaign would also like to thank all those who came along and supported the fundraiser & to those whose sold tickets and donated supplies for the night. Thanks also go to the Nova Cinema for the venue; the Melbourne Workers Theatre for donating the door prize; the SRC's Women's Department at La Trobe University for providing resources; and food and wine kindly donated by The Retro, Sweetheart Cakes, Dan Murphy's and Vegetarian Orgasm.

Audio copies of the newsletter and campaign literature will be available shortly on both tape and CD format from:

• Grasslands Grocery @

• Darebin Legal Centre @

80 High Street, Northcote. Contact Catherine: 9489-6276.

A S.T.O.P. campaign social night will be held at the Commercial Hotel, Whitehall Road, Footscray @ 8pm. Everyone welcome to come along!

Parole is set up for women to fail. No childcare is provided which means women have trouble reporting and making various appointments thus they breach parole conditions and are sent back to court and inevitably prison. Once placed on parole women have no choice but to inform any prospective employer of their past and once again they face the dole queue. Some parole officers tell the women at their first interview that they don't expect the woman to be able to meet her parole conditions and then set out to prove themselves them right by being inflexible in regards to meeting appointments etc.

Women [generally first time parolees] often lie about their housing situation before release and then once released have problems gaining housing. These individuals generally end up back on the streets and fail to report thus they are in breach and sent back to prison. Other women who are more experienced with regards to parole will prefer to spend the extra time in prison, sometimes up to five months, and leave prison with no conditions placed on them because their experience has been one of failure where parole is concerned.

The fact that women would prefer to spend extra time behind bars rather than opt for freedom at an earlier date is a reflection of how tough parole conditions are to meet and the failure rate is high. It is the view of this collective that parole is only an extension of prison with invisible bars and conditions are set out in a manner that makes failure a certainty.

W.I.S.A. cannot and will not support any calls for parole or for more women to be placed on parole.

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for coming tonight and supporting our campaign. I have been asked to speak tonight about the issues of women and imprisonment and to assist in the campaign to help prevent women dying post release. Sadly, though I have been an active campaigner over the past four years in trying to have the issues identified and more services both within the prison and after release, I have seen little effective change for most of us.

Most female crime can be attributed to poverty and addiction. These are the facts that not many people want to face. There are many myths in regards to women who commit crime and it is these myths that have helped to create the barriers that prevent us from really being part of the community. The usual diatribe of 'once a crim always a crim' is one that springs to mind. This myth immediately prevents us from rejoining the community as an equal.

We hear this all the time and not so subtly either! The facts are that most of us cannot get employment anywhere and those few who have been lucky enough to find some work are always under the microscope and never really trusted. We only have to look around at the various service providers and see that women with prison records are not employed by those who are advocating for employment for us. This seems a bit hypocritical.

We have noticed that there are a couple of theatre groups set up for women who have been imprisoned and art therapy seems to be the 'in' thing for women who have committed crimes, and whilst these programs in themselves can be helpful they do not alleviate the hunger, the cold and the poverty, they just seem to make it a bit more bearable for the lucky few who can participate.

We have had our brains picked for information for research studies and we go along with it all, thinking, maybe this time there will be a change. This time there will be a difference made but the sad facts are that for women who have been incarcerated the situation upon release is getting worse and those that conduct the research get a promotion and a pay rise. It is hard for those of us who have been campaigning for change not to feel angry that there have been few real results for women with a criminal record. It has often felt like we are useful only when they need to trot us out on display and when the cameras are turned off we are put back in our place.

Women leave prison with a garbage bag of belongings and little else. Some are lucky and there families are still willing to support them, but for many the stigma of having a family member who has been in jail is too much for them to bear and the woman is often left unsupported. For those who are still supported by family it is usually on condition.

By that I mean we have to follow certain rules like not associating with other ex inmates because we all know that our friends twist our arms to commit crime. Its not due to the fact that we are hungry, or in pain, or that we have been victims of abuse for most of our lives and have developed an addiction to a drug that is recognised as one of the best pain relief drugs available. No, because if that were the case, if female criminality was attributed to poverty and drug addiction then the solutions would be simple. Housing, employment and free detox, drug and alcohol counselling. These are the solutions to most female crime.

An ex inmate and friend of mine has written the obvious in her book: "80% of women are in prison for drug and alcohol related crime and 66% of these women have been in prison before. The system isn't working and if we have to ask ourselves why would you keep pouring good money after bad, on a system that hasn't worked and never will. The answer is obvious. Too much money is being made out of the misery of these women. Solicitors, judges, barristers, prison operators, police, government departments, task forces, committees, media [a good crime is a great story], support services, the list goes on and on.

There is a huge industry that has been built around high crime rates so it is not in many of these people's interests to see practical solutions put in place and the crime rate drop. The dole queue would look quite different if that were the case". When my friend told me what she had written I thought at last someone else gets it. What the real issues are and how to prevent further crime, but she constantly reminds me we are fighting a huge industry that makes a lot of money and won't let go easily.

This campaign has been different for us so far. We have been involved from the beginning and are encouraged to take part in the decision making process. It hasn't been easy to achieve, but this campaign group has listened to us and followed many of the suggestions we have made. I realise that many people think we are illiterate and stupid, but we have the knowledge and the only problem we have is putting it into the wording that the academic world loves so much. I am not really that hopeful that too much will change too quickly within government bureaucracy, but I am encouraged by the fact that this campaign has encouraged us to speak and they have really listened to us.

That¹s why I feel comfortable in asking for your support for this campaign. I can tell you that this campaign has finally allowed us to have a voice and be heard, and with their support and encouragement we as ex inmates have formed a working group that can actually see that change for us is possible. This campaign has given us the encouragement, support and opportunity to speak out and have the real issues addressed. Housing, employment, women's shelters and drug counselling services are the issues. For those of you who still continue to judge us harshly, I'll ask you this: If you were starving, if your kids were cold and crying for food and warmth, if you felt so low because for most of your life you have been abused in one way or another, if the pain was so great and the needs so desperate what would you do? When you have kept asking for practical assistance and the resources are not there, but you had to eat, what would you do? Starve or survive.

Most of us chose to survive in the only way that is left to us and then we get locked up for wanting to live without hunger or pain. This is the reality of female criminality and when women have paid their so-called debt to society and are released from prison they soon realise that it is a lifetime debt. Our prison sentence doesn't end the day we are released from prison and we continue to pay for being poor and in pain for the rest of our lives.

Surviving time outside prison is exactly what each of us face every day. The struggle for survival. The reality is that most of us will not be employed, and that society looks down on us no matter how hard we try. It is no wonder that many women have given up the struggles not long after their release, and we are here tonight because of what happens when women give up the struggle to survive. I see my friends dying all around me and I cannot let it go on. We are asking for your support and assistance to try and have the real issues addressed by governments and the legal fraternity.

Thank you for your time tonight and we hope that you will continue to support the S.T.O.P. campaign and spread the word amongst your communities. Tell them that all we are asking for is our basic human rights - food, shelter, education, training and employment. In the hope we are just not part of the change, but the cause of it.

Thank You.

Ways YOU can help support the S.T.O.P. Campaign:

Speech given by Jamal [aged 8] at the Mandatory Sentencing Rally

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