Sisters Inside

At Sisters Inside, we believe that no one is better than anyone else. People are neither “good” nor “bad” – our environment and life circumstances play a major role in how we behave. Improved opportunities can lead to a major transformation in criminalised women’s lives.

Complex factors lead to women and girls’ entering and returning to prison. Criminalisation is usually the outcome of repeated and intergenerational experiences of violence, poverty, homelessness, child removal and unemployment, resulting in complex health issues and substance use. First Nations women and girls are massively over-represented in prison due to the racism at the foundation of systems of social control.

Adult and youth prisons not only fail to address these problems – they often add to them. Without housing, adequate income, accessible health care, and positive family and community life, women and girls are trapped in a vicious cycle with very few genuine choices to improve their lives.

Sisters Inside responds to criminalised women and girls’ needs holistically and justly. We work alongside women and girls to build them up and to give them power over their own lives. We support women and girls to address their priorities and needs. We also advocate on behalf of women with governments and within the legal system to try to achieve fairer outcomes for criminalised women, girls and their children.

At Sisters Inside, we call this ‘walking the journey together’. We are a community and we invite you to be part of a brighter future for Queensland’s most disadvantaged and marginalised women and children.