“Imagining a life beyond oppression”: Gender, race and class and women’s migration journeys from behind the bars

Conservatively over 80% of women in prison began their trajectory in the criminal justice system with early experiences of childhood sexual abuse with further re-victimisation through family and domestic violence which has direct links to relationships with drugs and alcohol and their offending behaviour.

Women’s transition from prison is particularly gendered in terms of the overwhelming and multiple experiences of gendered violence . Structural relations of racism and sexism establish a set of conditions that continue to shape the lives of women leading to experiences of feeling imprisoned both during incarceration and outside of the prison walls. How can a trauma informed approach be taken up at both structural and individual levels that supports women’s re-membership in families, communities and society?

Jill Faulkner

Queerspace Drummond Street Services

I have worked for thirty plus years in contexts where people’s lives have been shaped by colonialization, white supremacy, and the production of oppression through race, class and gender. My work has been on unceded Aboriginal lands across the Pilbara, Alice Springs and NT communities and Melbourne. A practitioner, community worker, supervisor, trainer and researcher I am committed to disrupting the dominance of power in the lives or individuals, families and communities to support wellbeing. I currently work in Queerspace Drummond Street services in Melbourne as a counsellor, supervisor and Practice lead around the development of family violence frameworks for queer communities and coordinate the pilot projects for all women and trans and gender diverse peoples who have used interpersonal violence in both the women’s prison and in communities.

ABSTRACT

“Imagining a life beyond oppression”: Gender, race and class and women’s migration journeys from behind the bars".

Conservatively over 80% of women in prison began their trajectory in the criminal justice system with early experiences of childhood sexual abuse with further re-victimisation through family and domestic violence which has direct links to relationships with drugs and alcohol and their offending behaviour.

Women’s transition from prison is particularly gendered in terms of the overwhelming and multiple experiences of gendered violence . Structural relations of racism and sexism establish a set of conditions that continue to shape the lives of women leading to experiences of feeling imprisoned both during incarceration and outside of the prison walls. How can a trauma informed approach be taken up at both structural and individual levels that supports women’s re-membership in families, communities and society?