01-Oct 2003 Housing services crucial to keeping ex-prisoners out of jail

Wednesday 1 October 2003 A new study demonstrates, for the first time in Australia, the crucial role housing and housing assistance plays in preventing ex-prisoners from returning to jail.

The study, from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), looked at how accommodation influenced ex-prisoners's transition back into community life and found that moving house often post-release and/or experiencing worsening problems with drug or alcohol abuse made it more likely that ex-prisoners would end up back in jail.

Moving house frequently post-release also made it more difficult for the individuals concerned to successfully tackle their drug or alcohol problems. Half the participants in the AHURI study were effectively homeless in the nine-month period after release.

The research, by Dr Eileen Baldry, of the AHURI UNSW-UWS Research Centre, is to be presented at the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC) Conference in Sydney today.

It points to the need for pre- and post-release housing assistance to be a priority for State corrections and housing authorities if they wish to help prevent ex-prisoners ending up back in the prison system.

An estimated 44,000 prisoners will be released from Australian jails in 2003, and evidence suggests that the majority will eventually be re-incarcerated.

In the AHURI study, ex-prisoners who moved house often upon release were significantly more likely to have done more than one term in prison and to later wind up back in prison, compared to those who did not move often.

Dr Baldry said a startling finding was that 73% of the 194 NSW prisoners interviewed just prior to release, and 58% of the 145 Victorian prisoners in the study had been given no information or advice about housing services before release.

Many prisoners hoped to move in with family or friends post release but often, this proved to be a forlorn hope, Dr Baldry said.

For example, among the NSW participants, 60% of those who had hoped to live with friends or family were on the move within three months of release, without any stable accommodation.

Living with parents, a partner or close family was one of three factors found to lessen the likelihood that ex-prisoners would be re-incarcerated. The others were studying or having a job, and getting support from support agencies that was genuinely helpful.

The researchers interviewed a total of 339 prisoners in NSW and Victoria just prior to their release. They were followed up again at three, six and nine month intervals post release. Seventy per cent of the original sample was followed up in some way.

Dr Baldry said that since preliminary results of the research had been made available to NSW and Victorian authorities, a number of pilot programs had begun to address the issue, although it was too early to say what success these had met.

NOTE: The ANZSOC Conference is being held at the Australian Technology Park, Sydney, from October 1-3.  More information from www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/bocsar/anzsoc.nsf/pages/index

A copy of the AHURI report Ex-prisoners and accommodation: what bearing do different forms of housing have on social re-integration is available from the AHURI website at www.ahuri.edu.au  Click on Publications, then Final Reports to locate.

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