Homeless Persons' Legal Service: Beyond the Prison Gates – Straight from Prison to Homelessness
In 2012 the Homeless Persons’ Legal Service together with its consumer advisory committee, StreetCare, undertook a consultation project to record the experiences of homeless people who have recently been released from prison.
The project involved conducting interviews with 26 people who had exited from prison in the previous two years into housing crisis or homelessness. The interviews were qualitative in nature and focused on:
- support and assistance within prison provided prior to release to facilitate obtaining accommodation post-release,
- experiences of trying to find accommodation after release,
- and other difficulties encountered post-release.
Interviews were also undertaken with workers at organisations involved in delivering services to people experiencing homelessness, to identify the difficulties they face.
The project report, Beyond the Prison Gates, was released by PIAC in August 2013.The report states that a lack of transitional housing and support for people leaving prison may be forcing many ex-inmates into some form of homelessness, and perpetuating a cycle of disadvantage and incarceration.
The report also details concerns about lack of appropriate exit-planning for all people released from remand, with over a third of interviewed ex-inmates indicating that they spent their first night out of jail sleeping rough or in some other form of primary homelessness.
A briefing paper accompanying the report calls on the NSW Government to increase transitional accommodation options and have them administered by non-government, community organisations with expertise in providing accommodation and case management for people exiting prison.
