NCJ Number
187965
Date Published
2000
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This paper reports on an Australian study that examined the effect of imprisonment on women prisoners' debts, the effect of such debt on the families of the inmates, and the impact of debt on women's crime rate.
Abstract
Beginning in 1998, the project conducted research over a 12-month period; in October 2000 the project spent an additional 12 months in implementing the interventions identified by the initial research. The project used a combination of research techniques, including a survey by questionnaire of 121 inmates and four follow-up interviews, plus focus groups and unstructured interviews with key stakeholders. The study found that debts of both female and male inmates are created unnecessarily by a prison sentence, and existing debts increase unnecessarily during imprisonment. Further, family members become impoverished by unnecessarily paying prisoners' debts. In addition, the study found that remedies, advice, and information available to the wider community are not available to or accessible by prisoners and their families; and the current prison environment contributes to these problems by imposing internal barriers to effective debt management. The debt profile of the women in the sample differed considerably from that of the men. Among other differences, women owed a higher percentage of their debts to Centrelink and for housing and utilities. Men owed proportionally more of their total debt to financial institutions. Drawing on the 42 interventions identified, the current phase of the project intends to implement the following three strategies: prevention of the generation of prison-caused debt; improvement in the access of prisoners' family members to existing remedies and resources; and the improvement of prisoners' access to existing remedies and resources.