We’ve all seen the setup in the movies. The gates open slowly, a recently released prisoner walks out, looking dazed. They stare at the sky, breathe in the air, say “so long suckers” and walk down the road to freedom and their future.
But what happens after that? For prisoners without a home or family to go back to life outside can be a lot more precarious and unstable than life on the inside.
One new solution to the lack of suitable accommodation for recently released prisoners is to place them for a few months in a house with a private citizen, while they readjust to life on the outside. That’s the setup in the new SBS three-part documentary Life on the Outside, an Australia-first experiment that was inspired by a fully operational initiative in the US.
On the show, prisoners are housed with individuals and families in their homes as they spend the first 100 days getting back on their feet. The hope is that with recidivism rates so high (one in two Australian prisoners return to jail within the first two years of being released), the program will provide a more gentle landing for the newly released. A chaotic start to life on the outside can set people up for failure and reoffending.
The film-makers of Life on the Outside have obtained intimate access to both the former prisoners and their hosts – filming inside homes and capturing the tension and awkwardness as all parties settle in.
There are tensions. The hosts have good intentions – but what are their limits? The prisoners have sometimes spent decades inside – how will they adapt to living in a stranger’s suburban home? At first it’s weird for everyone. Do you hug or handshake hello? Do you impose rules or let guests come and go as they please? Can their friends visit?
Danielle Cormack, the show’s host and Wentworth actor, says: “It’s not the perfect solution, but it’s an approach that can inspire conversation and debate around people who are clearly struggling. With the right strategies you can really help another human being thrive.
“I hope this show becomes a conversation starter for a lot of people to start challenging the system and the policies around the correction system. It costs $110,000 per year to house an inmate, and the recidivism rate is shockingly high.”
While the show touches on politics and policy, it’s the human stories that dominate. There’s Amanda, an empty-nester who agrees to house Sierra, a 41-year-old mother of two who has spent the past 13 months in custody. Nigel, a teacher, agrees to house Dane, a 24-year-old Bundjalung man and father of three, who was in prison for 10 months. And husband and wife hosts Wayne and Julie take in Brett, a serial offender who has been to prison four times.
But my favourite pairing was Louise and her two adult children, Brittany and Reggie, who open their home to Jeremy, a 41-year-old who has spent nearly half his life inside and has been to prison 14 times. Louise and her family are models of kindness and non-judgment, while Jeremy is determined to start afresh.
Viewers will ask themselves the question: could I open my home to a former prisoner? Although not all the arrangements work out in the series, the open-heartedness of the hosts and the former inmates’ resilience and willingness to adapt is incredibly inspiring and moving.
The magnitude of the struggle facing those leaving incarceration is also revealed in interviews with former inmates, who share their perspective on the challenges they faced on the outside.
One is Eleni Psillakis, who spent 11 months inside and says prisoners face a whole new set of challenges once they are released. “Former inmates don’t know of the services available to them,” she says. “They are also made to jump through so many hoops to sort out their Centrelink. They have to keep a housing diary, there are mutual obligations with Centrelink, they might not have ID. I have many women saying that this is too hard, jail is easier.”
Now Psillakis helps other recently released inmates as the program manager at Dress for Success Sydney, which helps unemployed women with professional clothing and life skills needed to obtain employment.
Former inmates face substantial discrimination when looking for work, she says: “If the offence has nothing to do with the role, then what’s the problem? Most of the time we get a great response from employers because we tell them our story.”
Another former inmate on the show is Joe Kwon, a personal trainer and the founder and CEO of ConFit Pathways, a not-for-profit that aims to help tackle recidivism among young people. Kwon “went in when I was 21 and came out when I was 30”.
When he was released, he didn’t have anywhere to stay and didn’t want to couch surf. “Most of my friends got married in the time I’d been inside and I hadn’t met their spouses,” he says. “Imagine saying, ‘Hey, my friend’s been in jail for a decade – do you mind if he stays?’”
He managed to find a room in a share house in Lidcombe. “I didn’t have any money – it was an old dilapidated house and they were going to knock it down. I had cold showers, there were holes in the floorboard – but at the end of the day it’s better than jail,” he says.
Kwon is really excited about the initiative tried in Life on the Outside, because of its potential to drive systemic reform. “It’s a make or break for anyone that doesn’t have the support on the outside,” he says. “[It] can be the difference between whether they make a life for themselves, or go back inside.”
Life on the Outside starts Wednesday night on SBS
