Women’s Lived Experience in Decarceration and Carceral Resistance

Combining professional and lived experience expertise, the discussion, hosted by Fitzroy Legal Service, headlined four key areas of achievable reform needed to reverse the escalating and damaging female imprisonment rate.

The CIJ’s Elena Campbell facilitated a passionate panel discussion on ‘Women’s lived experience in decarceration and carceral resistance’ at the Wheeler Centre on 24th of October. Combining professional and lived experience expertise, the discussion, hosted by Fitzroy Legal Service, headlined four key areas of achievable reform needed to reverse the escalating and damaging female imprisonment rate. Short, sharp presentations on the need for reform and investment in housing, bail laws, policing and joined-up service responses headlined the first panel discussion. This was followed by perspectives from four women with lived experience of the destructive impact of contact with the carceral system. From the long reach of digital surveillance, to the need for community, connection and support rather than punitive responses, the four women from the Women’s Leadership Group at FLS invited the audience to articulate their vision for a world without prisons.