With one of the highest percentages of Indigenous inmates in New South Wales, Broken Hill Correctional Centre is benefiting from the introduction of yarning circles.
The program was introduced as a way of better connecting Indigenous prisoners with their culture, each other and ultimately reducing Aboriginal incarceration rates.
Yarning circles are being rolled out statewide in men's and women's prisons.
At Broken Hill, a yarning circle was built by inmates in the men's section in 2021, followed by the women's area this year.
Improving communication
Broken Hill Correctional Centre's education service coordinator Kim Vodic said she could see the difference yarning circles made to those behind bars.
"The inmates really love it and they've taken some ownership of it," she said.
"I think they just naturally gravitate there."
Inmates use it for a range of reasons including quashing personal conflicts and discussing their own vulnerabilities.
"Generally people want to communicate with each other and to sit in circle. It just creates that space and the opportunity for two-way communication," Ms Vodic said.
'A memory of home'
Staff at the prison have received plenty of feedback from inmates about how they can improve the space to make it feel more like being on country.
"They talked about the fact they'd like to have sand in the circle … just to be able to take their shoes off and be on creek sand.
"It's a little bit like it's a memory of home," Ms Vodic said.
Creating beauty
Part of the yarning circle project has been to introduce painting in the centre.
"We've been able to make use of the skills and that connection with culture that a lot of Aboriginal people have and we've created some beautiful murals," Ms Vodic said.
"So they've created beauty in a place where it was fairly sparse to begin with … now it's a place where you're surrounded by something beautiful."
An opportunity to adjust
Corrective Services Commissioner Kevin Corcoran and New South Wales Minister for Corrections Geoff Lee recently toured the facility.
Mr Lee said the sad reality was that Aboriginal people were over-represented in prison populations across the state, and this project was aimed at improving outcomes.
"This gives us the opportunity to adjust in a culturally sensitive way about some of their needs, and how we actually explore some of these dilemmas which affect them," he said.
"A lot of people come from pretty tough backgrounds that we see."
It follows data from the Bureau of Crime Statistics that shows the number and overall percentage of Aboriginal people who were behind bars has grown from June 2019 to June 2022.
Indigenous women account for 40 per cent of the state's female prison population.
Mr Lee said he wanted provide Indigenous inmates with the opportunity to change the way they think and behave, to reduce the risk of reoffending.
"We don't want them to come back here to be quite frank," he said.
"We want people to do their time … hopefully we'll teach them some skills, give them some work to do and when they leave, they become productive members of society."
Commissioner Kevin Corcoran said several other programs would be rolled out with the aim of reducing the number of Indigenous people in prison.
"In other prisons where it's appropriate we'll be looking at having a whole lot of other culturally appropriate programs that we're going to be putting in place over the coming years," he said.
Ms Vodic said she was hopeful the yarning circles would be sustainable in the long term.
"The whole opportunity of being able to connect with culture, I think that helps to remind people who they are, where they belong," she said.
"To know more about themselves, their families, their traditions, and I think in the long run my hope would be that would be contributing to rehabilitation."
