Australia has one of the highest reoffending rates in the world. Every year, 19,000 people leave prison in New South Wales, but less than 3 per cent of them get a bed in a supported accommodation program. A lucky few have been given a place at Sydney's Rainbow Lodge - the last chance some ex-prisoners have to prove they're ready for the outside world.
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00:00 Mark, how are you mate, how are you going? Nice to meet you. Danny from Remlon Lodge,
00:07 how are you going mate? All good? Yeah, all good.
00:09 Sweet, do you want me to grab your bag or anything for you?
00:11 No, no, I'm fine. You're all good brother? They give you everything?
00:13 Yeah, everything. Yeah, man.
00:15 It's Mark Doyle's first taste of freedom after two years on the inside.
00:20 Are you hungry? I'm starving.
00:22 What do you want to eat brother? I don't know, I've got a magazine.
00:25 Well, let's get going, eh? We'll go get a feed.
00:30 The 55-year-old has been in and out of prison for most of his life.
00:35 The Maccas is only down the road anyway, bro, so we'll go there, yeah?
00:41 What of our family, brother? Mum and Dad both are gone, they passed away,
00:46 brother, and my brothers and sisters, I haven't had contact now for over 20 years with them.
00:53 Any kids? No, no kids.
00:56 Think back at myself, all the jail I've done and that, the time I've left,
01:00 it would have been a shame to have kids and leave them out there on Christmases and birthdays and all that.
01:05 I've spent more time inside than I have out.
01:09 Mark Doyle's odds of staying out of jail aren't good.
01:14 Across Australia, almost half of all prisoners are back inside within two years.
01:22 They were going to put me in a moratorium for two weeks and then I was on my own.
01:28 Mark has no family and no home.
01:32 I used to be released and found out on the street.
01:37 It's just, you end up back on the drugs and you're depressed and you just want to take drugs to block all them thoughts out.
01:49 But this time, he's got a bed at one of the few places in NSW
01:54 where he might get a new start.
01:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]