Jails full to bursting with a recent surge in arrests pushing their populations higher and higher – a prisons crisis is unfolding in the Northern Territory with one remote community more over-represented behind bars than any other. The new NT government is also carrying out its promise to get tougher on crime with laws coming into force and dozens more people incarcerated since Christmas alone. Matt Garrick travelled to Wadeye 400km southwest of Darwin to find out what's being done to stem this social disaster and stop the vicious cycle of crime.
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00:00It's a normality for many people in Wadair to have brothers, uncles, sons, nieces, nephews,
00:11grandchildren that are all going through that system.
00:14The idea is to put them in a cage and that'll fix things and I think we all know and we've
00:19all seen an animal put in a cage and what happens.
00:24It's a unique place of culture and colour.
00:28But the remote community of Wadair, with around 2,000 residents, is also the most incarcerated
00:35in Australia.
00:36So many, so many young boys in prison.
00:40Out of the territory's entire prison population, Wadair makes up 5%.
00:46It comes as the jails have been pushed to capacity, with arrest numbers still rising
00:51as the new NT government continues its crackdown on crime.
00:55Our kids at home not having fathers and mothers and other people around, it just heavily impacts
01:04on so many aspects of our lives, on day-to-day stuff in Wadair.
01:10With low rates of education and employment and high levels of dysfunction driven by intergenerational
01:16disadvantage, Wadair's trapped in a grim cycle, but it's one that some are trying
01:22hard to break.
01:23We're heading out to a place called Fossil Head.
01:27It's probably one of the closest homelands to West Australia.
01:32You'll see that this is really a place that heals people, I suppose, in a way.
01:39I see a big future and this is part of what we're trying to do, is build an economic
01:45future for these guys.
01:51At this homeland outside of Wadair, these men are searching for ways out of the incarceration
01:57crisis.
01:58We start carrying poles out to the tail, let's go do it now.
02:02With the help of boys on youth diversion, they're building a fish trap, in a bid to
02:08bring some purpose and economic empowerment to their people.
02:12They'll be proud of themselves, they're catching fish, crabbing.
02:19It's no easy task, driving poles into the mud under the burning sun, which they'll then
02:24rig up with mesh to catch fish as the high tides recede.
02:28To be able to have people out here, working on their own country, creating a business
02:34that will become an income for those guys, it's a small thing here, but our hope is to
02:42replicate this across all the saltwater country.
02:46Back in Wadair, this men's shed is holding its annual open day, with the wider community
02:51invited to come and buy the men's wares.
02:54The men, they're doing hard work and they sell their stuff for their good money.
03:05As a troubled young man, Norman Dumu ended up in prison.
03:09He's since changed his ways, and wants to engage others to follow his path.
03:14It's no good in prison, you know, you've got to stay with your family, always.
03:24That's my message, telling them.
03:27Out here in Wadair, many people are working their absolute hardest, to try to turn around
03:32the community's high rates of incarceration.
03:35But it's still very much an uphill battle.
03:37One of the biggest challenges that presents itself time and again, is how to stop people
03:42who get out of jail from re-offending.
03:45We need to be mindful that changing people's behaviour and what they do, happens over a
03:52long period of time.
03:54So we're working to achieve that, to see the difference in the long term.
04:00This elder visits prisons as part of a program, and says with many relatives and friends behind
04:06bars and three meals a day on offer, for some from Wadair, prison can feel like a home.
04:13When I go into the prison, I talk to the young boys, sit down with them, and tell them, this
04:20is not your home, your home is back in Wadair.
04:24A plea for inmates to change, and prevent a life in the system, becoming a life sentence
04:30for those they love in Wadair.