Concurrent Session 3A: Supporting people out of custody

This session will feature the following presentations followed by general audience Q&A.

With Her: SHS Framework for Supporting Women who have been Incarcerated
Jenny Holmes, Program Manager, WAGEC

Women’s incarceration in Australia is rising at an alarming rate, and homelessness is both a driver and a consequence. The Keeping Women Out of Prison Coalition (KWOOP) reports that 30% of women enter prison from homelessness, while 50% exit into homelessness. More than half of women in custody are on remand, and many will never go on to receive a custodial sentence, yet their housing, families, and wellbeing are still disrupted. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, the fastest growing prison population, these risks are magnified. Four in ten women in prison are Indigenous, despite comprising only 2.5% of the adult female population. Systemic racism, over-policing, gendered poverty, and intergenerational trauma all drive this over-representation, with imprisonment often severing women from children, kinship networks, and cultural life. In response, WAGEC is developing With Her: SHS Framework for Supporting Women Who Have Been Incarcerated, funded through the Housing Innovation Fund. The framework is being shaped through consultations with Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS), women with lived experience, Aboriginal-led organisations, and key justice and community stakeholders. With Her aims to demystify the reality of prison for SHS frontline workers by exploring the structural drivers of incarceration, the lived experiences of women, and the systemic barriers they face on release. Critically, the framework will reframe how “risk” is understood in homelessness services, moving from a model that risks women out, to one that risks women in by providing safety, housing, and trauma-informed supports. By equipping SHS providers with modules, templates, guides, a microsite, and training workshops, the project will strengthen service capacity and build sector confidence to support women leaving custody.

Cultural Innovation – Brothers Healing
Kaine Doroux, Senior Case Worker Brothers Healing, The Salvation Army
Jeff Amatto, CEO and Founder, More Cultural Rehabs Less Jails

This will be a dynamic and deeply engaging session led by Kaine Duroux and Jeff Amatto, co-leads of a transformative collaboration between Homelessness Team, The Salvation Army, and More Cultural Rehabs Less Jails (MCRLJ). This initiative, supported by The Glen, Community Housing Providers, and the Wanaruah Local Aboriginal Land Council, is a recipient of the 2024–2025 Homelessness Innovation Fund and represents a bold, culturally grounded response to homelessness among justice-involved men. This highly interactive session will come alive through their lived experience, stories and their voices will awaken and enliven all of your senses, inviting you into a space of cultural healing, truth-telling, and innovation. Together, we will explore how cultural connection, peer mentorship, case management and community-led design can reshape service delivery and create lasting systems change.

The presentation will cover:

The design and delivery of the Brothers Healing program, including its cultural framework and operational model
How trust is built with highly marginalised cohorts through cultural leadership
The power of lived experience in driving engagement, healing, and transformation
Lessons learned from the first year of implementation and pathways to replication

This session aligns powerfully with the conference theme A Place to Call Home, offering a model that strengthens frontline services and challenges systems to evolve.

Custody to community: Top 10 tips for the frontline
Claire McMahon, Training Coordinator – Advocacy Research and Policy Unit, Community Restorative Centre
Marisa Moliterno, Manager of Women’s Advocacy – Advocacy Research and Policy Unit, Community Restorative Centre

With more than 70 years’ of experience supporting people leaving prison, CRC has developed our top 10 tips for successfully engaging with people impacted by the criminal legal and prison systems. This session will be led by practitioners with extensive experience in working with criminalised people and aims to build the confidence of other frontline workers to support this group. “After serving a lot of time in jail and sharing everything- including your room and bathroom – with other inmates, sharing accommodation in the outside world is not only reminiscent of incarceration but it has its own challenges. We are indoctrinated by some sets of rules from jail time which ‘normal’ members of society who haven’t been in jail mostly aren’t aware of and that, by itself, creates a lot of friction and undesired clashes, which could lead us back behind bars.” – Bobby* CRC Client. There are approximately 13,122 people in NSW prisons on any given day and over 20,000 people flow through our prisons each year. Almost half (48%) of people leaving prison will experience homelessness and this cohort has been the fastest growing category of people seeking assistance from Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) over the past decade. Approximately 93% of people in prison are men, who also make up the majority of those seeking housing assistance and support on release. Of these men, 60% are sentenced to a term of full-time imprisonment of 6 months or less, typically for less serious offences. Similarly, 77% of women are in prison for sentences of six months or less. The inextricable link between frequent episodes of homelessness and periods of imprisonment entrenches cycles of disadvantage and disruption. “Our clients want to do better. They want stability. But they’re up against overloaded systems and personal histories that make even the most basic tasks feel overwhelming. That’s why our role matters so much” – CRC Transition Worker. Existing pathways to access services are fragmented and difficult to navigate, due to complex government systems and processes. Criminalised people also experience distinctive and compounding barriers to meaningful and sustainable engagement. People leaving prison are reliant on Specialist Homelessness Services and despite the genuine goodwill across the sector, this group are often misunderstood and can be challenging to engage, which contributes to their deep-rooted distrust of service systems.

Presenters

Ms Jenny Holmes

Program Manager, WAGEC

Australia

Jenny Holmes is a proud Aboriginal woman from the Dharug and Dharawal mob with over 15 years of experience in community services. She is the Program Manager for WAGEC’s “From Now” program, which supports women, particularly pregnant women and mothers, transitioning from custodial sentences, alongside their children. Jenny’s work is grounded in cultural strength, trauma-informed practice, and a commitment to systemic change.

Her expertise spans mental health, suicide intervention, and substance use recovery, with a strong focus on harm minimisation and culturally safe care. Jenny has worked extensively with women experiencing co-occurring mental health conditions and drug and alcohol-related challenges, particularly those impacted by incarceration, family violence, and systemic discrimination.

As a leading group facilitator, Jenny creates safe spaces for healing and empowerment across both mainstream and community-controlled settings. Her facilitation style honours the lived experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and is informed by a deep understanding of intergenerational trauma and recovery.

Jenny’s work is driven by a passion for justice and advocacy. She continues to champion integrated, culturally responsive models of care that support women and children in building stable, resilient futures.

Mr Kaine Duroux

Senior Case Worker Brothers Healing , The Salvation Army

Australia – Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr

Kaine Duroux is a proud Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr man from Grafton, New South Wales. For the past 13 years, he has lived and worked on Darkinjung Country, where he is raising his three children and contributing to the wellbeing of his local community.

Kaine holds a Certificate IV in Aboriginal Wellbeing and Violence Prevention Work and an Advanced Diploma in Aboriginal Specialist Trauma Counselling. With over six years of experience across drug and alcohol support, mental health, and suicide prevention, he brings both professional expertise and lived experience to his work. This combination allows him to connect deeply with the men he supports, offering understanding grounded in cultural identity, empathy, and real-life experience.

As the Senior Case Manager of The Brothers Healing Program with The Salvation Army, Kaine supports Aboriginal men transitioning back into the community after incarceration. The program focuses on breaking cycles of drug and alcohol misuse, violence, and reoffending through reconnection to culture, Country, and community.

Kaine’s passion lies in creating safe, culturally grounded spaces where men can heal, grow, and rebuild their lives with purpose and pride. His lived experience and leadership continue to inspire positive change and promote holistic, community led healing pathways for Aboriginal men and their families.

Mr Jeff Amatto

CEO and Founder, More Cultural Rehabs Less Jails

Australia – Wiradjuri

Jeff Amatto is a proud Wiradjuri man, founder of More Cultural Rehabs Less Jails, and a nationally recognised advocate for cultural healing and justice reform. Drawing from his own lived experience of addiction, incarceration, and homelessness, Jeff has dedicated his life to empowering others through culturally safe rehabilitation and education. His grassroots approach, grounded in Aboriginal values and storytelling, has reached thousands across Australia—particularly those who feel forgotten by mainstream systems.

Jeff’s work is built on the belief that healing begins with connection: to culture, to community, and to self. He has partnered with organisations across sectors to deliver programs that are not only effective but deeply respectful and inclusive. Jeff attended Wellington High School in NSW and has since travelled over 350,000 kilometres delivering workshops across the country, sharing his journey and inspiring others to break cycles of disadvantage. He has a Diploma in Community Relations and continues to add to his learning every year.

He has run his own business for over 7 years (www.mcrlj.com.au), recently started Yindyamarra Landcare (www.yindyamarralandcare.com.au) and is CEO of More Cultural Rehabs Less Jails Aboriginal Corporation.

His leadership in the Brothers Healing initiative brings authenticity, hope, and a proven track record of impact. Jeff’s presence at the Homelessness NSW Conference will offer attendees a rare opportunity to learn from someone who has walked the path—and is now lighting the way for others.

Miss Claire McMahon

Training Coordinator – Advocacy Research and Policy Unit , Community Restorative Centre

Australia

Claire is a qualified social worker and has dedicated 12 years to working within CRC’s Specialist Homelessness Service (SHS), supporting women leaving prison and experiencing homelessness in Sydney’s inner city. Claire’s extensive frontline experience informs her current role as Training Coordinator – developing and delivering training for frontline workers across sectors who are wanting to increase their confidence and capability in supporting criminalised people.

Ms Marisa Moliterno

Manager of Women’s Advocacy – Advocacy Research and Policy Unit, Community Restorative Centre

Australia

Marisa is a counsellor and psychotherapist with more than 20 years’ experience in the community sector, working with victims of violence. As the former manager of CRC’s Miranda Project and the current Women’s Policy and Advocacy Manager, Marisa’s focus is on the intersection of the criminal legal system and gender-based violence.