FOR newly-released prisoners across south east Queensland finding a roof over their head is one of their immediate challenges.
Amid a housing crisis many find themselves homeless or forced into risky low-rent boarding houses.
“Transitioning is hard, it’s really hard,” Centacare Post Release Service senior mental health social worker Cherelle Evans said.
“It could be any one of us or any one of our children or loved ones.
“If you release someone from prison into homelessness with no clothing, no ID, no money – what do we think is going to happen?”
Centacare Post Release Service offers support for the families of prisoners as well as prisoners themselves serving the final three months of a prison term or during their first 12 months after being released.
It is a unique service that last year supported 147 prison clients – about 90 per cent of them men – from across the Brisbane archdiocese.
These are men and women who have served their time yet emerge from prison vulnerable and without a clear pathway to find a place to live or find a job.
“The question we ask is: ‘What can we do to get you back on your feet?’” Centacare’s director of pastoral ministries Judy Norris said.
“Our clients are just human beings who need assistance.”
From an office behind St Mary’s Church, South Brisbane, Ms Evans and her small Post Release Service team offers case management and counselling – often in the first instance by video link from prisoners inside the correctional services centre – helping each client navigate the experiences of incarceration and release as well as practical support for re-entering the community.
Ms Evans said prisoners could be released at a late hour in the day, sometimes late on a Friday afternoon, finding themselves alone outside the prison gates.
Centacare’s service can offer immediate and practical help including food and clothing, support to apply for a driver’s license and other forms of ID, compiling health records and starting a job search.
Another important service is providing a mental health treatment plan linked to Medicare.
“Everyone who comes through our door is treated with dignity and respect because we’re all born equal,” Ms Evans said.
“Most of the clients just want a bit of peace, they aren’t asking for too much.
“They are asking for a safe and affordable roof over their head and some food in their fridge and some social connection, and for others it’s work they are seeking.”
Pope Francis offers strong Church advocacy for prisoner welfare, repeatedly calling on Catholics to go to the margins to help.
The pontiff has made it a Holy Thursday ritual to enter a prison and wash the feet of a dozen inmates, recalling the foot-washing Jesus performed on his 12 apostles on the night before his death.
Yet Ms Evans said it remained a “common perception” that people coming out of prison were not deserving of help.
“All the evidence is telling us that inclusion will prevent people going back to prison,” she said.
Mrs Norris agreed.
“If only society could shift its view on these people,” she said.
“We have a shared humanity.”
“Prisoners are a very marginalised group and there is little attraction to help – there remains a lock ‘em up and throw away the key mentality.”
Overcoming housing instability remains one of the biggest hurdles for prisoners trying to re-enter the community.
During a national housing and rental crisis, Ms Evans said there remained few accommodation options available.
Some would choose to be homeless – couch surfing or living rough – rather than live in boarding houses that are frequented by former inmates and are often a haven for drugs.
While Centacare Post Release Service operates with a small budget it enjoys “quiet success” in helping former prisoners find a place in the community.
Last year only a small number of clients returned to prison over a 12-month period.
About a third of funding for Centacare Post Release Service comes from the Queensland government, the remainder comes from the Brisbane Archdiocese and generous donors.
