A program in Ballarat, Victoria is connecting regular community members with people in prison. The program, ‘The Future Shapers,’ conducts tours of local prisons and sit-down group interviews with inmates.

The Midsumma Pride March sees tens of thousands march down Fitzroy Street in St Kilda, with many more turning out to cheer them on.

While hardline responses to crime are constantly pushed by politicians and the media, other approaches – such as “therapeutic justice” models – are often overlooked.

A report by Financial Counselling Australia said this is a form of “double punishment”, with people leaving prison in a worse financial position than when they entered it because the system is “stacked against them”.

When I was arrested, I had a job, a family, friends. When they sent me to jail, I lost it all. Because that’s the true punishment. You lose your life. You break the law, so you are destroyed.

Rehabilitation is pointless without forgiveness and another chance at doing right.

At this year’s EnQueer Sydney Queer Writers Festival, author and community lawyer Sam Elkin joined formerly incarcerated trans woman Stacey Stokes and proud trans woman and manager of Open Doors Youth Service (Qld) Necho Brocchi on stage at Qtopia Sydney for an intimate discussion about trans incarceration.

If parole was ever about rehabilitation, it’s not really the feeling I get now. It feels more like an exercise in assessing the risk to the community, not about reintegrating people.

Elections never bring anything good for people engaged in the system.

What helped me was realising that there was nothing inherently wrong with me and that it was my brain trying to cope.