Accessing the NDIS in prison and after being released

While the media has kicked up a moral panic over people released from prison accessing the NDIS, the real issue should be the difficulties in receiving support while in custody.

There was much media reporting last week about people who have been released from prison accessing the NDIS.

Led by a story in the Nine papers titled ‘NDIS pays $1.4m to paedophile: How sex offenders access disability packages’, the angling of the reporting raised questions over whether people who have committed crimes and who also have a disability should be provided with government support.

But according to those working in the sector, the real issue is the enormous difficulties in accessing any NDIS support while in prison and upon release back into the community, and how this is impacting recidivism and rehabilitation.

It’s typically near-impossible to access the NDIS while in custody, and many people approaching release or who have been recently released have significant issues in gaining any support services.

As VACRO CEO Marius Smith says, this is a major problem and one that is doing nothing to make the community safer.

“People with disabilities, especially intellectual disabilities and acquired brain injuries, are vastly over-represented in the prison system,” Smith says.

“It’s clear that they should be supported by the NDIS, but in fact that’s often not the case. At VACRO, we work with a lot of people who live with undiagnosed or untreated disabilities, and our staff are often scrambling to get them the support that they are entitled to through the NDIS before their release back into the community.”

Under the legislation underpinning the NDIS, the support that can be provided to people in prison is severely curtailed, with day-to-day care and support needs expressly prohibited. Some NDIS support for people in prison is allowed, but this is mostly limited to assisting people transition into the community, and is entirely at the discretion of the prison.

“People with a disability who are in the criminal justice system need the support that NDIS was designed to give them,” Smith says.

“That support helps them to build a new life for them and their family, free from the criminal justice system. And when they are able to do that, we know that the risk of reoffending is reduced.”

It’s crucial that adequate support and care is provided to people before they are put in contact with the criminal justice system, and if they are, while they are in prison rather than after they are released.

“The real story here is that many people with disabilities only begin to receive the support they need after they’ve been through the criminal justice system, often more than once,” Smith says.

“We should be ensuring that there is better, more accessible disability support for people in the criminal justice system, but we should also be ensuring that everyone in this country who is eligible for NDIS support gets it.

“That would go some way towards breaking the connection between living with disability and becoming involved with the criminal justice system, making all of our community stronger.”

The reporting last week drew a response from federal NDIS minister Bill Shorten, who said he will be pushing for reforms to force state governments to notify the NDIS when “serious criminals” are released from prison, and that this should be considered before someone begins to receive support.

“Being a criminal is not a disability,” Shorten said. “Being a sex predator is not a disability. These are clearly policing and law and order areas that are the province of the states.”

But this entirely ignores the disproportionate number of people incarcerated who have a significant disability, and the importance of adequate care in reducing recidivism.

According to numerous organisations working in the space and advocates, if we truly want to avoid serious crimes being committed and the community being put in danger, the campaign would be for more of these people to receive support through the NDIS, while they are in prison and after they are released, not less.

Fear campaigns may garner a political response, but a humane, care-based response will deliver a better outcome for all.