The Wire

Alongside the over-representation of Indigenous people and those suffering mental illness, another group of Australians who are doing it tough in the Australian prison system are those with an intellectual disability. In New South Wales that’s about 1,000 out of 8,000 prisoners. This staggering number shows that there’s a gap between housing services for people with disabilities in the community – and the slack is being taken up by the prison system. Cinnamon Nippard spoke to Jim Simpson, Senior Advocate for the New South Wales Council for Intellectual Disability and Ariane Mintz spoke to Julie Hoysted, who’s intellectually disabled son was incarcerated.