Sisters Inside Inc

14/10/2026

We will be attending and watching who supports the ending violence against women and new born babies

No one should be shackled while giving birth 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

14/10/2026

A CALL OUT TO EVERY LABOR MP: VOTE TO END THE SHACKLING OF PEOPLE GIVING BIRTH.

To every Labor MP: this is a moment to stand up for human dignity, bodily autonomy and the right of every person to give birth without being subjected to restraints and state-sanctioned violence.

I call on every Labor MP to vote for this Bill — not simply to align themselves with their party’s political position, but to exercise their conscience and recognise the profound harm that shackling inflicts on women, birthing people and their babies.

Violence against women can begin before they are even born. When a pregnant woman is shackled, the violence of the criminal legal system reaches into the most intimate and vulnerable moments of pregnancy, labour and birth. It affects not only the woman giving birth, but also her baby, whose earliest experiences are shaped by the conditions imposed on their mother.

For Aboriginal women, the consequences are inseparable from the ongoing violence of colonisation, systemic racism and deaths in custody. An Aboriginal woman who gives birth in shackles may be returned to prison after childbirth, separated from her newborn baby and placed in an environment where her health, recovery and safety are at risk. The trauma of childbirth, the removal of her baby and the brutality of incarceration can compound one another, with potentially devastating consequences.

We cannot ignore the risk of another Aboriginal death in custody. Aboriginal women must not be shackled during labour or childbirth, placed at risk through inadequate postnatal care, or returned to prison without proper regard for their physical and psychological wellbeing. The separation of mothers and babies can inflict profound and lasting harm on both.

END THE SHACKLING. END THE VIOLENCE. LET EVERY PERSON GIVE BIRTH WITH DIGNITY.

EndViolenceAgainstWomen

Anthony Albanese Senator Jana Stewart Renee Coffey MP Kara Cook MP Helen Polley Jacqui Lambie Senator Malarndirri McCarthy Senator Penny Allman-Payne Senator Fatima Payman Katy Gallagher Penny Wong Australian Labor Party LNP - Liberal National Party Australian Greens

12/10/2026

12/10/2026

Independent Senator for Victoria

10/10/2026

Please take two minutes to sign the open letter to end strip searching of children. This abusive practice must end, add your voice today:

https://www.lidiathorpe.com/end_strip

09/10/2026

The Ombudsman knows Wacol is unsuitable for children. Yet he has backed away from demanding its closure because the government plans to imprison more of them.

This is a gutless retreat that gives political cover to harm.

Sisters Inside demands that the so called independent watchdog stand on children’s safety, rather than surrender to the government’s punishment agenda.

07/10/2026

President of Sisters Inside giving evidence at the Senate Committee Hearing on ending the strip searching of children.

03/10/2026

October is Queensland’s Sexual Violence Awareness Month. This year’s theme is No More Silence: Prevent Sexual Violence.

At Sisters Inside, we know that many women in prison have survived sexual violence, often beginning in childhood. Their experiences must be heard, and their access to care and support must be part of this conversation.
Women do not lose their right to safety, dignity and support when they are criminalised.
Our Sexual Assault Program began in 1994, after women in prison identified sexual assault counselling and support as their highest priority.

It was Sisters Inside’s first funded program, built in direct response to what women told us they needed.

Today, we have sexual assault counsellors and supports across Queensland, both in prison and on release. Participation is voluntary, and our work is guided by each woman’s needs and priorities.

Participation is voluntary, and our work is guided by each woman’s needs and priorities.
Preventing sexual violence is everyone’s responsibility. It means challenging victim blaming, respecting consent and listening when women tell us what they need. It also means ensuring criminalised women are included in conversations about violence, prevention and healing.
No woman should have to prove she is deserving of care. Every woman deserves to be heard, treated with respect and supported to make decisions about her own life.

For more information about Sisters Inside’s Sexual Assault Program:
(07) 3844 5066
sistersinside.com.au/for-women (https://sistersinside.com.au/for-women/)

Please share and support our work.

29/09/2026

We are wrapping up our campaign with a message from one of our staunchest supporters, Professor Angela Davis. For those of you that don’t know - she is a formerly incarcerated woman, a former member of the Black Panther Party, a political activist, philosopher, academic, author. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Feminist Studies and History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has been active in movements such as the Occupy movement and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. She is our friend.

Five bucks can change the world!
Sisters Inside is asking everyone to pitch in $5 a week to ensure everyone we walk alongside has access to joy, safety and freedom.

As an ongoing supporter, you will support women and young people in our community. As state violence intensifies - through laws like “adult crime, adult time”
- our kids are being targeted and criminalised.

We are responding with love, care and connection, and so can you.
For less than a coffee a week you can change a life.

Please share our campaign with your family, friends, in your workplace, social groups and networks.

With your support, Sisters Inside can provide services and support, we can reach the people that need the most help, mothers, children, grandparents caring for little ones. We can fight harder for freedom.

From court support and housing to reuniting mothers with their children, every dollar helps us end the criminalisation of women and girls and build a world without prisons.
Your donation will help us work towards a brighter future for everyone.

Please support FIVE TO FREE HER

Link in our bio or fivetofreeher.com