Handing Over the Keys

Generations of Indigenous people have experienced the injustices wrought by institutional confinement. Rates of Indigenous imprisonment are recognised in Australia as a national tragedy, and in Aotearoa New Zealand, the government itself has admitted that Maori people may be the most incarcerated in the world. Widespread criticism in Canada calls prisons 'the new residential schools'. Handing Over the Keys compares three countries with enduring records of confining Indigenous people.

Intergenerational imprisonment—the legacies of institutional detainment in an array of settings—leaves a long shadow. Linda Mussell seeks the keys to transformative change through rigorous policy analysis and interviews with frontline practitioners, policy professionals, and people who have lived experience of imprisonment. Her goal is policy transformation to address both Indigenous hyper-imprisonment and intergenerational impacts.

This necessary study proposes ways to hand over the keys that unlock the doors of confinement for future generations.