Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Emotional effects of incarceration on Indigenous Australians

Emotional effects of incarceration on Indigenous Australians:
What are the emotional effects of incarceration on Indigenous Australians?

Overview

Figure 1. Emotional wellbeing for Indigenous Australians is viewed as health, connected with the land, culture, and community. Case study In January of 2021, an unnamed incarcerated Aboriginal woman on remand at the Alexander Maconochie Centre in the ACT was allegedly strip searched by four guards in riot gear, within view of male detainees (Larkin, 2021). The woman is was a victim of a previous sexual assault and has a serious heart condition. This case, amongst others, has caused concern among health care professionals who work with Aboriginal women detainees (Larkin, 2021). For many First Nations communities, the showing of a woman's sensitive body parts is considered sacred to women's business (Thompson & Archibald-Binge, 2020). This lore and culture has been practised for thousands of years. The separation of men's and women's business, and strict traditions and customs is central to many Aboriginal cultures . The conduct and nature of these traditions recognises and respects particular roles, ceremony and lore sacred to men and women (Sydney Nature Team, 2025). The customs and practices within men's and women's business are strict and if the rules are broken, harsh punishment is to follow. "If women's business is conducted in front of males, cultural shame is likely to be the result. This is extremely distressing and would stay with the woman for a long time," (Thompson & Archibald-Binge, 2020). This local case, alongside many others, acknowledges how the absence of cultural safety within institutional practice can undermine Indigenous wellbeing. This chapter explores the social and emotional wellbeing model and the emotional effects of incarceration on Indigenous Australians.

• Introduction to the problem: Indigenous Australians are incarcerated at a disproportionately high rate, accounting for 37% of all persons in custody as of March 2025 (ABS, 2025).
• "Research shows that imprisonment has negative impacts on the physical and mental health of incarcerated individuals, and these impacts persist after release." - (Impacts of Imprisonment | Bugmy Bar Book, 2023)
• Incarceration significantly implicates the cultural and relational connections to land and kin which are directly correlational with wellbeing for many Indigenous Australians.
• Introduction to the model/theory: Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) model was developed to support and strengthen Indigenous mental health --> The SEWB model is a holistic, multi-dimensional concept of wellbeing which takes into account the impacts of the history of colonisation (Dudgeon, 2026).
• How incarceration negatively impacts Indigenous emotional wellbeing --> which also affects mental health.
• The SEWB model recognises that connection to land, sea, culture, and spirituality contribute to wellbeing.
• Incarceration affects SEWB domains --> physical separation from family members, restricted cultural practice, removal from country.
• Why does this matter? ...Access to culturally safe, responsive, and person-centred services is essential to improving the emotional wellbeing of Indigenous Australians in custody (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2017). --> Essential that psychological science be informed by Indigenous understandings of wellbeing.

Focus questions What is the relationship between incarceration and the emotional wellbeing of Indigenous Australians? What broader factors are affected by high rates of offending and imprisonment among First Nations people? What is the Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) model? How does incarceration affect the domains of social and emotional wellbeing? What factors improve/support emotional resilience during and after incarceration? What does the Social and Emotional Wellbeing model contribute that westernised frameworks don't?

Incarceration and emotional wellbeing

Focus question: What is the relationship between incarceration and the emotional wellbeing of Indigenous Australians?

Social and Emotional Wellbeing

Focus question: What is the Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) model?

• The Social and Emotional Wellbeing model is a stepped care model which is dedicated to focalising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing and mental health.

Figure 1. Determinants of social and emotional wellbeing. Adapted from [Dudgeon & Walker, 2015].

• The framework highlights the importance of culture as being central to the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

How incarceration affects SEWB domains

Focus question: How does incarceration affect the domains of social and emotional wellbeing?

• colonial impact (colonisation) --> cultural, economic, and social bases of Indigenous lives and health has been significantly impacted by colonialism ("through disease, massacre, dispossession of lands, relocation, forced labor, removal of children, and enforced cultural assimilation.")(Battams et al., 2021)

Connection to community

• Separation
• Limited/restrictive nature of visitation

Connection to country

• Removal from country
• Inability to participate or attend (in/to) cultural practices (ceremonies, obligations etc).
• Reference to opening case study, not only is incarceration and the criminal justice system preventing cultural agency for Indigenous Australians, but it is complicit in the cultural discrimination of Aboriginal lore and culture (Larkin, 2021). This point is quite direct; further elaborate.
• Identity within country and within the land.

Emotional and mental wellbeing

• Direct implications on wellbeing due to incarceration.

Emotional resilience, and protective factors

Focus Question: What factors improve/support emotional resilience during and after incarceration?

Why the Social and Emotional Wellbeing model?

Focus Question: What does the Social and Emotional Wellbeing model contribute that Westernised frameworks don't?

• Western definitions of mental health do not align with Aboriginal perspectives of health and wellbeing which endorse a more holistic approach to their conceptualisation (Harrison, 2021).

Figures

Figure 2. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.

• For the topic development, use at least one figure (even if not ideal) to show that you know how to embed, caption, and cite a figure; this can be the figure in the scenario
• For the book chapter, use several figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
• Images must be embedded from Wikimedia Commons which hosts free-to-use media such as photos, diagrams, graphs, video, and audio
• Images can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons if they are openly licensed
• Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section
• Provide descriptive figure captions (use Figure # and explain the relevance of the image to the text)
• Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2)

Learning features

Quizzes

• One or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end
• Quiz conceptual understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as the take-home messages
• Ask easy rather than hard questions
• Different types of quiz questions are possible; see Quiz

Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click "Submit":

1

The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature:

	True
	False

2

Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:

	True
	False

Future directions/recommendations

Note: this section could be added to discuss future directions, and ways to improve the emotional wellbeing of Indigenous Australians in custody.

Conclusion

• Arguably the most important section
• Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
• For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
• Together, the Overview and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
• Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

Suggestions for this section: What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research? What are the answers to the focus questions? What are the practical, take-home messages?

See also

List internal (wiki) links to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. motivation and emotion book chapters) and Wikipedia articles. Use sentence casing and alphabetical order. For example:

• Collaborative authoring using wiki (Wikiversity)
• Light triad (Book chapter, 2021)
• Self determination theory (Wikipedia)
• Topic development - Checklist (Wikiversity)

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2025). Corrective services, Australia, March quarter 2025. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/corrective-services-australia/latest-release

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2025). Social and emotional wellbeing. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/indigenous-mental-health-suicide-prevention/social-emotional-wellbeing

Battams, S., Delany-Crowe, T., Fisher, M., Wright, L., Krieg, A., McDermott, D., & Baum, F. (2021). Applying crime prevention and health promotion frameworks to the problem of high incarceration rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations: Lessons from a case study from Victoria. International Indigenous Policy Journal, 12(2), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.18584/iipj.2021.12.2.10208

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. (2017, April 4). National strategic framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' mental health and social and emotional wellbeing 2017–2023. Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet. https://healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/key-resources/policies-and-strategies/33834/

Dudgeon, P. (2026, May 26). Pat Dudgeon AM FAPS on developing the social and emotional wellbeing model to support Indigenous communities. Australian Psychological Society. https://psychology.org.au/insights/pat-dudgeon-am-sewb-model

Dudgeon, P., & Walker, R. (2015). Decolonising Australian psychology: Discourses, strategies, and practice. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v3i1.4857

External links

• Closing the Gap targets: Key findings – Criminal justice (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare)
• The relationship between justice system involvement and the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth (IACFP)
• Imprisonment (Bugmy Bar Book)
• Excessive strip searching shines light on discrimination of Aboriginal women in the criminal justice system (The Conversation)
• Aboriginal girl fights to exclude men from seeing strip search footage (Sydney Morning Herald)