From concept to change: The role of Indigenous businesses in custodial health reform
Professor Kerry Arabena
Managing Director
Why First Nations-led reform matters
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up just 3 percent of Australia’s population, but about a third of the prison population. Every time someone is incarcerated, families, kinship systems, and cultural continuity are disrupted.
Health care inside prison isn’t built for First Nations people. It’s centred on compliance, security, and risk management. Culture and connection are treated as optional extras, not essentials. What changes that picture is Aboriginal community control.
The value of Indigenous businesses
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses hold a kind of dual legitimacy. Communities trust them, and governments see them as credible contract partners. Karabena Consulting is one example. Set up in 2018, our profit for purpose company works to promote the health and wellbeing of First Nations peoples and share our knowledge in Australia and beyond. The Managing Director, Professor Kerry Arabena, has decades of experience in Aboriginal health, justice reform, and cultural leadership. Earlier in her career, she worked with Winnunga Nimmitjah Aboriginal Health Service in the ACT, helping shape community-controlled primary health care inside prisons.
When asked to support the development of an Aboriginal Community Controlled Correctional Health Service (ACCCHS) in Victoria, Karabena worked with VACCHO, VAHS, corrections staff, justice health, community organisations, and men who had lived through incarceration. Our role was to respond to the evidence, bring people together, hold space for cultural authority, centre lived experiences and create tools that others could adapt and use to support the transition to holistic health under community control. We used contagion theory as one of those tools: a way of showing that prison health is not just the health and wellbeing of people who are incarcerated, but involves the climate of the whole institution, and is inclusive of families, friends and communities outside of the prison system.
Karabena Consulting Trust played a role in conceptualising an Aboriginal Community Controlled Correctional Health Service (ACCCHS) in Victoria. This initiative involved collaboration with VACCHO, VAHS, corrections staff, justice health professionals, community organisations, and individuals with lived experience of incarceration.
The transition from Justice health to Community controlled health service delivery was founded on five core principles:
Strategies are evidence-informed.
Diverse stakeholders—Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, families, communities, health providers, government, businesses, and academia—collaborate on health and wellbeing services.
Cultural authority, including the wisdom of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, lived experience leaders, and Elders, is respected.
Lived experiences guide understanding and intervention design in custodial health systems.
Adaptable tools and frameworks were developed for various Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The text uses present tense and Australian spelling.
Contagion theory, a key framework, posits that health and well-being are interconnected within a collective system. In custodial health, this framework expands the understanding of prisoner health beyond the individual to encompass the institutional environment's profound influence on health outcomes. It also acknowledges the interconnectedness of health between incarcerated individuals and their families, friends, and wider communities. Therefore, a holistic approach to custodial health requires interventions that address individual health needs, systemic issues within custodial settings, and the enduring effects of incarceration on community health.
What contagion looks like inside
One man who had done time put it clearly:
“If a brother has a shitty day, then the yard has a shitty day, the Unit has a shitty day, and the staff has a shitty day.”
That’s contagion theory. Despair and anger move fast through a group. But so can pride, cooperation, and healing especially when Aboriginal leadership and cultural programs are visible and supported.
In our workshops, Elders and peer mentors described how Yarning Circles, ceremonies, and mentoring had calmed tense units, reduced isolation, and encouraged responsibility. Corrections staff noticed the difference too. Officers who had cultural safety training spoke about how it shifted their interactions from control to respect, reinforcing a cycle of constructive behaviour across the unit. Workshops revealed the positive impact of Yarning Circles, smoking ceremonies, and mentoring, with inmates reporting calmer units, reduced isolation, and increased responsibility. This positive change was also observed by Corrections staff. Officers who received cultural safety training noted a shift in their interactions, moving from control to respect, which in turn fostered constructive relationships throughout the unit.
Building culture into the everyday
For this to last, custodial systems need to create conditions where culture and leadership can thrive. When they do, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders can set new expectations for behaviour that influence the whole group. Trust is central here. Trust grows when culture is part of daily prison life (ceremonies, Yarning Circles, language programs) not rare, one-off events. Repetition matters. Once practices are routine, they stop being an exception and start to set the norm.
Rethinking what success looks like
Success in this space can’t just be measured by institutional metrics. It needs to be defined on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s terms. That means asking whether people feel culturally safe, whether group norms are shifting towards respect and cooperation, and whether men and women return to community with stronger chances of reintegration and continue on with their health and wellbeing journey. Community controlled organisations need the authority and the resources to decide what counts as success and to control the data that tracks it.
Where this fits with bigger commitments
ACCCOS do more than improve health. They give practical effect to national and state commitments. Closing the Gap targets call for reduced over-incarceration and Aboriginal-led solutions. Victoria’s Treaty process prioritises self-determination and Aboriginal decision-making. Aboriginal businesses, working with community-controlled organisations, make these commitments real. They translate reform agendas into models that are shaped by and accountable to the community.
The bigger challenge for government
Indigenous businesses, such as Karabena, are vital in fostering environments where innovative approaches can be explored, difficult dialogues can occur, and cultural authority guides engagement. Our work extends beyond mere reports or frameworks; we empower individuals within existing systems to reimagine their roles, thereby creating space for legitimate and impactful practices.
For governments, the path forward is clear. Indigenous Procurement Policies (IPP) must be leveraged strategically, moving beyond simple compliance. Consistent funding, access to government contracts, and robust policy commitments are crucial. These elements will enable Indigenous businesses to continue championing cultural authority and drive the essential transformations needed for genuine custodial health reform.
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