Sydney woman and former prisoner designing 'survival guide' for inmates to help navigate system

When Belle Walker arrived in prison, she felt completely bewildered by the system.

It was the basics, such as having money in her account to buy hygiene products, as well as more complex things like the bail system.

She said for the eight months she was incarcerated, there was no easily accessible information on how to navigate the new world around her.

"From the moment I was arrested, which is when you really enter the system, to the moment I was released, I had absolutely no idea what was going on at all times," Belle said.

But the Sydney-based 35-year-old was one of the lucky ones.

Research shows up to three quarters of women in prison are living with an acquired brain injury and two thirds have a diagnosed mental illness.

Ms Walker said that without accessible resources, it was extremely difficult for the women around her to come through the system stronger.

"When you enter prison, you realise that there are people with severe disability, low level literacy and really poor mental health," she said.

Ms Walker was determined to use her time for good, and started keeping a detailed diary.

"I kept these journals and every day I wrote down stories I'd heard and my personal experiences, and made notes of things that I would do differently," she said.

Now she's working with experts to turn that into a digital survival guide for women in the justice system, called "Arrest to Release".

The resource will use AI to offer information on topics from mothers talking to children about prison, to accessing post-release services.

Ms Walker's goal is for the app to become one of the few sites that women can access on tablets available to them while in prison.

Ms Walker is working with the Centre for Inclusive Design, a social enterprise that develops design solutions, to ensure the online tool is accessible for the large numbers of women in prison suffering from cognitive impairment.

"You need simple short facts, images, things that you can either click on ... and you're given like a mind snack, a short snippet of information," Ms Walker said.

It's also being backed by the Keeping Women out of Prison Coalition, which sits under the Sydney Community Foundation.

"We know that the majority of women in prison have an acquired brain injury," the foundation's chief executive Loredana Fyffe said.

"A lot of that [is] acquired through domestic violence, addiction, foetal alcohol syndrome, a list of things that for a lot of people, there's little or no control over."

So far, the app has been developed through pro bono work, but Ms Fyffe said its future hangs on government support.

Some funding had been committed by the former Coalition government, but that's now being reviewed.

Ms Fyffe said the need is urgent.

"We needed this yesterday," Ms Fyffe said.

Director of the Justice Reform Initiative, Mindy Sotiri, has seen a considerable uptick in the number of women incarcerated in the state and nationally.

She said without access to proper support and resources, going to prison is "criminogenic", meaning it makes people more likely to commit crime, not less.

"There's actually the opportunity to address the reasons why the women who end up in prison do end up on that trajectory," the advocate said.

"That's where programs like what Belle's trying to do come into play."

Dr Sotiri said much bigger changes — like trauma-informed programs to support incarcerated women, and more post-release accommodation and social support — were needed for the prison system to become less criminogenic and more rehabilitative.

"The services and programs that do really well, in terms of reducing recidivism, tend to be those services and programs that recognise the system's broken, and advocate on behalf of people to navigate those systems successfully," Dr Sotiri said.

Ms Walker is hoping that, having been in these women's shoes, she can help them take control of their lives when they're at their most vulnerable.

"I know prison is a prickly topic and it's not a glamorous area for people to want to help in, but it's something that could really better so many people's lives," she said.

The ABC has contacted Minister for Corrections, Anoulack Chanthivong for comment.