The activities on offer for women detained at these facilities include for example: ‘glamour’ (including face masks and beauty), yoga, Zumba, education (including maths, English, geography and life skills [such as opening bank accounts or using Word documents]) and crafts (including diamond dots and knitting/ crocheting). Some facilities also offer specialised activities such as music lessons, a barista course, cooking classes, Self-Management and Recovery Training (SMART) and other self-development classes. Most women engage in some form of P&A while detained and some activities are clearly more popular than others. For example, at PIDC the Commission observed a high level of engagement with P&A staff facilitating bingo and trivia, while at VIDC we observed several women disinterestedly sitting before an unboxed jigsaw puzzle, scrolling on their mobile phones. The Commission’s interviews with women overwhelmingly confirmed that they felt the P&A on offer was neither age-appropriate nor meaningful to them. One woman for example stated, ‘they [activities] are somewhat degrading. I don’t want to sit there for an hour and make bead bracelets, I am not a child’. Another said, ‘the things you do in here you do in primary school, they’re not for adult women. How do they expect us to stay sane in here?’. And another remarked, ‘I have a visual arts degree and I’m colouring in pictures of mermaids’. These comments also align with recent reporting by the Commonwealth Ombudsman, who has noted ‘a common complaint from the people we speak with in detention is that many of the activities (arts and crafts for example) are not perceived to be age appropriate.’79 Women within the section 501 cohort expressed a desire for programs and activities aimed at vocational skill development, employability and self-development to reduce recidivism. One woman stated, ‘I need something to get up for, routine. I can’t sit around and drink coffee and play games all day’. Another reflecting on the work opportunities she had in prison said, ‘I’d rather be in prison, not working is a big thing for me. There is no structure to your day’. The Commission has previously highlighted that the official long-standing position against the delivery of recognised programs of study, vocational training and work goes against well-established research showing that such activities effectively reduce reoffending and support detained people post-release.80 In turn, this helps to potentially improve community safety when people are released. For women in particular, the New South Wales Inspector of Custodial Services has highlighted that ‘the strongest predictors of treatment success for incarcerated women are programs that target their interpersonal needs, victimisation and self-esteem.’81 Some women at VIDC also expressed concern about not having equitable access to activities and facilities when compared to the men detained in the other compounds. For example, some suggested that men have access to pool tables and a functioning table tennis table, neither of which were available to the women. Women at VIDC also raised concern about being provided significantly less access to the shared oval. At BRP we were also advised by Serco management that women had requested access to woodwork activities which Serco were supportive of but did not have the infrastructure to provide. The Bangkok Rules stipulate that women who are detained ‘shall have access to a balanced and comprehensive programme of activities, which take account of gender appropriate needs’.82 The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) also notes that women are often offered far fewer vocational activities than men and that ‘such a discriminatory approach can only serve to reinforce outmoded stereotypes of the social role of women’.83 The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has likewise emphasised that ‘[c]ountering such stereotypes requires offering women skills-building in more viable professions’.84 The Commission considers that women in immigration detention should not be offered activities which are deemed to be suitable for women based on stereotypical perceptions. Instead, they should be offered a broad range of programs tailored to their needs, including physical and mental healthcare programs, substance dependence programs, physical activities, counselling, psychosocial support, education and vocational training courses, creative and cultural activities and work opportunities. Issues and concerns impacting women across the detention network 23