Conference program
The 19th Reintegration Puzzle Conference will take place across 2 days, Wednesday 24 June - Thursday 25 June 2026, with additional workshops available to purchase on Tuesday 23 June.
A PDF version of the program will be available for you to download and print here one week before the conference.
Wednesday 24 June 2026
| 8:00 – 17:00 | Registration Opens | ||
| 8:45 – 9:30 | Welcome to Country, Housekeeping Notes, Opening Address | ||
| 9:30 – 10:30 |
Keynote – Ending harmful imprisonment
A panel conversation featuring international experts and special guests reflecting on how to bring about systems change, how to move away from politicised policy making, and how to build community safety using the evidence about what works.
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| 10:30 – 11:00 | Morning Tea | ||
| Concurrent Sessions | |||
| Time | Breakout 1 | Breakout 2 | Breakout 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:00 – 11:40 |
She is me – our collective story
Tahlia Issac, Rocket Bretherton, Jamie, Nina Storey
Project: herself
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Young people’s lived experience of incarceration and pathways beyond custody
Kate Bjur, G Rangiawha, Jared and Isaiah
Interlace Advisory
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Galuma-li (‘care for’ in Gamilaraay) and the Walgett Youth Wellbeing Service: the Dharriwaa Elders Group’s holistic, evidence-based model of community care
Loretta Weatherall, Zoe Sands, Peta MacGillivray, Thomas Sullivan
Dharriwaa Elders Group
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| 11:45 – 12:05 |
Blak Space: Breathing and Other Acts of Resistance to Aboriginal deaths in custody – A doctoral analysis of Aboriginal Women's lived expertise of the coronial jurisdiction & reform
Latoya Rule
Jumbunna Institute For Indigenous Education And Research
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The fight for medicare in prisons: How we're actively providing medicare-funded mental health treatment to people in custody
Damien Linnane
Community Restorative Centre
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Lived Expertise as System Expertise: Insights from the Peers4Good Reintegration Pilot
Mary-Jane Durbidge and Amy Orange
Collab4Good
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| 12:10 – 12:30 |
A Tale of Two Tiddas: Lessons in Love
Christine Thomas
Cygnet Centre For Peacebuilding & Transformation Ltd
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We Know the Way: From Campaign to Change, The Freedom on the Line Story
Maia Ihemeje and Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis
Yung Prodigy
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Bars Behind Me - an Aboriginal women-led justice reintegration movement grounded in culture, truth-telling and lived experience, walking alongside women to heal, reclaim purpose and lead change beyond incarceration
Barbara Brennan
Bars Behind Me
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| 12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch | ||
| 13:30 – 13:50 |
Using data and evidence to strengthen community-led justice reinvestment
Ian Brown and Talia Hagerty
Just Reinvest NSW
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The Power of Storytelling in Prison
Denham Sadler and Edith McLellan
About Time
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From early intervention to reintegration: a relational approach to justice support
Justin McConnell and Yvette Ralph
SYC
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| 13:55 – 14:15 |
Policing as a Service that Advances Equality Through Procedural Justice
Simon Matuzelski and Emily Piggott
Centre For Innovative Justice - RMIT
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Life after Songs Inside: A ukulele-inspired reflection on injustice,life lessons,reclaiming power within the system through self-expression breaking generational trauma reconnecting family's through recovery learning to communicate with self expression
Fabiann Brochelle
Songs Inside
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Supported transition to independence through parole
Joseph Miliado and Zephaniah Morton
Anglicare NT
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| 14:20 – 14:40 |
Therapeutic Courts as an Alternative Pathway Beyond Custody
Tarryn Shaw, Adam Brett and Nicolette Sparks
Outcare and North Metropolitan Mental Health, State Forensic Mental Health Services
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Voices for Change: Lived-Experience advocates with Acquired Brain Injury and experience of the Criminal-Legal system sharing stories with folk behind bars results in the new ABI 'Prison Pamphlet'
Mia Tinkler, Francesca Lee and Matthew Pallaris
Voices for Change
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Returning to Ruwe: Reintegration on Ngarrindjeri Country
Jaimie Pearson, Aninna Tarasenko and Luke Trevorrow
Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority / Macai
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| 14:40 – 15:10 | Afternoon Tea | ||
| 15:10 – 15:30 | Keynote – Uncle Moogy | ||
| 15:30 – 16:00 | Dance Lesson led by Uncle Moogy | ||
| 16:00 – 16:20 | Walk to Unfiltered: Exhibition | ||
| 16:20 – 17:00 | Unfiltered: Exhibition | ||
| 18:30 – 21:30 | Conference Function
Strike Bowling Rundle Place
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Thursday 25 June 2026
| 8:00 – 17:00 | Registration Opens | ||
| 9:00 – 9:15 | Housekeeping, Welcome to Day 2 and Announcement of Professor Joe Graffam Award | ||
| 9:15 – 9:25 | Professor Joe Graffam Award - Keynote address | ||
| 9:25 – 10:20 |
Keynote - Ending harmful imprisonment
A panel conversation featuring international experts and special guests reflecting on alternative approaches to supporting children who come into contact with the justice system. What works? What is happening in jurisdictions outside of Australia? What might we learn from different models in different countries?
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| 10:20 – 10:50 | Morning Tea | ||
| Concurrent Sessions | |||
| Time | Breakout 1 | Breakout 2 | Breakout 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:50 – 11:30 |
Community Knows Best: Yolŋu Leadership in Early Intervention
Lucy Johnson, Joanne Gulurrthu Baker, Karina Wunungmurra, Tanya Lakawuy and Lizzie Durrurrnga
ALPA- Guŋga’yunga Djamarrkuḻiny (East Arnhem Land Youth Model)
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Ending strip searching in Australian prisons
Nina Storey, Sohini Mehta, Kelly Flanagan, Georgia Sheales and Zoe Giannioudis
Flat Out & FIGJAM
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Small wins and “Fuck It” moments: Understanding desistance in Australia (20 mins)
Hayley Boxall
ANU
Desistence in a Highly Urbanized Place: By a Person with Lived Experience of Incarceration (20 mins)
Angelina Gerad
Yellow Ribbon
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| 11:35 – 12:15 |
Working Mounty Ways
Daniel Daylight, Jess Brown, Adam Mckellar, Dillon Saunders and Isaiah Sines
Mounty Aboriginal Youth & Community Services
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The Social Determinants of Justice as a holistic policy framework to address the criminalisation of children and young people
Ruth McCausland, Peta MacGillivray, Samantha Rich and Andrea Hardaway
UNSW
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For our kids: VALS' self-determined dedicated youth legal practice Balit Ngulu (20 mins)
Pascal Roth and Tia Snoek
VALS
Rethinking Gambling in the Justice System - lived experience storytelling to create change (20 mins)
Judy Avisar and Carolyn Crawford
Self Help Addiction Resource Centre
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| 12:20 – 12:40 |
Youth Justice consultations using a child-rights based approach
Casey Bird and Aimee Hele
Qld Office of the Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Children's Commissioner
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Understanding Pathways: Supporting young people to transition from custody to the community
Riley Ellard and Samara Young
Centre For Innovative Justice At RMIT University
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Material Stability, Not Punishment: Pathways Away from Violence for Criminalised Men
Jade Lane and Nina Storey
Burnet Institute
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| 12:45 – 13:05 |
Our most vulnerable children bearing the consequences of a failed system
Elle Jackson and Mary Kerr
Office of the Children's Commissioner NT
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We Know the Way Upstream – Brain Science, Culture and Closing the Gaps Before Justice
Adam Valvasori and Sheryl Batchelor
ARACY & Yiliyapinya
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Bridging the False Divide Between Family Violence Advocacy and Criminal Justice Reform
Lara Freidin
Wildfire Advisory
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| 13:05 – 14:00 | Lunch | ||
| 14:00 – 14:20 |
Imagine a nationwide diversity and inclusion policy that recognises people with a criminal history as a valuable part of the workforce rather than a risk to be excluded
Natascha Consigli
Success Works Partners
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Behind the Sentence: Amplifying Children's Voices for Reintegration Strategies
Paula Mahoney
Neighbourhood Justice System
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Finding ways to represent and thrive. A lived experience perspective on self-determined representation and resisting increased barriers to post-release reintegration
Liam Grant
Hepatitis NSW
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| 14:25 – 14:45 |
Re-imagining hope: narratives, practices and structures that sustain desistance: A Joii-ous story
Stephen Beaumont
Joii Limited
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From Custody to Community: Co-Designing Digital Pathways Led by Young People
Georgia Falzon and Joe Kwon
Con|x
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Spent Convictions: Real-time advocacy to align spent convictions with the digital age
Shane Cuthbert and Tina Mcphee
Lived Experience Advocate
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| 14:50 – 15:10 |
From Prison to Board Member
Jennifer Nicholls
ACSO
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International lessons on promoting and protecting the safety and wellbeing of children and young people, through shifting public attitudes, strengthening community connections and support, and transforming laws, policy and practice
Meg Tait
Winston Churchill Memorial Trust
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THE DEADLY TRUTH: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of our Prison Afterlife
Bevan Argent and Justen Thomas
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| 15:15 – 15:35 |
The Criticality of Educational and Vocational Pathways in Positive Identity Formation and Post-Release Success: An Autoethnographic Account
Aaron Baker
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Busting silos: the power of integrated NGO service delivery in positive reintegration outcomes for young people
Georgia Christian and Damien Corbridge
Community Restorative Centre
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It Just Takes One
Doddy Armstrong and Stan Winford
Centre For Innovative Justice - RMIT
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| 15:35 – 16:05 | Afternoon Tea | ||
| 16:05 – 16:20 | Closing Words – Mindy | ||
| 16:20 – 17:00 | Closing Ceremony – Uncle Moogy | ||
Highlights from the 2025 conference
The sold-out 18th Reintegration Puzzle Conference was held in Alice Springs | Mparntwe in June 2025. 350 people gathered over three remarkable days of connecting, sharing information, and building community and action.
