Yalagan Group’s founder and CEO Nathan Martin was fortunate enough to sit down the other week with ABC Indigenous communities reporter Nakari Thorpe to discuss one of his latest programs.
“I just want to get into the prisons, train these fullas while they’re in jail, get them out, get them a start — that’s a real big thing for me,” Mr Martin said.
Yalagan is aiming to get 50 Indigenous prisoners — about to be released — trained and into full-time work with tier one companies across the industry.
Waste management company, Bingo Industries, is among the major collaborators to take on the first cohort this month.
“When they finish their sentence, they will have money in their pocket, they’ll have their training completed, and rather than sort of just been thrown out and having to sort of work all this stuff out themselves, they’ll be ahead of the game,” Corporate Affairs Manager for BINGO, Yeena Kirkbright said.
Mr Martin said it would be a fresh start for the former prisoners and “if they complete the program with no hiccups,” they will have a full-time job.
“If I can make one blackfulla not go to jail for me it’s all worth it, that’s how simple it is— because it’s no place for us.”
In NSW, almost 30 per cent of inmates are Indigenous despite being just 3 per cent of the overall population.
In 2019, recidivism rates showed 5,961 Indigenous prisoners ended up back inside from about 18,300 prisoners overall.
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