Building cars and digging holes has not traditionally been encouraged in prisons, but the program at one Western Australian jail is designed to help inmates leave and never come back.
Indigenous incarceration is one of Australia's more troubling statistics, with even higher rates than other highly incarcerated Indigenous people around the world, and it is getting worse not better.
There are grim statistics even after release, because Indigenous people have a 75 per cent recidivism rate.
But a prison in the north of Western Australia is trying to break this cycle by designing education and training that can engage adults not suited to the classroom, and equip them with workplace skills.
More than 80 per cent of the inmates at the West Kimberley Regional Prison are Indigenous, and the design of the buildings and grounds was particularly aimed at reducing Indigenous recidivism.
Overcoming the 'shame factor'
Leith Thomas, the assistant superintendent of offender services at the West Kimberley Regional Prison, she said the approach to education was focussed on getting inmates working with their hands.
"There is a big shame factor for a lot of them going into a classroom," Ms Thomas said.
"I think if we can start doing things with them that are hands on, by building the skills, empowering them, and giving them the confidence to head into the classroom, I think we might get some different results."
Inmates can get involved in commercial-style cooking, car mechanics or horticulture, and each program is linked to the outside community in the nearby town of Derby.
Around 120 meals cooked at the prison are provided to a weekly soup kitchen to feed disadvantaged people, trees are propagated for the Derby Landcare group, and speedway cars are built under supervision at the prison and donated to the local club.
Learning to have hope
Dean* is one of the young men who has worked on the latest speedway car, and it has helped him come to terms with prison.
"Day by day it stops me thinking so much about my family, my daughter, which is a really big thing in my life," he said.
But as the car has grown from the ground up, Dean has found a passion for the work and is making plans for life after prison.
"Now I've been doing mechanics in here, I'd like to get an auto-sparky apprenticeship," he said.
"Instead of coming back to prison, it shows you what you can achieve in prison, so you can take it outside and do something with your life."
Low levels of numeracy and literacy are part of the foundation of Australia's high Indigenous prison rates.
A 2017 study in the Northern Territory found that 85 per cent of Aboriginal adults assessed did not have core skills needed for the workplace including literacy and numeracy, and education levels were even lower in the Indigenous prison population.
It leaves young people like John*, who is part of the West Kimberley Regional Prison horticulture program, with very few options for employment.
"I just went up to year nine down south, then I came back to the Kimberley and started messing up," he said.
"I stopped going to school, and I should have stuck at it."
Drug use accelerated John's journey to prison, but here he has discovered the joy of growing a tree from a seed, and then planting it next to the prison's oval.
"It helps a lot, I never really did this before on the outside," he said.
"I'm going to try and get a job when I get out, and look forward to my future."
A positive contribution
North Regional TAFE horticulture lecturer Kim Courtenay said the satisfaction of seeing something grow could attract the most reluctant learner.
"They plant trees, in two weeks time they're flourishing, so it's providing that ongoing satisfaction and inspiration for them," he said.
With the door ajar, Mr Courtenay can start to introduce the concepts and learning outcomes that can lead to a real chance for a successful life on the outside.
"It's a nationally accredited course ... so it's something they can use on their resume and say, look I've got this course and I've achieved these skills,'" he said.
"And it will help them get a job."
The trees grown in the prison are being supplied to the local Landcare group, which is planting them on street-sides and roundabouts in the nearby town of Derby.
Derby Landcare Group chairman Chris Kloss said the programs showed prisoners another way to live their lives in the future.
"I think it has great potential," he said.
"To get the guys to realise there is an alternative to whatever they did to get themselves into prison."
*Names changed for legal reasons.
