South Australian Aninna Tarasenko has seen many family members in and out of jail.
From the Raukkan/Ngarrindjeri people of the south-eastern part of the state, the 23-year-old is keen to make a positive contribution within her Indigenous community and hopes a pioneering program will help.
The Correctional Services Training and Employment Program "C-STEP" — run by Adelaide business Maxima — is a new effort to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders train to become correctional services officers.
Ms Tarasenko said the hope was that Indigenous inmates might relate better to people from their community.
"In my own background, I've had a lot of different family in and out of Yatala, Mobilong, all those sorts of places," she said.
"One thing that they've always said is obviously it is a lonely place — it's not somewhere where you'd put your hand up to go.
"I feel like I could push them more towards the supportive side of things because they don't realise how much there really is inside those facilities to take part [in]."
She said some Indigenous people did not feel comfortable seeking support beyond their own people.
"It's almost like a sense of belonging, a family-type feeling," she said.
Move to increase Indigenous prison staff in SA
In the Riverland Cadell prison general manager David Oates said having more Indigenous staff in prisons could boost rehabilitation efforts with inmates.
One-in-four prisoners in South Australia are Aboriginal or a Torres Strait Islander, mirroring the national rate of 27 per cent.
However, just 5 per cent of prison staff are from Indigenous backgrounds.
Mr Oates said that should change.
"The better you know the prisoners, the better you can help manage them," he said.
"The benefits of having more Aboriginal staff is that some of the staff actually have good links to the community.
"They can provide better support for both the prisoners and [other] staff... with guidance in helping them manage certain prisoners."
He said better cultural understanding might also help with the management of inmates.
