Incarceration Nation

Incarceration Nation is a 2021 documentary film written and directed by Dean Gibson. It looks the Australian justice system's treatment of indigenous people and some of the driving factors behind that.

Reception
Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald Craig Mathieson gave it 4 stars and states "It’s about a country that disproportionately punishes its original inhabitants, and it is in turn unnerving, shocking, and tragic; Gibson does not blink. It captures how the system can fail the individual, and with a test program in the NSW town of Bourke how some basic improvements might actually be made." Also in the Sydney Morning Herald Bridget McManus gave it 4 stars. She says "the film expands with evidence that has been hiding in plain sight. With the blessing of courageous families, incredibly distressing vision of abuse and neglect at the hands of police and prison officers is relayed. Indigenous lawyers, barristers and advocates – many of them relatively new faces on television – dissect the issue, tracing it back to colonisation with appalling historical footnotes, and offer solutions." Eddie Cockrell of the Weekend Australian wrote "Incarceration Nation is distressing and exhausting, and that may well be the point".

Awards

 * Logie Awards of 2022
 * Most Outstanding Factual or Documentary Program - won