Shannon Pursell celebrated his 21st birthday during his first stint in Tasmania's Risdon Prison, and he ended up back behind those same walls for both his 22nd and 23rd as well.
"Then I got back out and I stayed out of trouble for probably six months, but I was back on another charge and stuff," Mr Pursell said.
The seriousness of the offences Mr Pursell committed slowly escalated, from trespassing to burglary to common assault and eventually drug trafficking.
Now aged 37, he has spent most of his adult life in and out of prison, rarely going more than two months before ending up back on a curfew.
He said adapting to normal life after every release created "a lot of challenges", with everyday tasks like paying rent, setting up a phone and using modern parking meters piling on stress.
That mental pressure would push him towards old habits and bad influences, ultimately making him feel "trapped" in a cycle of reoffending.
"Most of the time was from drinking alcohol or using drugs, that's why I'd reoffend," he said.
Reoffending rate among nation's highest
Tasmania has one of the highest reoffending rates in Australia, with 46.6 per cent of prisoners ending up back behind bars within two years of their release.
According to the Productivity Commission's latest Report on Government Services, only New South Wales and the Northern Territory had higher recidivism rates in 2024-25.
Tasmania's coordinator for the Justice Reform Initiative, Pat Burton, said the data clearly illustrated that reoffending was a "huge problem" in the state.
Advocates have warned for years that social stigma, employment challenges and the lack of housing have been pushing former prisoners back to criminal behaviour.
Mr Burton said investment into rehabilitation programs within the Tasmanian prison system had been inadequate "for decades", leaving inmates underprepared for life after release.
"If they have access to education, drug and alcohol, mental health and medical programs in prison, their chances of surviving on the outside and not reoffending increase dramatically," he said.
Aiming to reduce the inmate 'churn'
One of the current initiatives running in Risdon Prison is the Building Pathways program, which has helped Mr Pursell.
The program has been coordinated by Men's Resources Tasmania for about four years.
The initiative's flagship is the transition to community program, where inmates are coached one-on-one in the lead up to their release and as they return to society.
"The overall aim of the program is to reduce the amount of churn or recidivism of people that come into and get flushed out of the prison system," program manager Brendan Sullivan said.
The coaching sessions generally take place once a month, but this is ramped up following the inmate's release, as Mr Sullivan said this was "probably one of the most traumatic times of their lives".
"When someone comes out of prison, there's just a turmoil of emotions," he said.
"It's like a feeling of shame, a feeling of guilt for their crimes, a feeling of 'where do I go?'
While each session is personalised, the main focus is generally on rebuilding broken relationships.
Mr Sullivan said the key was often developing communication skills and the ability to manage conflict.
"What sits under that core of broken relationships is an inability or a lack of skill around communicating," he said.
"What we've found … is that if we can support someone to give them more capacity and skill around having better conversations, they get better outcomes in their life."
The program has supported about 60 people over the past four years, with about 35 graduating.
Mr Sullivan said he was only aware of three graduates who had reoffended and ended up back in prison.
Although promising, the figures only reflect a very small fraction of the state's prison population, with 844 inmates recorded between October 2025 and March 2026.
'Probably the best thing to happen to me'
Mr Pursell became involved with the Building Pathways program more than two years ago, as he was wrapping up his most recent sentence in Risdon Prison for drug trafficking.
He began meeting with Mr Sullivan regularly, learning communication skills and building his confidence in holding conversations.
Mr Pursell has now been out of prison for 18 months without being charged with any further crimes, which he said was his longest run since his first stint at Risdon.
He now cares for his two young children full-time and has also started to rebuild his relationship with their mother.
"Just with everyday stuff that I would find hard to do, it's helped me communicate so I can ask good questions and I can navigate myself through any sort of problem," Mr Pursell said.
"If something seems really hard and I take some time to myself and think about it, it ends up working out.
He said if it were not for the program, as well as the support he receives from a drug counselling service, he would have likely reoffended and turned back to drugs.
Mr Sullivan said he was very proud of the progress Mr Pursell had made since his release, with the pair still meeting on a monthly basis.
"He's done just an amazing job over that period of time to keep himself safe, to keep away from crime and to support the two kids that he's bringing up," he said.
"He's just doing such a fantastic job to the level now where we're training Shannon up to be a peer support mentor himself."
Outstanding charge looms for Pursell
When he reflected back on his offences, Mr Pursell said he had "a lot of remorse" for failing to see the damage he had caused by pushing drugs in the community.
He was excited about the opportunity to become a mentor with Men's Resources Tasmania, which he felt could allow him to help fix problems he had, indirectly, helped to create.
But his ability to look towards the future could be hampered by another drug trafficking charge from before his most recent stint in prison, for which he is yet to be sentenced.
"Overall, the downside of it is more than likely I am probably going to go back to jail," Mr Pursell said.
He has a court appearance related to that charge in the coming week, where there is the possibility it could be dropped by the prosecution.
Government 'committed to reducing recidivism'
Tasmania's investment in rehabilitation programs and supports is currently "inadequate", the final report from the Inquiry into Tasmanian Adult Imprisonment and Youth Detention Matters found.
The report, which was tabled in parliament in April last year, recommended the state government identify and invest in more "targeted early intervention and diversionary programs".
Mr Pursell echoed this sentiment and said there needed to be more programs on offer for inmates heading towards release.
Mr Burton, who helped to contribute to the inquiry, said one way to address reoffending would be to use alternative sentences to divert more people away from ever entering the prison system.
A spokesperson for the state government said it was "committed to reducing recidivism" through the strategic plan for corrections adopted in 2023.
They said "a range of targeted supports" were offered to prisoners in custody, including intervention programs, alcohol and drug counselling, mental health support and more.
"The majority of prisoners and those on remand will receive ongoing support from Community Corrections on release, to aid their transition back to their community," the spokesperson said.
