We are so excited to announce that the 18th Reintegration Puzzle Conference will be held in Mparntwe/Alice Springs from Wednesday 25 June - Thursday 26 June 2025. Optional workshops will be available to attend on the morning of Tuesday 24 June along with a range of social events over the three days.

The Reintegration Puzzle Conference brings together individuals and organisations working with people impacted by incarceration, with a particular focus on returning to the community after prison.

For the last twenty years the conference has brought together people with lived expertise of the justice system, community and public sector practitioners, First Nations leaders, researchers, and advocates in a unique gathering that focuses on sharing expertise and building a collective response to the systemic failures of imprisonment and re-entry.

The conference was brilliantly hosted by Deakin University for twenty years and in 2023, Deakin invited the Justice Reform Initiative to establish a new home for the conference. The Justice Reform Initiative honours the extraordinary legacy of Professor Joe Graffam (who was also a Justice Reform Initiative patron) who established the conference in 2004 and whose vision for collaboration, and for bringing together people has created such a remarkable, welcoming and unique event.

We really look forward to seeing you in Mparntwe/Alice Springs in 2025.

About the Justice Reform Initiative

The Justice Reform Initiative is an advocacy organisation working to reduce the use of harmful incarceration, and build communities in which disadvantage is no longer met with a criminal justice system response. We work in partnership with other organisations seeking to bring about justice system change, and are proud to support the legacy of the Reintegration Puzzle Conference as we continue to move towards this vision.

For more information on the Justice Reform Initiative, visit our website, available here.

About the local conference organising committee

In preparation for the 18th Reintegration Puzzle Conference, the Justice Reform Initiative has established a local conference organising committee comprised of members of the Mparntwe/Alice Springs community. This committee aims to ensure decisions relating to the conference are made in partnership with the local community and will determine key aspects of the conference, including but not limited to theme selection, conference design, presentation, workshop and sponsorship approvals.

Highlights from 2024 Conference

The sold-out 17th Reintegration Puzzle Conference was held in Sydney in June 2024. 350 people gathered over three remarkable days of connecting, sharing information, and building community and action. The conference featured incredible keynote speakers including:

Dr Reuben Jonathan Miller talking about radical hospitality and life after prison.
Associate Professor Ruth McCausland outlining the social determinants of incarceration and connecting academic research with calls for practical change.
Daniel Daylight and the team from Mounty Yarns sharing their remarkable work building a First Nations led project meeting the needs of the Mount Druitt community.
Claude Robinson from Rainbow Lodge with a remarkable lived expert panel.