Welcome to Paradise

Isabel Stepanik was barely 20 when she left her large warm extended family in Peru and crossed the world to Australia. It was the seventies and she found a country where men wore long socks and shorts, 'siestas' were unheard of, and the streets were empty after 5 – very different from the lively culture she had left behind. The young Peruvian adventurer planned to just stay for two years. She never dreamed that she would make Australia her home, and certainly not that she would end up spending much of her working life behind the walls of Sydney's prisons, first as a welfare officer and later as a psychologist. Isabel's story is one of culture shock, and of a young woman's determination to succeed in a new country. It's also the story of life inside prison walls, of the realities and challenges of trying to help inmates to turn their lives around. It's the story of a woman who believes everyone deserves a second chance.