18/11/2021. ‘Overjoyed’: family of Wayne Fella Morrison hail South Australian spit hood ban
The family of Wayne Fella Morrison, an Indigenous man’s who died in custody after being restrained in prison, have hailed the passing of legislation to ban the use of spit hoods in South Australia on Thursday as “history making”. The bill was introduced in September by SA Best party MLC Connie Bonaros, ahead of the five-year anniversary of Morrison’s death. In the five years since Morrison’s death, his mother, Caroline Andersen, and his sibling, Latoya Rule, have been fighting to ban the use of spit hoods in South Australian prisons while they await the outcome of a coronial inquest into his death in custody. The inquest has run for three years. The ban passed unanimously with the full support of the Labor opposition and makes the use of spit hoods on both adults and children a criminal offence within the state. South Australia is the first state to officially enact such a ban. — The Guardian

28/06/2021.
Report Finds Graft in Prison System in Australia’s Victoria Region
The rapid growth of the incarcerated population in Victoria, Australia, combined with rampant abuse of power by staff has led to “significant corruption risks” in prisons, said an anti-corruption report. The report released by the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) outlined accounts of excessive use of force by prison guards, inappropriate strip searching practices, interference with body-worn cameras, “improper” relationships between prison officers and incarcerated people, issues with internal investigations, trafficking contraband, and guards accepting thousands of dollars in bribes. — OCCRP

13/12/2021
Dragging its feet on torture prevention: Australia’s international shame
Four years since Australia committed to the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Australia has failed to meet its requirements. These bodies would visit places such as prisons and detention centres to assess the safety and well-being of detained people. Disappointingly, the federal government wants to limit the scope of detention safety and well-being assessments to “primary places of detention”, such as prisons. If the scope is as limited as the government intends, residential secure facilities for children in out-of-home-care, “police lock-up” where people are held for less than 24 hours (for example police vehicles and court cells) may be excluded. This would disproportionately impact on Aboriginal communities. — The Conversation

07/05/2021.
Overcrowding, COVID restrictions to blame for unrest at Hobart’s Risdon prison, critics say
As the dust settles following the latest incident at Tasmania’s Risdon prison, critics say Wednesday night’s unrest was the unsurprising result of overcrowding and coronavirus restrictions at a facility under constant strain. Prisoner numbers have surged in the past decade, growing 30 per cent in the five years to 2018, leading to skyrocketing numbers of inmate lockdowns. Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows Tasmania’s prison population has been hovering in the mid-600s since at least 2018, with a population of 644 recorded for the December quarter of 2020. — ABC news

11/03/2021.
Nathan Reynolds died after asthma attack in prison due to ‘delayed’ response of staff, inquest finds
An Aboriginal man died on his cell floor because there was a “confused, unreasonably delayed, and uncoordinated” medical response by prison staff, a coronial inquest has found. — ABC News

18/01/2021.
Calls for prison reform after death of transgender woman
The death of a transgender woman allegedly raped at a Tasmanian prison in 2018 has sparked a petition calling for better protection of trans inmates. - Qnews

31/12/2021
‘Barbarism writ large’: Protesters demand closure of NT’s Don Dale youth prison
Protesters have gathered outside the Northern Territory’s infamous Don Dale youth prison to demand an end to the detention of indigenous children. Dozens of Aboriginal children will see in the new year behind bars, four years after the NT government agreed to close it. Inmate numbers have climbed to 44 in recent months after the NT government toughened youth bail laws earlier in the year. “This has now been going on for seven years, four years after a royal commission recommended closing it down,” Darwin lawyer John B Lawrence SC told AAP on Friday. “These children are staying in cells previously occupied by rapists, killers and paedophiles”. About 20 protesters gathered late on Friday near the entrance of the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Berrimah at the site of the condemned Darwin Correctional Centre. — The New Daily

27/04/2021.
Another two Aboriginal deaths in custody
Seven Aboriginal people have died in custody across Australia in the last two months, following another two deaths confirmed in NSW and Victoria. NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge said the deaths were a national crisis and reinforced the urgent need for the 339 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody to be implemented. “Every First Nations death in custody is an inevitable result of the racist criminal justice system that results in First Nations people in NSW being the most incarcerated people in the world” he said in a statement. More than 470 Indigenous people have died in detention since a 1991 royal commission report into Aboriginal deaths in custody. — Canberra times

23/04/2021.
Women in Kimberley prison face discrimination and miss crucial rehabilitation, major report finds
A former inmate at a major prison in WA’s far north has backed the prison watchdog’s damning assessment of discrimination against female inmates. In a report released last week, Inspector of Custodial Services Eamon Ryan found there were no therapeutic programs, limited opportunities for work and education, and a significant gap in resources available for women. — ABC news

21/04/2021.
Alexander Maconochie Centre’s awkward legal breach
Faced with no feasible way to separate remand prisoners from convicted prisoners inside Canberra’s jail, an advisory committee has recommended the ACT government amend the pre-jail legislation which requires it. the director-general of the Justice and Community Safety directorate is required to “ensure that convicted detainees are accommodated separately from non-convicted detainees”. However, the massive upswell in prisoner numbers in recent years, which has put the Alexander Macononchie Centre at or near maximum capacity on a regular basis, has forced a regular reshuffle of inmates within the prison. — Canberra times

04/04/2021.
Fifth indigenous prisoner dies in police custody in a single month in Australia
An Indigenous inmate at Perth’s maximum security Casuarina Prison has died in hospital, adding to a recent spate of Aboriginal deaths in police custody, the fifth across Australia in a month. The recent wave of fatalities prompted Indigenous senator Pat Dodson to warn another royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody could be needed unless there are major efforts to address the national scourge. — Daily mail

11/03/2021.
Three deaths in ‘deeply racist’ system Victorian Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe has called the justice system “deeply racist”, following the deaths of three Aboriginal people in custody over the past week. — The Canberra Times

21/01/2021.
Indigenous prison population continues to increase, while non-Indigenous incarceration rate falls
Productivity Commission report highlights increasing gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous imprisonment rates. - The Guardian

07/07/2021.
Prison disciplinary hearings held ‘in the dark’ with little transparency In a report released on Wednesday morning, Ombudsman Deborah Glass said prisoners were denied basic procedural fairness because there was no formal requirement for written reasons for decisions and no internal review processes in place. Prisoners with cognitive impairments and mental illness, Ms Glass’ report found, had limited access to information and support when facing disciplinary charges. Prison disciplinary hearings are run by prison officers and while states such as Queensland provide a statutory right to review, in Victoria if a prisoner wants to challenge a decision, their only option is to apply to the Supreme Court. Despite previous investigations being conducted into the process, Ms Glass said her office decided to look into the issue again because she was still receiving about 60 complaints a year. The government announced an independent review into Victoria’s prison culture after the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission said last month it had “uncovered serious systemic corruption issues” facing the corrections sector. — Brisbane times

22/06/2021.
Watchdog finds misconduct, corruption among Corrections Victoria staff on the rise
Victoria’s prison system is at risk of ongoing corruption and misconduct, with evidence showing some prison guards have formed romantic relationships with prisoners, used excessive force against them and smuggled contraband, the state’s anti-corruption watchdog has found. Among other misconduct, officers have been found to have tampered with body-camera evidence. The government this week announced an independent review into the culture of Victoria’s prison system. — ABC news

13/12/2021
Indigenous inmate in hospital after prison accused of not providing adequate care
An Indigenous prisoner in NSW has been taken to hospital after concerns were raised that the prison was not adequately managing his care for an infection in his hip. The 37-year-old’s lawyer, Lisa De Luca, said the man had been sent to hospital after pressure from her and other advocates for authorities to treat his illness as serious. De Luca said the man, an inmate at Junee correctional centre, 450km west of Sydney, was in a lot of pain, could not walk and had only been offered paracetamol for the infection, she said. “He’s in a bad way, he rang me yesterday,” De Luca said. “(The prison) are saying he saw a doctor. The GP said ‘yes you have an infection it’s in your hip replacement’. The client was in distress.” The lawyer contacted the prison multiple times, which she alleges played down the seriousness of the infection. — The Guardian

25/02/2021.
Victorian coroner calls for overhaul of prison drug support, as advocates describe system as ‘broken’
Victoria needs to overhaul the way it supports drug users who leave the state’s prison system, a coroner has said, following the heroin overdose death of a man four days after he left custody. — ABC News

11/03/2021.
Nathan Reynolds died after asthma attack in prison due to ‘delayed’ response of staff, inquest finds
An Aboriginal man died on his cell floor because there was a “confused, unreasonably delayed, and uncoordinated” medical response by prison staff, a coronial inquest has found. — ABC News