Australia
Seen in the press
Read our selection of press reports about this country. This is a short description of prison conditions on a national scale. It gives an account of the preceding year’s events.
Australia: prisons don't create safer communities, so why is the country spending billions on building them?
Incarceration is a “common sense” policy, despite fuelling cycles of intergenerational poverty, trauma, social exclusion and criminalisation. Instead of governments racing to incarcerate, they could be investing in the social support systems that are needed to curb the prison crisis.Australia: NT prison crisis sees mentally disabled imprisoned people held with general population, sparking human rights concerns
The Northern Territory’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner has warned the government could be at risk of breaching an international human rights agreement on torture after closing a specialised facility for mentally ill and disabled imprisoned people.Australia: prison guards switched off water to cell of mentally ill, dying incarcerated person held at Silverwater jail
Prison guards switched off the water to the cell of a mentally ill and dying man as punishment for his strange behaviour, joked that his repeated pleas for help were “entertaining”, and then left him unobserved to die at Silverwater jail from a treatable illness that was inexplicably missed.Australia: what will it take to stop disabled people in prison falling between the cracks of services and systems?
Instead of receiving the essential services and support they need, disabled people in prison are often neglected and harmed due to a lack of political will to provide whatever is needed to support them while inside and on their release from prison.Australia: no air conditioning in cells for youths
Youth people in detention have no air conditioning in their cells at Casuarina Prison’s Unit 18. There are fresh calls for Unit 18 to be closed immediately, with authorities yet to answer questions about what else is being done to help detained people stay cool.Australia: growing human rights concerns for NT prisoners as detainee numbers continue to soar
The Northern Territory corrections system is “in a serious crisis” and there are growing human rights concerns for prisoners, advocates say, as detainee numbers soar to unprecedented levels with no long-term solution in sight.
Australia: Risdon prison grinds through 6-day lockdown struggle
Tasmania’s Risdon Prison has reportedly been in full or partial lockdown over the past six days, with prisoners allegedly having little or no access to exercise and outdoor activities.The Tasmanian Prison Service confirmed the news on Monday afternoon, adding that the lockdowns had occurred despite…Fresh claims of violence, abuse in youth detention
The troubled Banksia Hill youth detention centre is facing fresh scrutiny amid allegations a girl was sexually harassed by custodial officers. Detainees at Banksia Hill and Casuarina Prison’s Unit 18 youth facility claim they have been subjected to excessive use of force, ongoing lockdowns, forced…
Australia: prisoner advocates call for abolition of 'discriminatory' voting restrictions as inmates prepare to cast vote in state election for the first time
For the first time in Queensland’s history, thousands of inmates in correctional centres across the state will be given the right to vote in the upcoming october state election.Australia: Hepatitis C outbreak ignites debate on needle exchange in Queensland correctional centres
Pressure is mounting on the Queensland Government to implement Needle and Syringe Programs (NSPs) in the state’s correctional centres amid an outbreak of hepatitis C at a Far North Queensland prison.