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December 18, 2024

Australia: prison guards switched off water to cell of mentally ill, dying incarcerated person held at Silverwater jail

News

Oceania Justice Health Mental health Material conditions Violence Australia

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.

August 15, 2024

Australia: children detail use of force, racism while locked up in WA prison

News

Minors Oceania Justice Material conditions Violence Australia

Children have shared their experiences locked up in Banksia Hill Detention Centre in a report that slammed the Western Australian government for “systemic failures”.

June 19, 2024

Australia: what will it take to stop disabled people in prison falling between the cracks of services and systems?

News

Oceania Justice Health Mental health Australia

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.

March 14, 2024

Australia: significant failures in youth detention system

News

Minors Oceania Violence Australia

The Child Death Review Board delivered an assessment, saying the detention system set up to address juvenile offenders’ behaviour has instead led to a “cycle of incarceration” for some.

February 8, 2024

Australia: no air conditioning in cells for youths

News

Minors Oceania Material conditions Facilities Australia

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.

January 10, 2024

Australia: growing human rights concerns for NT prisoners as detainee numbers continue to soar

News

Oceania Material conditions Overcrowding Australia

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.

October 24, 2023

Australia: prisons watchdog lashes WA government over Unit 18 death

News

Minors Oceania Health Facilities Suicide Australia

Western Australia’s prisons watchdog believes the government failed a 16-year-old detainee who died last week after self-harming in his cell at the youth Unit 18 wing of maximum-security Casuarina Prison on October 12.

October 11, 2023

Australia: prison "never addressed" mental health of woman who died in spit hood

News

Oceania Mental health Australia

The family of a woman who died in custody while restrained and in a spit hood say her mental health issues were ignored while in prison.

August 29, 2023

Australia: prisons a 'blind spot' for mothers and children, advocates warn

News

Women Oceania Health Australia

August 1, 2023

Australia: criminalising and prosecuting torture could deter practices such as solitary confinement in detention

News

Oceania Torture Australia

June 22, 2023

Australia: Risdon prison grinds through 6-day lockdown struggle

News

Oceania Discipline Social ties Australia

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…

May 30, 2023

Fresh claims of violence, abuse in youth detention

News

Minors Oceania Material conditions Torture Violence Australia

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…

April 3, 2023

Australia: South Australia home detention instead of jail saves $200m

News

Oceania Justice Australia

Sentencing offenders to home detention rather than putting them in prison has saved South Australian taxpayers more than $200 million over six years, a government-commissioned study has found.

March 16, 2023

Australia: Queensland judge to receive apology after department refused to detail confinement of boy

News

Minors Oceania Justice Australia

The boy’s case follows several others where the Queensland children’s court has raised concerns about inappropriate conditions in overcrowded and understaffed youth detention centres.

March 16, 2023

Australia: prison is no place for those trapped by mental illness

News

Oceania Mental health Australia

Prison is no place for intellectually impaired individuals, nor for those with chronically acute disordered thinking and ailments such as schizophrenia and psychoses.

May 2, 2022

Australia: seen in the press / 2022

News

Oceania Australia

Violence, acts of protest, prison conditions, justice reforms: find out what is new about prisons and justice in this country. Prison Insider monitors the press on a regular basis.

November 23, 2021

Australia: seen in the press / 2021

News

Oceania Australia

Violence, acts of protest, prison conditions, justice reforms: find out what is new about prisons and justice in this country. Prison Insider monitors the press on a regular basis.

June 29, 2021

Australia: Ageing prisoners

Analysis Opinion

Coronavirus Elderly prisoners Oceania Health Alternatives Australia

ICPR and Prison Insider asked several experts worldwide to share their insights in the framework of the project ‘Understanding and reducing the use of imprisonment in 10 countries’. Natasha Ginnivan discusses the ageing prison population in Australia.

September 23, 2020

Australia: prisoner advocates call for abolition of 'discriminatory' voting restrictions as inmates prepare to cast vote in state election for the first time

News

Coronavirus Pre-trial detention Oceania Access to legal rights Health Material conditions Overcrowding Rehabilitation Australia

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.

July 29, 2020

Australia: Hepatitis C outbreak ignites debate on needle exchange in Queensland correctional centres

News

Oceania Health Drugs Australia

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.

July 27, 2020

Australia : "Prison is no place for a child"

News

Minors Oceania Australia

Despite repeated campaigns against it, Australia still puts children as young as 10 behind bars. But pressure is growing to raise the age of criminal responsibility with a key meeting on Monday to discuss the issue.

June 4, 2020

Australia: aboriginal people in prison and out-of-home care suffering under 'punitive' Covid-19 restrictions

News

Coronavirus Minors Oceania Material conditions Social ties Australia

Report reveals inmates going without soap and children in out-of-home care system being refused contact with families

May 19, 2020

Australia: 'my son should not have died', prison death of Indigenous man is much more than an 'isolated tragedy'

News

Oceania Australia

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people account for just two per cent of Australia’s population but about 27 per cent of its prisoners.

April 9, 2020

Australia: prison radicalisation and deradicalisation

News

Oceania Australia

A number of people who have committed acts of terrorism were radicalised in prison. Examples include Richard Reid (the 2001 ‘shoe-bomber’), some individuals involved in the 2004 Madrid bombing, and the attackers who committed the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris in 2015. Studies of European and US j…