Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

December 31, 2018

Australia: call for air-conditioners in 'inhumane' cells after outback heatwave triggers prison riot

News

Oceania Material conditions Australia

Prisoners forced to live in cells during a scorching Red Centre heatwave should be allowed access to air-conditioning as a human right, a Territory union leader says.

December 20, 2018

Australia: why are our prisons full of domestic violence victims?

News

Oceania Violence Australia

The number of women in prison is continuing to soar, new data shows. But advocates warn we can’t arrest the increase until we start properly addressing domestic abuse, which affects an overwhelming majority of women behind bars.

December 15, 2018

Australia: Marie Triller, la prison de Fremantle

News

Oceania Australia

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

December 14, 2018

Australia: Queensland prison guards giving inmates drugs and weapons, damning report finds

News

Oceania Drugs Australia

Watchdog says systems meant to detect and deal with corruption are not working. A damning new report shows corruption is alive and well in Queensland’s prison system, with guards hooking up with inmates and supplying them with booze, drugs and even weapons.

December 12, 2018

United States: report condemns australian prison for forcing woman to give birth alone in cell

News

Oceania United States

Sometime around 6:30 p.m. on March 11, a pregnant woman locked in an Australian maximum security prison cell began crying out for help. For more than an hour she wailed in pain, pleading for someone to intervene. She was 36 weeks pregnant and the child was about four weeks too early.

November 20, 2018

New Zealand: who's in prison? [video]

News

Oceania New Zealand

The government wants to reduce the number of people in New Zealand prisons. But why?

November 5, 2018

Australia: Inside one of most productive prisons and the program turning inmates' lives around

News

Oceania Australia

Walking into the Cadell low-security prison north-east of Adelaide, visitors instantly notice the atmosphere is unlike the usual grim portrayal of life in custody. Instead, there is a great sense of hope.

October 31, 2018

New Zealand: imprisoned minorities

Interview

Oceania New Zealand

The New Zealand prison population has doubled in the last 15 years. Prison Insider published the figures in January 2017, in New Zealand’s country-profile, and cautioned that the record number of 10,000 prisoners was about to be surpassed and as predicted, this number was reached in June 2018. Tani…

October 16, 2018

Australia: Canberra prison close to capacity

News

Oceania Overcrowding Australia

Canberra prison is bursting at the seams, as a spike in male inmates stretches the jail’s population to record levels. A total of 507 prisoners were locked up at Alexander Maconochie Centre on June 19 and 25 this year, four inmates shy of capacity. The jail had an average daily population of 474 de…

September 17, 2018

Australia: plea from 35 groups for action on Indigenous Australians in prison

News

Oceania Australia

A coalition of more than 35 human rights, justice and community organisations have written to the Australian government pleading for action on the rising numbers of Indigenous people in prisons.

September 6, 2018

Australia: female prisoner dies in Brisbane prison

News

Women Oceania Australia

A 51-year-old female prisoner died at Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre in the early hours of Thursday morning.

August 7, 2018

Australia: prisoner violence at record levels, cell 'double ups' a major contributor, commissioner admits

News

Oceania Violence Australia

Violence in the Queensland prison system has reached a new high, with almost 3,000 jailhouse assaults recorded last financial year.

July 25, 2018

Western Australia prison escape prompts warnings for residents to lock doors

News

Oceania Australia

Five inmates on the run and another five captured after breakout at Greenough prison.

December 20, 2017

Australia: justice for sale! The real cost of going to jail

News

Oceania Australia

The Victorian Government has announced it will spend $345 million over three years on almost 500 new cells to deal with the state’s overcrowded jail system and increasing prison population. True Crime News Weekly correspondent Gary Johnston wonders whether throwing hundreds of millions of dollars i…

December 6, 2017

Australia: why it’s so hard to start a new life after prison

News

Oceania Australia

For many former prisoners, getting out of jail is the first step in a long and difficult journey of ‘starting afresh’.

November 17, 2017

Australie : les enfants aborigènes victimes d'abus inhumains en prison

News

Oceania Torture Australia

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

September 19, 2017

Australia: Alexander Maconochie centre moves to automated methadone dosing

News

Oceania Australia

Iris recognition is now being used to help give inmates the right dose of methadone in Canberra’s jail.

August 23, 2017

Australia: 'extraordinary overcrowding' at Alice Springs women's jail, investigation finds

News

Women Oceania Overcrowding Australia

A new investigation into living conditions at the Alice Springs Women’s Correctional Facility (ASWCF) has found overcrowding has led to “at-risk” women being transferred to the men’s prison.

June 27, 2017

Australia: magistrate cites 'brutal' jail conditions in sentencing two young men

News

Oceania Material conditions Australia

Two young Northern Territory men who went on a crime spree across three jurisdictions have been sent to jail. Ethan Austral, 18, and Rhys McLean, 23, were involved in police pursuits through South Australia and into New South Wales last December. They were passengers in a car driven by Ethan Austra…

June 23, 2017

Australia: rehabilitation programmes for prisoners serving short sentences

News

Oceania Australia

High Intensity Program Units will focus on delivering intensive services, treatment programs and release planning activities for more than 1200 inmates serving sentences six months or less.

June 21, 2017

Australia: most difficult prisoners mentoring most vulnerable in trial programme

News

Oceania Australia

Matthew Taylor is the first to admit he wasn’t a model prisoner during his time behind bars at Canberra’s Alexander Maconochie Centre. “I was getting into a lot of trouble in here, fighting with officers, fighting with other detainees, using ice a lot and I got to the point where I was going to kil…

June 16, 2017

Australia: Queensland's prison policy is 'stupid', says former chief as he calls for drugs rethink

News

Oceania Drugs Australia

Queensland has almost 8,000 prisoners – or 206 per 100,000 adult population – a rate which Hamburger said was “about a third bigger than Victoria’s, for example, and that’s just stupid”, he said. Hamburger said the rate compared badly with European countries. Sweden, for example, has a rate of 53 p…

June 13, 2017

Three charts on: Australia’s booming prison population

News

Oceania Australia

The prison population in Australia is at its highest-ever recorded level. Over the past decade, the number and rate of people imprisoned across all Australian states and territories has risen rapidly.

June 11, 2017

Australia: first ever planned prison unit built specifically to keep terrorists in isolation

News

Oceania Discipline Facilities Australia

In an effort to prevent the spread of radical Islamic ideology, Australia is to build a prison facility which will isolate militants from other inmates. The unit, named ‘Supermax II’, will be a part of Goulburn’s high-security Supermax prison and would house 54 inmates, said the Premier of New Sout…