Category Archives: Prisons

‘People before profits’: Victoria to ditch private health providers in women’s prisons

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Corrections minister Enver Erdogan to confirm transition to public services, in move welcomed by Indigenous advocates

The Victorian government will take over health care across women’s prisons across the state, in a move described as “a prioritisation of people before profits” by a respected Aboriginal leader.

The state’s corrections minister, Enver Erdogan, will on Friday confirm the contract for providing primary health services at Tarrengower Prison and the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre will transition from private firm Correct Care Australasia (CCA) to Dhelkaya (Castlemaine) Health and Western Health, respectively, on 1 July.

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Banksia Hill: autistic teenage girl ‘treated like a dog’ at detention centre, class action alleges

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Girl, first detained at 13, suffered ‘extremely traumatic’ restraining with handcuffs, leg shackles and spit hoods, court document claims

An autistic teenage girl detained at Banksia Hill Detention Centre was forced to use underwear stained with menstrual blood and sleep on a mattress covered with “excrement and saliva”, according to a legal document filed in support of a class action against the West Australian government.

The affidavit by lawyer Stewart Levitt alleges the girl was fed meals through a grille and was forced to “earn” her bedding. She felt like she was being “treated like a dog” and responded by sleeping on the concrete floor of her cell and pretending she was a dog, the document states.

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NSW government to ‘review’ proposal to make judges consider needs of children when carers seek bail

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Bipartisan recommendation that would bring Australia in line with UN standards and is backed by advocates ‘noted’, but not supported

The New South Wales government says it will “review” a bipartisan recommendation to force judges to consider whether refusing bail to a parent accused of a crime would harm their children.

A NSW parliamentary inquiry last year called for the attorney general to change the law and “mandate” judges and magistrates to consider “parenting and caregiving responsibilities” when making bail decisions.

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Advocates call for urgent action after two ‘incredibly tragic’ Aboriginal deaths in custody

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Linda Burney says rates of Indigenous incarceration and deaths in custody 30 years after royal commission are a ‘national shame’

Advocates say the “heartbreaking” deaths of two Aboriginal people in custody within days of each other in Western Australia over Christmas should jolt state and federal governments into urgent action.

A 41-year-old First Nations woman died in a Perth hospital on Christmas Eve after suffering a “medical episode” in Wandoo rehabilitation prison 13 days earlier.

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Queensland accused of ‘kneejerk’ response in announcing new penalties for young offenders

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Annastacia Palaszczuk announces ‘tougher’ youth crime penalties three days after death of Queensland woman Emma Lovell

Youth crime experts have criticised the Queensland government for announcing a suite of “tough” penalties for young offenders in response to the alleged killing of a woman in her home north of Brisbane on Boxing Day, describing it as a “kneejerk reaction” that will not reduce crime.

Annastacia Palaszczuk made the announcement on Thursday, amid media calls for action in response to the death of 41-year-old Emma Lovell.

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‘Only fit for a bulldozer’: nurse alleges children in distress and clinic ‘crumbling’ at Don Dale

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Exclusive: Some young detainees are so anxious about lockdowns they request anti-psychotic medicine, ex-employee claims

A nurse who worked at the Don Dale youth detention centre alleges it is an unsafe environment for staff and that children detained there are so distressed they ask for anti-psychotic medication.

The nurse, whodoes not want to be named, says Don Dale is “only fit for a bulldozer” and feels that not enough has changed since a royal commission into the notorious Northern Territory facility.

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Bahraini death row prisoner pleads with pope to aid his release

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Exclusive: Mohammed Ramadhan, who alleges he was tortured into confessing to deadly bombing, urges pontiff to act on visit to Gulf state

A former airport security guard who is on death row in Bahrain for a crime he alleges he was tortured into confessing to has urged Pope Francis to call for his release during the pontiff’s visit to the Gulf state.

In a letter shared exclusively with the Guardian through the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird), Mohammed Ramadhan, who has been in prison for nine years, asked the pontiff to “ask the king of Bahrain to release me and reunite me with my family and children”.

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Growing prison populations in Australia are costing $4.2bn a year despite falling crime rates, Labor says

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Government would have saved $2.6bn if incarceration rate had remained at 1985 level, assistant treasury minister Andrew Leigh says

Taxpayers are each forking out $140 more a year for prisons than would be needed if Australia maintained its 1985 rates of incarceration, according to Andrew Leigh.

The assistant treasury minister will reveal the cost of Australia’s rising incarceration rates in a speech to the Australian Institute of Criminology on Monday.

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UN accuses Australia of ‘clear breach’ of human rights obligations as it suspends tour of detention facilities

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New South Wales and Queensland have blocked access to some facilities with NSW corrections minister saying people can’t just ‘wander through at their leisure’

The United Nations has suspended its tour of Australian detention facilities and accused the country of a “clear breach” of its obligations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (Opcat).

The New South Wales government has refused inspectors entry into any facilities in the state and Queensland has blocked access to mental health wards.

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Malcolm Turnbull warns NSW and Queensland of ‘company they’re keeping’ by blocking UN prison inspectors

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Former prime minister disappointed by states’ decisions to not allow full access to UN subcommittee on prevention of torture

The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has warned the New South Wales and Queensland governments to “think carefully about the international company they are keeping” by blocking or limiting United Nations inspectors’ access to detention facilities.

Turnbull said he was disappointed by the government decisions to not allow full access to the team, who are in the country this week as part of the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture, ratified when he was in office in 2017.

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NSW’s refusal to allow UN inspectors in prisons ‘raises questions’, human rights commissioner says

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Lorraine Finlay says state government’s decision means Australia is ‘failing to live up to the promises it made to the world’

Australia’s human rights commissioner, Lorraine Finlay, has questioned why the New South Wales government was blocking officials from the United Nations inspecting its jails if it was confident about meeting minimum standards.

She said the NSW move could jeopardise promises made by Australia as part of the UN’s Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (Opcat) that was ratified by the federal government under former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2017.

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Victorian Liberal MP urges UN to investigate youth justice facilities over ‘serious breaches’ of human rights

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Matt Bach has written to UN subcommittee about the ‘systematic’ isolation of youth detainees he says contravenes international law

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Victorian Liberal MP Matt Bach has written to the United Nations subcommittee on the prevention of torture, urging them to investigate the “systematic” use of isolation in the state’s youth justice facilities during an upcoming visit.

The subcommittee is set to visit Australia from 16-27 October to inspect places of detention and examine the treatment of detainees.

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Australia’s indefinite detention of people with mental impairment breaches human rights, advocates say

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Experts argue system lacks proper monitoring and effectively ‘disappears’ people, sometimes for decades

Australia’s use of indefinite detention for people with cognitive impairments is a breach of human rights and the “outrageous” failure to implement a proper monitoring regime is rendering people with a disability invisible from public view, experts say.

More than 1,200 people with a mental impairment are being indefinitely detained in Australia despite not having been convicted of a criminal offence. Each state and territory uses a variety of orders to enforce indefinite detention, including in prisons and hospitals.

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‘Harrowing’ incidents of self-harm revealed among boys held at Perth adult prison

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Advocates call for immediate action following incidents including suicide attempts among incarcerated juveniles

There have been three suicide attempts by children transferred to an adult prison in Western Australia since mid-July, and 13 incidents of “minor self-harm”, prompting advocates to call for their immediate transfer and wider reform of the juvenile justice system.

Last month the WA government transferred 17 young people, some as young as 14, from Perth’s Banksia Hill juvenile detention centre to an adult jail at Casuarina after “escalating” disruptions from young people. The juveniles are being detained in a separate area from the adult prisoner population.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 or chat for support. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Tool to assess jailed terrorists before release criticised as unreliable and prejudicial to Muslims

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Offenders may be kept in prison after serving sentence, but wrongly made order ‘almost always amounts to arbitrary detention', rights group argues

A tool used by authorities to assess the risk posed by convicted terrorists before their release from prison is unreliable and should be investigated, the Australian Human Rights Commission and a peak body for Muslims have argued.

The Violent Extremism Risk Assessment 2 Revised, known as VERA-2R, is used to measure the threat posed by extremists, often when considering whether they will be subject to strict court orders once their prison sentence is completed.

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Fifty-one inmates die in Colombia prison riot

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Prisons agency boss says fire broke out after inmates lit mattresses during protest at jail in Tuluá

Fifty-one inmates have died during a riot in a prison in the Colombian city of Tuluá in one of the worst recent incidents of its kind in the country.

The director of the national prisons agency said a fire had started during a protest by prisoners overnight.

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NSW to give prisoners cold-case playing cards in hope of solving murders

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Packs contain 52 photos of dead and missing people in initiative backed by victims’ families

Packs of playing cards featuring cold-case murder victims and missing people will be distributed to New South Wales inmates in the hope of solving serious crimes.

The cards, which were produced by prisoners working in Corrective Services Industries, feature photographs and information about 52 unsolved homicide cases or suspicious disappearances.

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Life after prison: Victoria expands jobs program for ex-offenders in bid to reduce recidivism

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Inquiry has found unemployment a key compounding factor in people returning to jail

Domestic violence and sexual assault survivor Grace* knows first-hand the discrimination experienced by ex-prisoners while job hunting.

The 27-year-old floated between the criminal justice system and attempts to find work, having been locked up for theft and drug possession.

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Life in the ward: how do you care for Covid patients in prison?

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‘You can only build a net, it’s never a wall,’ says Dr Michael Novy, who cared for 160 inmates through a flap in a locked door

  • Read more in our series Inside Covid

From prisoners to the homeless and people living with disabilities – these are some of the at-risk communities hidden from public view during the pandemic. Now the health workers working with them share their stories.

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The 474 deaths inside: tragic toll of Indigenous deaths in custody revealed

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Guardian Australia database tallies the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who have died in police and prison custody since 1991

At least 474 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in police and prison custody since the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody handed down its final report in 1991, new research has revealed.

Guardian Australia has spent the past three years tracking Indigenous and non-Indigenous deaths in custody for the Deaths Inside project.

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