More than eight years since Ravenhall prison opened, recidivism rates at the prison are higher than those at public prisons.

An Ombudsman investigation has found people in Canberra’s only prison paid nearly $125,000 to make phone calls across two years when this should have been free.

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Should going to prison mean never being allowed to hug your partner or child? Is denying physical contact a just punishment, or does it harm families and human dignity? And what do human rights have to say about it?

While for the most part calls to mobiles are becoming cheaper, we clearly still have a long way to go.

Including seven children escaping youth detention in Tasmania, two men being charged over prison murder in Queensland, a coroner pushing for bans on spit hoods in prison in the Northern Territory and more.

A number of Victorian prisons may have to be renovated or rebuilt after the Supreme Court found that no “open air” was being provided to inmates in multiple units.

Currently, people in prison serving a sentence of fewer than three years in the state can vote in state and local government elections, as well as federal elections. This plan would restrict voting rights to only those serving a sentence of one year or less for state elections.

There are no nation-wide policies or guidelines for managing extreme heat in Australian prisons, or for the regular measurement of temperatures within prison buildings and cells.

Spit hoods have been found to be ineffective and potentially deadly. But they’re still used in prisons around the country.

A remote WA prison holding mostly First Nations people is “unfit for purpose”, with people sleeping on the floors and cockroach infestations.