News and Investigations

In several Australian jurisdictions, police watch houses have become quasi-prison cells, as punitive crackdowns on bail and other “tough on crime” measures have filled jails across the country.

Queensland prison authorities will no longer be required to consider and act in a way that is compatible with human rights when making decisions that affect people in prison, under legislation the state government has introduced to Parliament.

While corrections departments around the country report that more than 80 per cent of people in prison are working, in reality only about half actually have employment while in custody. This is because of how these departments are reporting the rate of employment and who is counted as being “eligible”.

Children are being held in an “overwhelmingly institutional” watch-house centre with little if any access to fresh air, few opportunities to call home and no privacy, according to a new report.

The High Court of Australia on Wednesday ruled that a woman incarcerated in a Queensland prison should be allowed to freeze her eggs.

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