Around the Country – May 2026
Including funding for more prisons in the NT, families protesting outside Risdon prison in TAS, a man being returned to prison in NSW after being mistakenly released and more.
Each edition contains news articles and investigative pieces. These are topical stories that are usually about prisons and criminal justice.
We also summarise the latest criminal justice news around the country.

Including funding for more prisons in the NT, families protesting outside Risdon prison in TAS, a man being returned to prison in NSW after being mistakenly released and more.
In April 2025, The Alternative First Responder campaign officially launched in Australia, calling for alternative first responses to police that centre care and dignity.
A judge in Victoria has ruled that a lack of stable housing in the community shouldn’t be used as a reason to deny someone bail, particularly when it involves a First Nations person.
The state government introduced legislation to Parliament last week that allows for people in prison’s legal right of one hour in the open air every day to be limited due to a range of reasons.
Staff at a Canberra prison pepper sprayed a First Nations inmate who was self-harming and then handcuffed and strip searched her, an investigation has found.
New informal voting data reveals there is still a long way to go to ensure the prison population is provided with proper information and education.
Nearly one in three people incarcerated in Queensland are eligible for parole but yet to be released, a new report has found.
A support service transporting First Nations people from prison to treatment facilities will shut down after it ran out of funding.
The Sentencing Advisory Council report tracks the prison population in Victoria from 2004 to 2024, finding that it grew by 62 per cent in this time, far more than the less than 40 per cent increase in the general population of the state.

Is the NT walking into a more criminalised and less safe future?

A certain song at the right moment can anchor someone to memories, to hope or simply to themselves.

Including the criminal age of responsibility rising to 12 in VIC, prison whistleblower protections proposed for TAS, the bar being lowered to prove prison misconduct in NSW and more.

“I went from writing every day to basically not writing at all by the end, because it was so poorly photocopied or it was delayed,” Sarah told About Time.

When your adult child does something that you don't agree with and you have no say in it – that's hard.

People in prison in Western Australia will soon have access to Australia’s national prison newspaper for the first time, with About Time launching in the state in October.

Drug Courts are specialist courts that can provide an alternative to imprisonment for those who have offended due to drug dependency.

Did you know the bluestone walls of Pentridge Prison once reverberated with the sounds of reggae, punk, pop and country?

Including overcrowding impacting service delivery in youth prisons in the ACT, prison officers going on strike in the NT, a second set of bail reforms passing in VIC and more.


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