Prisons

• Children and the justice system

  8th Sep 2022

  'Only five years after the landmark Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse exposed the shocking abuse of children and young people across this nation over decades, one is tempted to say plus ça change', writes Greg Barns SC.

• Ballads Behind Bars – music and hope in the NSW prison system

  10th Aug 2022

  ‘Gorgeous country ballads from Indigenous inmates in Broken Hill. Hardcore hip-hop from Western Sydney that would put so-called "gangster rappers" on the outside to shame. Beautiful harmonies by Islander women as they sing love songs to their children, their partners, their families. What is a song but a story? And everyone in gaol has a story to tell.’ So writes the ALA’s own Bow Campbell of his experience facilitating songwriting in correctional centres, in honour of International Prisoners' Justice Day.

• Banksia Hill conditions are an appalling breach of human rights: reform is urgent

  19th Apr 2022

  Conditions at Banksia Hill youth detention facility indicate clear breaches of children’s human rights and show that little has been learnt from the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Royal Commission, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).

• ALA welcomes closure of Ashley Youth Detention Centre

  9th Sep 2021

  The Government’s decision to close the Ashley Youth Detention Centre has been welcomed by lawyers who say that it is imperative that this opportunity for a complete overhaul of the youth justice system in Tasmania is not squandered.

• Reduce prison numbers to minimise need for prison lockdowns

  30th Aug 2021

  The use of lockdowns to control the outbreak of COVID-19 in the state’s prison system is inhumane, amounts to solitary confinement and will cause serious harm to families of prisoners, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).

• Government and courts urged to release prisoners and grant bail to minimise COVID-19 risk

  17th Aug 2021

  Government and courts are being urged to activate legislation passed in NSW last year to reduce the number of people in prison, following the impact of COVID-19 at both Bathurst Correctional Centre and Silverwater Jail in recent days.

• Prison lockdowns cannot be the solution to preventing COVID-19 outbreak

  27th Aug 2020

  As some 7000 prisoners in Queensland are placed into ‘extreme isolation’ to manage the threat of a COVID-19 outbreak, governments and courts are being urged to reduce the number of people in prison and provide for discounts on sentence time served.

• Grant bail for non-violent offences to help prevent COVID-19 prison outbreak

  30th Jul 2020

  As coronavirus cases lockdown prisons in Victoria and NSW, governments and courts are again being urged to reduce the number of people in prison.

• Lawyers call on WA Government to proclaim unpaid fine legislation urgently

  24th Jun 2020

  The passing of legislation which will prevent fine defaulters in WA from going to prison was long overdue, and the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) calls on the government to proclaim the legislation as a matter of urgency.

• Death sentence for poverty? Why the over-representation of First Nations women prisoners matters during the pandemic

  27th May 2020

  ALA member and a leading advocate for the protection of criminalised women's human rights, Debbie Kilroy OAM, has had her own frightening encounter with the COVID-19 virus. Debbie is desperately worried about the threat to lives if there is an outbreak of the virus in an Australian women’s prison, particularly for over-represented First Nations women, many of whom have chronic health conditions. In this article, Debbie explains the key issues and provides a compelling list of immediate action priorities. 

• VIC emergency plans for prisoners are inhumane Bill needs careful scrutiny: ALA

  22nd Apr 2020

  Careful scrutiny of the Victorian COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) Bill 2020 is needed as the scope is broad and the powers are significant, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).  

• COVID-19: Release non-violent prisoners in WA to avoid health catastrophe in prisons

  26th Mar 2020

  The WA government must release selected prisoners to reduce the risk of a COVID-19 catastrophe in the state’s prisons, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).

• Smart justice: QLD Productivity Commission recommendations will create safer communities

  31st Jan 2020

  Implementing the recommendations made today by the Queensland Productivity Commission will keep the community safe while moving away from a failed punitive justice model, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).

• NSW prison population and the new sentencing laws – an update

  10th Oct 2019

  Mark Warren looks at the impact of the new sentencing regime in NSW, introduced in 2018, on the types of sentences being imposed in NSW. While all the data is not yet in, there appears to be a trend towards community-based sentencing, such as Intensive Correction Orders, and away from short-term prison sentences. 

• Does ‘Never to be Released’ mean ‘life’?

  1st Aug 2019

  Tom Percy QC explores six questions arising from the sentencing of Anthony Harvey, the first person in WA ordered by a judge never to be eligible for parole.

• New sentencing laws in NSW

  6th Dec 2018

  Practical information for criminal lawyers and their clients.