Governments urged to act on injustice. Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash.

Injustice behind bars, as women suffer from violence

Alison Barrett
Tabitha Lean and Debbie Kilroy
Thursday, December 5, 2024

Discrimination, Justice and policing, Racism, Indigenous health, Women's health, Health inequalities, Human rights, Public health, Violence

*** Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article discusses violence and details of people who have passed ***

Introduction by Croakey: A coronial inquiry into the deaths of four Indigenous women from domestic and family violence in the Northern Territory was released last week with 35 recommendations for preventing future deaths from violence.

Professor Kyllie Cripps, a palawa woman and Director of the Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, and Dr Marlene Longbottom, a Yuin woman and Associate Professor at the Indigenous Education & Research Centre at James Cook University, wrote in The Conversation that while the recommendations are evidence-based and have been submitted to the Attorney-General, there is no guarantee they will be implemented.

“The profound impact of death on families and communities is also unseen. Some communities suffer more than others. Although some may grow weary of this issue, we can’t look away,” Cripps and Longbottom wrote.

“With 12 Indigenous women having lost their lives to violence nationally between June and early November 2024, the pressing question remains: where is the national outrage? Moreover, where is the action?”

Below, Tabitha Lean and Debbie Kilroy, two of the founding members of the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, put the spotlight on the human rights violations experienced by women in Australian prisons, with a particular focus on 36 women who were transferred without notice from Mparntwe (Alice Springs) to Darwin Correctional Centre in October.

During the 16 Days of Action Against Violence Against Women and beyond, they call on “feminists everywhere to join us in demanding justice for these women and amplify the voices of those who have been silenced by incarceration”.

The National Network was established in 2020 to represent people who have been in prisons and to advocate for abolition of the prison industrial complex.

Tabitha Lean and Debbie Kilroy write:

Last week, while the world marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the 16 Days of Action to end gender-based violence commenced, a brutal reality remained hidden from public view – the violence inflicted on women and girls in Australian prisons and detention centres.

The colonial carceral violence that happens behind the razor wire is systemic, state-sanctioned, and a stain on this country’s commitment to upholding everybody’s human rights.

In the midst of soaring prison numbers in the Northern Territory Corrections system, which are reaching crisis point, 36 women were forcibly transferred from Mparntwe (Alice Springs) to Darwin Correctional Centre with no notice on 31 October.

Since that time, the women continue to be imprisoned under appalling and unsafe conditions, enduring severe overcrowding, isolation from support networks, and harsh living conditions. Many women are forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor in sweltering heat, often with broken air conditioners or no shade to escape the relentless sun where they are forced to congregate in the outside areas.

In Mparntwe, the situation is similarly dire. Due to chronic understaffing, bail hearings are suspended by 2:30pm, and people – many of whom have not been convicted – are trapped in watch houses, subjected to degrading conditions where lights remain on 24/7, basic human dignity is stripped away, and access to education, exercise, and visits is non-existent.

When confronted with these violations, Northern Territory Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley unapologetically remarked, “I’m not going to make any apologies for the fact that these prisoners are on mattresses on the floor.”

This callous response underscores the indifference of a system that prioritises punishment over human dignity.

This is not just poor governance by the Northern Territory government – this is a human rights crisis. The conditions these women endure are violations of international obligations under both the Bangkok Rules and Nelson Mandela Rules, which mandate humane treatment of prisoners. The systemic issues exposed in Darwin Correctional Centre and Mparntwe reveal a broader failure of Australia’s justice system to meet even the most basic standards of decency.

In response to these breaches of conventions, The National Network has referred these matters to the United Nations and called for urgent action.

Letters have been sent to Australia’s representative on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.

Each highlights the systemic violence faced by women in detention and demands accountability for these violations.

National failure

Specifically, our complaints highlight Australia’s failure to:

Meet obligations to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

The breaches reported to CEDAW highlight Australia’s failure to uphold its obligations under the Convention and related international standards, particularly concerning the treatment of incarcerated women at Darwin Correctional Centre (DCC).

Key issues include overcrowding, unsafe and inhumane conditions, extreme heat without functioning air conditioning, and inadequate bedding, compounded by the transfer of Aboriginal women 1,500km from their families and Country. These conditions violate the Bangkok Rules, Nelson Mandela Rules, and CEDAW Articles 2, 12, 14, 15, and 16, failing to ensure gender-sensitive management, culturally appropriate care, and the preservation of familial and cultural connections.

The systemic discrimination and neglect disproportionately harms Aboriginal women, reflecting broader injustices in Australia’s correctional practices.

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment details systemic human rights violations in Australia’s Northern Territory, focusing on arbitrary detention, inhumane prison conditions, extended remand periods without conviction, and the disproportionate targeting of Aboriginal people.

It highlights severe overcrowding, denial of natural light and family contact, and procedural delays leading to indefinite detention, contravening the Nelson Mandela and Bangkok Rules, as well as international treaties like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The submission emphasises the racialised impact of these practices on Aboriginal people and urges the Committee to hold the Australian Government accountable, conduct investigations, and issue urgent recommendations to address these breaches.

Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

Our submission to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention raised urgent concerns about arbitrary detention practices in Alice Springs, which we believe breach international human rights standards, particularly the Nelson Mandela Rules and the Bangkok Rules.

These practices include the arbitrary adjournment of bail hearings, often leaving people imprisoned indefinitely without the chance to contest their imprisonment, which violates the right to timely judicial oversight and legal representation.

Additionally, overcrowded and inhumane detention conditions – such as permanent lighting, lack of natural light, inadequate ventilation, no access to exercise or visits, and insufficient provisions for the specific needs of women, particularly Aboriginal women – further exacerbate the violations.

These conditions undermine both the dignity and health of prisoners, especially those on remand, who are presumed innocent yet are treated as convicted prisoners, compounding the injustice.

The letter calls for the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to prioritise a visit to Alice Springs during its 2025 mission to address these violations.

Demand human rights

For many, prisons remain out of sight and out of mind. But behind the walls are women – mothers, sisters, daughters – who face daily indignities and abuses that perpetuate cycles of violence.

It is deeply hypocritical to advocate for the elimination of violence against women while ignoring the systemic brutality inflicted on criminalised women and girls.

State-sanctioned violence against imprisoned women is not separate from the broader struggle against gender-based violence – it is intrinsic to it. We cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering of those who are criminalised and incarcerated, many of whom are survivors of violence themselves.

During these 16 Days of Action Against Violence Against Women, let us not forget the women behind bars. Let us demand their safety, dignity, and legal rights.

While we were compelled to take our fight to the United Nations because of the glaring silence around the violence experienced by women in prison, particularly those in the Northern Territory, we urge you to join us in taking action.

While many outside the NT focus on important issues, too often they overlook the women trapped in inhumane conditions behind bars – women subjected to overcrowding, indefinite detention, and systemic neglect.

These are acts of state-sanctioned violence that demand the same feminist outrage and action as other forms of gender-based violence.

We call on feminists everywhere to join us in demanding justice for these women and amplify the voices of those who have been silenced by incarceration. Justice for all women means standing with those society has abandoned.

The time for action is now.

If you fail to act, you will be complicit in a system that perpetuates violence against the very women you claim to protect.

At the time of publication, the authors had not received a response from the UN committees.

About the authors

Tabitha Lean is an activist, poet and storyteller. An abolition activist determined to disrupt the colonial project and abolish the prison industrial complex, she’s filled with rage, channelling every bit of that anger towards challenging the colonial carceral state. Having spent almost two years in Adelaide Women’s Prison, 18 months on Home Detention and three years on parole, Tabitha uses her lived prison experience to argue that the criminal punishment system is a brutal and too often deadly colonial frontier for her people. She believes that until we abolish the system and redefine community, health, safety and justice; her people will not be safe.

Debbie Kilroy OAM was first criminalised at the age of 13 and spent over two decades in and out of women’s and children’s prisons. Driven to end the criminalisation and imprisonment of girls and women, Debbie established Sisters Inside, as well as her law firm, Kilroy & Callaghan Lawyers. An unapologetic abolitionist, Debbie’s activism work centres on dismantling the Prison Industrial Complex and all forms of carceral control and exile. With a firm belief that there should be ‘nothing about us without us’, Debbie established the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls to centre the voices, experiences and aspirations of criminalisation and imprisonment women and girls in order to change the face of justice in this country.