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.
In nearly every Australian state and territory, there are thousands of people facing prison time due to unpaid fines.
Including a Corrections Minister stepping down in WA, inmates helping raise orphaned lambs in NSW, mandatory sentencing for gun theft in TAS and more.
Welcome to Coronial Corner, where we chat the coroners’ courts and what they say about preventable deaths in custody and the broader system.
In prison, time is both punishment and currency. It is counted in courtrooms, crossed off calendars and measured against the possibility of release.
On an average night, there are about 900 children in youth detention around the country.
Long wait times to access rehabilitation and wellness programs and a lack of even basic pre-release support is contributing to high recidivism rates in Queensland, the state’s Auditor-General has found.
A successful Australia-first drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in a WA prison will soon shut down due to overcrowding.
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.
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A man was unlawfully kept in a South Australian prison for months after his release date due to a “systems error”, and was not told about this for five years, an Ombudsman investigation has found.
Western Australia’s prison system is “nearing functional collapse”, with continual lockdowns, people sleeping on mattresses and a significant increase in violent incidents, an independent inspector has found.
People in prisons continue to face preventable harm due to poor healthcare.
Including major legal groups calling out ongoing prison lockdowns in TAS, a violent incident at Yatala in SA, funding for women's programs in NSW and more.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
Emily Cooper never had dental problems before she went to prison. When she was released, she was missing four teeth.
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