Women in Prison review

In June last year, the Commission agreed to conduct a review into issues affecting women in prisons. Allegations of discrimination on the basis of sex, disability and race had been made and the Commission was asked to conduct an inquiry into these issues.

Examples of alleged discrimination in the prison system included the classification system, the number of low security beds, conditional and community release, work and other programs, and stripsearching.

Since then:

• more than 30 submissions have been received on these issues
• Commission staff have visited all women’s prisons (and most units within prisons) and community corrections centres in Queensland
• meetings have been held with groups of women who have been in prisons
• individual interviews have been conducted with interested people and those involved in prisons in a professional capacity
• research has been carried out on various issues for purposes of comparison and best practice

The Commission is now involved in the final phase of the review which involves the preparation of a report with recommendations.

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