Aboriginal Women in Australian Prisons: Prison quality and the Balance between Risk and Rights

• In Event: Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Imprisonment

Abstract

Aboriginal women in Australian prisons are grossly overrepresented, incarcerated at a rate far greater than the national average for women generally each year (see Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013). As feminist scholars have noted, much of the literature concerning incarceration is male-centric (see for example Carlen, 1983; Hannah-Moffatt, 2005; McCorkel, 2003/2005). However, prison research further tends to focus upon the Anglophone male experience of incarceration (see historical works such as Clemmer, 1940, 1958, Cohen & Taylor, 1981; Goffman, 1961; Sykes, 1958 for their primary focus). Therefore, it can be argued that in order to assess a prison’s performance, attention needs to be paid to the lived experience of incarceration for its occupants. Through the stories collated by engagement with Aboriginal women in prisons across Western Australia and the Northern Territory, an argument can be made for the furnishing of assessment instruments with culturally relevant values, drawing upon the prison quality measure as a basis (see Liebling, 2004, 2011; Liebling, Hulley & Crewe, 2012). Moreover, allowing international human rights standards to inform the instrument, it is arguable that the balance of risk and rights forwards a decolonising agenda that privileges and empowers Aboriginal female voices, in conjunction with their experiences.

Authors

• Sjharn Leeson, Griffith University

• John Rynne, Griffith University

• Catrin (Kate) Smith, Griffith University