Denham Sadler

In an exclusive interview, the vice-chair of a United Nations torture prevention committee warns that Australia is expected to become the first OECD nation to be placed on a non-compliance list for failing to meet basic obligations.

Contributor to The Saturday Paper Denham Sadler takes us inside how a contract to look after the health of prisoners was taken away then put into some very similar hands.

Despite a report recommending the Victorian government return all custodial healthcare to the public sector, it has signed a $33 million deal to outsource men’s services to a controversial US-based private prison operator linked to the former provider.

Leases on basic household items – at up to three times retail price – prey on financially vulnerable people. A new bill aims to improve the situation, but it doesn’t stop the practice.

Refugees who are ineligible for other welfare support and in financial hardship have had their Special Benefit payments cut off, due to a technical glitch that stems from a disconnect between government departments.

In a move that highlights a critical shortage of funding, Victoria’s only legal service for First Nations communities has been forced to implement a freeze on new clients.

Despite ample warning that Australia’s jails are facing a rapidly ageing population, little action has been taken to mitigate the complications of dementia and illness.

Throughout the pandemic health experts and human rights advocates have been warning about the risk of a Covid-19 outbreak in the prison system. Now it’s happened.

Coronavirus has taken hold at Parklea Correctional Centre, with at least 140 inmates infected. Treatment is cursory and prisoners with the virus are largely prevented from contacting family members and even lawyers.

As Victoria returns to lockdown, new figures show more than 30,000 Covid-19 fines in the state remain unpaid.

Almost four years after Australia ratified the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, humans rights breaches are still being reported in prisons and detention centres.

The rollout of Covid-19 vaccines to Australian prisons has been delayed despite evidence from around the world that the virus can be a disaster for incarcerated people.

As Victoria raises its Covid-19 fines to $5000, lawyers say the agency overseeing fines continues to take a hardline approach to debt collection, ignoring the devastating effects this punitive system can have on the vulnerable.

A senate inquiry into thalidomide in March called for survivors to be better supported and compensated. Months later the government still has done nothing.

Plans to introduce spent convictions legislation in Victoria – the only state that doesn’t allow the wiping of minor convictions from a person’s record – stalled earlier this year. Now, Reason Party leader Fiona Patten has put the scheme back on the agenda.

A new campaign is calling on Victorian premier Daniel Andrews to show his progressive values by drastically reducing the number of women and children in jail.

Privacy fears surround Victoria’s new DNA laws, which would allow police to take samples from suspects before they are charged with any crime.

Victoria Police are expanding the use of body cameras despite concerns from community and legal groups about a lack of rules over their use and uncertainty about the accessibility of footage to support complaints about police conduct.

New mandatory sentencing laws for assaults against emergency workers could see frightened victims of family violence face jail time while their attackers go free.

A marching band in Melbourne comprising young refugees from Syria is helping its members adjust to their new home, while providing a connection with their community.

Clinton Pryor has walked across Australia to raise awareness of injustice for Indigenous peoples and now approaches Canberra for a planned meeting with the governor-general.

The father of a Swedish man missing in Victoria since 2004 believes his son vanished by choice. So is Max Castor still alive?

Almost a year on from the murder of a Melbourne taxi driver, police are no closer to solving the crime and his father no nearer to answers.

Ms Dhu’s family is determined not to let the coronial report into her death disappear from the spotlight without prosecutions.

Plans to use part of an aged-care facility in an outer Melbourne suburb as temporary housing for refugees have been welcomed by the local community. But that hasn’t stopped anti-immigration protesters descending.

The first Aboriginal death in custody for 16 years in NSW has highlighted the effectiveness of a Custody Notification Service, which WA has yet to implement.

Instead of expanding a successful legal service with proven success reducing Aboriginal deaths in custody, the federal government is cutting its funding.

She was fascinated by space as a child. Now Australian woman Dianne McGrath has volunteered to live out life on Mars.