Round-robins of 'tough on crime' legislation go from state to state, nation to nation. Here, noted Manchester QC Mark George analyses the cumulative effect of years of repressive laws in the UK, which have whittled away the traditional protections of the… more »

How well are Australia's prisons serving the community? One major Royal Commission recommendation was that the community constantly keep watch on what is happening in prisons. Here, CLA's Keith McEwan does just that, for the Victorian prison system.… more »

Editor, Canberra Times: I agree with Prof Pat McGorry that immigration detention centres are "factories for producing mental illness". But I'd go further. I'd say federal laws designed to punish refugees (for who they are) are similar to the penal laws t… more »

Being proud of Australia is a good thing on Australia Day, but embedded in nationalism always lurks the danger of an exclusionary attitude to people who are not exactly like us, says James Dunn. The best nationalist is an internationalist, who knows that… more »

Should prisons be islands of purity, or should society recognise that prisoners engage in sex? If we acknowledge the fact, then condoms should be issued for everyone's safety, as Mark contends here. A similar argument applies to providing syringes in jai… more »

Prison spending and the prison population both are going through the roof, in the USA, UK and Australia. In California, America's almost bankrupt state, Governor Arnie Schwarzenegger is biting the bullet and slashing spending on prisons to allocate more… more »

Editor, The West Australian: Sir, I respond to your report 'Overcrowding to blame for jail assaults' TWA 16 Dec 09 p18. It goes without saying that overcrowded prisons where prisoners are forced to share a cell with other prisoners will always be open t… more »

Tasmanian Police Commisioner Jack Johnston, recently cleared by the High Court of a serious charge, for 16 months suffered the ignominy of being strip searched, swabbed for DNA, the subject of possible listening devices and liable for phone-tapping. CLA… more »

You'd think, from all the posturing by Law & Order (LO) politicians through Australia, that crime was up, but it is down. But what's really up is the prison population, by 36% (or 7759) from 21,358 to 29,317 over the past 10 years. At nearly $100,000… more »

A new research paper from the Australian Institute of Criminology highlights how crime in Australia and in western nations is down over the past decade, and declining. The paper indicates how wrong and self-servingly tendentious are the caterwauling… more »

An Aboriginal boy, taken from his mother at four days, was taken from Australia at five years. Now a convicted murderer in the USA, he wants to return to Australia to complete his 25-year sentence. Keith McEwan, who has experience of Aboriginal adoption… more »

Christmas Island is full; the Red Block is over-stuffed; the Rudd Government's promises and policies over refugees are in tatters. Out of this unholy mess, Marie Gordon writes, at least we can have the decency to transfer refugee children and infants, wi… more »

In the USA, the Administration appears determined to continue charging alleged terrorists with non-existent crimes, even though President Bush has given way to President Obama. Moving Guantanamo prisoner trials to Manhattan Island, NY, won't turn charge… more »

Police in WA want metal detectors to line the streets of Perth. They also want the power to stop, scan and body search at will, without reasonable suspicion of an offence. Will it be a case of Perth WA this year, then Adelaide SA, Sydney NSW, etc next ye… more »

In South Australia, with an election close, both Labor and Liberal politicians play the 'law and order' card constantly in the media. But in doing so, the Chair of the SA Council for Civil Liberties warns, they are being both unfair and unwise, partic… more »