Description

Abolitionism and the Paradox of Penal Reform in Australia: Indigenous Women, Colonial Patriarchy, and Cooptation

The authors explore abolitionism in the context of the Australian colonial project and the paradoxes and challenges presented to the abolitionist vision by the project of penal reform. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Australia witnessed the emergence of a diffuse patchwork of abolition and prisoner rights campaigns. Some campaigns, specifically in states such as New South Wales and Victoria have had a profound impact in eliciting and shaping government and correctional penal reform programs. Paradoxically, Australia also witnessed a revalorization of the prison and punitive criminal justice responses as primary solutions for dealing with social problems and structural disadvantage.

prison abolition–Australia, prisoner rights, prison and punitive criminal justice policy, indigenous women

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 41, No. 3 (2014): 168-189