1. Human Rights and Respect in PrisonsImplementing Human Rights in Closed Environments Conference Dr Bronwyn Naylor Associate Professor, Law Faculty, Monash University, Victoria

2. The research question • How can Human Rights be made part of the day to day practices of people running and living in closed environments? Presentation title

3. The prison-based research Victoria and Western Australia Policy makers – interviews Prison Governors – interviews Staff – surveys Prisoners – focus groups Questions: • Identifying important rights • Current practices/ policies • Culture change and training (management) Presentation title

4. Some preliminary themes – the prisoner voice ‘We are in gaol but ...’ • Family visits • Prison conditions • Respect • Health care; staff relations; cultural understanding • Effective grievance and enforcement avenues Presentation title

5. Family visits and contact • Not being able to touch/hug • Strip searches • Indigenous prisoner being held ‘out of country’ • Visitors being treated disrespectfully in some prisons • There should be a ‘Right for your visitors to be treated humanely’ • In other prisons – good facilities for family interaction: • ‘you feel like you’re out in society’ Presentation title

6. Prison conditions • Overcrowding • Double bunking, smokers and non-smokers • Heating/ cooling; airconditioning for staff but not prisoners in hot climates • Court custody conditions • Food; medication; facilities • Ombudsman reports • Consequent difficulties in focussing on court case Presentation title

7. Respect and humane treatment • Health care • Quality of medical treatment in prisons; • Access to own medical records • Access to specialist treatment outside prisons • Treatment with respect when attending outside appointments • Impact of overcrowding – multiple impacts Presentation title

8. Staff relations • Cultural understanding – sense of discrimination amongst Indigenous prisoners. • Indigenous practice • Attendance at funerals • Eating habits • A ‘right not to be grossly humiliated in front of others’. Presentation title

9. Effective complaints enforcement avenues • Clear rights with clear avenues • Avenues that can produce results • Safe avenues – no recriminations • Prisoner rep meetings with Governor –‘it makes you feel like, well, he acknowledges that we have some rights ...’ • Prisoners involved in new staff induction – seen as leading to more respectful relations with that cohort. Presentation title

10. The meaning of ‘human rights’ • Meanings • A ‘rights’ claim with international legitimacy (prisoner) • A threat/lever to use to obtain response (prisoner) • An extra compliance requirement (staff) • A claim to unmerited entitlement (staff); • Staff rights being overridden by prisoner rights (staff); • Meaningless – ‘security always wins’ (prisoner) • Meaningless – no means of enforcement (prisoner); • Increased formal access to management but only for unchallenging requests (prisoner) Presentation title

11. Language – ‘Human Rights’ language not initially recognised by prisoners • Language - ‘Healthy Prisons’ (posters in Victorian prison) • Language – ‘choose respect’ (sign in regional WA prison) • Disconnect between ‘human rights’ and management language and the practical meaning of being treated with respect • Prisoner access to human rights information – some prisons provide; others query prisoner request for information. Presentation title

12. It’s not like outside... [there] if you brush it off, two minutes later you go on your way. [Here] you’re constantly thinking about [it] think all day every day. • ‘You need somewhere to let off steam – there is no privacy.’ • In the end - ‘I’m still human.’ Presentation title