Prisoners as Citizens:

The Commission convened

a workshop in Sydney on 27 November 2000 on this topic. It was attended

by more than 120 participants. The workshop was addressed by two keynote

speakers: Dr William Jonas AM, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Social Justice Commissioner, and Baroness Vivien Stern from the International

Centre for Prison Studie at King's College London who travelled to Australia

as a guest of the Commission. Dr Jonas's keynote speech "Citizens Inside"

can be read by clicking here.

Edited

by David Brown (Professor of Law, University of NSW) and Meredith Wilkie

(Director, Race Discrimination Unit, HREOC)

'a landmark collection

on prisoners' citizenship rights in Australia ... disturbing reading for

citizens concerned about the decency and social justice of our democracy...'

Professor

John Braithwaite

As prison populations

continue to expand across the western world the question of the rights of

prisoners has become an increasingly pressing issue, particularly in the

light of new human rights discourses.

This important new

book gives voice to a diverse range of viewpoints arising out of this debate

in the Australian context, while the issues raised will have powerful echoes

elsewhere. The contributors to this book include the prisoners themselves,

human rights activists, academics, criminal justice policy makers and practitioners.

Overall the book presents

a powerful argument that prisoners do and should have rights in any society

that professes to be a democracy, bringing to the fore a debate that society

would often prefer to forget.

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