ABSTRACT
Some Australian states and territories, particularly New South Wales (NSW), Queensland and Victoria have a strong history of prison activism, focusing on women's criminalisation and imprisonment. This chapter briefly introduces women's imprisonment in Australia. It examines the history of activism challenging women's criminalisation and imprisonment, focusing on NSW, before outlining and discussing post-Corston reform developments. Activism focusing on women's prisons in Australia has long been situated within wider feminist politics, founded in women's experiences, contributing to and shaped by feminist legal theory and praxis. Increasingly, Australia is shifting towards a mixed penal economy with more public-private prisons and privatised services. The introduction of anti-discrimination laws provided a strategy adopted by Australian activists to challenge the treatment of women in prison. In Australia, in the face of government intransigence, activists have developed and delivered their visions of women-centred initiatives informed by experience and have shared knowledge about what is meaningful and relevant to women.
