ABSTRACT
This chapter examines human rights standards in the prison context. It presents an overview of the international framework governing the treatment of prisoners and discusses the extent to which this has been adopted in Australia, as well as considering the relevant Australian guidelines. The chapter focuses on the Australian Capital Territory, which opened Australia's first "human rights" prison, the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC), in 2009. The authors argue that the introduction of the Human Rights Act 2004 and the Corrections Management Act 2007, together with the establishment of the AMC, are significant developments of international consequence in the recognition, if not protection, of human rights for prisoners. But the authors have no national human rights legislation and no direct way of enforcing any of the rights in those treaties.
