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RESISTING
Carceral Violence
WOM EN’S IMPRISON M E NT AND THE
POLITI CS OF ABOLITION

BRE E C ARLTON AN D EM M A K . R U SS ELL

Resisting Carceral Violence
 Bree Carlton · Emma K. Russell

Resisting Carceral
Violence
Women’s Imprisonment and the
Politics of Abolition
Bree Carlton Emma K. Russell
Criminology, School of Humanities Crime, Justice and Legal Studies, School
and Social Sciences of Humanities and Social Sciences
Deakin University La Trobe University
Melbourne, Australia Melbourne, Australia

ISBN 978-3-030-01694-4 ISBN 978-3-030-01695-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01695-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018957689

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 Acknowledgements

This book was written on the lands of the Wurundjeri, Bunurong and
Wathaurong peoples of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to their
elders past, present and emerging. We also extend our recognition and
support for First Nations peoples across the continent, who have been
resisting the violence of policing and imprisonment since 1788.
This book is the product of a collective and joint endeavour. The
authors are listed in alphabetical order to reflect the momentous efforts
that both invested in the planning, research, fieldwork and writing
for this work. Collaboratively, we conducted interviews and managed
the herculean and painstaking tasks of chasing, excavating and cod-
ing activist and official archives that took place between 2013 and
2017. Chapters 2, 3 and the Conclusion were primarily written by
Bree; Chapters 4, 5 and 7 were largely written by Emma; while the
Introduction and Chapter 6 were a shared effort.
There are so many people we wish to thank for believing in and
supporting this work. This project would not have been possible
without them. First, we thank all the interviewees who gave up their
time, some on multiple occasions, for this project: Carmel Benjamin,
Chris Burnup, Billi Clarke, Maud Clark, Sandy Cook, Annie Delaney,

v
vi   Acknowledgements

‘Fairlea nurse’, Amanda George, Catherine Gow, John Griffin, Linda

Hancock, Kahren Harper, Cath Keaney, Margi Lardi, Trish Luker, Jude
McCulloch and Sue Wynne-Hughes.
Extra special thanks to Amanda George who allowed Emma to
raid her garage filled with archival materials and Catherine Gow for
her generosity in trusting Bree enough to borrow the precious Save
Fairlea Women’s Prison vigil diaries and photographs. We also thank
Maud Clark, Kahren Harper and Margi Lardi at Somebody’s Daughter
Theatre for their assistance with archival materials. Special thanks also
go to ‘Fairlea nurse’, Billi Clarke and Trish Luker for allowing us to
access to their personal archives and photos.
Thank you to Flat Out for providing us with assistance and access
to agency archives and for all kinds of comradeship and support, espe-
cially Jake Argyll, Phoebe Barton, Kay Dyson, Amanda George, Crystal
McKinnon, Annie Nash, Michele Old, Jill Prior and Elizabeth Shield.
Thanks also to 3CR Community Radio, Juliet Fox and Meredith Butler
for assistance with audio archives and general support for this project.
We thank Sisters Inside and Debbie Kilroy for giving us a platform to
share our research at the wonderful Sisters Inside biannual conference.
We also thank the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, and particu-
larly Rebecca Roberts and Will McGowan, for their promotion and
support of this project in its early stages.
We extend deep thanks to Malcolm Feiner from the Department of
Justice Resource Centre for supporting our research and for his generos-
ity and assistance with accessing official archival materials. Malcolm has
been incredible, in particular through his willingness to share his exten-
sive knowledge and in providing quick responses to our email requests
for information and queries during the final stages of writing this book.
Thanks to the Coroner’s Court of Victoria and Jeremy Dwyer who pro-
vided us with advice on ethics and access to files.
This book would not have been possible without the tremendous efforts
and enduring patience of our copy editor and indexer Julia Farrell. We
also thank Charandev Singh for his insights and support, and for read-
ing a draft of Chapter 7. Thanks to Emma Ryan for reading Chapters 2
and 3. Interview transcription and coding was undertaken by Emma
and research assistants Jessica Burr and Felicity Hernandez Gonzalez.
 Acknowledgements   vii

We are thankful for internal seed funding secured through the School of
Social Sciences and the Arts Faculty at Monash University and the School
of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University.
We thank Deborah Drake and Reece Walters for their enthusiasm for
this project and encouragement to develop the research into a book pro-
posal. Many peers and colleagues have provided much-needed advice
and encouragement along the way and we list here in alphabetical order
those who have contributed in small and big ways to this book becom-
ing a reality: Eileen Baldry, Gillian Balfour, Harry Blagg, David Brown,
Kristin Bumiller, Nicholas Carrier, Victoria Canning, Vickie Cooper,
Julie Evans, Karen Fletcher, David Garrioch, Fairleigh Gilmour, Cara
Gledhill, Kelly Hannah-Moffat, Deena Hayden, S. Lamble, Terry
Macdonald, Iain McIntyre, Rupert Mann, Joane Martel, Erica Meiners,
Dawn Moore, Debra Parkes, Kim Pate, Justin Piché, Shoshana Pollack,
Scott Poynting, Victoria Sentas, Phil Scraton, David Scott, Joe Sim,
Elizabeth Stanley, Julie Stubbs, Emily Thuma, Steve Tombs, Sarah
Turnbull and Dave Whyte.
Bree thanks Emma for her fierce political commitment and relentless
sense of focus, energy, enthusiasm, generosity and acceptance. Emma’s
passionate drive and focus have enabled this project to flourish and
take shape even in times of adversity and Bree thanks her for keeping
her and the project going. Bree thanks the Monash Criminology team
and in particular Jude McCulloch, Jarrett Blaustein and Asher Flynn
for their encouragement and support. She also thanks David Garrioch
for his mentorship and valued guidance. Bree extends special thanks to
her children Isaac and Oskar for their good humour, love and ongoing
understanding. She also thanks her parents and extended family Chae
Paterson, Geoffrey Prince, Ray Carlton, Sharon Carlton and John
Connolly who have offered unconditional material and emotional sup-
port. Bree thanks the many friends who have kept her going through
the process of writing this book, in particular Jo Buckley and Alisoun
Neville. She also thanks her growing running community who continue
to provide sources of strength, inspiration, sanity and support.
Emma thanks Bree for the ambitious vision, creativity and persever-
ance that brought this project to fruition over many years. She is also
grateful to Bree for the long-term mentorship, all of the opportunities
viii   Acknowledgements

that have arisen out of our collaborations, and the many lively and
challenging discussions shared during the course of this book. Emma
would also like to thank the Deakin Criminology team, especially
Peter Chambers, Emma Ryan and Danielle Tyson; the Deakin SHSS
Writing Group convened by Andrew Singleton; and Susanne Davies
and colleagues at the La Trobe Department of Social Inquiry for giv-
ing her a new home for the last leg of this book. Emma continues to
learn so much from everyone involved in Flat Out, the Abolitionist
and Transformative Justice Centre, 3CR Community Radio and the
Transformative Justice Network in Melbourne. She extends gratitude to
the many friends who have been here throughout the journey, especially
Alex, Cara, Felicity, Liz, Lorena, Tess, Terri-Ann and Velika. Emma’s
family is also a constant provider of love and support—thank you
Cheryl, Paul, Amy and Patrick Russell. Massive thanks go to Bec Smith
for all the emotional and material labour that enabled her to continue
this project, especially the parenting work (the hardest of all); Lionel
Jade brings much joy and love.
This book is dedicated to the many fierce women who continue to
resist the day-to-day violence of criminalisation and incarceration. Some
have survived and others have died—whether inside prison or upon
release—as a result of their imprisonment. This book is intended as a
modest contribution to honour these painful sacrifices. We hope this
work inspires continued inside–out organising to dismantle the webs of
carceral control, and to imagine decarceral futures.
 Contents

Part I Carceral Violence and Official Responses

1 Introduction 3

2 Resisting Carceral Violence from the Inside Out 29

3 Official Responses to Carceral Violence and the Limits

of Reform 69

Part II Anti-carceral Geographies of Resistance

4 Women Against Prison: Anti-carceral Feminist

Critiques of the Prison 103

5 The Fairlea Wring Outs: Confronting the Prison Wall 133

6 The ‘Save Fairlea’ Vigil: Abolitionist Imaginings

and Unexpected Outcomes 169

ix
x   Contents

Part III Consolidation and Expansion

7 The Privatisation Era 201

8 Conclusion 231

Index 257
 Acronyms

AFC  Agenda for Change

AIC Australian Institute of Criminology
ASIO Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation
CASA Centre Against Sexual Assault
CAWI Coalition Against Women’s Imprisonment
CBO Community-based order
CCA Corrections Corporation of Australia
CHRIP Centre for the Human Rights of Imprisoned People
CLC Community legal centre
CWA Country Women’s Association
DOP Director of Prisons
DPFC Dame Phyllis Frost Centre
EOCV Equal Opportunity Commission of Victoria
FOI Freedom of Information
FRG Fairlea Research Group
IDU Identified Drug User
MRP Metropolitan Reception Prison
MWCC Metropolitan Women’s Correctional Centre
OOC Office of Corrections
PJA People’s Justice Alliance
SFWPC Save Fairlea Women’s Prison Coalition

xi
xii   Acronyms

UK United Kingdom
US United States
VCAT Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal
WLRG Women’s Legal Resource Group
 Timeline of Key Events in Women’s
Imprisonment in Victoria

9 March 1956 50 women prisoners are transferred from Pentridge

Prison to the new Fairlea Women’s Prison
22 June 1956 Fairlea Women’s Prison officially opens
1977 ‘Women and Law Conference’ is organised by four
women law students at Monash (participants sub-
sequently form the Fairlea Research Group (FRG))
1978 Fairlea is declared a fire hazard by Metropolitan
Fire Brigade
1979 Two classrooms erected in Fairlea Prison and two
fulltime teachers employed
1980 A fire in Wing 1 of Fairlea destroys a bathroom
and toilet facilities. On the following night two
fires, in Wings 2A and 2B, are deliberately lit.
Five prisoners are charged. Fairlea women
prisoners initiate rooftop ‘riot’
1981 FRG makes a submission to the Equal Opportunity
Board arguing that women in prison are
discriminated against Yarrabrae, an 18-cell block
for difficult-to-manage prisoners, is opened. It later
becomes the reception centre for Fairlea
xiii
xiv   Timeline of Key Events in Women’s Imprisonment in Victoria

6 February 1982 Four women escape from Fairlea (two are

recaptured)
A deliberately lit fire results in the deaths of
three women, Danielle Wright, Clelia Vigano
and Mary Catilo, who die of asphyxiation in the
remand centre at Fairlea. Six women are
immediately transferred to Jika Jika
By April, all maximum- and medium-security
women prisoners (incl. the six in Jika) are
transferred to B Annexe and B Division of
Pentridge Prison
February 1982 Women’s Legal Resource Group (WLRG) forms
July 1982 FRG publishes Prisoner and Female: The Double
Negative (Hancock ed.), launched by Pauline
Toner (then Corrections Minister)
On 8 July, Coroner Mason commences the
Inquest into the Deaths of Wright, Vigano and
Catilo in the Fairlea fire
1982 The Fairlea Drama Group (later Somebody’s
Daughter Theatre Company (SDTC)) is established
1983 Office of Corrections (OOC) releases Corrections
Master Plan, recommending that there be no
separate prison for women
The Women’s Council on Homelessness and
Addiction (WCHA) is established (formerly the
Drug Club formed in 1982)
The daily average number of women prisoners in
Victoria is 69
1985 Women Against Prison (WAP) forms with
members from WCHA and WLRG, establishes
contact with the FRG
4 July 1986 The Attorney-General officially re-opens Fairlea,
with post-fire redevelopment completed, now
with ‘cottage-style’ accommodation. Some women
are returned from B Annexe in Pentridge Prison.
Fairlea’s capacity is now 86
 Timeline of Key Events in Women’s Imprisonment in Victoria   xv

The daily average number of women in prison is

now 97
29 October 1987 Men imprisoned inside Pentridge’s K Division
(Jika) light a protest fire and five prisoners die:
James Loughnan, David McGauley, Arthur Bernard
Gallagher, Robert Wright and Richard Morris
1987 The daily average number of women in prison
exceeds 100 for the first time in 30 years
January 1988 Tarrengower minimum-security prison for
women opens in the rural town of Maldon,
Victoria (capacity 24)
12 January 1988 Seven women hunger strike inside Fairlea, one
woman lasting 17 days. They issue demands but
are largely ignored by the media and OOC
30 January 1988 A fire and riot occur at Fairlea driven by
overcrowding, women prisoners climb up onto
the roof. Riot quashed by Pentridge riot squad
and women on the roof were beaten, and nine are
taken to hospital with injuries
June 1988 Launch of Fitzroy Legal Service ‘Women and
Imprisonment in Victoria’ report
Women prisoners are transferred to K Division,
now referred to by the OOC as a ‘lifestyles unit
drug program’
26 June 1988 The first ‘Wring Out Fairlea’ protest is organised
by the Coalition Against Women’s Imprisonment
13 July 1988 WAP advised by Community Services Victoria
of $100,000 grant awarded to set up flats for
women getting out of jail—this would soon be
used to establish Flat Out
10 August 1988 15 women inside Fairlea attend a meeting
organised by WAP to discuss the operation of a
new housing organisation (Flat Out) to support
them upon release
August 1988 John Griffin is appointed Director of Prisons
xvi   Timeline of Key Events in Women’s Imprisonment in Victoria

11 November 1988 In Fairlea 40 or 50 women hold a peaceful sit-in

on the prison oval and refuse to return to their
cells at evening muster over the treatment of
Aboriginal imprisoned woman, Vicky Solomon.
A number of small fires are lit and some
prisoners climb onto a roof in protest. The
incident is resolved without violence after about
6 hours
12 November 1988 The prison dog squad conducts a forceful raid in
Fairlea and 18 women are taken to Pentridge’s G
division, a section of the male psychiatric unit
7 October 1988 Flat Out Inc. is established by WAP
9 April 1989 Death in custody of Karen Watson in G Division,
Pentridge, the night before she is due for release
1990 Women are transferred to the Banksia Unit in the
new Barwon (men’s) Prison in Lara
The OOC sets up a Women Prisoners and
Offenders Advisory Committee to develop policy
guidelines for women in prison and on
community-based orders
25 March 1990 The second ‘Wring Out Fairlea’ action takes place
30 April 1990 Inquest investigation before Coroner L. J. Hill
commences into Karen Watson’s death
1991 OOC launches the Agenda for Change policy
framework
April 1991 The Equal Opportunity Commission refers
allegations of discriminatory treatment and
conditions experienced by women in Barwon
men’s prison for formal investigation
May 1992 The Women and Imprisonment Group organ-
ises the conference ‘Changing Agenda: Women’s
Imprisonment and Law and Order’. For the first
time, women and children who had been inside
give papers, talks and workshops
Women sent to Banksia Unit of Barwon Prison
make representations to the Equal Opportunity
 Timeline of Key Events in Women’s Imprisonment in Victoria   xvii

Commissioner alleging discrimination in education,

children’s visits, recreation and health care
February 1992 Commissioner Rayner reports prima facie finding
of discrimination against women in Barwon. She
enters into a conciliation process with the OOC
March 1992 SDTC performs its first public performance
outside, ‘Tell her that I love her’, at the
Malthouse Theatre
Flat Out, in conjunction with other concerned
community members, organises a memorial
service at the Melbourne Town Hall for women
who have died in prison or shortly after their
release from prison. SDTC performs as part of this
service
April 1993 Save Fairlea Women’s Prison Coalition (SFWPC)
forms to oppose the Kennett state government’s
plan to transfer all women and their children
from Fairlea to Jika Jika, high-security unit
located within Pentridge men’s prison
July 1993 The Save Fairlea campaign begins with a press
conference held by SDTC, its first non-theatre
statement
26 July 1993 The first day of the Save Fairlea Vigil. Three
women start the 6 am shift—Wendy Bennett,
Catherine Gow and Anne Roseman. The 24-hour
vigil lasts until Christmas and thousands of hours
are voluntarily committed in the campaign to
keep women out of Jika
5 September 1993 The third ‘Wring Out Fairlea’ is held—a
spontaneous action that coincides with a
community event at the Save Fairlea vigil, ‘A Day
to Remember’
26 October 1993 Moira Rayner is ‘sacked’ from her position as
Equal Opportunity Commissioner and the
position itself is axed to be replaced by a new
five-member commission
xviii   Timeline of Key Events in Women’s Imprisonment in Victoria

2 November 1993 ‘Cup Day’ festivities are held at the vigil

15 December 1993 The Kennett government announces the largest
prison privatisation programme in the world,
including a new private prison for women and
the closure of Fairlea
1994 The People’s Justice Alliance forms out of the
SFWPC
15 December 1994 Corrections Corporation of Australia (CCA), a
subsidiary of Corrections Corporation America,
is awarded the contract to construct, manage and
own the first private women’s prison in Australia
19 May 1996 The fourth and final Wring Out Fairlea
demonstration is held to protest against the
private prison and women’s imprisonment
15 August 1996 The Metropolitan Women’s Correctional Centre
(MWCC) opens and is protested with a ‘blood
money’ stunt
30 August 1996 Fairlea Prison closing ceremony
October 2000 The Victorian State Government uses emergency
powers to take over the management of the
MWCC from CCA. The Victorian Government
bought the contract out for $A20.2 million
 Interviews

Carmel Benjamin, 12 September 2016, conducted in Melbourne by Bree

Shelley Burchfield, 16 December 2016, conducted in Collingwood by
Bree
Sandy Cook, 11 May 2015, conducted in Melbourne by Bree
Billi Clarke, 13 December 2016, conducted in South Melbourne by
Emma
Annie Delaney, 19 January 2017, conducted in Melbourne by Emma
‘Fairlea Nurse’, 21 November 2016, conducted in Inverleigh by Emma
Amanda George, 6 May 2014 and 22 November 2016, conducted in
Flemington by Bree and Emma
Catherine Gow, 17 June 2014, conducted in Parkville by Bree; and 29
November 2017, conducted in Yarra Bend Park by Bree and Emma
Cath Keaney, 2 December 2017, conducted in Preston by Emma
Margi Lardi, 6 September 2016, conducted in South Melbourne by
Bree
Trish Luker, 20 January 2017, conducted via Skype by Emma
Jude McCulloch, 12 August 2016, conducted in Melbourne by Bree
John Griffin, 30 April 2015, conducted in Melbourne by Bree
Sue Wynne-Hughes, 22 November 2016, conducted in Red Hill by Bree

xix
xx   Interviews

Focus Groups
Chris Burnup, Sandy Cook and Linda Hancock, 11 December 2013,
conducted in Kew by Bree and Emma
Maud Clark and Kahren Harper, 5 September 2016, conducted in
South Melbourne by Bree
 Part I
Carceral Violence and Official Responses
 1
Introduction

On the evening of 6 February 1982 a fire was lit by women prisoners in

the remand section of the HM Fairlea Women’s Prison, Victoria’s main
prison for women located in the Melbourne suburb of Fairfield. The
fire caused the deaths of three women who were being held on remand
at the time, Clelia Vigano, Mary Catilo and Danielle Wright, and
destroyed a large section of the prison. Two other imprisoned women
were hospitalised and sustained serious injuries. On the day of the fire
there were 53 women, three babies and five staff on duty within the
prison (Mason 1982, 8 June, 9). At the time, Fairlea Prison was under-
staffed and an industrial dispute was brewing (Mason 1982, 8 June,
58–59). A sense of unrest had been building among the imprisoned
women, as one woman, JM, told the Coroner: ‘There were hassles and
pressure building up in the gaol, it was blowing up’ (Mason 1982, 22
September, 399).
In the afternoon, just hours before the fire was lit, four women
escaped the prison. It was alleged that Danielle Wright assisted the
escapees to disappear through the laundry section of the prison.
However, shortly thereafter, they were apprehended and returned to the
punishment cellblocks of Fairlea Prison. Wright had a close friendship

© The Author(s) 2018 3

B. Carlton and E. K. Russell, Resisting Carceral Violence,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01695-1_1
4   B. Carlton and E. K. Russell

with one of the escapees and had wanted to be with her in the punish-
ment section of the prison. Two surviving imprisoned women (DL and
JM) who were present when the fire was lit reported that Wright had
built and lit the fire in order to be transferred to the cellblock: ‘It was
common knowledge amongst prisoners that Danielle Wright lit the fire
to get herself into trouble … she was irresponsible, hated the system,
hated the screws, she didn’t care about the consequences of her actions
… [she was] very rebellious’ (Mason 1982, 22 September, 400–401).
When asked why they had not ‘buzzed up’ to warn duty staff of the
fire, DL and JM had both reported that Wright had threatened them
with violence if they alerted staff. DL and JM also reported that Clelia
Vigano assisted Wright to light the fire in the remand section, because
Vigano believed the buildings were in poor shape and should be con-
demned. One imprisoned woman in the unit told the Coroner that
Vigano’s brother was a builder and so she was knowledgeable about
building safety standards (Mason 1982, 26 July, 354).
From 5.00 pm papers and magazines were torn up and shoved into
cupboards, and mattresses were pulled apart and stacked for fuel under
wooden benches. Duty staff alleged that they did not witness or inspect
the preparations for the fire (Mason 1982, 26 July, 299, 370–372).
The women residing in the dormitories at the time told the authori-
ties that Wright started the fire with a cigarette lighter. The dormitory
was an outdated building constructed of weatherboard and was rap-
idly engulfed in flames. Officers launched an emergency response and
the Metropolitan Fire Brigade attended. Two women were rescued
and taken to the burns unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Wright,
Vigano and Catilo (another prisoner present in the unit) were too close
to the seat of the fire to be rescued. They died from asphyxiation.
Over the four days of the inquest held in September 1982, the
Coroner heard evidence from up to 20 witnesses, including three
imprisoned women, about the immediate circumstances of the fire.
During the inquest, there were no efforts made to investigate the
lack of staffing and safety standards or the conditions experienced by
women within Fairlea. There was no attempt to investigate the impris-
oned women’s reports of unrest in the lead-up to the fire. No contextual
evidence was presented or investigated about the events preceding the
 1 Introduction    
5

escapes and the lighting of the fire. Coroner Mason instead commended
the bravery demonstrated by prison staff attending the emergency
response (Mason 1982, 22 September, 423). The Coroner’s finding was
largely based on assumptions rather than evidence about Wright and
Vigano’s intentions. While both were remand prisoners, Vigano was
reportedly about to receive bail and be released from Fairlea in a mat-
ter of days. When delivering his findings, Coroner Mason characterised
the fire as a felonious act by Wright and Vigano, which, he deemed,
resulted in the murder of Catilo (Mason 1982, 22 September, 424).1
This finding of homicide leaves no question as to why the other unsen-
tenced women present in the remand section of the gaol denied having
any involvement in the protest and were not more candid in provid-
ing information and evidence about the unrest in the gaol at the time.
To admit any involvement or speak out in the public Coroner’s Court
would have carried grave implications for their legal cases and sentenc-
ing. In the absence of any consideration of the systemic factors that
contributed to Wright’s, Catilo’s and Vigano’s deaths in custody, the
Coroner’s Court attributed the Fairlea protest fire to ‘malicious’ acts by
individual prisoners, further criminalising them when they were uncon-
victed, obfuscating the state’s duty of care and shielding the Victorian
prison system from due scrutiny.
The prison is a violent institution. It is predicated upon and sustained
by the constant threat and occurrence of coercive violence. The prison is
enlivened by disciplinary power that reproduces terror, alienation but also
resistance. Carceral violence is therefore not exceptional or abnormal; it is
routine. It is further sustained and legitimated by the surrounding culture
of institutional secrecy and punitiveness. Despite these structuring logics
of control and repression, carceral spaces are not experienced uniformly,
nor are they totalising. As this opening account suggests, carceral spaces
are also frequently sites of resistance and struggle which, in the above
instances, were waged by women from the inside–out.

1Under the 1958 Act a Coroner had the power to make these findings of homicide without the
same stringent rules of evidence and burden of proof applied in regular courts of law. In 1985,
the Act was reformed so that this finding was no longer available to Coroners.
6   B. Carlton and E. K. Russell

Generally speaking, the early 1980s was a period of intense securitisa-

tion in Victoria’s prison system. This is well documented with regard to
the construction of the Jika Jika High-Security Unit in Pentridge Prison,
one of Australia’s most hi-tech supermax units, ostensibly designed for
those men prisoners who were deemed ‘the worst of the worst’ (Carlton
2007). However, this punitive shift extended decisively to women. At
the time that Mason delivered his findings in the Victorian Coroner’s
Court, two-thirds of the women’s prison population had been moved
out of the fire-damaged Fairlea Prison and into Pentridge Prison’s B
Annexe and the Jika Jika High-Security Unit. In the latter half of the
decade, they were held also in G Division. Inside Pentridge, a prison
designated only for men since Fairlea opened in 1956, women were
subjected to archaic and squalid conditions, enforced idleness, the
over-prescription of sedating medications by prison staff for the pur-
pose of maintaining control over women, and long hours spent
in lockdown due to a lack of staffing. Prison authorities used the
Fairlea fire as a justification to punish women who expressed con-
cern about their rights or spoke out against conditions. Far from the
short-term measure it was purported to be, women were incarcerated in
high-security men’s prisons in Victoria for more than a decade: from the
time of the fire in February 1982 until 28 July 1993. While isolated in
men’s prisons, women were subjected to a secret regime of terror and
violence; and seven women died in custody in Pentridge.
While the escape and fire were tragically fatal, they signified a flash-
point of resistance whereby women sought to challenge their invisibility
and poor treatment in a system designed for men. This book approaches
the violence of incarceration from a local and historical perspective,
with our central reference point being women’s resistance to the contin-
uum of carceral violence that flows from the community to the prison.
We examine the gendered dynamics of an expansive carceral regime
through the lens of a burgeoning social movement that mobilised to
challenge it. Spanning the decades of the 1980s and 1990s, our research
explores how incarcerated women have worked productively with fem-
inist activists and community coalitions to expose, critique and resist
their conditions of confinement through a combination of reformist
strategies, legal challenges and radical direct actions. This ‘inside–out’
 1 Introduction    
7

activism generated a powerful anti-carceral movement that bolstered

and expanded feminist understandings of the workings of power and the
potential for social change. Imprisoned women were always located at
the centre of the movement which was concerned not only with using
reform as a vehicle for holding government to account and challenging
conditions, but also with engaging in myriad creative direct actions and
methods to breach and overcome the sense of social stigma, invisibility
and isolation imposed by prison walls. It is the decarcerative implica-
tions of these critiques, challenges and actions that fed the growth of
a cohesive social movement from within Fairlea Women’s Prison and
Pentridge and out into the community. In excavating these accounts, it
is our intention to unearth legacies for contemporary movements seek-
ing to challenge the continuance of carceral power and violence.

From Resistance and Reformism to Expansion

At the time of the Fairlea fire, imprisoned women were virtually invis-
ible to the public. While there was a prison designated for women,
there were neither women-specific policies nor correctional standards
to guide prison practices. In the early 1980s, there was growing con-
cern among imprisoned women and community advocates about gen-
dered discrimination in the prison system. In response, a small group
of women, some of whom volunteered or worked at the prison, formed
the Fairlea Research Group (FRG). FRG members covertly gathered
evidence from imprisoned women to document the pains of their dor-
mitory-style accommodation, punitive classification and disciplinary
procedures, and inadequate medical and health care. With this informa-
tion, they compiled a comprehensive report on the conditions at Fairlea
for submission to the Victorian Equal Opportunity Board.2 The report,

2In 1982 the Victorian Equal Opportunity Board was relatively newly established. Subsequently,
after the Equal Opportunity Act was reformed in 1984 and then again in 1987, it became the
Equal Opportunity Commission of Victoria and a Commissioner was appointed and allocated
powers to investigate discrimination claims.
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