Resisting Carceral Violence from the Inside Out

Abstract

This chapter investigates women’s transfers to the high-security units of Pentridge Prison—an archaic bluestone penal complex designated for men—during the 1980s. It charts how inside–out collaborations facilitated a powerful public campaign against this routinised practice. To explore some of the risks, possibilities and barriers associated with organising across prison walls, this chapter examines a particular instance of this form of institutionalised violence that took place in the late 1980s. Building unrest inside Fairlea Women’s Prison sparked critical events and official reactions that led to a mass transfer of women to Pentridge’s G Division in 1988. In conditions of extreme deprivation and violence in G Division, imprisoned women formed connections with activists and lawyers to challenge and speak out against the brutality and discrimination they experienced.