This comment focuses on the treatment and conditions experienced by unconvicted terror suspects in Australian prisons paying particular attention to the case of the Pendennis defendants in Victoria's Barwon Prison. Central to this comment is Victorian Supreme Court Justice Bongiorno's recent landmark ruling that identified a link between the treatment and conditions of the defendants and their ability to receive a fair trial, While highlighting the human rights implications that stem from the treatment of the accused in high-security this comment focuses on continuities between the treatment of prisoners and detainees in domestic prisons and the pre-emptive punishment, abuse and torture of unconvicted terror suspects in off-shore US run military prisons in the ‘war on terror’. It argues that the Bongiorno ruling is significant insofar as it demonstrates the vital role that civil courts and judicial oversight can play in imposing limits on the arbitrary exercise of state power within criminal justice institutions.