A/Prof Tania Penovic has been awarded an E.G. Whitlam Research Fellowship from the Whitlam Institute to undertake research into Australia’s experience of prison privatisation through the lens of Gough Whitlam’s social and democratic vision.
Over the past four decades, five Australian states have embraced outsourced prison management as a means of reducing costs, improving efficiency and fostering innovation. Australia now has the highest proportion of prisoners held in privately managed prisons in the world. Nevertheless, concerns have persisted about a lack of transparency, inadequate resourcing, and breaches of human rights in privately-run prisons and steps are now being taken to return the management of some prisons to the state. A/Prof Penovic’s research explores Australia’s experience of prison privatisation through Gough Whitlam’s policy agenda, including the pursuit of liberty, equality and the realisation of fundamental rights.