Imprisoning resistance : life and death in an Australian supermax

Bree Carlton
Sydney : Institute of Criminology Press, 2007

ISBN: 9780975196755

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Book description
Imprisoning Resistance: Life and Death in an Australian Supermax resurrects the events leading up to the Jika Jika fire and deaths. Author Bree Carlton critically examines the political context and official justifications underpinning the construction of one of Australia’s first hi-tech supermax prisons. Imprisoning Resistance provides a vivid, gritty account of state power and prisoner resistance, and revisits the controversy and the inquiries that followed the explosive 1987 protest fire and deaths. Calling upon official investigation transcripts, accounts by prisoners and prisoner interviews, Carlton unlocks a rare window into the closed world of Jika Jika as experienced by both prisoners and staff. Prisoner experiences of isolation and sensory deprivation, lockdowns and mind games, and an ensuring culture of violence, stand in sharp contrast to official presentations of efficiency and security.

Twenty years later, Pentridge Prison and the infamous Jika Jika Unit are reduced to rubble, buried under a benign suburban development. Yet Jika Jika’s tragic history is not forgotten.

About the author
Bree Carlton is a Lecturer in Criminology at Monash University, Victoria, Australia.

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