The National Network of Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women & Girls condemns the latest reports of women being denied access to toilets during transfers in Queensland. These incidents are disgusting, and they are not isolated.
‘What is happening in Queensland is happening across this country. We hear these stories repeatedly from women during transfers between watchhouses, prisons, police vehicles and aircraft. Women forced to endure long journeys without access to toilets. Women humiliated, degraded, and stripped of basic dignity,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘Women treated as logistical problems rather than human beings with bodies, needs, and rights,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘We have heard these accounts directly from Aboriginal women in Alice Springs, and from women across multiple jurisdictions. The details change, but the pattern does not: overcrowding, buck-passing between agencies, and women paying the price with their bodies,’ said Tabitha Lean.
This is a national human rights crisis.
‘Transfers are routinely framed as administrative or operational matters. But when women are denied access to toilets, medical care, hygiene, or basic safety, these are not “process failures.” They are violations of human rights. They are degrading treatment. They are entirely preventable,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘Women in custody do not lose their humanity when they are transferred between systems. They do not forfeit their dignity because agencies are arguing over responsibility. And they should never be subjected to inhumane treatment because governments refuse to address mass-incarceration and chronic overcrowding,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘The National Network is clear: investigations into individual incidents are not enough. These abuses are structural. They are produced by systems that continue to prioritise punishment, containment and institutional convenience over care, safety and dignity,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘This latest incident is appalling. It should shock the public conscience. And it must be a line in the sand.
We must demand better. We must demand an end to the inhumanity. And we must demand a system that recognises women in custody as human beings, not cargo to be moved at any cost,’ said Tabitha Lean.
For further comment, please contact Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226
