The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls condemns the Victorian Government’s move to weaken the right of people in prison to at least one hour of open air every day, describing the proposal as abhorrent, sadistic and a flagrant departure from internationally recognised minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners.
The Corrections Amendment Bill 2026 would make the existing right to at least one hour in the open air each day subject to “operational considerations”. The Victorian Parliament’s own statement of compatibility acknowledges that the Bill engages fundamental rights, including protection from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and the right to humane treatment when deprived of liberty.
‘This is not some generous entitlement being handed to people in prison. One hour outside is the bare minimum,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) were unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly as minimum standards for the humane treatment of people deprived of their liberty. Rule 23 specifically provides that every prisoner who is not employed in outdoor work must have at least one hour of suitable exercise in the open air every day, weather permitting.
National Network founder, Debbie Kilroy has worked internationally with the United Nations for many years advocating for the rights of incarcerated women and the implementation of international human rights standards in prisons.
‘What Victoria is proposing is a flagrant breach of the very minimum standards the international community has agreed should apply to people we put behind prison walls,’ Debbie Kilroy said.
‘We need to be really clear about what we are talking about here. We are not demanding luxuries. We are talking about sunlight. Fresh air. Feeling the weather on your skin. Being outside a concrete cell for one hour out of twenty-four. These are the barest minimum conditions of human existence,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘Taking away sunlight and fresh air does not make anybody safer. It is punishment piled on top of punishment, and it tells us something deeply disturbing about how far governments are prepared to go once they decide that a group of human beings no longer deserves the protections the rest of us take for granted,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
The National Network is particularly alarmed by the suggestion that basic human rights can simply become conditional when prisons find them operationally inconvenient.
‘Human rights mean very little if governments can suspend them because complying with them is difficult, expensive or inconvenient. Prisons are institutions created, funded and operated by the state. It is therefore the responsibility of the state to operate them in a way that complies with human rights standards, not to rewrite those standards when prisons cannot meet them,’ said Tabitha Lean.
The National Network rejects attempts to make this debate about the character or conviction of any individual prisoner. Human rights do not depend upon whether somebody is sympathetic, popular or considered “deserving”.
The Mandela Rules are minimum standards precisely because they apply to everyone.
Once governments establish that the rights of the most unpopular person in a prison can be removed because of who they are or what they have done, the protection of every other person behind those walls becomes more precarious.
‘The National Network stand unequivocally with our sisters inside Victorian prisons and with every incarcerated person whose humanity is being treated as an operational inconvenience,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘We also stand with formerly incarcerated people, families, advocates and community members rallying outside Victorian Parliament today to defend the human rights of people who are caged,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘People in prison remain members of our communities. They remain mothers, daughters, sisters, aunties, partners and friends. Most importantly, they remain human beings,’ said Tabitha Lean.
The National Network implores every member of the Victorian Parliament to reject this outrageous proposition.
‘Parliament should not be asking how few rights it can legally provide people in prison. It should be asking how a government in 2026 reached the point where one hour of sunlight and fresh air became too much to ask,’ said Tabitha Lean.
For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226.
