Prisons and Punishment

Canberra prisoner George George has been sentenced to three years' jail over his involvement in a major prison riot at the Alexander Maconochie Centre in 2020 which caused more than $1.6 million in damage. 

After delays and cost blow-outs, the government hopes the expansion will help detainees turn their lives around before returning to families.

Lyudmila Navalnaya has been trying to retrieve her son's body since Saturday, following his death in a penal colony in Russia's far north a day earlier.

A London court hears people living under authoritarian regimes "disappeared" after Julian Assange blended hacking with reporting, "stole vast amounts" of classified documents and published them on his WikiLeaks website.

The redeveloped Alice Springs youth detention centre is nearing completion and the Northern Territory government is promising that detainees forcibly sent away to Darwin's notorious Don Dale will soon be returned to Central Australia.

Joshua Toole has been sentenced to six years' jail over his link to a commercial drug syndicate, after pleading guilty to supplying 1.8 kilograms of methamphetamine.

Mark Haydon, who was convicted of seven counts of assisting the Snowtown murderers, will be sent to the Adelaide pre-release centre after being granted parole.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny spent his final weeks in the "Polar Wolf" penal colony. From the remote location north of the Arctic Circle, he was able to share stories of the conditions he faced in one of Russia's harshest prisons.  

South Australia's parole board is considering an application to release Snowtown accomplice Mark Ray Haydon, on the same day the state government has rushed legal changes through parliament.

A WA coroner has found the supervision provided by prison officers of a Pilbara man who died from self-harm in Roebourne Regional Prison was inadequate on the night of his death.

A 31-year-old American man admits to charges of murder and rape after allegedly pushing two US women down a ravine, fatally injuring one of them, in Germany.

South Australia's Parole Board will meet to consider an application by "bodies-in-the-barrels" accomplice Mark Ray Haydon for release into the community. It’s the culmination of an application which has been under consideration since 2021.

Two women have been convicted of animal welfare offences after more than 100 animals were found "living in squalor" at a property in South Australia's Mid North. The RSPCA has appealed for the government to strengthen animal welfare laws.

Evgenia Kara-Murza, the wife of jailed Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, has no doubts who was responsible for the death of Alexei Navalny.

New legislation will be urgently introduced to South Australian parliament in a bid to impose controls on Snowtown murders accomplice Mark Ray Haydon, ahead of his release from prison after 25 years behind bars.

Of all Vladimir Putin's critics, Alexei Navalny was probably the most fearless. It's one of the reasons he was so dangerous for the Russian president.

More than 100 people are arrested, including a priest who attempted to conduct a service for Alexei Navalny in St Petersburg, while in other cities police took pictures of those who turned out to pay their respects to the late opposition leader.

Alexei Navalny's suspicious death in a penal colony leaves Vladimir Putin largely unopposed in Russia's political landscape. Some fear no-one will be able to take the 47-year-old's place. 

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, one of the president's most vocal critics, has died, according to the prison service of the region where he had been serving a lengthy sentence.

Apollo John Daley, 39, pleaded guilty to 44 charges in the Supreme Court in Cairns. He will be eligible for parole in June this year.

David Tran had been stalking and harassing 33-year-old Daiane Pelegrini in the weeks before he murdered her on August 3, 2020, in what a judge described as a "vicious and prolonged attack".

A judge said Troy Robert Cridland "knowingly and egregiously abused" the trust in him as a police officer when he knowingly had sex with a girl under 16.

Following the controversial release of "Esky Killer" Matthew Armitage, Australia's highest court has been asked to make a judgement on a Queensland law designed to keep uncooperative criminals behind bars.

Lawyers fire back at Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia for his criticism of a judge's sentencing of a juvenile detainee, saying he's undermining a core democratic principle.

Terence Kelly's mental impairments, including severe personality dysfunction, contributed to his decision to abduct four-year-old Cleo Smith from her family's tent, his lawyers tell a WA court as they try to get his jail term reduced.