Relevant reports, standards, guidelines and case law

Gayle Davies
Manager, library services
Office of the director of public prosecutions (NSW)

United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:

Article 19:
2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child:

Article 13: The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice.

Report of Inquiry into Immigration Detention Procedures by Phillip Flood AO, presented to parliament 27 February 2001.

Australian Immigration Detention Standards, Issued by DIMA to contractors (Source: Flood Report, Annexure E)

4.4 All detainees have access to education, recreation and leisure programs and facilities which provide them the opportunity to utilise their time in detention in a constructive and beneficial manner

4.5 Detainees are encouraged to participate in such programs

4.6 Detention programs are regularly evaluated

'Recreation/leisure activities/programs' means access to opportunities to effectively utilise time in detention in a constructive and beneficial manner, including indoor and outdoor exercise and sport, sporting equipment, games, outings, books, newspapers, television, videos, craft activities, English language tuition, vocational activities

Visits to Immigration Centres - Report by Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, presented to both houses of parliament, 18 June 2001. (see especially Chapter 4 - Detention Centres - an overview - this chapter mentions a group of buildings recently erected in Villawood's stage 1.5 - one of which would probably be used as a library).

Chapter 4 - Recommendation 1 The Committee recommends that the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and Australasian Correctional Management Pty Ltd:

introduce into each of the centres an updated and expanded range of educational, sporting and exercise facilities, and provide access to an appropriate range of newspapers

Standards and guidelines applied to prison facilities:

United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners:

'Books: Every institution shall have a library for the use of all categories of prisoners, adequately stocked with both recreational and instructional books, and prisoners shall be encouraged to make full use of it.'

Standard Guidelines for Prisons in Australia:

5.63 Prisoners should have access to a library adequately stocked with both recreational and information resources, which is operated according to standard library practice. Prisoners should be encouraged to make full use of the library.

Australian Prison Libraries: Minimum Standard Guidelines Canberra: ALIA, 1990

Case law on provision of law libraries and legal information in prisons

United States

The fundamental constitutional right of access to the courts requires prison authorities to assist inmates in the preparation and filing of meaningful legal papers by providing prisoners with adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law - Bounds v Smith (430 U.S. 817), 1977.

(Following this case, many US States chose the less costly option of providing law libraries in prisons).

There is a large body of case law based on this case, mainly testing whether various means of provision of law libraries in prisons, such as weekly visits by a law librarian, inter-library loans, a mail service from the local county court library etcetera, satisfied the adequacy test.

In 1996, in Lewis v Casey 116 S.Ct.2174, 2180, a new test was set whereby the prisoner was required to show injury (that is, denial of his constitutional right to the courts) by establishing that his prison's law library facility or the legal assistance provided to him were sub-standard.

Australia

Rich v Groningen 95 A Crim R 272 - this is a Victorian case, where the court found that the prisoner had adequate access to law books in the prison library, despite restrictions placed on his access by the prison's physical restraints. It also found that while the prisoner did not have an unimpeded right to legal information and materials, he did have an unimpeded right to access to the courts, and to reasonable access to documents.

A a