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Resisting Carceral Violence pp 133–168Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Fairlea Wring Outs: Confronting the Prison Wall

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Abstract

This chapter analyses a series of large-scale protests initially conceived and organised by the Coalition Against Women’s Imprisonment in Melbourne in 1988, which was spearheaded by Women Against Prison. The ‘Wring Out Fairlea’ demonstrations mobilised hundreds of people on four separate occasions to completely encircle Fairlea Women’s Prison as an abolitionist action. Protesters made creative use of visuals, space and sound to facilitate connections and dialogue across the carceral boundary and increase public scrutiny of the prison. Through radio broadcasting, live music and spontaneous noise, and enabling opportunities for ‘mutual sightings’ between imprisoned and non-imprisoned activists, the Wring Outs challenged the dominant ordering of carceral space. Designed to segregate, invisibilise, silence and quarantine prisoners, the prison boundary was appropriated and repurposed by activists on both sides of the wall as an interface for collaborative and performative protest. The Wring Outs also allowed feminists and other activists to negotiate new ways of seeing the prison. By placing Fairlea Women’s Prison at the centre of collective political activity and the life of the social movement, the protests dramatically challenged and subverted the traditional location of the women’s prison at the margins.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Recorded chant at the first Wring Out Fairlea demonstration. Women on the Line #48, 5 July 1988. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  2. 2.

    Women on the Line #78, 8 November 1989. 3CR Community Radio, Fitzroy.

  3. 3.

    Women on the Line #225B, 21 May 1996. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  4. 4.

    Women on the Line #225B, 21 May 1996. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  5. 5.

    Women on the Line #225B, 21 May 1996. 3CR Community Radio, Fitzroy.

  6. 6.

    The term ‘slash up’ refers to self-harm.

  7. 7.

    Women on the Line #84, 27 March 1990. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  8. 8.

    Women on the Line #48, 5 July 1988. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  9. 9.

    Women on the Line #78, 8 November 1989. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  10. 10.

    Women on the Line #84, 27 March 1990. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  11. 11.

    Women on the Line #84, 27 March 1990. 3CR Community Radio, Fitzroy.

  12. 12.

    Women on the Line #225B, 21 May 1996. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  13. 13.

    Women on the Line #225B, 21 May 1996. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  14. 14.

    Women on the Line #225B 21 May 1996. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  15. 15.

    Women on the Line #48, 5 July 1988. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  16. 16.

    Women on the Line #225B, 21 May 1996. 3CR Community Radio, Fitzroy.

  17. 17.

    Women on the Line #225B, 21 May 1996. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  18. 18.

    Women on the Line #225B, 21 May 1996. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  19. 19.

    Women on the Line #225B, 21 May 1996. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  20. 20.

    3CR Community Radio began broadcasting in Melbourne in 1976 as Australia’s first community-owned and -run grassroots radio station. It continues to broadcast today as an independent station that ‘gives voice to issues that would otherwise go unheard, and to people striving for political and social justice’. Source: www.3cr.org.au.

  21. 21.

    Women on the Line #48, 5 July 1988. 3CR Community Radio, Fitzroy.

  22. 22.

    Women on the Line #48, 5 July 1988. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  23. 23.

    Women on the Line #84, 27 March 1990. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  24. 24.

    Women on the Line #225B, 21 May 1996. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

  25. 25.

    CAWI. (1988). Unpublished correspondence to Nice Girls Don’t Spit. Federation of Community Legal Centres , Fitzroy, held in the personal archives of Billi Clarke .

  26. 26.

    Women on the Line #225B, 21 May 1996. 3CR Community Radio , Fitzroy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Criminology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

    Bree Carlton

  2. Crime, Justice and Legal Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

    Emma K. Russell

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  1. Bree Carlton
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  2. Emma K. Russell
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Correspondence to Bree Carlton .

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Carlton, B., Russell, E.K. (2018). The Fairlea Wring Outs: Confronting the Prison Wall. In: Resisting Carceral Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01695-1_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01695-1_5

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