The Australian Prisoners Union was founded in 1999 in the spirit of the solidarity and self-determination principles of the trade union movement. We believe that prisoners are entitled to be represented by the same principles; for which society will be safer and more empathetic as a whole.

The creation of the APU was welcomed warmly by many organisations including unions, church bodies, indigenous organisations, legal bodies, MPs and, most importantly, from prisoners inside the system.

Our aim for the APU is to represent human rights, proposing for better cooperation amongst the prisoner officers, current prisoners, and the greater community alongside previous convicts.

Prisoners need authentic, effective representation and support in a range of contexts, from a single prisoner’s dispute with a prison official’s decision, through submissions to governments and parliaments about laws affecting prisoners, right up to speaking to United Nations bodies about prisoners’ human rights.

We have been working through the process of getting the APU registered as a trade union, but after a lot of work that has proved impossible to achieve without unacceptable compromises.  We are currently changing the proposed structures and documentation to seek to ensure the APU can be representative, viable and effective.

Once this is done, we will be ready to present the package to prisoners and ask you to join us in giving prisoners a voice. 

If you want to know more:

• Prisoner Community Acknowledgement 
• APU: Process of Legitimisation
• APU Rules