Peer Reviewed Articles

‘A Pedagogy of Resistance: A Hidden History of Mass Work on a Minor Scale’Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, 2010, 32:3, pp. 323-336

In this essay Craig teases out his pedagogy of resistance, his ‘mass work’ on a minor scale since his 1986 imprisonment. Craig accepts responsibility for and regrets the offenses that he had committed in the mid 1980s. Having said that, he explains his continued efforts to resist systemic injustice within the ‘Justice’ system.
A Pedagogy of Resistance: A Hidden History of Mass Work on a Minor Scale

‘Inside My Skull: Personal Responsibility and the Moral Lessons Learnt’Zadok Papers, Winter 2010, pp. 1-7

In this essay Craig reflects on the crimes he has committed, the legal process he went through and his imprisonment. He reveals an epiphany he had. He explores the Truth and Reconciliation processes of restorative justice and  talks about the moral lessons he has learnt in spite of the the criminal justice system he is  in. This is a Peer Reviewed essay and much larger than the early version in the Other Articles section of this site.

Zodak Perspectives is a Journal published by the Zadok Institute who’s mission statement reads: ‘To promote informed reflection and engagement by people from all walks of life, in relation to Australian public, working and personal life.’
Inside My Skull: Personal Responsibility and the Moral Lessons Learnt (pdf)

The Engaged Specific Intellectual: Resisting unethical prison tourism and the hubris of the objectifying modality of the universal intellectual,’ Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, Vol.18, No.1&2, 2009, pp.129-142.

Craig examines prison tourism and he criticises the work of academics like C. Fred Alford and Loic Wacquant who he argues do to not critically engage with the power relations of the prison, but rather allow themselves to be co-opted as privileged actors when they tour prisons. Craig argues that academic objectivism translates to an act of hubris when one side of the knowledge producing power relationship is joined by those participating in prison tourism. Craig concludes that Michel Foucault‘s thesis of the specific intellectual provides an example of a modality of work that can allow the possibility of prison tours to be run ethically in certain circumstances. Extracts of this article were presented by  Dr Justin Piche from the University of Ottawa Press at the 2009 National Conference of the Canadian Society of Criminology at the University of Ottawa on 2-4 October 2009. A discussion period about this paper and others was lead by Dawn Moore and a summary of the discussion was later published in the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons.
The Engaged Specific Intellectual: Resisting unethical prison tourism and the hubris of the objectifying modality of the universal intellectual (pdf)

Too good to be true: A Prisoner’s Experience of the Innocence Project’Human Rights Defender, Vol. 17, Issue 3, December 2008, pp. 23-24

This piece details how the University of Melbourne ‘Innocence Project’ strung people along for over three years and then abandoned them having only delivered false hope. The Human Rights Defender is a publication of the Australian Human Rights Centre at the University of New South Wales.
Keywords: Craig Minogue, human rights in Australia, wrongful convictions, false hope held out by Melbourne University
Too good to be true: the Innocence Project and the University of Melbourne (published version as pdf)

Too good to be true the Innocence Project and the University of Melbourne.

This is the original version of the article before the editors at The Human Rights Defender rewrote it in legalistic terms and divested it of any attribution of moral responsibility for the people at Melbourne University and others who let people down. A lawyer who has never seen a prison let alone spoken to a prisoner, or a victim of a human rights violation could have written the Human Rights Defender version. On the other hand, only a person who has lived the experience could have written Craig’s version. What is wrong with human rights advocacy is well illustrated by the difference between the original version of Craig’s article and the published version. That human rights are spoken about in esoteric theoretical terms and principles divested of a lived experience is why ‘human rights’ fails to engage with the general public in Australia as an important issue.
Keywords: human rights in Australia, wrongful convictions, false hope held out by Melbourne University.
Too good to be true the Innocence Project and the University of Melbourne (original as pdf)

‘Assumptions, war stories and the inability of prisoners to say what is really going on’ a review essay of Recapturing Freedom: Issues Relating to the Release of Long-term Prisoners Into the Community by Dot GoudlingAlternative Law Journal,Vol. 33, No. 2, September 2008, pp.185-187

In this essay Craig questions how wrong criminologists have it when it comes to accepting prison and prisoner stereotypes and makes observations about the sexually violent argot of male prisoners.
Assumptions, war stories and the inability of prisoners to say what is really going on (pdf)

‘Reading and writing as resistance and reformation’Punishment and SocietyVol. 10, No.1, 2008, pp. 79-81

This is a book review of Unlocking the Prison Muse: The Inspiration and effects of prisoners’ writing in Britain by Julian Broadhead.
Keywords:  Craig Minogue, book review of Unlocking the Prison Muse, The Inspiration and effects of prisoners’ writing in Britain by Julian Broadhead
Reading and writing as resistance and reformation (pdf)

‘Political Prisoners in Australia?’, Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2008, pp. 53-57.

This essay was Presented by Prof. Phil Scraton of Queens University at the 12th International Conference on Penal Abolition (ICOPA), at Kings College in London, 23-25 July 2008. Also presented by Prof. Scraton at the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control4-7 September 2008, in Padua, Italy.

This short essay seeks to expand the idea of the political prisoner as a person who acts politically despite origins in common criminality and how that can be used by the international abolitionist community. The focus of this article is different from the Arena Magazine version which can be found in Other Articles.
Keywords: Craig Minogue, political prisoners, imprisoned people acting politically, prison abolition
Political Prisoners in Australia? (pdf)

 Then and Now, Us and Them: A Historical Reflection on Deaths in and out of CustodySocial Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict & World OrderVol.33, No. 4, 2006, pp. 107-117.

This essay explores deaths in and out of custody by looking at the history of the Port Arthur Prison, the mass murder at the historical site and the quiet death of a political prisoner at Barwon Prison at the same time as the mass murder at Port Arthur.
Keywords: deaths in custody, Port Arthur Prison, Barwon Prison
Then and Now, Us and Them: A Historical Reflection on Deaths in and out of Custody (pdf)

 ‘The Use of a Military Level of Force on Civilian Prisoners: Strip Searching, Urine Testing, Cell Extractions and DNA Sampling In Victoria’Alternative Law JournalVol.30, No. 4, August 2005, pp.170-173.

This essay explores the use of force modalities in prisons from the low level every day conditioning force of the borderline sexual assualt of strip searching to the very real life threatening level of force that is only a moment away for any person in custody. At the end of the essay Craig draws a nexus between the actions of the soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company at Abu Ghraib and the use of force in civilian prisons, the abusers at Abu Ghraib were prison officers in their civilian lives.

Keywords: use of force in prisons, sexual assualt, strip searching, life threatening levels of force, DNA sampling for data bases, Abu Ghraib and the domestic prison system
The Use of a Military Level of Force on Civilian Prisoners: Strip Searching, Urine Testing, Cell Extractions and DNA Sampling In Victoria (pdf)

 ‘A Pathology of the medical treatment of a prisoner’, Charter, Edition 61, Autumn 2004, pp.10-11

This essay exposes the story of a prisoner at Barwon Prison who suffered the onset of a brain tumour in a cell for 40 hours before medical treatment was provided only after threats of violence were made by prisoners. Charter is published by the International Society for Human Rights Australia Inc. Other authors in this edition were John Pilger and Associate Professor Marie Joyce.

Keywords: inadequate medical treatment, prisoners
A Pathology of the medical treatment of a prisoner (pdf)

‘Human Rights and life as an attraction in a correctional theme park’Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, Canadian Scholars Press Toronto, Volume 12, 2003, pp. 44-57.

This essay examines the practice by Correctional authorities in allowing tour groups of university students and others to visit prisons and view prisoners as if they were exhibits in a zoo. And how the Universities and others responded to Craig’s complaints about these practices with threats against him and the justification ‘but they let us do it.’ This article is used as part of the course material of the undergraduate unit ‘Administration of Criminal Justice’ at Monash University.

Keywords: prison tourism, human rights violations, prisoners
Human Rights and life as an attraction in a correctional theme park (pdf)

An Insider’s View: Human rights and excursions from the flat lands’ in David Brown and Meredith Wilkie, (eds) Prisoners as Citizens: Human Rights in Australian Prisons, The Federation Press, Annandale NSW, 2002, pp.196-212.

This is a much expanded version of the earlier Alternative Law Journal article which includes more of a focus on the legal issues of the human rights test cases that Craig personally litigated in the High and Federal Courts of Australia. Merideth Wilkie was the Director of the Human Rights Unit at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and Professor David Brown was the Director of the Centre for Human Rights at the Law Faculty of the University of NSW. This article is used as part of the course material of the undergraduate unit ‘Administration of Criminal Justice’ at Monash University. This chapter was reviewed with approval as being ‘especially valuable’ by Peter Johnson in the Western Australian Law Review, Vol 31, December 2003, p. 307; it was also reviewed with approval by Rod Morgan in Punishment and Society Vol 6 No.1, January 2004. Rod Morgan is the HM Chief Inspector of Probations for England and Wales, and he referred to this chapter as ‘a searing critique’ of the state of human rights law in Australia which should have been followed up by other chapters. Craig’s chapter is cited in David Brown ‘Continuity, rupture, or just more of the ‘volatile and contradictory’? Glimpses of New South Wales’ penal practices behind and through the discursive’, in John Pratt, David Brown et al., (eds). The New Punitiveness: Trends, theories, perspectives, Willan Publishing, Devon UK, 2005, p. 34; and it is cited in Bree Carlton, Imprisoning Resistance: Life and Death in an Australian Supermax, Sydney Institute of Criminology, Sydney NSW 2007, p. 128; and it is cited in David Brown, ‘Giving Voice: The Prisoner and Discursive Citizenship’ in The Critical Criminology Companion, Thalia Anthony & Chris Cunneen (eds.), Hawkins Press, 2008, p 235.

Keywords: Human rights test case, prisoners, legal analysis
An Insider’s View: Human rights and excursions from the flat lands (pdf) (From Prisoners as Citizens)

‘Human rights and excursions from the flat lands’, Alternative Law Journal, Vol 25, No. 3, June 2000, pp.145-146.

A short report on the human rights test case in Minogue v HREOC which concludes with some personal observations about the prison landscape juxtaposed against the time Craig spent coming and going from and on his feet in, the Federal Court when he was agitating the human rights matters. The Alternative Law Journal is a journal established by the Legal Service Bulletin Co-operative to provide a forum for the Community Legal Centre network and to be an independent voice in the legal establishment.

Keywords: human rights test case, prisoners, personal reflections
Human rights and excursions from the flat lands (pdf)