When the Pendulum is stuck! – Invisible Agonists and Babies in Prison

There is an international consensus that babies can be accommodated by prisons to live with their mothers from new-born. This situation appears to be settled, however their existence is invisible and to some it could be “unthinkable” to have babies in prison. Politicians and reformers are continually struggling to shape criminal justice policies to influence what is “thinkable” or “unthinkable”. The agonist perspective has been used to explore the contexts of the United States (Goodman, Page and Phelps, 2017), Scotland (Page, Phelps and Goodman, 2019) and Canada (Goodman and Dawe, 2015). The significance of this paper is the role of international alliances and the work of people within the United Nations, as well as activists in Australia and Canada. In particular, concerns from people at an international level have led to important developments within the human rights framework that affect women and children.