Does prison labour rehabilitate, punish, discipline or exploit a traumatised and racialised population in Australian and American prisons?

This article describes the incarcerated population in Australia and the US as being comprised of peo-ple primarily from racialised and marginalised communities, of whom many have histories of trauma. It is argued that their pre-existing trauma is compounded by trauma arising from both deprivation of liberty in and of itself, and their treatment and conditions in prison. The article compares and draws parallels between rehabilitation as understood under the UN Convention against Tortureand Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment with rehabilitation as an objective of the criminal legal system, arguing for the need for the criminal legal system to refocus from reducing reoffending to pursuing healing.