In The Penal Colony: Outsourcing Australia’s Detention Industry

Columnist Yen Pham ties Australia’s security and detention practices to the spread of COVID-19 in the country in her article, “In the Penal Colony: Outsourcing Australia’s Detention Industry.” In March 2020 the Australian government instituted a policy of mandatory hotel quarantine for those returning from overseas, a policy that although initially successful in flattening the curve, quickly resulted in a massive outbreak of new infections by July and ultimately the need for a new lockdown on July 7th. Pham points to the use of private security subcontractors as one of the main causes of new spread, noting that private companies hired low-income workers with minimal training and protection. However, she also interrogates how private security has been entrenched in Australian culture, from the initial founding of the country as a penal colony, to infamously brutal detention centres and private prisons.

While not structured around visual media, the article powerfully evokes spatial and institutional imaginaries—quarantine hotels, detention centers, surveillance infrastructure—that lend themselves to visual storytelling. Its detailed, scene-driven description of spaces of control and marginalization invites visual interpretation and representation, particularly through documentary, photojournalism, and graphic narrative forms. Pham traces the development of a harsh border policy that is primarily overseen by private security corporations, and the laxity of hotel quarantining that led to multiple outbreaks. Private corporations are often able to evade responsibility and accountability, and Pham points to this as the primary driver of government use of private security. Although these relationships are often justified by the logic of free market efficiency and cutting back on costs, Pham contends that the most significant benefit is the ability for governments to transfer risk to corporations that are difficult to hold legally liable for failing to meet safety and health standards. Pham’s work contributes to COVID-19 storytelling by exposing the economic and carceral structures behind the mismanagement of public health, and underscores the narrative value of mapping systemic harm through institutional space.