Prisoner Human Rights are the same as for non-prisoner . This is a well-established principle of law and there are various cases that confirm this reality.
WHAT THE COURTS HAVE SAID
In Muir v The Queen (2004) 78 ALJR 780; 206 ALR 189 Kirby J said (at 784; 194 [25]):
Prisoners are human beings. In most cases, they are also citizens of this country, “subjects of the Queen” and “electors” under the Constitution. They should, so far as the law can allow, ordinarily have the same rights as all other persons before this court. They have lost their liberty whilst they are in prison. However, so far as I am concerned, they have not lost their human dignity or their right to equality before the law.
Simply because somebody sits behind bars does not mean their prisoner civil rights are any different to people who enjoy the normal freedoms of our community.
What we mean by this is prisoners have the same access to the Courts to enforce their Human Rights as do people outside of prison.
WHAT THE UNITED NATIONS HAVE SAID
In reality Human rights are only enforceable pursuant to relevant UN Conventions and the relevant law is articles 7 and 10 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
CURRENT EXAMPLES OF PRISONER HUMAN RIGHTS
Currently, one interesting example of this is the case of convicted murderer Bassam Hamzy. See SMH article here.
He is currently in a dispute with Corrective Services NSW about access to his Corrective Services file as part of a broader action about his treatment in prison. Clearly, his Corrective Services file may hold evidence which is key to his case.
Regarding the subpoena he will have to overcome any statutory obstacles relating to the provision of sensitive material but also the normal safeguards against broad subpoenas the what is considered a “fishing expedition”. That is, he cannot not simply issue a subpoena that “may” land him relevant information, he needs to specify in the schedule to the subpoena what that information is.
He case centres on his ability to practice his religion, an example of prisoner human rights, as he insists he is being prevented from talking Arabic which is central to his Islamic faith.
He will need to convince the Court that Community Corrections do not need to limit his communication as they are to protect the community, this will be difficult considering his history of committing offences in prison.