Six criminals are suing the ACT government for false imprisonment, arguing their detention at Canberra's jail became unlawful when prison authorities would not allow them to exercise in the open air.
Former Brothers 4 Life gang leader Damien Glenn Featherstone, who was responsible for the Alexander Maconochie Centre's only ever hostage situation, is among the group of current and former Canberra prisoners taking legal action.
The others include serial criminal Tian-Jarrah Denniss, who was sentenced to more jail time on Friday following a series of incidents behind bars, including one in which he hit a guard with a chair after being denied a milkshake and cookies.
Keith Ernest Frank Carberry, who jointly caused about $4.6 million of damage when he rioted while drunk on "prison brew" last year, is also among the litigants.
The remaining members of the sextet are Peter James Robertson, Ronald William Tracey, and Nathan Davidson.
The latter, who served time for drug trafficking, has already won a human rights case with close links to the action currently being taken in the ACT Supreme Court.
Details of the current cases are contained in a judgement published on Friday.
In the judgement, Justice Geoffrey Kennett said each of the six criminals appeared to rely primarily on the tort of false imprisonment in seeking damages under the ACT's Human Rights Act.
The judge said all of them were, at material times, serving sentences of full-time imprisonment at the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
"The claims are somewhat novel, as it is not asserted that any of the plaintiffs was not liable to be detained," Justice Kennett said.
"Their detention is said to have been unlawful because restraint was imposed on them over and above what was authorised by the law of the territory."
He said the additional restraint related to days on which the prisoners were not given access to the open air and allowed to exercise for at least one hour while being held in the jail's "management unit".
This, the judge said, allegedly contravened the human rights legislation and provisions of the Corrections Management Act.
In support of their claims, the prisoners cited a case in which Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson declared, earlier this year, that jail authorities had breached Davidson's human rights during the nine weeks he spent in solitary or separate confinement.
Like other inmates in the "management unit", Davidson was allocated a courtyard at the rear of his cell for exercise.
This area was "enclosed by four walls and a mesh ceiling", and Justice Loukas-Karlsson said it gave "the impression of being indoors and, specifically, of being in a cell".
Justice Loukas-Karlsson made four declarations, including that access to the rear courtyard of "management unit" cells for exercise did not comply with the Corrections Management Act, and the lack of open air for exercise breached Davidson's human rights.
In the current proceedings before Justice Kennett, the six prisoners sought to have aspects of the ACT government's defence struck out by arguing they improperly sought to re-litigate matters that had been decided in Davidson's previous case.
Justice Kennett ultimately decided that, as the evidence currently stood, the defences were not liable to be set aside even if they contained assertions that were contrary to points decided in the earlier case.
The inmates' cases are due back in court for an administrative hearing on Monday.
