We at Framed have a role in educating prisoners about the methods of gaoling, why they are applied and the consequences for all involved.The gaol as a closed institution has a defined set of rules prison officers institute. These rules occur naturally in human communities closed off from the world and are particularly pernicious in closed institutions authorised by society to be punitive and are well documented and understood.
Cruelty is the main instrument used. The removal of personality is one of its main aims. Prisoners are required to wear drab uniform clothing, have shaved faces and heads, to live in bland colourless cells deprived of art and a view of nature.
The splitting of prisoners, the sowing disunity through gossip and manipulation is the way prison officers stay in control. While prisoners are kept busy abusing each other they are not a threat to the prison authority. Prisoners need skills in spotting games and helping each other to overcome the disunity and problems they cause.
The following describes some of the games prison guards play:
Promises Promises
This is a very effective game in getting a prisoner to act out violently, self mutilate or suicide. It is achieved by promising a release date. Give every indication to the victim that his release will take place on the day. Get him to prepare for it, even give him special privileges to get ready. Then, when the day arrives:Tell him he has more time to serve and lock him down. Strip away his privileges and let him know whose boss.
Disappointment and rejection are very effective methods of cruelty and are certain to cause maximum emotional hurt.
Sacrificial Goat
A nasty little game played by prison guards at sometime or other. Just whisper a rumour to a gossip and it will carry through the crowd. Let's use an example:
Tell the gossip X is a police spy or Y is a paedophile. It won't take long before X and Y gets assaulted even killed. Lots of good fun for the boys guaranteed to brighten any dull period behind bars.
Divide & Conquer
Based on the trick of splitting. This requires practice to get good results. Tell one group of victims they're to get special punishment because the second group have ratted or complained about something. Tell them they're to get special punishment because the first group has ratted. Before you can say Lockdown gangs will square off against each other and a dull day will turn out quite interesting. Prisoners can be manipulated endlessly in this game. The British call it Divide and Conquer.
Porridge
One way to get a fat prisoner slim is not the old bread and water regime, no. Its the cockroach soup, flies in the porridge, faeces in the mashed potato, urine in the tea.
Great weight loss special - glass in the veggies. A bleeder will get the victim into prison hospital in a flash.
This requires the Royal Australian Navy and one or two sinking refugee boats. Get the navy to photograph the refuges jumping overboard as their boat sinks. Publish the photos of adults dropping children into the sea preparing to abandon ship, but tell the public the adults were parents throwing their children overboard. Get the Navy to 'rescue' the refugees in the sea and gaol them in a concentration camp in the desert.
No one would dare to say they didn't deserve it. If you are good at this game you might win an election.
Prison Mind Games-Do they exist?
Directives are given inside the prison system that are not consistent with the law in NSW. And not in the good interests of the health and well being of the prisoners.
Justice Action
By Framed Magazine 2 Dec 2002
Related:
NSW Department of Corrective Services attack right to privacy
Corrective Services Minister Richard Amery has a problem attacking prisoners right to privacy.It seems to us that a civil society is best served when social justice laws are applied to all people regardless of their circumstances. Once government starts making exceptions which disadvantage certain groups and individuals, such laws are meaningless.
Litigants are drowning: in the High Court
There were so many self represented litigants appearing in the High Court that more than half of its registry staff's time was taken up in dealing with them. The "go it alone" litigants have to take on tasks well above their qualified league causing them stress. This growing problem cannot be left unchecked.
Everyone wants to get out of 'jail' but 'Framed' wants life: Rotten Ron on the ropes On 2 May 2002, Justice Action received a faxed letter from Manager of DCS Operations Support Branch saying that, in his view, articles in Framed edition #42 'lack balance and integrity' and he is therefore 'not prepared to recommend this issue of Framed for placement in to correctional centre libraries.' Prisoners and those concerned about prisoner issues have very few sources of information.
Methadone addicts formed within: 'NSW Prisons'
The New South Wales Opposition has accused the State Government of turning jailed heroin users into Methadone addicts.
Murder charge first for DNA data bank link, but not the same as solving the murder Mass DNA testing of prisoners has [allegedly] led to the first NSW case of a person being charged with a previously unsolved murder as a result of a controversial gene-matching data bank.
Medical Records: Alex Mitchell's lost world
Perhaps we can get your medical report and spew it around publicly so you can see how it feels. But surely we do not have to go that far. And of course we are law-abiding citizens and I should think it would be enough to remind you of your ethics to report at all.
Prisoners can prove innocence for $20?
Les Kennedy Daily Telegraph reported today that" Prisoners who believe that DNA will prove they were wrongly convicted will have the chance to prove their innocence for a mere $20 administration fee. The move comes 20 months after NSW inmates were asked to provide DNA for comparison with a databank of DNA from unsolved crime scenes for possible convictions.
NSW opposition pledges review of detention laws
A spokesperson for Justice Action Ms Anal Advice said " NSW Prisons are a sex offence if you have been raped, bashed and squatted down to be strip searched. People should be diverted from going there at all material times".
Civil libertarians condemn planned changes to prisoners' privacy rights The New South Wales Government is using a recent case involving [framed] serial killer Ivan Milat to justify its decision to remove the privacy rights of prisoners. But really just another attack on Ivan Milat from Parliament House.
RESTORING TRUE JUSTICE:
Australian prisons are fast becoming the new asylums of the third millennium. The prison industry is booming, while Australia spends far less on mental health services than similar countries.
The punishment: Is the 'crime'
The punishment is the crime according to retired chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia Justice Alistair Nicholson. "Smacking a child ought to be seen as assault".
Mr. & Mrs. Mandatory Sentencing
Well congratulations to the bride and groom. Could you please be upstanding and raise your glasses for Mr. And Mrs. Mandatory.
Just wipe your arse on Ivan again Minister?
Mr Amery Minister for Corrective services has a problem with finding a toilet roll to wipe his bottom. Justice Action is appalled at the attacks by Amery and others in parliament on Ivan Milat's right to privacy and their attacks on the Privacy Commissioner and his office.
NSW prisons - primary industry bailed up!
In many quiet regional centres around NSW there is a new primary industry shaping up. It has something to do with Bail but not with bales. The minister for Agriculture Richard Amery who also has the prisons portfolio is now committed to farming prisoners.
NSW Parliament Bitter Pills To Swallow?
One delusion pill: So people who investigate their own mistakes make sure there was no mistake or someone else made the mistake. Perhaps you're not biased and you will be honest about it.
The Government is likely to abolish the Inspector General of Corrective Services position The Mulawa inspection report recommendations below strictly illustrate how important he is.
Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.
Prison Mind Games-Do they exist?
Directives are given inside the prison system that are not consistent with the law in NSW. And not in the good interests of the health and well being of the prisoners.
Chronology - A History of Australian Prisons
[Allegedly:] The events that have shaped NSW prisons - from convict days through royal commissions, to the Supermax of today. [I say allegedly because no one should trust Four Corners [Walls], why? Because they spill out the propaganda of the day for the Government, whether it be wrong or right. A government that lies and has no remorse about it.]
