Clarke to scrap plan to peg prison numbers

* New emphasis placed on reducing reoffending rates
* Community prisons will make family visits easier

UK: The home secretary, Charles Clarke, has said he is to abandon his predecessor's aspiration of pegging the prison population in England and Wales at 80,000. He will also drop plans to put a legal obligation on the judges' sentencing guidelines council to take the size of the prison population - currently 77,000 and rising - into account when laying down the "going rate" for major crimes.

"I am not convinced that an overall obligation to look at the overall size of the prison population is the right thing to do," Mr Clarke, who succeeded David Blunkett, said. Instead, the home secretary wants to cut Britain's reoffending rates by creating a network of community prisons to ensure that those serving short sentences remain close to their families and communities.

He recognises that an overcrowded prison system means that goal will be difficult to achieve but believes a system of community prisons can be set up by restructuring the jail network and by greater use of community punishments for some of those serving short sentences.

The new approach will be unveiled tonight by Mr Clarke in a speech to the Prison Reform Trust - his first major statement on penal policy since he became home secretary last December.

Mr Clarke also dismissed "as a complete horlicks" repeated Sunday newspaper speculation that Tony Blair is unhappy with his performance as home secretary and intends to reshuffle him.

He described himself as "tough but not populist", a position he says No 10 is very happy with. Some described Mr Blunkett as populist, so Mr Clarke is signalling a change in style.

He also said that he wants to end the remote image of the Home Office. Because of the pressure on his time caused by the terrorist outrages, he admitted he has not yet had the chance to spell out his vision of penal policy, saying today's speech to the Prison Reform Trust will make clear that for a government that puts health and education at the heart of its mission, the prison system does not reflect Labour values. "We don't do enough for the least healthy and the least educated people in the country, who are the people in the criminal justice system, particularly if we know that if you solve issues like literacy and numeracy then you can solve issues like drug abuse and mental health [so] that people are less likely to offend than would otherwise be the case."

He said a large proportion of the prison population, including some on remand or serving shorter sentences, need to remain more closely integrated with their communities. "We need to get to a state of affairs where prisoners are able to reintegrate into society through developing their relations with their friends and family. The break in that - and it happens often -is the damaging thing in people's ability to stop reoffending."

Families and friends on average travel five hours to visit an inmate and the number of jail visits is dropping. As many as two-thirds of prisoners see their relationships with partners end. Many others lose job or home.

"We need to work much harder to organise community prisons so that prisoners when they are in prison are in reasonably close geographical proximity to the people who they know and to their future."

He added that he was asking some multinational companies to employ a set number of former prisoners, so long as they had acquired the relevant skills. One such deal has already been struck, with Transco, the gas pipelines company.

Main aims

* create a network of community prisons so inmates are closer to their families

* abandon the aspiration of pegging the prison population to 80,000

* abandon proposals that sentencing take into account prison overcrowding

* end the remote image of the Home Office

By Patrick Wintour and Alan Travis 19 September 05

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All the World's a Prison: History
No doubt many of my readers, even those who are well-educated or widely read, think that the prison -- the place where dark deeds are darkly answered[2] -- is an ancient institution, a barbaric hold-over from barbaric times. In fact, the prison is of relatively recent origin, and this tells us a great deal about the pretentions and realities of modern times, and the wisdom and high degree of development of the ancients.

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Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
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England tops the EU in imprisonment
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Why We Oppose Home Detention

NSW: Justice Action opposes the use of Home Detention (HD). It damages the family and the home for others without any consideration of the effects, or acknowledgement of the costs. It discriminates by disproportionately effecting women. Families become prison guards to their loved ones, and the home becomes an extension of the State.

While many people, including prisoners themselves, support HD, when you look at the bigger picture, the widespread use of HD is an admission of the failure of imprisonment and damages fundamental social structures.

The only approach that could create the illusion that home detention provides benefits is via comparison with the regular prison system. It is the same logic that suggests that a punch in the face is beneficial in comparison to being beaten senseless with cricket bats.

In the past 10 years, across Australia, prisoner numbers have doubled, costs of imprisonment have skyrocketed, and rates of imprisonment have increased in all states and territories. In NSW, 45% of prisoners return within 2 years. This means that the Department of Corrective Services (DCS) has failed in its responsibility to reduce offending in the community. Now the government is trying to give it's problems to the community, but without the support necessary for real, community-based solutions.

THE PROBLEMS:

1) Transfer of the costs of incarceration from the state onto families.

a) Financial costs - HD is claimed to be a cost-saving alternative to prison, however, the costs are only transferred from the state to the family. It costs the government over $60,000 per year to provide for one prisoner. If offenders are to be diverted from prison, the funds allocated to support them must also be diverted to the community.

The family must provide:

- Accommodation - The family shares their home with someone under the control of the state, and subject to surveillance. That lessens the use value of their home and compromises their privacy. Other family members are forced to accept the reluctant inhabitant with them for very sustained periods, without respite.

- Security, health, caring and counselling -To maintain their own stability the family needs to look after a person who would otherwise be in prison, supplying the needs that the state would supply.

b) Emotional & physical costs - The NSW (DCS) interviewed families about the effect of home detention.

They reported:

- their sleep and their children's sleep was disturbed by monitoring phone calls,

- their privacy invaded by searches,

- additional stress and tensions within the family relationships,

- increased burden on outside family and friends,

- increased risk of domestic violence.

c) Effect on women - There is a strong gender bias in who is affected by home detention, whether it is women or men who are on it. This is because regardless of the gender of the offender, the people who consent to having the offender living with them and having their homes turned into prisons invariably are women. Anyone who visits prisons, men's or women's will tell you that it is women who fill prison visit centres and likewise it is women who become HD 'sponsors'.

2) Families become both prisoners and prison officers.

a) Families of home detainees are responsible not only for keeping the person on HD in the house, but also keeping them off drugs and alcohol, and on whatever medications are part of the orders.

b) Families are given a choice which amounts to extortion: control the offender, or they are sent back to prison. This puts enormous pressure on the family, including young children, to tolerate offending behaviour, including domestic violence, rather than report the loved one to the authorities.

c) The same group of people who were unable to control the offender's behaviour in the past are forced to confront the problems again, in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of HD, constantly, without support.

d) If the person leaves the home, it is classed as an escape from prison.

e) Families must either explain to friends and associates about HD, or they must lie to protect the family.

3) Net widening - Prisons fill up regardless of crime rates or diversionary sentencing. This means that if one person is diverted from prison into home detention, another will be sentenced to prison who might have received a diversion.

a) The building of new prisons almost universally results in an increase in prison numbers. Old accommodation units are invariably reopened to cope with the increase in numbers. In NSW this has been proven by the reopening of old "stock" - for eg Parramatta prison (continually being re-opened), Long Bay wings, Conlon Unit at Mulawa (numerous times); Maitland; Cooma; and the Norma Parker Gaol for Women (numerous). The net widening effect of building more prisons was acknowledged in 1994 by the Department's own Women's Action Plan:

"...the provision of increased access to correctional facilities in country areas may create a net widening phenomenon resulting in the courts sending more women to prison who may otherwise have received non-custodial sentences.

There is a strong body of opinion that in spite of oft stated support for a reductionist approach to women in prison, if additional places were provided, particularly..in country areas, they would inevitably be filled."

b) A Victorian government discussion paper in 1987 said 'if we regard homes as potential prisons, capacity for all practical purposes is unlimited'. No wonder they all support HD. This philosophy removes any imperative to look at why our prisons are overflowing because prison capacity problems are rendered obsolete.

SOME SOLUTIONS:

1) Mentoring: Giving support to offenders through a person trusted by both the offender and the community. Mentoring is a long-term project to provide support to people adversely effected by the criminal justice system and prevent offending and re-offending. JA has been providing mentoring support for 20 years, to thousands of people. JA graduated 22 TAFE accredited mentors on December 5, 2003.

A digital copy of the JA Mentor's Handbook online or download the pdf here: JA Mentoring.

2) Community Service Orders: CSO's are community-based sentences for offenders to do unpaid work for non-profit agencies. The offenders are supervised by Probation & Parole or an approved supervisor from the agency. CSO's offer the same benefits promoted for home detention, but without the negative impacts discussed above, including "...more flexible sentencing construction, containment of overall correctional spending and potential social and community benefits."...CSO's also allow the offender to actively make amends to the community, and learn work skills and discipline. Justice Action works with a CSO agency, Breakout Design & Print.

Justice Action gave evidence to the NSW Standing committee on Law and Justice on 18/3/05 looking at "back-end home detention".

By Justice Action 4 April 05

Related:

WHY WE SHOULD OPPOSE HOME DETENTION

The ACT Government has drafted a new Bill to implement Home Detention This very discriminatory type of sentence also punishes the family. It is questionable that it has been successful anywhere it has been tried.

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WE WANT DENNIS FERGUSON

Mob Mentality?

No one here is afraid of Dennis Ferguson. We and our children welcome him...

Governments have been trying to get rid of their problems by making people into outcasts for over 200 years. Transportation, execution and imprisonment didn't work and we should know that by now.

The image of Dennis running from the fearful town of Murgon shows the failure of our criminal justice system.

Dennis has paid his penalty as decided by the courts. He is legally entitled to move on with his life and resettle into a happy accepting community, with a home and income like the rest of us. It is in our interest that he does so as soon as possible.

Instead the justice system has isolated him for 14 years costing well over a million of our dollars, and created a climate of fear that he will attack our most vulnerable children. It hasn't prepared him for safe resettlement, and has given him no chance of survival. Several communities are understandably in uproar due to his proximity.

The solution is not difficult. The Dennis Fergusons are all around us, doing this and other offensive acts. Most sex offending happens in the family. We can't exclude the problem as they are community problems.

Mentoring and restorative justice in the community is the only way forward. And there is a million dollars for every Dennis to spend on it.

We speak for the prisoner community and have been accepting people from the courts on community service orders for over twenty years . We look after our own community. Dennis is welcome.

For further comments:

Stacy Scheff,
Brett Collins 0438 705003

By justiceACTION 3 February 05

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NSW Legislative Council's Inquiry on Home Detention

Submissions closed last Friday 30 July for the Legislative Council's Inquiry into Back-end Home Detention.

Justice Action's submissions Justice Action opposes the use of home detention, whether front-end or back-end, as a sentencing option in our criminal justice system, [criminal law system.]

We have two primary concerns.

First, we believe the availability of home detention will increase the use of imprisonment as a sentencing option in our criminal justice system - and this is an outcome to be avoided at all costs.

Second, we believe that co-opting families into the State's role as gaoler is divisive and damaging for families.

Our reasons are as follows:

Net-widening

1. It is widely recognised that the damage caused by and the cost of imprisonment is enormous. For this reason it has become established policy that, (a) imprisonment is an option of last resort; and (b) the damage done by imprisonment should be minimised as far as possible.

2. Home detention is a form of imprisonment. So much is recognised in the legislation that enables home detention.

3. The onerous nature of home detention was described in some detail in the 1999 Review of the NSW Home Detention Scheme where it was also stated: "The demands required to complete home detention are equal to but different from the demands required to complete a prison sentence." (p. ix of Executive Summary)

4. Reforms to the penal system should be directed at decreasing the use of imprisonment and providing genuine alternatives.

5. There is a large gap between imprisonment and community sentencing options like community service orders in terms of the seriousness with which they are regarded.

6. Many players in the criminal justice system view home detention as a less serious punishment than imprisonment and, accordingly (in popular perception at least) home detention exists in the gap between imprisonment and community sentencing. It is also cheaper and gives Corrective Services a vastly increased capacity to imprison people. For all of these reasons home detention has the potential to be very popular and result in a net increase in the prison population.

7. Conversely, as Justice Action pointed out in our 1996 submission to the NSW Law Reform Commission "historically a key restraint on expansion of the prison population has been cell capacity [and]....an important stimulus to sentencing reform has been prison overcrowding."

Damage to families

8. The structure of home detention law is such that much of the burden of the sentence will be borne by the people the offender lives with, most often their family. Family members are subjected to the stigma, sleep deprivation, stress, tension and inconvenience of frequent visits and phone calls at any time of the day or night. Children are exposed to Corrective Services officers and the to the difficulties a confined offender suffers.

9. Additionally, home detention is conditional status that may be revoked at any time if it is considered not to be working. Accordingly there is a lot of pressure on households to present well to visiting Corrective Services officers and fear of the repercussions that may follow if they report the problems ensuing from the offender's confinement. Again it is worth noting the onerous nature of home detention for offenders. This is exacerbated because often they will be dealing withdrawals from drugs and alcohol while those around them may or may not continue to use drugs or alcohol themselves. (Offenders are subjected to regular urinalysis tests and negative results can mean revocation of home detention orders).

10. The resulting fear and stress pervades the household and is bad for all involved.

Conclusion:

Justice Action believes the use of home detention will increase the number of people damaged by the dehumanising experience of being imprisoned. Both by increasing the number of people sentenced to imprisonment and by the indirect effects which are borne by families and cohabitants of offenders.

EDITORIAL:

The obvious response having the choice between going to gaol and being given home detention, some people may pick Home Detention every time. Yep, that's the obvious response and the one that promoters of home detention want to see.

But what if the question was really "Would you like an additional period of home detention added to your regular sentence?" or "Would you like someone who would otherwise have been given a non-custodial to get full time prison thanks to the bed you freed up by accepting home detention?" would your answer be the same? The history of imprisonment in NSW offers a pretty strong argument that all prison slots (plus or minus a few percent) will always be full, regardless of prison capacity or crime rates. Provide more prison slots and you will get more prisoners.

I doubt that the NSW government can go much further with their prison enthusiasm while allowing transport, health and education infrastructure in the state to rot. Even my conservative relatives in Kempsey are bemused as to why a brand new prison can be built just out of town but the local hospital can't provide basic medical services (my Dad who lived less than 2km from Kempsey hospital but had to go all the way to Port Macquarie for straight forward oncological treatment). In my opinion, the recent push to increase home detention is a simple reflection of the fact that the Carr government can't increase full time prison capacity as quickly as they would like.

Home detention is a way of providing almost open ended prison capacity by turning homes into pods without breaking the state infrastructure budget. The use of the bracelets in the UK is also a bad sign as to where we might be headed with them here too. They are particularly widely used for juveniles and in cases where they would previously have been given a bond or a warning they are now using the bracelets in conjunction with orders banning people from going to certain parts of town (e.g. the shopping centre or cinema precinct) or from associating with their colleagues.

JA is pushing for greater provisions of non - custodial options - such as Community Service Orders (CSO's) positions, which are still in short supply especially in rural areas . We are not supporting Department of Corrective Services in its appropriation of peoples' homes for their prison system.

By Justice Action 2 August 04

Related:

WHY WE SHOULD OPPOSE HOME DETENTION
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Up there Khasali: Innocent man new bail laws
The New South Wales Supreme Court has asked innocent man Bilal Khazal to increase to amount of surety offered, before the bail is formally continued.

He was an undercover agent for the blues
He was my journalist, he was working undercover. The fellow knew all of the moves.... He really had me romping, bare footing stomping. He just kept igniting my fuse....

Govt tests airport security eye scanner
Technology that identifies people by scanning their eyes could be introduced into Australian airports as early as next year.

law and order days over, says Blair
Their 3D-iD system is ideal for both stationary assets, such as large physical inventories or for mobile assets like people and portable equipment.

Fingerprints now required for US visas
United States consulates in Australia have begun taking fingerprints from Australians applying for visas.

I won't be a criminal for you!
The only looming rules are for fools giving up personal details to the Devil in the first place when visiting the US.

Welcome to the MatrixB
US - In what civil liberties advocates call the most massive database surveillance program in US history, the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or Matrix, continues to compile billions of records on law-abiding citizens and receive federal funding, despite public outcry and suspicion.

Individual Rights and Community Rights

ACT passes human rights laws

Individuals and minority groups need the right to be able to express themselves because they are treated differently from time to time. Why? Because they have been accused or they look different or they have a different culture.

Overwhelming Federal and State powers and the corporate media can usurp, judge, and crush any individual into being treated differently. It may be because they don't belong to the boys/girls club or the populist views ramped up by 'politicians' and the 'shock jocks'.

It may be okay if the politicians and shock jocks had mercy in their souls but if they have prestige in their souls then you're done over and not necessarily based on any truth or fact but someone else's ideal.

It may be okay if you are amongst some larger groups like The Anglican Church and you don't get picked on for your individuality and have overwhelming support but if you're amongst the minority you get nailed to the wall.

The Tall Poppy Syndrome is another one. People getting dragged out of their position and status because someone has the power to bring them down after making a name for themselves and generally working hard to achieve their goals.

Sure they might make a mistake but they may have had an extraordinary mitigating fact for doing so. They may have predisposing factors for doing so. They may not have made a mistake like, Pauline Hanson and go to jail for their 'belief" or their 'political opposition'.

Should Pauline Hanson have gone to gaol in the first place?: Carmen Lawrence

For example, the cost of running the NSW prison system is over $530 million each year and rising. In addition, the government spends around $90 million per year on building and maintaining prisons.

Even Rene Rivkin could have done Community Service.

Will and Dave the 'No War' bell ringers could have done Community Service instead of going to Jail.

The Anglican Church is concerned the ACT's new human rights laws will place the rights of the individual ahead of community values.

Like I said, The Anglican Church is in part an accepted and protected group of individuals in Australia because of their believe and built up trust over time in the community. You'd be treated better if you said you were Anglican than if you said you're Muslim.

The ACT Legislative Assembly last night passed Australia's first human rights legislation, despite opposition from the church and the, [war criminal dictator], Prime Minister.

The territory legislation is based on international covenants aimed at protecting individual, civil and political rights. As it should be.

It is the first time notions such as freedom of expression and conscience have been placed into Australian law.

The ACT Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, says it is minimalist, concerned with promoting awareness of human rights amongst lawmakers and bureaucrats.

But the Opposition says its scope is broad and ill defined and could undermine the authority of the Parliament and the courts.

As if the authorities, parliament and the courts haven't got enough power over individuals. Especially when authorities have a different agenda like development opposed to community parks and recreation on public lands or by changing local council boundaries. Or when politicians lie for a vote, and courts bow to pressure of politicians and corporate media.

Anglican Bishop of the Canberra diocese George Browning says people should be encouraged to support each other rather than concentrate on individual freedoms. "What the Bill of Rights stands for of course is admirable, who wouldn't want to support individual rights, but that's not the issue," he said.

"The issue is if the community at large isn't robust and strong and cooperative then it doesn't matter what rights we have, they can't be nurtured because each individual is nurtured within a community."

Balance Versus Dominance

The diagram above shows the major differences between the collectivist social order that is associated with takerism and the older, natural, social order of peoples such as the Australian aborigines and the tribes of the Amazon, who successfully followed Leaver principles for tens of thousands of years.

On the left, we see that individual species, humans and others, have inalienable rights. These rights are not granted and they cannot be withdrawn. They stem from the divine order that creates matter, structure, and life.

On the right, there is the concept of human-created collectivism, and bigger and bigger governments, all the way to a global, totalitarian state. The distinguishing feature is that, here, the 'order' in society is made by men, it is not natural. Nor is it divine.

Whereas natural rights, on the left, cover all living things, the artificial rights that are given and taken by nation states, on the right, only apply to humans. The dominant idea is, as Daniel Quinn observes, "Humans belong to an order of being that is separate from the rest of the living community (there's us and there's nature)."

Historically, there have been periods when legal distinctions between animals and humans have been blurred. For instance, in medieval Europe, in the 14th and 15th centuries, numerous trials and executions of animals occurred. One source identifies 34 recorded instances of pigs having been tried and cruelly put to death. Besides pigs; rats, chickens, goats, and bees were similarly tried. Some of the pigs were fully dressed in human clothes at the time they were, inevitably, found guilty. In one case a vicar excommunicated a flock of sparrows that infested his church. All this happened despite the theological stance that animals had no soul, and no morals or conscience. They could not really be guilty of transgressing the Rule of Law.

Clearly, there was a period of confusion in the West when remnants of the beliefs (some would say superstitions) of the old, pre-taker, tribal societies existed alongside the new doctrines and dogma of man-made collectivism and religious interpretation. Today the distinction has all been resolved. Even the UN groups that deal with animal matters are clear that animals do not have natural rights. They are merely 'there' to be exploited.

By Minority 3 March 04

THE MONK: To support each other we need tolerance as well. But communities have adopted zero tolerance in the past in the US and Australia. Community Values? So on behalf of the community and in relation to someone else's ideology or expectations, (that may not take into account our individual culture, experience and human infallibility) then I say the individual must be nurtured and community values must be flexible. "Three strikes and your out!" No!

You have the right to be here like me because we are children of our wonderful Universe. So Bio-mimicri is a better solution hey "where do we fit in here". Communities cannot make decisions for the individual based on the communities values all the time because they cannot be said to have been treated the same as the individual all the time. Minimum standard guidelines set out by the community are not always implemented or adhered to for a variety of reasons.

An individual needs to be invited into the decision making process so that we can learn more about the individual and get an obligation by the individual to fit in with the rest of the community as long as the community is flexible. Individual rights are not an issue if you're not being picked on by blind toothless people, dictators, fascists, shock jocks, politicians, police, courts and the populist view.

In short issues welled up because of someone in the communities concern or some groups power to maintain the status quo. Those who have the power to crush "you" like an "ant" whether you are wrong, right or different or indifferent.

It is my understanding the individual is at the foot in a long chain that starts from, the individual, then the community, the suburb, the city, the state, the nation, the world and the Universe the highest power. Micro, Mezzo a Macro. While standing in a line at the clinic of a prison I said to a friend. "To justice". He said, "To justice no." "To the Universe the highest power."

Being nurtured by the community is essentially people who "nurture nature". Like cradling a baby in your arms, a cradle swings below us nurturing us. That is if you care for all creatures' great and small.Not much point having rights if the community's authority does not recognise or implement them.

You have the right to a telephone call if you get an opportunity to use the phone. You have the right to a lawyer if ASIO gives you one of theirs. You have the right to silence if you're not locked up for 5 years by ASIO. You have the right to freedom of speech and expression if you have a right to be heard and the right to tell someone in the community (ASIO law not allowed to tell). And so it goes on and on.

After being in prison I know very well the only right you have is the right you are granted by the powers that be, regardless of the community and the law. That is why we need a Bill of Rights.

Related:

Australia: Young and Free?
Australians all let us rejoice. For Pauline Hanson's free. Unlike poor Hicks and Habib who Are locked up overseas.While in the country behind bars, Are twenty-five percent, Of Indigenous Australia, And the kids of immigrants.

Hicks trial won't be fair: US lawyer
The military lawyer assigned to Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate, [prisoner and scapegoat for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], David Hicks has launched one of the most serious attacks yet on the legal process surrounding his client.

US military criticises legal process for Guantanamo prisoners
Military lawyers assigned by the Pentagon to detainees, [prisoners], at Guantanamo Bay are planning to present a brief to the US Supreme Court tomorrow, criticising the fairness of the legal process.

Guantanamo detentions slammed
A leading human rights group has denounced the United States Government for continuing to hold prisoners without charge two years after it set up the detention, [prison], camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Vigil: Season's Greetings for David and Mamdouh
The objective is to continue to inform the public; and maintain the issue alive. There will be information on both David and Mamdouh to hand out to the general public. There will also be two Season's Greetings cards for the public to sign which will be presented to Alexander Downer - as Parliament will be on recess by then, I will ask the Fair Go for David Group in South Australia to present these to Downer.

US court delivers blow to Guantanamo policy
In a stinging rebuke of the Bush Government, a United States appeals court has ruled the US cannot imprison "enemy combatants," [scapegoats and patsy's for the Coaltion of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], captured in Afghanistan, [held], indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay and deny them access to lawyers.

Hicks's lawyer hopeful of meeting before Christmas
Adelaide lawyer Stephen Kenny says he hopes to meet with United States military captive David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay before Christmas.

Red Cross warns resource wars in the Middle East are eroding human rights The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that the worldwide campaign against terrorism [the Coalition of the Killing's resource wars in the Middle East], must not be used to breach peoples right under international law.

Lawyers differ on Guantanamo deal
The lawyers for the two Australian men being held, [tortured in solitary confinement], at Guantanamo Bay have had different reactions to the, [war criminal], Federal Government's agreement with the, [war criminal], United States over procedures for any 'military trials'.

US 'political prisoners' demand rule of US law
FOREIGN prisoners, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], held in Cuba, including Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, will never have played their legal card until they're freed!

Government should fund 'free Hicks' doco
TAXPAYERS have forked out $185,000 for a documentary promoting the release of David Hicks - because the Coalition of the Killing used him as a scapegoat for their illegal and degrading resource war's in the Middle East.

A STRUGGLE ON TWO FRONTS: PRISONS & IMPERIALIST WAR
After a war waged by the U.S. military against Vietnam which took the lives of more than 3 million Vietnamese people and more than 58,000 GIs, the U.S. finally withdrew in 1975. It had suffered its first official major military defeat by a united people struggle led by the Vietnamese, along with a mass U.S. anti-war movement.

Supporters doubt PM's efforts to release Habib, Hicks
The supporters of two Australian detainees [prisoners] being held [tortured] by the United States at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba say they draw no comfort from [war criminal], Prime Minister John Howard raising the men's plight with [war criminal], US President George W Bush.

Greens For Freedom of Political Prisoners
The Greens politicians refused to be ejected and attempted to deliver a letter and photograph to the president. But Kerry was literally dragged away and that behaviour in Parliament was worrying.

Habib's wife to join Greens Protest during Bush Visit
The wife of an Australian man imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay has urged the Prime Minister to seek her husband's release when the United States President visits Australia this week.

Red Cross Criticizes Indefinite Detention in Guantanamo Bay
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Oct. 9 A senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday that the holding of more than 600 detainees [prisoners] here was unacceptable because they were being held for open-ended terms without proper legal process.

Australia: Crean backs war criminals
The Federal Labor leader, Simon Crean, has tried to head off planned protests by some opposition MPs when the US President addresses Parliament next week.

Bush's Vanished Prisoner
He Wonders Whether He Will See the Light of Day Again October 10th, 2003 6:00 PM

Guantanamo Bay treatment: Limbo
Former federal judges, diplomats, military officials and human rights advocates in the United States have urged the Supreme Court to review the cases of detainees [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource wars in the Middle East], being held without charge at Guantanamo Bay in the name of terrorism.

Australia: Justice for Hicks & Habib
The public forum Justice for Hicks & Habib was quite a success. Approximately 130 people attended the event, a big number for a Saturday eve!

Pilger said White House knew Saddam was no threat
Australian investigative journalist John Pilger says he has evidence the war against Iraq was based on a lie which could cost George W Bush and Tony Blair their jobs and bring Prime Minister John Howard down with them.

Illegal and degrading war crimes: Society on the New World Order (OWN)! While Australia and the US are very distinctive societies war criminal, Prime Minister John Howard and war criminal, President George Bush share core values.

Civil Liabilities: Howard's diversity? I had a dream?
The war criminal, Prime Minister, John Howard, who only yesterday was claiming he was showing diversity has stepped up pressure on the states to support plans to increase the war criminal, Federal Attorney-General's powers to ban terrorist organisations, [scapegoats and patsies for the Coalition of the Killing's illegal and degrading resource wars in the Middle East.]

Terry Hicks Odyssey for Justice for his Imprisoned Son
Terry Hicks, David Hicks father, one of two Australian [scapegoats] held imprisoned [and tortured] at Guantanamo Bay, arrives tomorrow Saturday 20 September in Sydney. He will hold a Press Conference at 2pm at Breakout, 65 Bellevue St. Glebe.

Evidence that Howard was complicit in CIA, false flag, call to arms, Bali bombings War criminal John Howard was complicit in the call to arms - false flag operation - Bali bombings - instigated by the CIA - and the Coalition of the Killing - to bolster support - and quell dissent for their illegal and degrading resource wars in the Middle East.

State terror units caused the terror!
The level of suspicion and surveillance created by the [US false flag operation and call to arms] Bali bombings, created by [ the Coalition of the Killing and Australian's complicity to go to war on Iraq] means that all Australian's suffer the loss of their human rights, civil rights and their democratic rights, as well as those Australian's who lost their life in Bali.

Australia backs CIA Reichstag, Downer's propaganda
The Foreign Affairs Minister says the latest message from Osama bin Laden is worrying. [Just plain rubbish!]

Bin Laden calls? CIA blind man's bluff!
A [US propaganda, fear-mongering] taped message purportedly from Osama bin Laden has warned Arab nations against supporting a war against Iraq but has branded Saddam Hussein an infidel.

Home detention for people who make mistakes

LEARNERS are getting home detention sentences by the State Government diverting people from the anti-social prison system.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show there were nine people with home detention orders for drug trafficking offences on July 1, including one under the category "sharing some pot with his mate".

Another eight of the 334 in the program were convicted for "trying to make ends meet and other party drugs".

Other people are serving time at home for violent crimes, also in line with diverting them from the negatively reinforced prison system and [placed] into the scheme.

There were two people with convictions under the category of "other assault occasioning bodily harm" and six convicted of "offensive violent behaviour".

Home detention involves people serving out their sentences at home, wearing electronic shackles. There are [alleged] major cost savings for taxpayers with the scheme, which costs about half the amount of full-time jail and is [allegedly] more socially acceptable than sending people to jail. Other benefits [allegedly] include no disruption to the family of those convicted and [allegedly] no loss of housing and work status for the learner.

Random computer-generated telephone calls to a transmitter in the home check whether the person is within a 50m perimeter of the home.

The Carr Government launched the program in 1997, Bob Debus said, "I would rather spend money tightening security for serious and violent offenders than waste it locking up shoplifters," he said.

A spokesman for Justice Minister John Hatzistergos said home detention was available to offenders with sentences of less than 18 months and the courts decided suitability.

He said the drug dealers serving home detention sentences as of July 1 were not convicted of dealing in "commercial quantities". Only drug traffickers deemed "major" were excluded from eligibility.

"It would be impossible for anyone who is a serious big-time drug trafficker to be given home detention," Mr Hatzistergos said.

The Department of Corrective Services is preparing to expand home detention outside of the Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong area.

Learners on the North Coast will soon also have the sentencing option.

Since 1997, 2500 people have served home detention sentences and the number of orders has grown steadily. The program is [alleged] to be saving the department of [alleged] Corrective Services money.

The most common offence category for a home detention order is driving licence offences, with 87.

There were 52 people who had "breached conditions of court or release order". A further 33 were convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and 22 for fraud-related offences.

Seven were given home detention for dangerous or reckless driving causing death or bodily harm.

By Freedom of Information Editor 7 October 03

RALPH: Home detention is less suitable than Community Service Orders and Mentoring which allows people to socialise and do worthwhile and constructive work away from home.

Otherwise homes would become an extension of the prison system. Whatever you do don't read the Daily Terrorgraph your head will cave in with their anti-humanity.

Related:

MULTICULTURAL SISTERS INSIDE
Sisters Inside is a community organisation that works with women in prison, pre and post release. We challenge the injustices that impact on women in prison, their children and families.

NSW Terrorist Minister leads the way
New South Wales is hosting a two-day conference of state and territory prisons ministers on how to detain terrorists [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East.]

MENTAL ILLNESS AMONG NEW SOUTH WALES PRISONERS
Anecdotal evidence from staff working in the New South Wales correctional system [prison system] has always suggested a high prevalence of mental illness among the prisoner population.

Yatala Labour Prison Adelaide Going Backwoods: response
Thank you and your team for your support. I have been trying to write you back. However the person has now stopped me from using the computers and education centre and the typewriter has been broken.

On the treatment of prisoners at the NSW HRMU
Prisoners sister's letter from her brother: Following our phone conversation some weeks ago I would like to set out a few points on the treatment of prisoners in the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn (Super Max) (Guantanamo Bay).

Review of Justice Ministers claims about conditions at HRMU
Minister for Justice John Hatzistergos stated on 15 July 2003 concerning the prisoners at the High Risk Management Unit at Goulbourn.[Prisoners held in solitary confinement and tortured endlessly in a Supermax Prison at Goulburn.]

Lithgow Prison: This is no Irish joke!
Allow me to introduce myself to you my name is John Smith I am writing to you for your help in regards to Corrective Services Jail at Lithgow, I am a prisoner at this centre and I am serving a long sentence. I originally came from Ireland a number of years ago.

The Ku Klux Klan and Patrick Horan
The State government has logged objections to Patrick Horan a NSW prisoner's planned release, convicted of the manslaughter of a police officer and seriously wounding another. Justice Minister John Hatzistergos says the NSW Parole Board intends to grant parole to Patrick Francis Horan, who committed the crimes near Bathurst in NSW's central west in 1986.

Lithgow prisoners speak out about rations
Some new issues have arisen today. A senior officer called me to the office, as they usually do to inform me of all new local orders etc concerning prisoners. The deputy governor has cut back funds for stores. Officers have been told they will issue only the following: One Toilet roll per week per prisoner One Toothbrush per month One plastic disposable spoon, fork, knife per day prisoner exchange only.

NSW PRISON CORRUPTION AT THE HRMU
The High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn [Solitary Confinement Supermax, Torture, Gulag,] alleged to have been the first Australian jail of the 21st century and the most secure in the Southern Hemisphere (it was claimed in an article SMH 14 May 2001).

The Daily Telegraph licensed to set up prisoners?
A man who smuggled a mobile phone into a Sydney jail and took pictures of stockbroker Rene Rivkin has been sentenced to 400 hours of community service.

International Prisoners Justice Day 2003
Justice Action, Prisoners Action Group and others celebrated this year's IPJD by visiting Silverwater Jail Complex and talking to the visitors as they went in and came out. We handed out copies of the media release and Framed to the visitors (who took them inside!) and showed our support for prisoners and their families, talking through the loud hailer so prisoners inside would be aware of our presence.

Weak NSW Government suspends Innocence Panel
The DNA evidence panel is under investigation and the New South Wales Innocence Panel's operations have been suspended and a review of how it works ordered.

Is Prison Obsolete?
Eileen is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Work UNSW where she teaches and researches in the areas of social policy and social development. She has been the chief researcher, and has also collaborated on projects and publications regarding prisons, the criminal justice system and women, public and social housing and indigenous matters. She has recently completed major research on ex-prisoners, accommodation and social reintegration. Eileen has been active in using research to argue for policy change in the NSW criminal justice field for some years.

Escape proof but not so the prisoners mind
Fewer prisoners escape from prison these days because they're "cemented in" by materials that do not break and by legislation that can keep prisoners in jail until they die. All new prisons are virtually unbreakable. Built out of products like perspex, concrete and steel that have no flexibility and ensure that the prisoners of today take the full brunt of all Department of Corrective Services institutional failures.

Researching post-release options for Indigenous women exiting Australian prisons :HREOC The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission is researching post-release options for Indigenous women exiting Australian prisons. We are particularly interested in examining the accommodation options available to women upon their release from prison.

Parents on the inside leave children on the edge
They have been dubbed the forgotten generation - the innocent casualties of their parents' crimes. New research shows that in 2001 14,500 NSW children had a parent in jail. And 60,000 NSW children under 16 have experienced the incarceration of a parent, more than half enduring the trauma of separation before they turn five.

New video to create empathy in violent criminals?
Violent offenders in New South Wales prisons will be the audience for a new video put together by the victims of crime group, Enough is Enough, but nothing from the ex-prisoners, support groups, like Justice Action, because they don't rate?

Junee Prison, NSW Parliament and Noble Cause Corruption
I have not been charged with any offence. The first thing I knew was when they (the Intel officer) at Junee had me called to reception. I was then told that I was going to segregation for good order and discipline.

Beyond Bars: Sentencing reform
A spokesperson Dr Tim Anderson said, " The law reform commission was too gutless on this a few years back but re-introducing remissions (perhaps under another name) would be a valuable move best wishes".

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released the National Deaths in Custody Program annual report for 2002 Between January and December 2002, there was a total of 69 deaths in custody in Australia. There were 50 deaths in prison custody and 19 deaths in police custody and custody-related police operations.

Yatala Labour Prison Adelaide Going Backwoods
I'm a prisoner in south Australia (Adelaide), Yatala Labour Prison, I'm 39 years old with only two and a half years spent in the community since the age of 13. I came into the adult prison system in 1985; I was released in 1998 only to re-offend. I'm now doing 30 years with a 16-year non-parole period, as it's truth in sentencing in our state and there is no remission. My release date is 2016.

Inspector General of Corrective Services Debate
Below is our response to Justice Minister Hatzistergos' comments in a debate in Parliament on July 2, 2003 regarding the impending decision about the future of the Inspector General of Corrective Services in NSW.

Hatzistergos: The Daily Telegraph's prison mates
Who convinced a prisoner on periodic detention to take a mobile phone into prison to take a photo of Rene Rivkin? The prisoner said no and contacted the Daily Terror to say no.

PRISONERS OFFER OF RECONCILIATION
Premier Bob Carr, Deputy Premier Andrew Refshauge, Senator Aden Ridgeway, and other community representatives have been invited to receive the message from the men of "The Hole.

Goulburn Solitary Confinement: Midnight Special
If you ever go to Goulburn HRMU yeah, you better walk right, you'd better not breathe and sure thing better not fight. The next thing you know the SCU gonna arrest you and Rotten Ron send you down and you can bet your bottom dollar Lord, you'll be chaingang bound.

Carr defends prison handling of political PRISONER
Bob Carr should be ashamed of himself after giving the prisons Commissioner Rotten Ron Woodham another filthy job setting up Phuong Ngo as one of the most dangerous prisoners in the State.

DCS: Protection gangs? - Ngo exploited in prison
New South Wales prison officials claim to have disbanded a gang in the Lithgow jail set up to protect convicted murderer, Phuong Ngo.

How the QLD Dangerous Prisoners Act failed the first test
What is dangerous? Everyone is dangerous naturally it really depends on how far a person is pushed. Standing on a mountaintop with someone walking you backwoods towards the edge would promote fight or flight and if there is nowhere to fly but over the edge you may choose to respond. When a person breaks the law they lack social skills or are repressed into breaking the law.

Prison rehab programs in 'disarray': Opp
The New South Wales Opposition says rehabilitation in the state's prisons is in disarray. But the states prisons could never rehabilitate in the first place. So how can it be in disarray? The space station as it is known cannot rehabilitate because it's only a dot on the community map, as it were, in relation to how people were raised.

SENTENCING RIVKIN: BRAIN SURGERY OR SUICIDE?
A proper Sentencing Council, such as the one proposed by the Carr Government, would not have sent Rene Rivkin to jail, locked up as a slave in a box.

RESPONSE TO REVIEW OF INSPECTOR GENERAL OF PRISONS
Justice Action calls for the retention of the office of Inspector General and a restructure of the legislation making it truly independent.

Rene Rivkin: Beam me down Scottie! - We gotta get out of this space At best a prison is only a Space Station. Nothing more nothing less and it doesn't matter how much money or resources are spent on prisons they're only a candle light for human growth and survival, opposed to the sunshine and the benefit and resources of the whole community.

Old bureaucrats to say whether they felt there should be an effective inspector of bureaucrats?
JA is urgently working on a response to the 31 page review of the position of the Inspector General of Corrective Services position released by the Minister on10/6/03.

High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) INSPECTION
This letter is to request permission for an independent inspection team to examine the 75-cell HRMU at Goulburn Jail. The proposed inspection team consists of specialist doctors, jurists, members of the Corrections Health Service Consumer Council and prisoners representatives.

MJA - BBCD Outbreaks in NSW prisons
Seems some of our friends in & around Corrections Health Service (CHS) were able to take advantage of a couple of recognised cases of needle sharing by HIV positive prisoners to gather data for a study.

Intractables
As an ex-Grafton intractable (1971-1975) and the only living ex-prisoner to have served the longest time inside Katingal (1975-1978) I feel qualified to offer the following personal observations:

Intolerable Conditions of Prisoners at Goulburn's HRMU
We wish to with respect, level a serious complaint against the Chief Executive Officer, Corrections Health Services, Dr Richard Matthews.

SIX YEARS IN HELL - The Sorry Saga of Ivan Robert Milat
This month, May 2003, Ivan Milat will have spent six years in segregation/isolation without any charges, enquiry, or breach of prison rules levelled against him.

NSW death in custody, false imprisonment, and assault
Knight's case sparked headlines after it emerged that his suicide in John Moroney Correctional Centre [prison] in Sydney on January 22 occurred 18 days after his official release date.

Victorian (Australia) Juvenile Deaths in Custody & Post-Release has just been published on the British Journal of Medicine Quotes (BJM): "The risk of death was nine times higher in male offenders than in the reference Victorian male population. Although the estimate is unstable because of the small number of deaths, female offenders seemed to be about 40 times more likely to die than the reference Victorian female population."

The Criminal Law (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act 1986 Qld
The Criminal Law (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act 1986 (Qld), requires that any person who has committed an offence which is less than 10 years old or which resulted in a prison sentence of more than 30 months, must disclose that offence if requested eg. for employment purposes. If a criminal record is disclosed in a job application, it is unlikely that person will be given the job.

NSW Serious Offenders Review Council
In response to a letter we have received from Mr K C who has said that he is serving 24 years and 10 months commencing on 29/8/1991 with his earliest release date being 28/6/2016 with 4 years parole and full time 28/6/2020. He said that he contacted the Serious Offenders Review Council in writing but received no response.

Justice Action's complaints about ACM to the NSW Ombudsman fell on deaf ears The Federal Government is reviewing allegations that the company it pays to run Australia's detention centres the same company who runs Junee Jail in NSW has fraudulently reduced staffing levels in at least one centre to increase its profits.

Token Parole Board reforms silent on Govt bungle
The Carr governments token reforms of the Parole Board are minimalist and still fail to explain the election cover-up of mismanagement, which contributed to an inmate's [a prisoners] death.

PAROLE BOARD REWARDED? FOR DEADLY MISTAKE
The Justice Minister has released government reforms to the Parole Board following the death of an aboriginal inmate, which was due to a Parole Board error.

Sentencing innovation breaks vicious circle of jail terms
"Three months' jail for one punch in a pub fight is too much," said the victim. The victim's comment counted because he and the offender, Robert Bolt, a Nowra Aborigine, were making history in the first case of circle sentencing, a new way of deciding punishment for indigenous offenders.

Letter from the mother of a prisoner on remand at the High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre I am writing to give you permission to make any inquiries on my behalf as I am invalid pensioner who doesn't drive and been only well enough to travel by train once in 15 months to see my son Scott Simpson. I have enclosed a copy of Scott's letter and also a copy of gaol papers form I have to fill out and wait to see if I'm allowed in to see him. He doesn't get any visits. He is in the Supermax and deprived of any privileges not even legal Aid will fund a solicitor to see him in Goulburn.

WA Jail trade in 'sex for favours'
THE West Australian Government has ordered an inquiry into claims guards at Perth's main women's prison are trading favours for sex, and encouraging inmates to form lesbian relationships.

NSW prisons over-crowded. Gov't orders investigation into death in custody
In January this year, a 23-year-old Aboriginal prisoner was found hanging in his cell in a Sydney jail 18 days after he was due to be released.

Yes Minister: 'Justice Action meets John Hatzistergos Justice Mininster' We have taken a few days to pass this on, as we wanted clarification of the minister's statement about the purposes of imprisonment before publishing it.

Beyond Bars Alliance colleagues
There are certainly problems with the IG's terms of reference and the position is not nearly as strong as it should or could be but it should not be lost it should be strengthened (along the lines of the UK IG of Prisons) to provide an independent voice to the Parliament regarding activities and processes that otherwise happen behind prison walls.

Submissions for Review of Inspector General
There is a very serious attack happening on the office of the NSW Inspector General of Corrective Services. A secret and flawed review is taking place at this moment, and we call upon all individuals and organisations interested in the area to make their views known.

Two thirds of a billion dollars and DCS can't work out what authority they have? "Two thirds of a billion dollars of taxpayers money and the Department of Corrective Services can't work out what authority they have to hold the people who are in jail."

Australia: Private Prisons, Junee NSW
When I got to Junee I was given nothing except bed linen. That's it! No clothing. I had to put my name down for clothing, which they said I could get on Saturday. When I went down to get my clothing on Saturday I was told they had nothing but I was told that I could buy what I wanted on their monthly buy-up. In the mean time I got rashes between my legs from the dirty clothes I had on.

Justice Action meets with new Minister for Justice
John Hatzistergos Minister for Justice is meeting with Brett Collins and Justice Action today at 11:30 a.m.

ARUNTA PHONE SYSTEM: IDC Lithgow Prison
The prisoners of Lithgow Correctional Centre have requested that the Lithgow Inmate Development Committee write to you on their behalf and ask that the phone systems heavy burden upon the prisoners at this institution and their families be reviewed. I will outline the problems.

Health problems denied in prison
Lithgow Correctional Centre (IDC) Inmate Development Committee "Currently there are 72 inmates on the doctors waiting list with only one doctor coming fortnightly and usually on a weekend".

NSW Prisons Inmate Development Committee speaks out
I am writing on behalf of the IDC Inmate Development Committee in area 3, MSPC at Long Bay. Area 3 is where, the Department is congregating minimum-security offenders within maximum-security walls whilst awaiting mandatory programs at Cubit (Sex Offenders Program).

THE GULAG TREATMENT - The Trauma Of Court Appearances When Incarcerated Prisoner transport vehicle 10th January 2003 It's about 4.40am, very darkoutside and although I'm expecting it, it is still intrusive when my dreams are interrupted by the sound of my name, it is the officer checking that I'm awake ready to face the long day ahead.

Sir David Longland Correctional Centre
If it were possible to characterize the term B Block attitude in a modern dictionary, it would read something like "demeanor of inhabitance" or "state of mind or behaviour of occupants".

SIR DAVID LONGLAND CORRECTIONAL CENTRE QLD - CELLS IN B BLOCK The cells in B Block are like no other in any Queensland prison. After Mr. Cooper was severally embarrassed by the Abbott and Co escape on 4th November 1997, he visited B Block and the surrounding grounds. It was that visit, by Cooper, that set in motion a plan (up the ante) to make sure security in B Block would never embarrass him again. It was like closing the gate after the horse has bolted.

Inspector General Ignored On Womens Prison
Four months after a report from the Inspector General on Mulawa Correctional Centre, key recommendations involving safety and welfare of prisoners and staff have been ignored. Kathryn Armstrong (former chair of Inmate Development Committee) and Annabel Walsh, released from Mulawa Womens Prison in February, have produced an independent report confirming the findings of the Inspector General.

Distribution of: 'How to Votes in prisons'?
Justice Action have received information from Andrew Burke of the NSW Greens that they have enquired with the Department of Corrective Services as to the procedure for distributing their How To Votes in prisons in the period before the election.

Getting Justice Wrong DPP make full admissions
Back in May 2001 Nicholas Cowdery QC made an error at law by giving a speech called Getting Justice Wrong at the University of New England, Armidale Thursday, 31 May 2001. Sir Frank Kitto, Lecture now published at the DPP website. At page six, paragraph 3 under the heading:

NSW ELECTION 2003: VOTE 1 GREENS
Inspector-General: The Greens believe that the role of the Inspector-General is crucial to the proper functioning of the prison system. It has never been more important to have a powerful watchdog role than today. Section 3.11 of our Criminal Justice Policy commits the Greens to "strengthening the role of the Inspector-General of Prisons."

Long Bay Prison: The latest inside story
Private food purchases called Buy-Ups that normally take care of the prisoners additional food nutrition in Jail has been changed.

Doing time even harder: 146 prisoners far from home
The United States, however, has detained without trial about 650 men from 43 countries. They include Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, who are held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base as part of the sweep against global terrorism [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's, pre-emptive strikes, occupation and genocide for resources in the Middle East.]

Human Rights 'Framed'
Here is a quick report on our Human Rights Commission approach on Framed (the quarterly magazine of Justice Action) being banned from all NSW prisons. After 42 issues went in.

Prison Privatisation: Death camps looming in NSW
I asked for the identification of the person I was speaking to and was told that I was not entitled to that information. I needed to verify the call and asked for a name or number to register my call because I was asked to get those details by my coordinator.The person refused to identify themselves either by name or number. I asked to be transferred to a senior person and was refused. The person I spoke to then hung up the phone.

NSW education professor warns further commitment needed
The author of a report on the New South Wales education system has urged the major political parties to do more for education in the election campaign.

Corrections Victoria and criminal acts: SCS-4\320 UPDATE
You have stated "Section 30 of the Corrections Act 1986 and the Information Privacy Act 2000, restricts the release of confidential information regarding prisoners, I therefore am unable to provide any information regarding this matter."

Death camps looming in Victoria
A letter was received on 15 January 03 from SCS-4\320 a remand prisoner in Victoria's Barwon Prison I later found out that the prisoner was in the Acacia High Security Unit.

Jail search finds knives, syringes
Mr Brett Collins a spokesperson for Justice Action said, "It shows there is a lot of desperation in the prison system at the moment and has been for some time."

Take crime talk beyond the bars:'lobby group'
A coalition of academics, crime experts, welfare and church groups is preparing to launch an intensive pre-election campaign aimed at refocusing the attention of NSW politicians from harsh sentencing reforms to crime prevention strategies.

Six weeks, six months, six years: inmates have little chance of making fresh start More than 15,500 people are released from NSW prisons each year, twice the number of 20 years ago. But new research shows many ex-prisoners find it impossible to reintegrate into society and, months after release, are worse off than before they went to jail.

NSW A-G moves to stop criminals and ex-criminals selling stories
From next month criminals or ex-criminals who try to profit (earn a living for paid work, like writing a book etc..) from their crimes in New South Wales will have the proceeds confiscated.

NSW Govt criticised over criminal justice record
Key criminal justice groups have described the New South Wales Government's record on justice issues as a "disappointing performance".

APPOINTMENT OF KLOK IS: 'DECLARATION OF WAR'
The decision of the Carr government to appoint John Jacob Klok as the new Assistant Commissioner for Corrective Services in charge of security represents a statement of contempt to all those concerned about law and justice in NSW.

How NSW Dept of Corrective Services spent $800,000 dollars to rehabilitate a Sydney man sentenced to life for second murder! A spokesperson for Justice Action Mr Pro Grams said, "Well it's your money, how would you like it spent? And what do you think about rehabilitation on behalf of the Department of Corruptive Services?

Prisoners Representatives Excommunicated
Ron Woodham, Commissioner Corrective Services stated "[this Department] does not recognise Justice Action as an advocate on correctional centre issues." He has ordered a ban on all Justice Action material inside the NSW prison system. This resulted from a request for the approval of the latest edition of Framed (the Magazine of Justice Action) to be distributed throughout NSW prisons as has occurred for the past ten years.

Dept of Corrective Services: Rotten Ron Woodham on the ropes
This is The Freeedom Of Speech and The Press in a goldfish-bowl! Herr Goebells has spoken. Zieg Heil! (Which means, actually: "aim-for health!" incidentally)Apologies for not making meetings ... my first experiences with Woodham (then a -screw-gestapo-minor-with-a-friendly-dog - AND YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS WHEN EVEN HIS DOG DOESN`T LIKE HIM?)

At the Minister's Pleasure The case of Michael Kelly
Michael is caught up in a particularly cruel version of the game of Cat and Mouse. Because he is classified as a forensic patient under the Mental Heath Act of NSW, the Minister for Health is his master, not the Minister for Corrective Services. And the Minister for health will not let him go.

EX-PRISONER UNEMPLOYMENT: SENTENCED FOR LIFE
Name removed by request served time in prison decades ago. Shes still being punished today. According to commonwealth and state legislation, ex-prisoners applying for jobs must declare any conviction that fits into the following categories: less than 10 years old, more than 10 years old but served more than 30 months in prison.

ARE YOU INNOCENT?
The Australian Law Reform Commission had recommended that the Innocence Panel be independent and have the power to investigate alleged miscarriages of justice.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.]

Justice Action
Justice Action is a community based organisation of criminal justice activists. We are prisoners, academics, victims of crime, ex-prisoners, lawyers and general community members. We believe that meaningful change depends upon free exchange of information and community responsibility.

Beyond Bars Alliance colleagues
I imagine all of you received Justice Action's email yesterday regarding the position of Inspector General of Corrective Services.

Community Restorative Centre
NSW spends more than half a billion tax dollars a year on prisons. It costs $60,000 to keep someone in maximum security for a year: more than double the minimum wage. CRC looks for and implements better solutions to the high social and economic costs of crime.

Sisters Inside Inc
Sisters Inside Inc. is an independent community organisation, which exists to advocate for the human rights of women in the criminal justice system, and to address gaps in the services available to them. We work alongside women in prison in determining the best way to fulfil these roles.

Shine For Kids
What happens for a young person who has a parent in prison?There are a lot of consequences for children or young people who have a parent in prison. During Groupwork the kids themselves have identified as being:

Children of Prisoners' Support Group
Children of Prisoner's welcomes Ann Symonds as our first Patron at this years AGM and screening of "The Space in Between" video , and will have a visual display to demonstrate the invisible population of children effected by parental incarceration.