Ten things you should know about petrol sniffing

As a former youth worker working over the mid to late nineties with a large number of chronic 'chromers', and a two-year stint facilitating an illicit drug program for the Danila Dilba Medical Service, I have a unique insight to the petrol sniffing issue.

According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, petroleum is a: "hydrocarbon oil found in upper strata of earth, refined for use as fuel for heating and in internal combustion engines". So why on earth is the NT Labor Government seriously considering the prohibition of petrol in remote indigenous communities and just what is the "Volatile Substance Abuse Prevention Bill"?

According to the NT Department of Health and Community Services (DHCS), they have given up on addressing the petrol sniffing problem and they have turned to the 'justice' system for answers. You'll agree with their statement that: "Many of the causes of inhalant substance abuse, such as boredom and lack of employment and education options on remote communities, are not things which a health department is primarily responsible to change." Derr!!!

No guys, that's our - the people's - responsibility!

If the proposed 'Volatile Substance Abuse Prevention Bill' is passed; members of the NT police will have the power to seize substances such as petrol, glue and paint where they suspect they are being inhaled, or abused. They will also have the power to apprehend a petrol sniffer where they feel that they can be a danger to themselves or others.

For people with a chronic substance misuse problem the bill provides the capacity for courts to order compulsory treatment programs. If they fail to comply with the treatment, a Magistrate can issue a warrant to take them to the place of treatment. They will not incur a jail sentence for leaving a treatment program, but for how long that clause lasts remains to be seen.

Where a compulsory course of treatment is not adhered to, support staff - with the support of the court - "will intervene to encourage compliance". If a chronic sniffer commits crimes that do carry jail penalties, then that will be considered by a court however the Government wants to reassure us by stating that an "act of petrol sniffing on its own will not involve a prison sentence."

The NT Government is promising ten million dollars over five years to go towards treatment programs that "support the legislation".

They have promised 'treatment centres' that will be set up throughout the Territory and will involve isolating sniffers from substances and "providing them with a supportive environment to help them to get back on track." There is scant if any detail.

The bill is also aimed at cracking down on people who "sell or supply volatile substances to users." In true 'war on drugs' parlance, the FAQ information sheet put out by the NT Department of Justice (DOJ) states: "We take restricting supply so seriously that we are giving protection to informants." There is no indication as to whether or not their will be a new offence of 'petrol-trafficing', let alone an indication of the number of litres of petrol considered a trafficable or commercial quantity under the threatened regime.

As an aside, the NT Police claimed in July 2004 that: "A 23-year-old man will face court following his arrest for allegedly supplying petrol to teenagers." He was charged with "supplying a volatile substance."

The Greens have called for a Royal Commission or Senate Inquiry into the issue but I fail to see how another inquiry can benefit anyone other than the legal eagles involved. Look at the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody. Many of its recommendations are still ignored.

Take recommendation 143 for example: "All persons taken into custody, including those persons detained for intoxication, should be provided with a proper meal at regular meal times." This is one example of a recommendation being ignored. It is breached every afternoon when Berrimah prison inmates are given a pitiful 'breakfast' that they are supposed to save until morning; the result being that the prisoners go without a decent breakfast. But I digress.

Some indigenous Community Councils and many Territory youth agencies have put in their two-bobs-worth. Their solution: 'Opal', BP's 'non-sniffable' petrol. A lot of people are arguing that this should be introduced as the only petrol available in Central Australia. This would give BP a lovely monopoly.

BP of course, with a profit after tax of $852 million in 2004, maybe isn't as innocent as the company appears at first glance.

What would you expect from a corporation with a turnover last year in excess of 285 billion US dollars? You can bet your bottom dollar BP has the patent for Opal and they see this whole issue as a lovely revenue-raiser!

The BP website tells us: "Petrol sniffing has become a concern in outback communities in Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia and it is estimated that more than 1,000 people are affected by sniffing, which leads to permanent disability and premature death."

The Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) is also on the bandwagon with regards to petrol sniffing. In a July 2005 media release, ANCD member and Chair of the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee (NIDAC), Associate Professor Ted Wilkes stated: "The ANCD has again heard about the extent and impact of petrol sniffing in Indigenous communities."

Yes, petrol sniffing has "become a concern", thanks to the ongoing alarmist and sensationalist media coverage of the issue - fuelled by the marketing and publicity people at BP's Elizabeth Street offices in Melbourne.

Alice Springs Alderman and 'Opal' supporter Melanie van Haaren recently told ABC radio: "We are taking on a cause with enormous commitment and gusto."

The ANCD are also backing Opal.

Commitment and gusto are admirable qualities. However, when deciding what to do about petrol sniffing, the fundamental principle you should keep in the back of your mind is that any 'solution' must reduce harm - not maximise it (The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines 'maximise' as: "increase or enhance to the utmost").

The following are some things you should consider when trying to address the issue of petrol sniffing in remote indigenous communities:

1. The criminalisation of petrol sniffing is just another bandaid that we would expect from those wound up in electoral politics. It takes the focus away from the root cause of the problem - the inherent structural racism faced by the Indigenous community in Australia and the reality of the poverty that some communities are forced to endure. As Major Michael Mori, the lawyer representing David Hicks said (referring to recent changes to the military tribunal faced by Hicks): "You can slap a new coat of paint on the outside of a house with broken foundations, but it doesn't fix the problem."

2. Together with the NT Government's 'war on longgrassers'. The criminalisation of petrol sniffing will further marginalise and criminalise a section of the community who are already targeted disproportionately by the 'justice' system. Young people and members of the indigenous community generally suffer an inordinate amount of police harassment and attention. The Territory's indigenous incarceration rate is higher than ever before. This can only increase under the proposed legislation. The recent establishment of the 'Remote Area Drug Desk' by the NT police Drug Enforcement Section is only compounding this.

3. It is public knowledge that Berrimah jail is well overcrowded. With the one hand, The Territory's Attorney-General, Peter Toyne MLA, says his department is working on alternatives to prison for non-violent crimes to ease pressure on the jail system - with the other hand they risk increasing the number of non-violent offenders in the prison system. This is typical of prohibitive approaches to substance misuse. It contradicts what Family and Community Services Minister Delia Lawrie has said. Delia claims: "part of that (our) approach is treating teenage substance abuse as a health issue not a criminal problem."

4. There are much cheaper alternatives to criminalisation. We must see the implementation of the full-range of youth services, crisis services, accommodation services as well as the mainstream youth services and drop-in centres. These are only bandaid solutions but surely we need a positive way for the government to spend its money instead of the zero-tolerance approach; and surely that is a saner way to expend money other than the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan!

5. Prohibition has never worked and there is no reason to suggest that it will work in remote indigenous communities. It failed with Alcohol in the USA, it is failing now despite the US led 'war on drugs' and it even fails in countries such as Singapore and China, who execute people for possessing certain amounts of certain substances deemed illegal by the state. Why on earth would we want to increase the list of substances that we prohibit in vain? The stated aim of the NT Government is to: "To provide a strategic framework that reduces the occurrence of, and harm resulting from, petrol and other inhalant substance abuse in the Northern Territory". The prohibition of petrol and/or petrol sniffing will maximise - not reduce - harm.

6. Police aren't trained to deal with petrol sniffers and the jails have no facilities to cope with them either. Placing petrol sniffers behind bars is extremely dangerous and it flies in the face of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The seriously under-funded mental health system is already feeling the strain with a high burden of substance misuse in the Territory. The NT Government should be spending money on improving the Territory's mental health services rather than building more jails.

7. Despite all the hype - damage from petrol sniffing is reversible. A Northern Territory research centre has discovered the brain can completely recover from damage caused by petrol sniffing. Sheree Cairney, a researcher at the Menzies School of Health Research, told ABC radio in November last year that former petrol sniffers can regain the ability to concentrate, remember, learn and control emotions. Psychiatrist Rob Parker, who has been treating petrol sniffers for more than twenty years, says the research will provide an incentive for sniffers to stop. This is a far cry from the total social devastation focussed on by some parts of the media. As we know, the corporate media play an important role in diverting our attention from the genocide faced by Australia's indigenous community and the illegal Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

8. The responses to petrol sniffing reek of racism. Despite claims that the Volatile Substance Bill will target 'chromers' in the urban centres, it appears that 'as usual', people in remote indigenous communities are the target of the legislation. The Federal and State/Territory Governments are well aware that it is their policies of neglect and impoverishment that result in substance misuse in remote indigenous communities. The State's aim is to manage public perception until the next election, when who ever wins comes out with a whole raft of 'new' ideas. While the State looks like the good guy as it funds a series of bandaid projects, it uses issues like petrol sniffing to deflect blame for the impoverishment in remote communities. The blame is deflected firmly onto the community elders. The oppressor blames the oppressed for their own oppression. It is another diversion from the Federal Government's war on Iraq and Afghanistan, costing the taxpayer a whole lot more than the ten million they have committed for the introduction of 'Opal'.

9. The NT Police already have way too much power. With the 'drug house' laws, asset confiscation laws (supported by the Northern Territory News) and pending legislation targeting longgrassers, the NT Police have far too much power. They are even involved in writing legislation. In the past year, police have used their powers to seize 119 cars, the penalty for grog-running in the NT being automatic confiscation of the vehicle. This practice disproportionately effects remote indigenous communities and is another example of the racist application of laws in Australia's Top End.

10. The sad reality is that in the current climate, where the corporatists have free reign, close to nothing will be done to address the root causes of petrol sniffing. Remote indigenous communities are one of the key dilemmas faced by state officials. There is often limited transport in and out of the community, the services - including schools - are totally inadequate, the housing is overcrowded, there is no work. Alcoholism and in some cases violence and sexual abuse are rampant. There are no business opportunitiesÉ and when they come to one of the major centres we tell them: "no humbug" and order them "back to their country".

The Magistrates even 'banish' people to their communities. This only applies to indigenous people. Obviously I couldn't be banished to the UK (well, not easily). This is another example of the pervasive racism that has a stronghold in Australia's Top End.

Rather than banish indigenous people from our midst and making them feel extremely unwelcome when they visit Darwin, Katherine or Alice Springs (or any other Australian town or city), we should put those pesky army helicopters, constantly flying overhead in Darwin, to good use. Maybe, we should evacuate people from remote communities such as Mutitjulu, especially if you accept that the root causes are never going to be addressed; not until we see a radical change in the way this country is governed.

This is the crux of the issue. As long as indigenous people are treated as second-class citizens, petrol sniffing and other substance misuse will continue unabated. Relegated to third-world conditions and no hope of making it in the white man's world, many indigenous young people out bush have no alternative other than wiping themselves out. They just want to forget. They're well aware that they are not welcome in town. There are no jobs for them, cheap housing is virtually impossible to obtain and they constantly face the threat of being sent 'home'. They know that the white man doesn't want them hanging around. Just as Lindsay Murdoch wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald last month, "out of sight, out of their minds."

By Gary Meyerhoff, September 5, 2005

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An Outline of the Game of Life

What follows is a greatly simplified model of the purpose of life, as set out in far greater detail, and often with considerable obscurity, in various spiritual teachings from past ages. The Snakes and Ladders metaphor used here is a practical explanation, and is not deeply grounded in research and science (although some such forms of evidence do exist).

The advantage of this simplified model is that it brings the nature of the game of life to the fore and skirts past all potentially diverting considerations of the details of its underpinnings. It is the latter area that usually bogs down in debates between those people who choose to believe in the existence of a divine judgement mechanism and those who want to see it proven beyond doubt - which is something that we might never be able to do while we are in our human form.

Even young children understand the principles of the game of Snakes and Ladders. A player moves a counter over a board according to the throws of a dice, and the aim is to travel from the 'start', at the bottom of the playing area, to the 'finish' at the top. Throws of the dice which land a player's counter on the foot of a ladder advance it to the top; throws that land on the head of a snake send the counter back down to the end of the tail.

The board-game of life can be likened to snakes and ladders, but with 'free will' operating each time the counter lands on the foot of a ladder or the head of a snake. In life we have the freedom to choose whether we will travel up a ladder or down a snake.

Usually, deciding to climb a ladder has some 'cost' attached; we have to give up something in order to rise up the board by way of a ladder. Conversely, going down a snake can bring us some form of gain, we might choose to cheat someone, or we might even decide to kill them in order to gain an advantage or to keep a secret hidden from the world.

Because we have the 'gift' of free will and are not constrained by fate in the same way that the player of a normal Snakes and Ladders game is, we can choose whether to give and do good - climb a ladder - or to take and do harm - slither down a snake.

Thus, we can strive to reach the 'finish' or we can decide to ignore that goal (often because we have no faith that there actually is a 'finish' or reward for helping others at our own expense) and deliberately cause havoc for our personal gain or satisfaction.

The people who travel down snakes of their own free will are not usually convinced that there is any divine 'score keeping' involved in the game of life. They reason that if they can escape detection or hire a skilled lawyer who is able to get them off any charges of wrongdoing they have somehow 'won'.

Only those of us who recognise the existence of a divine design and plan behind the game of life are concerned to climb ladders and reach the top of the board of life.

A perfect life is beyond most of us, we inevitably go down a few snakes from time to time. But we can all strive to finish as high on the board of life as we possibly can. In this regard it is never too late to switch from choosing snakes to choosing ladders.

The Rule of Law and its attendant judicial punishment processes universally fail to recognise this fact. Wrongdoers are either confined in prisons under conditions that make it difficult to just survive, let alone find ladders to climb, or in the case of capital crimes they are increasingly likely to be executed.

The 'justice' system ends the game and they are denied any opportunity to regret their crimes and seek to reform their lives. Paradoxically, the agents of judicial punishment who prevent wrongdoers from resuming the normal game of life are completely unaware that they themselves travel down a snake each time they take such 'legal' actions. Ultimately, they can finish lower in the game than those they judge and punish.

Teachings from the ancients and present-day shamans suggest that the board-game of life is played many times, just as snakes and ladders is played repeatedly. However, people brought up on mainstream religions that emphasise one life and either heaven or hell to follow have lost this understanding. Most of them have also given up the notion of a judgement day and consider that the end of their life is the final end - nothing exists for them beyond death.

Of course, these ideas are contrary to the teachings of the various religions, but those institutions have been progressively marginalised by the secular power of nation states and federations. All present-day religions have also been overshadowed by the materialistic cultures spawned by commerce and capitalism.

Is it too much to attribute the decline of spirituality to the growth of central governments and economies based on taker philosophies? Not at all. The Renaissance in Europe began the process of sidelining spiritualism five centuries ago.

The Reformation broke the temporal power of the Roman Church and also split its religious following. At the same time the flow-on effects of Johannes Gutenberg's mass printing technology transformed Europe into a thriving hub of commerce and conspicuous consumption. These changes laid the foundations for the present Level 3 Civilization, with its focus on the material world and the acquisition of material possessions.

History tends to happen in cycles. The second wave of communication technology is now having the same effect that mass printing did during the Renaissance; it is connecting information and thoughts in ways that are exposing and undermining the power of nation states and federations. At the same time there is a resurgence of interest in meaning, particularly amongst young people and the elderly.

Those in their middle-life stages would also be concerned with meaning, but they are so enmeshed in their repayments - mortgages, credit cards, etc - and a daily struggle to advance within a system of relentless economic scarcity, that they have little time to think about such esoteric matters as the meaning of life. Even women, who used to stay at home and raise their children on a full-time basis, are now forced to work to make ends meet. Only the very young and the very old presently have the luxury of time to wonder and search for meaning.

But the situation will change as it becomes apparent that there are new alternatives to economic scarcity and predatory globalism. Soon, everybody will be seeking new meaning and new opportunities to climb as many ladders in the game of life as they possibly can. Once this happens a Level 4 Civilization will be assured.

2nd Renaissance -40 An Outline of the Game of Life [277]

By Lothar posted 14 March 05

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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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Partners of Paedophiles support group in demand

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Coordinator Robyn Forbes says the group, based at Kalangur in northern Brisbane, has received inquiries from across the country. She says the partners of accused men are often left in financial trouble.

"[They're] having to support themselves when their husbands are charged or when their husband leaves or when their husband suicides once he's been charged, so that is certainly an enormous issue for people," she said.

"Also the legal issues - a lot of the women have the perception that the courts are working against them, that their interests aren't properly protected in the justice system."

Ms Forbes believes the group is the only one of its kind in Australia. She says women usually do not confide in friends or family because of the nature of the offence.

"It's very isolating for the women," she said. "They just don't tell anybody and if they do happen to mention it to a family member or a close friend, often those people don't know what to say, it's out of their grasp.

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Naming and Shaming

THE SUNDAY TABLOID, the News of the World, under its new editor, Rebecca Wade, has set itself up as the protector of children. For two weeks it ran pictures of known paedophiles and threatened to continue to do so until every single one had been named. (This would, apparently, have taken something like thirty years).

The paper was forced to abandon its campaign when just about every organisation involved in child protection criticised its action.

The paedophile register is working well, they said. Naming and shaming child abusers would simply drive them underground, making it more difficult to protect children, not less.

Stuart Kuttner of the News of the World has tried, absurdly, to portray the campaign as a success. So what has it achieved?

Mob rule. Hysteria. Four completely innocent families have been driven out of their homes in Portsmouth. At least two other innocent people have had their homes firebombed by mobs who mistook them for people named in the News of the World. A man innocently talking to some children in Berkshire was set upon. A man with a record of child abuse has committed suicide.

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Related:

Prisoner's right to vote attacked again!
Prisoner's right to vote attacked again! Tell Labor not to support the bill! On the eve of the election the, [war criminal], John Howard government has rushed a new law into the Parliament which will further remove the rights of prisoners to vote.

No Legal Aid to appeal worst case?
South Australian serial killers John Bunting and Robert Wagner have lost their bid to appeal against their multiple murder convictions over the infamous 'bodies-in-the-barrels' murders because as serious as this case is they were denied a proper defence to appeal because they were not granted Legal Aid.

NSW prison visitors banned from using the toilet
The New South Wales Government has introduced several initiatives to allegedly stop contraband getting into prisons they said last Friday. But under the guise of "stricter rules" the department had also introduced banning all visitors including children from using the toilet unless they terminate their visit at any NSW prison after using the toilet.

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.]

Writing to a prisoner
Writing to prisoners should be encouraged because communication is a two way street, and this gives people 'outside prison' important 'access' into prison life, often the only chance of expression for prisoners.

Toe-by-Toe: Award winning literacy program
I came across an Award winning literacy program in the UK on a recent trip, where literate prisoners teach illiterate prisoners how to read.

Bronson Blessington: PETITION
To Her Excellency the Honourable Marie Bashir, AC, Governor of New South Wales. WHEREAS, under the Royal prerogative of mercy Your Excellency has discretion to grant a pardon to a convicted offender.

Bronson Blessington: Testimony from my prison cell
Hello, my name is Bronson Blessington. I write this testimony from my prison cell where I have just spent the last 16 years of my life. I came to prison when I was 14 years old. I am now 30.

Howard wants prisoner vote ban
Politicians opposed to a federal government plan to ban all prisoners from voting were soft on crime, Special Minister for State Eric Abetz said.

Govt moves to strip prisoners' voting rights
The Australian Council for Civil Liberties has condemned a Federal Government move to stop prisoners voting. Under current laws, prisoners serving less than five years can vote.

Message of Solidarity: Greens
The Australian corrections system is appalling and rife with abuse of prisoner's rights. The spiralling numbers of those locked up, now over 23,000, is an indictment on a society which purports to be fair and democratic.

Justice Brian Sully subscribes to jail retribution
NSW Judge Justice Brian Sully said the message of the triple-0 tape for boys would be that "forced sex of any kind . . . is not a game or a prank or a practical joke, or part of becoming or being a man".

Bronson Blessington speaks out
Hello my name is Bronson Blessington. I am writing this letter to you in the hope that you will be able to give me some assistance. I have been in prison now for 15 and 1/2 years. I was given a life sentence when I was 14 years old.

A review of psychiatry, law and politics in Victoria
If non-expert appraisals of 'normal behavior' can be condoned, it nonetheless has to be the case that the behavior under scrutiny takes place in a 'normal' environment, in which a human being can be expected to function normally.

PRISON 'THIS INDEFINITE IDEA'
My name is Steve and I'm at Palen Creek Prison Farm near Rathdowney in Queensland. I was the subject on an "Intelligence Report" written by a QLD prison officer in 1996.

20 Million for trial and no Legal Aid to appeal?
Why don't we want to know the truth? Because the government, police, lower-courts and the prison including the Prisoners Legal Service have decided what the truth is for us! Without getting to the end of the appeal process where the case has been professionally put before judges so they can impartially and objectively interpret the law.

Violent prisoners in anger-control trial?
Prisoners with a history of murder, sex attacks, bashings and stabbings are taking courses in anger management to control their *primal urge* to violence. But is there a *primal urge to violence* and if there is then where did it come from?

NSW Prisoner Hunger Strike: Ivan Milat day 28
Hello, I hope all is fine with you. Thank you for the letter dated 8th March, received today 12th, very inspiring. Forgive me for that incoherent eight pager I wrote out, what had occurred. I was three-four days into this protest, no eating any food.

HRMU: Harm-U for Hicks, Habib?
At the HRMU there are no minimum standard guidelines adhered to and security of the prison over-rules the prisoner's medical needs. Prisoners are self-harming because of the environment they are kept in already.

Today Paedophiles TOMORROW You!
This legislation came to the for during the campaign for the State election in March 2003, Carr announced a plan to introduce child sex offender orders in New South Wales, to restrict the movement of convicted paedophiles in places frequented by children.

Obituary: Garry Nye born 3/4/52 died 1/3/04
On July 24 1991, in a massive operation that traumatised his children and destroyed his house, NSW police arrested him for the murder of criminal Ray Thurgar, using a discredited informer's flimsy evidence.

Cheney's bid for review denied
Cheney asked the court to appoint a judge to review his case, claiming he had been "verballed" by police and "loaded up". But Justice Jeff Shaw said last week there was "no real evidence of police corruption and Cheney, who had a long criminal career, had been convicted on "powerful circumstantial evidence".[?]

MILAT WAS FRAMED FOR TOURISM $$$$$
The bodies of seven backpackers were discovered at the Belanglo Forest in 1992. The victims were German, British and Australian origin. Australia at the time of the discoveries was well advanced in its bid for the Olympic Games to be held here in year 2000.

NSW Prisoner Hunger Strike: Ivan Milat
It looks like Premier Carr's anti Milat Campaign is working well again, his application to the Judge in chambers to seek an order to be allowed to orally argue his appeal to the High Court was refused.

Brett Collins: Speech to Nagle Symposium 25 years on
I was serving 17 years, was in segregation and had served five of the almost ten I eventually did. The prison movement outside had made the Royal Commission aware of the plight I was in as one of the prisoner organisers. That attention meant I was safer from that time on. Although two years later I was returned to Grafton with the classification of intractable.

REPORT CARD ON NSW PRISONS
Ending the 'institutionalised bash' now replaced by the institutionalised 'solitary confinement' cave their heads in bash. Former Royal Commissioner Justice John Nagle and Professor Tony Vinson are the keynote speakers at a seminar this week marking 25 years since the landmark Nagle Report into NSW prisons.

Jails the new asylums?
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Asylum seekers -- no, not what you think -- but those who are so disillusioned with the current approach of our mental health system that they believe we should go back to the old ways and rebuild the asylums.

Inside Out Community Forum
Inside Out Association of NSW Incorporated is a newly formed initiative aiming towards developing genuine educational, rehabilitative, and re-integrative programs and assistance packages for prisoners and others effected by the criminal justice system, [criminal law system.]

Government justice not personal justice
Mr Collins said that, " No one is entitled to add to the court sentence to wreak personal vengeance on the offender, this is government justice not personal justice."

Risk Assessment Tools: Justice Health
As I mentioned at the time, there are indeed a large range of actuarial tools for making such assessments, but a review of the literature shows that their ability to predict dangerousness in any one individual is next to zero (or as the Macarthur Study puts it, "the unaided abilities of mental health professionals to perform this task are modest at best"

Experts: The Prisoner's Dilemma
[One] reason we are so-so scientists is that our brains were shaped for fitness [to the peopled environment], not for truth. Sometimes the truth is adaptive, but sometimes it is not. Conflicts of interest are inherent to the human condition, and we are apt to want our version of the truth, rather than the truth itself, to prevail.

Ron Woodham my faithful Commissioner?
The Departments have all the senior legal staff, they have the brightest minds in the country and others who are willing to get their hands dirty to get the job done. They have the law and legislation which they can do with as they will, and a budget to blow your minds!

Sentencing: Violent crime and practical outcomes
It's about just deserts, time to stop and reflect, to gain insight into your offending behaviour, to learn more ideas, retribution for the victims, and to set an example for the community.

The Nagle Report 25 years on
On 25 February 2004 the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales and the Centre for Health Research in Criminal Justice will be co-hosting a seminar to celebrate the Nagle Royal Commission. The seminar will be held in Parliament House, Macquarie Street Sydney, from 5.00pm. Entry will be free, but seating will be limited.

Practicably Perfect
Do you remember your first driving lesson? You were to steer as close to the curb when parking 'practicably' not perfectly or practically. Why? Because we are not as perfect as Premier Bob Carr wants to be seen. The degree of our mistakes depends on our experience and reflects on our upbringing and sometimes the lack of it.

Defining JA Mentoring
Mentoring is not a new concept. Justice Action graduated its first class of Mentors in December 2003. A good idea has legs of its own, and so the concept of one-on-one support for vulnerable people finding their way in society is now being taken seriously.

Call for royal commission into NSW prison health system
Mr Tony Ross a social justice activist said yesterday that a royal commission into the health system in NSW should be wide reaching to ensure that the Corrections Health Service, [Prisons Health Service], is also exposed because of reported widespread cover ups in the prisons health system.

CONS COMMIT CRIMES IN HASTE, NOW CAN REPENT AT LAWTEY Yes some peasants were out of work, hungry and desperate and had to find a way to feed their families, as they were not born with silver spoons in their mouths, Lord. They just robbed from the rich and gave to poor.

Australian prisoners numbers have increased by 50% over past 10 years In the past 10 years, the prisoner population in Australia increased by nearly 50% from 15,866 in 1993 to 23,555 in 2003, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This increase has exceeded the 15% growth in the Australian adult population in the same period.

NSW Police Association wants sentencing powers?
NSW Police Association president Ian Ball said Inspector Borland now feared for his safety because of a 63 year old man being released from prison after doing a quick 18 for manslaughter.

Conditions in the HRMU
Justice Action is trying to obtain documents on behalf of prisoners held in the Goulburn High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) from the Federal Attorney General's Department, Corrective Services Minister's Conference regarding the process described below, in which the Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia were adopted. This documentation will help explain the justification for the conditions in the HRMU.

Man wrongly imprisoned awarded $1m
A Sydney man who was acquitted of murder has won more than $1 million in damages for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. The New South Wales Supreme Court has agreed with Garry Raymond Nye's said that the charge was maliciously laid.

Forensic Hospital at Long Bay
NSW should reject the government decision to set up a secure forensic hospital at Long Bay - or in any place where it can be influenced by the Department of Corrective Services (DCS) (or probably Corrections Health Service (CHS) for that matter).

NSW leaves nation behind in rate and cost of jailing people
NSW not only has the most prisoners of any Australian state but also has the most violent prisoners, among the highest rates of recidivism and an increasingly expensive prison system, a Auditor-General's report says.

HRMU Solitary Confinement And Stopping Violence
I refer to your article on the (HRMU) HIGH RISK MANAGEMENT UNIT AT GOULBURN, TOTAL ABUSE OF POWER:

Database clears up crimes but not used to clear up miscarriages?
NSW Police Minister John Watkins said at the launch of a Sydney conference of international forensic experts meeting to mark 100 years of fingerprinting in NSW.

But there are Keys!
Charles Dickens said, "Life is a secret and you haven't got the key." "And you never will have."

NSW PRISONS: A TOTAL ABUSE OF POWER
We the inmates, [prisoners], at the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre, would like to ask you for help in receiving equal treatment and opportunities as other inmates, [prisoners], throughout the system. As we are told that we are not in a segregation units, [solitary confinement units], but we are treated as though we are in one.

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.

WHEN THE PUNISHMENT IS THE CRIME AND PLANTING THE SEED The brutality and savagery at Grafton jail that went on for 34 years with people getting their legs and arms broken running the gauntlet through a line of prison guards with batons. Some of those prisoners who were sent to jail for non-violence and punished went on to commit some of the most heinous crimes of the century.

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.

Justice Kirby concerned at self-representation
High Court judge Michael Kirby says Australia's justice system is weakened by the increasing number of people representing themselves in court. Justice Kirby says he agrees with One Nation founder Pauline Hanson's concerns about the high cost of legal advice.

A veil of secrecy makes justice in jail a different kind from court justice
Although Queensland courts mete out justice, that justice ends at the gates of the Queensland prisons system where a bureaucratic and politically expedient doctrine of "out of sight - out of mind" takes control.

Hanson: I no longer support mandatory sentencing
One Nation Party founder Pauline Hanson has revealed she contemplated suicide while serving an 11-week jail term in Brisbane. Miss Hanson told about her time in jail and her future plans.

A Question of Innocence
Minister Chris Ellison: Yes we’re watching the progress of this project in NSW with great interest. This has been raised at the Standing Committee of Attorneys General and a working group is looking at this very question. I think we have to have a considered response to this proposal and on a national basis, we would need to have the cooperation of the states and territories.

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.

REMAND PRISONER BAIL REFUSED, THEN SHOT AND KILLED IN CUSTODY A Melbourne court has been told a prisoner was shot dead as he tried to escape from a hospital. The Melbourne Magistrates Court has been told remand prisoner Garry Whyte was receiving treatment at St Vincent's hospital in May last year, when he tried to escape.

NSW Corrections Health Service: Response
Prisoner: MRRC Long Bay: Corrective Health Services [Prison Health Service] in NSW fares only slightly better than CHS in the US. Force often takes the place of real medical care and custodial staff [guards] in fact must approve all CHS medical decisions.

Solitary Confinement: Our very own Alcatraz
Solitary confinement only makes prisoners more violent and inhumane, writes convicted armed robber Bernie Matthews. They were countless. Grafton floggings were routine and didn't require a reason. Everything at Grafton was routine a mindless, never-ending routine of isolation and solitary confinement that was punctuated by a screw's baton, boot or fist. The prison system called it rehabilitation.

The Sentencing (crime of murder) and parole reform act 2003
We wish for each and every prisoner to be brought in front of a Judge to have closure on their sentences, a fixed non-parole period on an individual basis, to give these people a chance to be able to rehabilitate and to stop them being used as Political Prisoners.

Prisoners as citizens and duty of care
For a long time now most learned people have been aware of the book Prisoners as Citizens. The Victorian Opposition is outraged at a confidential payout won by a prisoner injured while playing table tennis at the Melbourne Remand Centre because they can't afford the book?

Long Bay: Corrections Health Services in NSW prisons
Firstly, to call the Prison Health Service a Corrections Health Services is the first identified mistake. Nice names don't take the place of the type of service, they only attempt to cover up for a bad service, when the service is out the door....

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 remove 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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

Smart Justice
Smart Justice does not support any party but calls for investment in prevention, alternatives to custody and initiatives that tackle the causes of crime. It is important to dispel the myths about 'law and order' and promote real solutions to crime and violence.

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.