THOUSANDS of prisoners are exposing themselves to hepatitis C infection by using dirty, resharpened needles, prisoners' advocates say.In its latest prison newspaper, Just Us, Justice Action is calling for a regulated needle syringe program across all Australian prisons to stem the "rampant" tide of hepatitis C infections.
More than one third of the country's 23,000 prisoners are infected with the disease that affects the liver and causes nausea, fatigue and lethargy, abdominal and back pain, and flu-like symptoms, Justice Action researcher Michael Strutt says in this month's edition.
In New South Wales, it is estimated 68 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men would test positive for hepatitis C, while it is thought half of all prisoners in that state have a history of injecting drug use.
In comparison, just one per cent of the general Australian population carries the disease.
"Almost all of those prisoners will eventually be released to carry the virus back to their communities," Mr Strutt said.
"Around a quarter of prisoners continue in their furtive injecting and hasty cleaning of the hundreds of reused, resharpened, dirty, pitted needles that circulate around the prisons."
Justice Action argues an official needle syringe program is the best and most cost-effective way of combating the problem.
According to the Australian National Council on Drugs, there are 19 official prison needle and syringe programs operating overseas and not one has reported needles being used as a weapon.
About 18,000 copies of Just Us, are being distributed to prisoners across Australia and New Zealand in the next week.
Despite various hurdles to distributing the paper, including initial reluctance from various state corrective services departments to allow the paper into prisons, Justice Action estimates about half of the prison population in the two countries will read it.
The paper carries a mix of articles, letters, poetry by prisoners and a lonely hearts column requesting letters from readers.
Justice Action plans to host the 11th International Conference on Penal Abolition in Tasmania in February next year.
By Saffron Howden 29 August 05
People: 'Prisoners' of Drugs'
People who are addicted to heroin usually take the drug because it relieves them of problems such as low self-esteem, distrust and fear of abandonment. They may have poor communication skills & poor relationship skills.
Related:
Zero intelligence
Muddled thinking over drug use in prisons will help the criminals: Emmanuel Reinert, executive director of Senlis, pointed out: 'This new law will encourage the spread of disease in the penal system and will have serious consequences not only in prisons but on society in general.
Custody as the challenge to corrections
Despite their problematic nature, however, recidivism figures do not suggest that the prison component of a sentence improves prospects for deterrence or rehabilitation, by comparison with other sentencing options.
'A Nice Day Out' From Risdon Prison
Arranged for maximum-security prisoner 43637 Trustrum, Thomas Edward, by Justice Pierre W Slicer, Tasmania's Supreme Court human-rights an social-justice crusader.
NEW INDEPENDENT RISDON PRISON REPORT
Justice Action and Prison Action & Reform are not satisfied with the review and will present an independent report to Parliament in August, based upon interviews with prisoners, prison staff and concerned community members.
Prisoner total rises 15% in six years
England and Wales are continuing to jail offenders at a higher rate than any other major country in western Europe, it emerged today. New research indicates that the government's use of prison as its main tool of penal policy has increased by 15% since 1999.
Adler punished for being in prison
NSW: Sydney businessman Rodney Adler has been transferred to a higher-security prison as punishment for allegedly attempting to conduct business activities from jail even though people are sent to prison for punishment not to be punished?
Department of Corrective Services fails to rehabilitate offenders
NSW: Unpopular people will be forced to wear tracking devices at a cost of $5,000 dollars per unit because the NSW Department of Corrective Services failed to rehabilitate those offenders at a cost of $65,000 a year while they were held in custody for many years.
Parole Board Membership
NSW: The Law Society is aware that two former long standing police officers Mr Robert Inkster, an Mr Peter Walsh, were appointed to the Parole Board as Community Members for a period of three years from 17 January 2005 until 16 January 2008.
Corrected or Corrupted
A psychiatrist from the prison Mental Health Team attached to Queensland Health made the comment that 25 per cent of inmates suffer from a diagnosed mental illness.
Tasmanian prison support visit
Prisoners from Risdon Prison and Prison Action & Reform (PAR) in Tasmania have requested support from the Australian Prisoners Union and Justice Action following the siege in the prison ending on May 9.
Prison Action & Reform challenge the Attorney General
Members of Prison Action & Reform are furious with the latest lies from the Attorney General -- Judy Jackson, and demand that she produce evidence to support her ludicrous claims.
Tasmania PAR banned from Risdon
Since then, she and other PAR volunteers, have brought to the public's attention scandalous and inhumane events that have occurred in the prison - which Judy Jackson would have otherwise covered up.
Chronology of a Tasmanian Prison System: A Documented Report
We believe that the people of Tasmania - both victims of crime and the general public - have the right to know that the Tasmania Prison Service is delivering a humane and just system of containment that is conducive to the reintegration of inmates back into Tasmanian society.
Association for the Prevention of Torture
The Optional Protocol requires 20 ratifications to enter into force. All States Parties to the UN Convention against Torture should seriously consider ratifying the OPCAT as soon as possible. National Institutions and others promoting the human rights of people deprived of their liberty need to be informed of their potential role as national preventive mechanisms under the OPCAT.
PRISON ACTION & REFORM INC: Tas Prison Complaints
TASMANIA: Prison Action & Reform was formed in response to the five deaths in custody that occurred between August 1999 and January 2000. Chris Wever, Vickie Douglas, Rose Macaulay, Judith Santos and others came to together to fight for reform in an outdated, increasingly cash-strapped and uncaring system. Of the original members, three lost loved ones to the Tasmanian prison system.
MISTREATED IN CUSTODY - NO ACCOUNTABILTY
I was in custody in NSW six weeks ago, and was a victim of an aggravated assault incited by a prison officer. Despite this happening in front of many witnesses, including correctional services officers and other detainees, and under mandatory video surveillance, a formal complaint to the NSW Commissioner of Corrective Services an his Professional Conduct Management Committee only revealed that as far as they were concerned, this didn't happen.
ICOPA XI International Conference on Penal Abolition
We are excited to announce that ICOPA X1, the eleventh International Conference on Penal Abolition will happen in Tasmania, Australia from February 9 - 11,2006. Please pass this onto all networks.
Ex-Prisoner Locked Out of Prison
The NSW Department of Corrective Services (DCS) has revealed a policy which bans ex-prisoners from entering prisons.
Justice Action: Access to our community
NSW: Justice Action went to the NSW Supreme Court before the last Federal election on the constitutional right for prisoners to receive information for their vote. The government avoided the hearing by bringing prisoners' mobile polling booths forward. We pursued it after the election. This is the report.
Risdon prisoners' seize prison to protest mistreatment
Apparently one prisoner had been mistreated and held in isolation in an SHU (Segregation Housing Unit) [Solitary Confinement] because, he'd had and altercation with a screw. SHUs cause severe mental harm - regarded as torture - and are a cruel, inhumane and degrading way to keep prisoners.
No Safe Place
In a brief four month span from August 1999, five men died in Tasmania's Risdon prison. Their deaths have put the state's corrections system in the dock and led to the planned demolition of a jail which even the State's Attorney-General now calls an "appalling facility".
MORE PRISONERS LOCKDOWNS HAVE OFFICERS ON EDGE
NSW POLICE Commissioner Ken Moroney has issued an ultimatum as well, to the lawless youths holding Sydney's streets to ransom?: Learn some respect or face jail?
Tough line on crime fills jails
The tough law-and-order policies of governments around the nation are behind an explosion in the prison population by almost 80 per cent in the past two decades.
FAMILIES OF PRISONERS FORUM
14,500 children in NSW go to bed each night with a parent in prison!
LEGAL VISITS AT PARKLEA PRISON
I am a prisoner in NSW and I am currently held in Parklea Prison. I am concerned about what is going on in NSW prisons and this is my story.
Parklea Prison: No calls for six days
The last calls that were made out of Parklea Correctional Complex by my partner, an inmate in remand at Parklea, was on Wednesday 2 February. The phone lines for the inmates have been out of service to this date.
Prison visits in crisis in NSW
The reason I am writing today is to address a difficult situation that my husband and my family are going through. My husband is currently serving a sentence at Lithgow Correctional Centre in NSW.
Prison boom will prove a social bust
Hardened criminals are not filling NSW's prisons - the mentally ill and socially disadvantaged are, writes Eileen Baldry.
The prison system requires assiduous oversight
As NSW Attorney General Bob Debus noted in 1996: "The kinds of complaints which occur in the system may seem trivial to outsiders but in the superheated world of the prison, such issues can produce explosive results."
Where the Norm is Not the Norm: HARM-U
In the absence of public policy, this paper is an attempt to shine a light through the rhetoric and test for coherency in the policy and function of NSW’s only supermax prison, the High Risk Management Unit. Its present use will be compared with the ‘vision’ flogged by the Premier and the Department of Corrective Services (the Department) at its inception in 2001.
Crime and Punishment
Mark Findlay argues that the present psychological approach to prison programs is increasing the likelihood of re-offending and the threat to community safety.
People: 'Prisoners' of Drugs'
People who are addicted to heroin usually take the drug because it relieves them of problems such as low self-esteem, distrust and fear of abandonment. They may have poor communication skills & poor relationship skills.
Justice Denied In NSW Corrective Services
There used to be a (VJ) or Visiting Justice who would go into the prison and judge any claim or accusation that was made by any prisoner or prison guard. If it were found that a prisoner had offended then punishment was metered out.
Prison guards test positive for drugs
NSW prison visitors banned from using the toilet The visit is only for about one hour and any thing less than that is an insult. If it's proved that a visitor has broken the rules the punishment should apply to them. But collective punishment on all visitors should not be made general when others haven't broken the rules especially if it restricts all visitors from normal human needs like using a toilet.
NSW prison visitors banned from using the toilet
The New South Wales Government has introduced several initiatives to 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.
Watchdogs slaughtered in NSW
On Tuesday the Carr Government reduced transparency and accountability yet again and New South Wales is in danger of becoming entrenched with cronyism and intimidations with the Carr Labor Government that continues to slaughter the watchdogs.
