Goulburn Jail breaches UN standards

Goulburn Prison

NSW: Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has called on Justice Minister John Hatzistergos to bring Goulburn Jail's Maximum Security Wing into line with United Nations standards, after a prison inmate's covert survey of his fellow inmates revealed problems with rehabilitation programs and basic amenities.

Goulburn Jail inmate Christopher Binse secretly issued a questionnaire to more than 140 of his fellow inmates in C-Wing, and the results paint a disturbing picture," said Ms Rhiannon.

The survey showed that although most inmates were very keen to undertake rehabilitation and education programs, they were overwhelmingly not getting the services they needed.

Prisoners are punished by long-term deprivation of liberty. The role of the prison is not to inflict boot-camp hardship on prisoners, but to ensure they don't re-offend when released.

Rehabilitation is crucial to breaking the cycle of criminality. Yet the prisoners' own testimony reveals that not enough is being done to ensure they can integrate back into society.

The survey also found that the clothes provided to prisoners were inadequate in the harsh Goulburn winter, causing many inmates to fall ill.

This is not a luxury, it's a question of basic standards. If minimum standards are not met, the jail runs the risk of simply hardening criminals, rather than solving any behavioural and social problems they have which may cause recidivism.

The inadequate rehabilitation programs and clothing breach the UN standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners. So too does the ethnic segregation practised at the jail.

I congratulate Mr Binse on his survey, and on his ability to overcome conditions at Goulburn and seek to break his own cycle of criminality. I hope his efforts to quantify conditions at Goulburn Jail are heeded by the Justice Minister," Ms Rhiannon said.

Also available: Details on the survey, the UN rules, a copy of Lee's speech to Parliament.

Hans van Leeuwen
Media Adviser, Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon
Tel: (61 2) 9230 3551
Fax: (61 2) 9230 3550
Mob: 0425 310 562
hans.vanleeuwen@parliament.nsw.gov.

By The Greens posted 17 December 04

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California defended its policy, which the federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld, as necessary to prevent violence in a gang-ridden prison system.

"California is ground zero for race-based street gangs," Frances T. Grunder, a senior assistant state attorney general, told the justices. "The animosity between the gangs is purely race-based, and the racial pressures in prison are very, very severe."

More than 25 years ago, California adopted the practice of placing inmates, [prisoners], in double cells with cellmates of the same ethnic background for the first 60 days after their arrival at a prison, either as newcomers to the system or following a transfer from another prison. The inmates, [prisoners], are evaluated during that time for propensity to violence, among other things, and then are assigned permanent quarters on a nonracial basis.

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California applied the policy last year to segregate 40,000 new prison inmates, [prisoners], and several hundred thousand others who were transferred between prisons. On Tuesday, several justices questioned the rationale for applying the policy to transferred inmates, [prisoners.]

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Justice John Paul Stevens wondered aloud whether placing inmates, [prisoners], of the same race together might have the effect of increasing gang membership, by facilitating close contact between potential members of the same gang.

Garrison S. Johnson, the inmate, [prisoner], who brought the lawsuit, is a black man who chose not to join a prison gang. "There is no record that he has ever been involved in interracial violence," his lawyer, Mr. Deixler, told the court. In prison since 1987, Mr. Johnson has been transferred five times, meaning he has encountered six periods of segregation. "He is in peril, unable to reach out across racial lines for support," Mr. Deixler said.

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By LINDA GREENHOUSE posted 9 November 04

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Solitary confinement only makes prisoners more violent and inhumane, writes convicted armed robber Bernie Matthews.

I heard voices from the Gatehouse. The clicking of handcuff ratchets. The noise heralded the arrival of the transfer escort. I looked around my cell for the last time my home since the summer of '71, when I was transferred to Grafton as an intractable prisoner.

Plastic containers for jam and salt nestled in allocated positions on the timber log I used for a table. The spartan conditions made every item special. Each had a place in the regimented confines of the cell. I tried to remember how many times I copped a serve for having one item out of place before I learned the routine.

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.

It seemed strange that on the eve of my departure from Grafton, the memory of previous floggings was rekindled.

The two things synonymous with H.M. Grafton Jail were solitary confinement and institutionalised brutality.

If one benefit can be derived from solitary confinement, it is the fact that memories never fade.

In response to calls for tougher punishment of perceived violent offenders, an incarceration concept was implemented at H.M. Grafton Jail in 1943. Rehabilitation by isolation, solitary confinement and brutality turned Grafton into the Alcatraz of the NSW prison system.

Similar concepts were introduced in the Queensland and Victorian jail systems epitomised by The Cages in Boggo Road Jail (also known as the Black Hole) and H Division inside Pentridge. Jails within jails.

Today it is the new-age gladiator schools of sensory deprivation in Maximum Security Units.

The prison system's answer to the community's cry for revenge and retribution similar to the cry being echoed in the Queensland community today was swift, brutal and unofficially sanctioned by successive governments.

Isolation by solitary confinement and liberal use of the baton and the boot was seen as the only effective rehabilitation process. That concept had dire and far-reaching ramifications for the general community, which is still being felt today.

Queenslanders experienced in part the results of that concept in March, 1973, when the Whisky Au-Go-Go nightclub was firebombed in Brisbane.

John Andrew Stuart and James Richard Finch, convicted of the firebombing and the subsequent deaths of 15 people, were products of the Grafton rehabilitation process during the 1960s.

It is simplistic to suggest that Grafton propelled Stuart and Finch into a life of crime that culminated in 15 deaths, but the incarceration process must accept proportionate blame if the following case histories are indicative of what isolation and solitary confinement do produce.

Stan Taylor was a product of H Division inside Pentridge during the 1970s, but his criminal career ended with the 1986 car-bomb attack on Russell Street Police Headquarters in Melbourne.

Taylor was convicted with two other men of the Russell Street bombing and is still serving a life sentence.

While Taylor was incarcerated in H Division another young prisoner was being introduced to the rehabilitative qualities of isolation by solitary confinement.

It was 10 years before Christopher Dale Flannery was released from prison to earn a reputation as Australia's first contract killer with more than a dozen murders down to him. He disappeared during the 1985 Sydney underworld wars and is presumed dead.

Archie McCafferty was a non-violent offender who travelled the well-worn paths of NSW's juvenile justice system during the '60s before he was sent to Grafton for "rehabilitation" in 1970.

He was released in 1971 and barely one year later became Australia's answer to Charlie Manson with a spate of thrill killings throughout NSW.

McCafferty was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life imprisonment and served 23 years before he was deported to Scotland in May, 1997.

Peter Schneidas was another non-violent offender before the Grafton rehabilitation process. Originally imprisoned for fraud, he was transferred to Grafton in 1975.

Four years later he attacked Long Bay prison guard John Mewburn, and pulverised his head with a hammer.

Mewburn died from his injuries and Schneidas was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Schneidas was isolated in solitary confinement within the NSW prison system for the next 10 years. In 1997 he was released but died eight months later from a heroin overdose after becoming addicted in prison.

Although the incarceration concepts of H Division and Grafton have been dismantled and roundly condemned during royal commissions and public inquiries, the products of those places are still being convicted for what some consider the worst violent crimes ever committed in this country.

The NSW and Victorian prison systems have travelled the road of retribution, to the community's detriment. Will history continue to repeat itself in Queensland?

Queensland legislators have the power to adopt hard-line incarceration policies with impunity as they did after Brendan Abbott escaped from the Sir David Longland Correctional Centre in 1997 but are those policies beneficial to the general community and future generations?

My observations as a 20th century troglodyte who lived life as a successful failure on the prison yards of NSW and Queensland would suggest not. I idly ponder who will be the Stuart, Finch, Taylor, Flannery, McCafferty or Schneidas of Queensland's tomorrow if the current Queensland incarceration process of solitary confinement by sensory deprivation persists.

Bernie Matthews is a convicted bank robber and prison escapee who is completing a Bachelor of Mass Communication, majoring in journalism, at the University of Southern Queensland.

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H.R.M.U. The High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre

Abbott escaped from Brisbane's Sir David Longland prison in 1997 and was recaptured in 1998. He is serving a 23-year-sentence in maximum security for armed hold-ups.

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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

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Bernie Matthews 29 October 2003

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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.

Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research: Aboriginal Crime
In 2001 more than forty percent of the Aboriginal male population aged 20-24 in NSW appeared before a NSW court charged with a criminal offence. One in ten Aboriginal males in NSW aged 20-24 received a prison sentence.

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.

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.

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.

Report on State Prisons Cites Mental Illness

NEW YORK: Nearly one of every four New York State prisoners who are kept in punitive segregation [solitary confinement], confined to a small cell at least 23 hours a day are mentally ill, according to a new report by a nonprofit group that has been critical of state prison policies.

One in five of the roughly 5,000 prisoners punished with that isolation have a serious drug problem, the report said. [So what? Good throw off anyway?]

But despite graphic evidence that the most acutely ill prisoners in punitive segregation, or lockdown, often grow only more troubled and violent, the state Department of [alleged] Correctional Services, which runs the state's 70 prisons, rarely does anything to help them, said the report, released yesterday by the group, the Correctional Association of New York.

To the contrary, when inmates [prisoners] in punitive segregation [tortured in solitary confinement], try to hurt or kill themselves, [harm due to torture, and human rights abuse, caused from prison authorities], the department's policy is to punish them with additional lockdown time [torture them more], according to the report.

About half of the 258 inmates [prisoners] interviewed by the report's authors said they had attempted suicide in prison. Many prisoners spend years under lockdown [in solitary confinemnt.]

The findings of the association, an inmate-advocacy group, are based on state records, the authors' visits to 29 state prison lockdown units [torture units] and interviews with hundreds of prisoners, correction officers [guards] and prison supervisors.

The association, established in 1844, is authorized by state law to visit prisons and interview inmates [prisoners] and employees. The Correctional Services commissioner, Glenn S. Goord, declined to comment yesterday on the report's specific conclusions and recommendations, which include changing prison rules so that emotionally disturbed inmates [prisoners], who misbehave would be treated instead of sent to isolation [solitary confineed.] Instead, Mr. Goord accused the Correctional Association of proffering "phony issues," and criticized the report's principal author, Jennifer Wynn, as unprofessional.

But in interviews, several prison experts, psychiatrists and state officials who are familiar with the report agreed with its conclusion that the prison system is unprepared to properly treat mentally and physically ill inmates [prisoners.]

Yesterday, an independent report by Human Rights Watch found that as many as 25 percent of prisoners nationwide are mentally ill. "The 25 percent is very much like it is for other states; there are probably some that are even worse, and it's a scandal," said Michael L. Perlin, a professor at New York Law School who has studied prison mental health issues. "It reflects a mentality that we should have discarded a century ago."

Professor Perlin, who sits on the Correctional Association's advisory board, said Commissioner Goord, who has dismissed criticism of punitive segregation in the past, should heed the association's findings.

"There should be a tremendous obligation on the part of New York's authorities to deal with this frontally and forthrightly," he said. In the association's 51-page report, the authors paint a grim portrait of the lockdown units in some state prisons.

They describe observing one inmate [prisoner] alone in his cell, smeared with his own feces; another inmate [prisoner] sprawled on the floor because his wheelchair was confiscated for security reasons; a prisoner with AIDS, dying and barely able to lift his head; and dozens of others with symptoms of acute psychoses or covered in scars from self-inflicted cuts. "These are serious human-rights abuses," said Robert Gangi, the Correction Association's executive director.

"There are people who die needlessly in New York State prisons because they are put in there when they are mentally ill, and they kill themselves." He added, "The state's political leaders should recognize how important a matter this is."

Using nearly $200 million in federal grants, New York has built 10 prisons with 3,788 beds since 1997, solely for punitive segregation, Mr. Gangi said. Beyond those units, there are more than 20 "segregated housing units" in the state's seven maximum security prisons, as well as lockdown cells in separate blocks within other prisons. About 7.6 percent of the 65,000 inmates [prisoners] in the state prison system were in lockdown in April, according to the report.

The report said department records indicate that the average prisoner in 23-hour lockdown remains there for five to six months before returning to the general prison population. (One hour a day is allowed for what is called recreation in a small, empty outdoor cage.)

But in interviews with inmates [prisoners], the association reported their average stay to be three years. Most punitive segregation is solitary confinement; some units house two inmates. In an interview in May 2000 in DOCS Today, a departmental newsletter, Commissioner Goord said segregated housing units "had an immediate and positive effect on the system" by reducing inmate assaults on correction officers.

[More like a torture system for prisoners under the guise of some alleged 'legitimate' correctional managment tool? When it is just the opposite. Just like asking an employee to come to work then make them sit on a chair and do nothing all day. Doing nothing and having no social life or some hope in life is bewildering and will cause serious psychological harm to a prisoner who cannot escape.]

Dr. Stuart Grassian, a psychiatrist who has studied the effects of isolation on mentally ill inmates, said that when dealing with mentally ill and drug-addled inmates, what is good for the prison system is not good for public safety.

"The paradigm is that if we punish them enough, they will change their behavior," Dr. Grassian, whose research is cited in the report, said yesterday. "There's too great a tendency to label their behavior as willful. You put them in situations that are more and more stressful, their behavior will become worse."

He added, "Most of these people get out at some point, and then they become a danger to all of us."

Despite repeated cases of inmates [prisoners] hanging [suicides] and starving themselves [hunger strikes] while in punitive segregation, and despite repeated criticism from the State Commission of Correction, an oversight agency with little authority to force the department to change its rules, New York prisons are not much different from those in many other states.

"This is an issue for every prison system," said Michael P. Jacobson, a former New York City correction commissioner who is a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Punitive segregation costs less per prisoner than less restrictive prison blocks because it requires fewer officers [guards] and relatively less space for programs and activities. In its report, the Correctional Association accused the department of sending too many inmates [prisoners], into ,punitive isolation for infractions like smoking cigarettes or "horseplay."

[Or politics or pay back or the authorites just don't like your head or whatever? Where is the proof you committed an internal offence?]

Mr. Jacobson said, "You have to be very selective about who goes in" lockdown cells, "and you have to be very careful about watching them once they're in."

In its report, the Correctional Association recommended creating an oversight body with authority to inspect lockdown units, a body similar, in fact, to the Board of Correction, which sets minimum standards for inmate [prison] populations in New York City jails and monitors them.

After receiving an advance copy of the Correctional Association's report, in August, Mr. Goord, the Correctional Services commissioner, accused Ms. Wynn, the report's principal author, of using the Correctional Association's privileged status to communicate with a particular inmate [prisoner], and he banned her from entering the prisons beyond the visiting area.

Since then, he has imposed new limits on how many association employees may visit a prison, prohibited association interviews with prison staff and declared access to all segregated housing units off limits.

[Because the state is torturing its prisoners and Goord is guilty of cruel and unusual punative punishement and committting human rights abuse.]

Jeffrion L. Aubry, a Democratic state assemblyman from Queens and chairman of the Committee on Corrections, said he plans to introduce a bill in January that would prohibit inmates with serious mental illnesses from being sent to lockdown and require them to receive treatment instead.

"I've been in the S.H.U.'s," he said, recalling how he was temporarily locked in a segregated housing unit during a tour of a state prison. "I'm not surprised they have a negative impact on inmates."

By PAUL von ZIELBAUER posted October 27 03

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