Bent police compromise Bulldogs gang-rape case

Deputy Commissioner Dave Madden could have compromised gang-rape investigation? Steve Mortimer resigned!

NSW: TWO of the state's most senior police, Deputy Commissioner Dave Madden and Assistant Commissioner Peter Parsons, are both facing criminal charges over the flawed Bulldogs phone tapping scandal.

But did they also compromise the Bulldogs gang rape investigation? Which could have exploited the claims made by a young gang-rape victim, for the sake of the leagues club's status.

At the time the then club's chief executive, Steve Mortimer, also suggested that security guards could be used to accompany players while travelling to away games. But he asked fans to "keep an open mind on the case and not pre-judge the outcome of the police investigation".

After police allegedly investigated the matter they handed over the Strike Force McGuigon file to the Department of Public Prosecutions in April last year. The DPP's office had been poring over both the version of events given by the young woman and the players' account, but it is now learned that senior police could have also compromised the police investigation.

Subsequently no charges had been recommended by the DPP against the unnamed Bulldogs football players because of insufficient evidence.

Senior ranks of the DPP, including the director Nicholas Cowdery, QC, reviewed the file in April 2004. The 20-year-old woman told police in lengthy interviews that she was gang-raped by up to six Bulldogs players in the swimming pool area of the Pacific Bay Resort in Coffs Harbour February 22 2004.

Now over a year later and after many complaints, the two senior police are both facing criminal charges over the flawed Bulldogs phone tapping scandal and the investigation over the pack rape could have been compromised.

Yesterday the Police Integrity Commission revealed it would recommend charges be laid against Deputy Police Commissioner Dave Madden for passing on information obtained via a phone-tap during investigations - a criminal offence.

Assistant Commissioner Peter Parsons, one of Mr Madden's so-called leadership team, was also referred to the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions for alleged breaches of the Telecommunications (Interception) Act.

If found guilty, the pair not only would be likely stripped of their posts but could face possible jail terms of up to two years.

The young woman who was packed raped and her friend told police they met the Bulldogs players in Coffs Harbour on the evening after they played a trial match there and went back to the team's hotel with them.

It was to be the second time in just more than a year that rape allegations against the Bulldogs have faltered. In 2003, another woman claimed players sexually assaulted her at the resort. The file went to the DPP after the police investigation, and the DPP opted not to proceed with charges.

But both Police Minister Carl Scully and Commissioner Ken Moroney were last night claiming they still had confidence in the two officers and refused to remove them?

Compromising a gang-rape investigation?

"The Commission is of the opinion that consideration be given to prosecution of Deputy Commissioner Madden and Assistant Commissioner Parsons for the specified criminal offence of communicating to another person or making use of lawfully obtained information contrary to subs. 63 (1) of the Telecommunications Interception Act 1979," the report read.

A pat on the back

The PIC however suggested that Mr Madden and Mr Parsons not be sacked, but be subjected to internal disciplinary review.

The incident involved a meeting with Bulldogs CEO Malcolm Noad, Mr Madden, Superintendent Dave Owens and Assistant Commissioner Bob Waites on April 5 2004,during which information obtained from a phone-tap on one of the Bulldog players was discussed.

Mr Parsons and Superintendent Dave Swilks were on a telephone link to the meeting from Mr Parsons' office.

The player named "X" in the report was overheard discussing a drug deal involving "pinners" - otherwise known as ecstasy.

But in 2004, the police PR unit went into overdrive suggesting the meeting was designed to "smooth" over relations between police and the club. Later that same day Mr Noad revealed the information from the phone tap to players.

On April 15, Ken Moroney referred the matter to the PIC fearing a breach.

The PIC however cleared Mr Noad of any wrongdoing?

Alleged Bulldogs gang-rapists not even named, suspicious

The tap was part of the ongoing investigations into the unnamed Bulldogs players who were alleged to have gang-raped the 20 year old at Coffs Harbour.

Mr Noad's warning to the alleged gang-rapist to "shut up" because other police were listening could have compromised the investigation by police and subsequently any additional evidence that could have been obtained could also have been compromised.

So any inference proper to be drawn from the facts of the case that were investigated by police and handed over to the DPP could have meant that there was not enough evidence to bring charges against the unnamed accused Bulldogs football players.

I might add that it also means that the community cannot have any confidence that other facts surrounding that investigation or any other investigation will not also be compromised down the track and therefore these police must be sacked.

By Inspector Rex 16 June 05

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Prison has lost its way - report

UK: Bristol prison is suffering wide-ranging problems because of inconsistent management, the Chief Inspector of Prisons has said.

Anne Owers said the jail was experiencing problems in the areas of safety and race relations.

Few jobs were available to inmates - with 60% unemployed - yet statistics were disguising the true extent of the problem, the chief inspector's report found.

She noted Bristol had lost three governors in the last two years and had ceased to hold Category A prisoners.

Over a third of prisoners who took part in a survey said they had felt unsafe and there were poor systems for tackling bullying.

Young adults aged 18 to 21 mixed with adult prisoners - including sex offenders - without any proper risk assessment, Ms Owers said.

However, the 600-inmate jail impressed the inspection team with its legal services and foreign nationals work.

Prison Service director general Phil Wheatley said: "With the new management team in place the prison already has a renewed sense of direction.

"A full review has been commissioned to look into the amount and quality of activity available for prisoners at Bristol with a view to introducing more work places where possible.

"A new safer custody manager has also been appointed, who will review all the current safety systems in the prison."

By Just Us posted 3 June 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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DOCS fails in its duty of care

ELEANOR HALL: A shocking report has revealed that the agency responsible for protecting children in New South Wales is partly to blame for the death of more than 50 children it knew to be at risk.

The report by the state's ombudsman has found that in the space of just one year, 53 children died in suspicious circumstances of abuse or neglect, despite being amongst the 103 children that staff at the Department of Community Services had been notified about.

In one case, a 3-year-old boy died after his mother left him in the care of two men known to police as sex offenders. Before the toddler died, DOCS had been repeatedly alerted about suspected abuse, as Toni Hassan reports.

TONI HASSAN: The report, highly critical of DOCS, will curl even the most hardened ears.

Ombudsman Bruce Barbour admits he was shocked.

BRUCE BARBOUR: The system isn't working as well as it needs to, and in my view it's unacceptable when matters are being notified to DOCS, that we have poor decision making around who gets help and who doesn't get help.

TONI HASSAN: Among the cases exposing the glaring failures of the New South Wales system involves a 3-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister, who were left my their mother in a one-bedroom flat with known sex offenders.

The boy was sexually abused, suffered anal and rectal injuries and died a few days later. One of his attackers had attempted to revive him using live electrical wires. One of the paedophiles videotaped himself raping the boy's sister.

The ABC's been told by a source in the Department that the 6-year-old girl is not in foster care, but today is still in the care of her mother, despite the mother's history of poor parenting. DOCS was notified of problems with the family seven times before the 3-year-old died. He was not removed from his mother for longer than one night.

This morning, Community Services Minister, Carmel Tebbutt, was keen to not to blame DOCS staff, but instead called for lessons to be learnt. She stressed that DOCS can only ever be a safety net and that in the end child protection was the responsibility of the whole community.

CARMEL TEBBUTT: Clearly, in individual cases, you'll have judgement calls made that will not necessarily be the right judgement calls. Overall, I think the philosophy of the Department is what we need to do is to get in early, to try and support families before problems become too entrenched, too difficult, but we also need to be able to effectively pick those families that no matter what sort of support you provide, they will not keep their children safe.

And they're the families that we need to be able to better predict, betterÉ and then be able to remove their children and convince the courts that that's the right course of action. And we're doing a lot of work on that front, but I have to say there's no simple, easy answer.

TONI HASSAN: DOCS gets 170,000 notifications of children at risk each year. The ombudsman acknowledges that DOCS cannot investigate every one, but says it can be more working more affectively to discern the cases that are most urgent. Working closer with other child protection agencies would be a good start.

The Minister says Government will take on board the recommendations of the report, the first report such report into reviewable deaths over one year. In this instance, from December 2002 to December 2003.

Carmel Tebbutt says DOCS has a new five-year child protection plan which includes boosting caseworker numbers.

The New South Wales Opposition says it's all spin, and believes the report demonstrates very little has changed in the Department.

Those are the views, also, of a former children's court magistrate, Barbara Holborow.

BARBARA HOLBOROW: And it's all duck-shoving, it really is. They're going to make excuses. It goes without saying there aren't enough DOCS workers. Babies are dying. I get letters from all over New South Wales saying please help us, DOCS won't.

TONI HASSAN: The state's peak children's welfare agency in New South Wales is pleased reforms are underway, but says a lot more needs to be done to speed up results.

The head of the Association of Children's Welfare Agencies is Nigel Spence.

NIGEL SPENCE: There's been a lot of emphasis on mandatory reporting and recognising risk factors for children. And that's been fairly successful, but what hasn't been nearly as successful is ensuring that the follow-through then happens once the child has been identified as having some risk.

So, the great majority of children would be far better, even in struggling family situations, if children can remain at home with their own parents.

At the same time, there are some very, very tough decisions that have to be made, where children are in serious danger and DOCS and other relevant departments have to act swiftly and get the kids out.

ELEANOR HALL: Nigel Spence, Chief Executive of the Association of Children's Welfare Agencies in New South Wales, speaking to Toni Hassan.

By Toni Hassan posted 13 December 04

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CHEMICAL CASTRATION FOR MEDIA SLUTS!

NSW: Shadow Justice Minister Andrew Humpherson's call for the NSW government to consider chemical castration for child sex offenders is motivated primarily by the desire to create headlines rather than to actually solve the problem of child sex offending in the community.

A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology in May this year (Recidivism of Sexual Assault Offenders: Rates, Risk Factors and Treatment Efficacy) indicates that reoffending among sex offenders has one of the lowest rates across categories of crime.

Child sex offenders are under-reported in the community and are protected by initiatives such as offender registries which imply that sex offenders are on the fringes of society. In fact they are mostly well respected members of society, or family members.

Protecting the vulnerable should involve redundant supervision by the community. The complex problem of child sex offending can only be dealt with in the community, with real information and support rather than mechanical procedures and harsh sentencing rules.

Media contact: Brett Collins: 9660-9111. After hours: 0438-705-003

By JusticeACTION 25 November 04

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Sexual Abuse: Testimony
I'm Debbie Ingraham, and I'm an activist for Restorative Justice. I'm also a former litigant who filed an unsuccessful civil suit against a family member for incest, and a former victim advocate. I bring a 30 year personal perspective of "real life" experiences that come from living with the effects of sexual abuse.

Expert says child porn investigation tip of iceberg

A leading expert on child abuse says the current New South Wales police investigation into child pornography is just the tip of the iceberg.

Up to 30 suspects have been charged and NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney says at least another 100 people are under investigation.

The head of the department of psychology at the University of Canberra, Professor Bob Montgomery, says some offenders will evade detection because not all paedophiles use the Internet.

Professor Montogomery is calling for more resources to prevent the crime.

"We know what the experiences are that set them up to become sex offenders, let's put a lot more resources into supporting troubled families and troubled individuals in prevention because in the long run it's not only more cost effective, which would catch the politicians attention, it's just a damn site more humane," he said.

By Starsky and Hutch 15 October 04

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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).

Vic database to track sex offenders' movements
The Sex Offenders Registration Bill is due to be tabled in Parliament later this week. Sex offenders will have to tell police if they change their names, address or work and will not be allowed to work with children.

Today Sex offenders TOMMORROW YOU!
To suggest there is a need to restrict their movement is rubbish! This is a grab for civil liberties in NSW and it offends everyone else who is free to associate because soon it could be you who is restricted or someone you know.

Gang-rape, police, disparity and the law..
The young woman and her friend have told police they met the players in Coffs Harbour on the evening after the Bulldogs played a trial match there and went back to the team's hotel with them.

Govt stands by child sex offender program
The Western Australian Government is standing by a taxpayer-funded agency that offers conditional confidentiality to child sex offenders.

Therapy key for teen sex offenders
US: One girl allegedly was raped in the boys' bathroom at Folsom High School on a warm midday in March. Another told officials the same boy, a freshman at the school, had tried to rape her days earlier in a girls' bathroom. Two other girls told investigators the boy had committed lesser sex crimes against them at school within the previous week. If true, such a pattern of escalation is worrisome, according to experts who study and treat sex offenders.

Sexual Abuse: Testimony
I'm Debbie Ingraham, and I'm an activist for Restorative Justice. I'm also a former litigant who filed an unsuccessful civil suit against a family member for incest, and a former victim advocate. I bring a 30 year personal perspective of "real life" experiences that come from living with the effects of sexual abuse.

Child sex offenders to be monitored in NSW

New South Wales Police Minister John Watkins says convicted child sex offenders in south-western Sydney will be monitored during a six-month trial.

The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties says it is concerned that the monitoring could become a system of harassment.

The vice president of the council, David Burnie, says there is a danger that intensive monitoring could hinder attempts by offenders to reform their behaviour.

"That is the real danger, that the system just becomes a system of harassment," he said.

"That'd be our concern that after a period of time it may just degenerate into a period of harassment rather than actually a system of assessment."

Watkins says a Child Protection Watch Team will track convicted sexual predators living in the community.

He says police, corrective services officers, health professionals, and housing department workers will be on the team. He has told State Parliament that the group will review offenders' criminal histories and behaviour and make risk-assessments. Watkins says the team will take steps to protect children who are perceived to be at risk.

"They will provide an early warning system for inappropriate actions or associations or living arrangements and they will take proactive measures to prevent these criminals from re-offending," he said. "They'll ensure police are ready to pounce if the danger does increase."

In Other Developments:

Crime facts INFO: Australian Institute of Criminology 13 April 2004

A report titled Recidivism of sexual assault offenders rates, risk factors and treatment efficacy provides an overview of Australian and international research on sexual, violence and general recidivism among sex offenders.

Despite the assumption that sexual offenders are particularly prone to reoffend, reconviction rates for sex crimes are relatively low.

Sexual offenders are similar to the general offender population in terms of their criminal histories and their sociodemographic and psychosocial characteristics the report says.

"They are versatile offenders, with a large proportion having convictions for violent and 'other' offences, such as drugs or property crimes.

At the same time, they may specialise in particular types of sexual offences within their general criminal careers.

The risk of recidivism varies for different types of sex offenders, with rapists tending to be more criminally versatile than child molesters.

A retrospective study of 629 persons aged 16 years and over, who were apprehended by Victoria police on suspicion of sexual assault of adults pointed to a considerable degree of recidivistic activity between 1993 and 2001. A substantial number had been previously apprehended for violent (n=222) -and other-offences (n=348)."

" The number of sexual offences per individual was lower than for the other crime categories."

By Monitor 23 September 04

ED: Most child molesters come from families by focusing on people outside the families the children affected are less likely to believed when they say it was for instance 'my uncle Bill'.

WHY WE SHOULD OPPOSE HOME DETENTION
Surveillance is done with an electronic bracelet, which is attached to you for the length of your sentence and tracked through your phone back to central control. If you go outside the house without permission, it registers an escape. You must stay at home 24 hours a day unless you get permission to eg. work, do community hours, education. You receive phone calls at home throughout the day and night to monitor you.   

Related Sex Offender Links:

NSW: Rapists more criminally versatile than Paedophiles
Parents to be given paedophile details? But rapists are more criminally versatile than Paedophiles! So who let the dogs out? Police Minister John Watkins! That's who.

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).

Vic database to track sex offenders' movements
The Sex Offenders Registration Bill is due to be tabled in Parliament later this week. Sex offenders will have to tell police if they change their names, address or work and will not be allowed to work with children.

Today Sex offenders TOMMORROW YOU!
To suggest there is a need to restrict their movement is rubbish! This is a grab for civil liberties in NSW and it offends everyone else who is free to associate because soon it could be you who is restricted or someone you know.

Gang-rape, police, disparity and the law..
The young woman and her friend have told police they met the players in Coffs Harbour on the evening after the Bulldogs played a trial match there and went back to the team's hotel with them.

Govt stands by child sex offender program
The Western Australian Government is standing by a taxpayer-funded agency that offers conditional confidentiality to child sex offenders.

Therapy key for teen sex offenders
US: One girl allegedly was raped in the boys' bathroom at Folsom High School on a warm midday in March. Another told officials the same boy, a freshman at the school, had tried to rape her days earlier in a girls' bathroom. Two other girls told investigators the boy had committed lesser sex crimes against them at school within the previous week. If true, such a pattern of escalation is worrisome, according to experts who study and treat sex offenders.

Sexual Abuse: Testimony
I'm Debbie Ingraham, and I'm an activist for Restorative Justice. I'm also a former litigant who filed an unsuccessful civil suit against a family member for incest, and a former victim advocate. I bring a 30 year personal perspective of "real life" experiences that come from living with the effects of sexual abuse.

Related Surveillance Links

Xerox workers to strike over satellite tracking plan
Over 250 Xerox workers will go on strike this morning over plans to use global positioning system technology (GPS) to track them throughout their day. Australian Services Union president Sally McManus says the proposal affects workers who repair Xerox photocopiers and other equipment in offices around Melbourne and Sydney.

Police want you to pay for their wire taps......
Ottawa — Canada's police chiefs propose a surcharge of about 25 cents on monthly telephone and Internet bills to cover the cost of tapping into the communications of terrorists, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], and other criminals, [but not war criminals?]

Blunkett to extend long arm of the law
UK: Sweeping changes to police powers were proposed by the government yesterday, with officers in England and Wales to be permitted to arrest suspects for any offence, rather than only those which attract prison sentences.

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

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

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

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

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

Putting Your Finger on the Line: Biometric Identification Technology The NSW Department of Corrective Services has progressively been implementing biometric identification technology (BIT) for use on all entrants into maximum security prisons since August 1996. It currently operates in seven prisons in NSW and is scheduled for introduction at Parklea prison later this year. BIT has raised the ire of many community agencies, the legal fraternity and government authorities. Framed examines what the controversy is all about and what the implications of this technology are.

Mossad agents Killing Oz Tourists Steal their Identity to use in terror opps
The fugitive Israeli Mossad intelligence agent Zev Barkan has been dealing with Asian criminal gangs to obtain Australian and other passports stolen from Australians Killed in Asia, a New Zealand security official has said.

The U.S. system of 'justice' is a tragic joke
US: Police abuse, and sometimes kill, innocent persons at will. Cops plant evidence, they lie, they coerce confessions and they commit perjury. Many are, simply, criminals. 

Nicola Roxon talking out of her skanky Ho arsehole AGAIN!

Justice Kirby has told the court it is a dangerous thing to jail someone for what they might do.

Where do these butt ugly ALP sows get off anyway? Are there no laws against truth in advertising?

Shadow Attorney-General Nicola Roxon says the Government should be using all of its influence to ensure that proper legal standards apply.

NICOLA ROXON: Well we've been calling for the process to commence. We were really worried about the delay and people being held for such a long time without being charged.

So obviously we welcome that the charges have come and that the hearings do seem to be proceeding, but we have to ensure that a proper process is actually undertaken. We want the normal standards of criminal justice to apply. They apply to Americans, there's no reason that they shouldn't apply to Australians.

The High Court Justice Michael Kirby has warned that a Queensland law allowing indefinite detention of people judged to be a danger to the community could be the start of a slippery slope.

The comments were made during a challenge to the law by imprisoned serial rapist Robert John Fardon.

Fardon's 14-year sentence for rape ended last year but he remains in custody under the 2003 law.

His lawyers say he is being punished when no crime has been committed.

CATHERINE MCGRATH: The Prime Minister says that the 'military commission' will respect the basic principles of our criminal justice system.

NICOLA ROXON: Well it's hard to see how the Prime Minister can have the view that this process reflects the normal standards of criminal justice when the normal rules of evidence don't apply, when there's no appeal rights, where there isn't an independent judiciary that is actually hearing the claims. So, we will be watching very closely. They'll be an independent legal observer, we understand, who will attend this process, and we urge the Government to use all its influence with the United States to make sure this process can stand up to scrutiny. Because otherwise we just create further problems down the track.

CATHERINE MCGRATH: Given that Australia is locked in at this stage, yet other countries have had their prisoners released, what does that mean about David Hicks' rights at this point?

NICOLA ROXON: Well I think it's worrying for every Australian than an Australian citizen might have a lesser standard of justice apply to them to people from other countries.

Justice Kirby has told the court it is a dangerous thing to jail someone for what they might do.

But lawyers for the Queensland Government say Fardon is being detained to protect the community, and not as punishment.

CATHERINE MCGRATH: So what at the moment will you be watching for over the next month or so?

NICOLA ROXON: Well obviously we'll be watching how the legal argument is pursued, how the commission is set up, what sort of time people are given to prepare their case, whether access is granted to important witnesses and other matters. We don't want to run or follow in every detail, the case against Mr Hicks or Mr Habib. We just want the Government to give us a guarantee that proper standards will apply so that this trial is fair and can withstand scrutiny.

CATHERINE MCGRATH: But in principle, you think that the military commission system is unjust?

NICOLA ROXON: Yes. In principle we're concerned that there are no proper rights of appeal, that there are no adequate rules of evidence, and we are concerned that that doesn't provide a setting for a fair process. We want to make sure that if people are accused of being involved in terrorist activities, that when they are convicted, that their convictions are beyond reproach. That will not happen if a proper and fair process doesn't apply for Mr Hicks.

Justice Kirby has told the court it is a dangerous thing to jail someone for what they might do.

But lawyers for the Queensland Government say Fardon is being detained to protect the community, and not as punishment.

They have also rejected claims the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with the discretion of courts.

The High Court has reserved its decision.

ELEANOR HALL: Nicola Roxon, the Shadow Attorney-General, speaking to Catherine McGrath.

By pr posted 2 August 04

PM, Carr attacked as judge pulls plug

In November 2002, as chairman of the International Commission of Jurists, he told a Senate inquiry "it is patently clear" that proposed anti-terrorism legislation "is aimed at Muslims". His submission said the new laws would be "subverting [liberty] more effectively than terrorism could ever do".

He was an undercover agent for the blues

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

Mamdouh Habib: Taunted and Tortured!

Four Corners [Walls]: Terrorist [?] - or Taunted by the Australian Defence, [War], Force who sacked him as a cleaning contractor? Who is Mamdouh Habib? And why was he harassed by the Australian Federal Police? Then tagged and labelled as a spy? Why was he vilified by the community? When he fled to Pakistan how did he end up being tortured in Egypt? And how did he end up at Guantanamo prison camp reserved for the men America calls "the worst of the worst:

The ALP's fascist police states

Welcome back Sid-in-knee. Old Falangist Samaranch would surely feel right at home in any number of fascist police states around this wide brown land today. Who needs Franco when you have Beattie, Rann, Carr, Bracks and co. Flamin' fascist fucks the lot of them.

Up there Khasali: Innocent man new bail laws

The New South Wales Supreme Court has asked innocent man Bilal Khazal to increase to amount of surety offered, before the bail is formally continued.

Pentagon names tribunal for Hicks trial

The Pentagon has named the militants who will decide the fate of Mr David Hicks and two other Guantanamo prisoners charged by the United States in the first US military tribunals since World War II.

You have choses Bob The Barbarian!

New laws to make it difficult for people charged with terrorism offences to get bail have been whisked through the New South Wales Parliament after only being introduced earlier today.

Programs: Keeping Robert Fardon in jail after more than a decade - when he should have been getting corrected with programs - whilst taxpayers footed the bill of at least 20,000 dollars a year - is a failure of the alleged correctional system. What investigation was there to determine how Fardon was treated in prison whilst he was there? Zip! If failure of the prison system results in draconian laws then fix the system by providing programs and rehabilitation.

Related:

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.

Carr Govt dramatic increases in the NSW prisoner pop...
Following the opening of the 500 bed Kempsey prison, and a new 200-bed prison for women at Windsor the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS) and community organisations specialising in the rehabilitation of prisoners, have expressed concern....

Govt stands by child sex offender program
The Western Australian Government is standing by a taxpayer-funded agency that offers conditional confidentiality to child sex offenders.

Brisbane Lions and Reloaded Corporate Predators
Former Brisbane Lions player Adam Heuskes has denied allegations that he raped a woman in London four years ago. Well-alleged offenders certainly wouldn't admit to rape because that's a crime. And if they were not charged or tried by their peers then they were just corporate predators reloaded and on the loose.

Rapists more criminally versatile than Paedophiles
Parents to be given paedophile details? But rapists are more criminally versatile than Paedophiles!

Therapy key for teen sex offenders
US: One girl allegedly was raped in the boys' bathroom at Folsom High School on a warm midday in March. Another told officials the same boy, a freshman at the school, had tried to rape her days earlier in a girls' bathroom. Two other girls told investigators the boy had committed lesser sex crimes against them at school within the previous week. If true, such a pattern of escalation is worrisome, according to experts who study and treat sex offenders.

Vic database to track sex offenders' movements
The Sex Offenders Registration Bill is due to be tabled in Parliament later this week. Sex offenders will have to tell police if they change their names, address or work and will not be allowed to work with children.

Bulldogs simply not the best!
SIMPLY NOT THE BEST AND DEFINITELY NOT BETTER THAN ANYONE, ANYONE I'VE MET.

Justice Brian Sully subscribes to jail retribution
"The high odds are that you will be found out, tracked down and sent to jail . . .then you will be as much at risk from others as your victim was at risk from you."

Today Sex offenders TOMMORROW YOU!
To suggest there is a need to restrict their movement is rubbish! This is a grab for civil liberties in NSW and it offends everyone else who is free to associate because soon it could be you who is restricted or someone you know.

Gang-rape, police, disparity and the law..
The young woman and her friend have told police they met the players in Coffs Harbour on the evening after the Bulldogs played a trial match there and went back to the team's hotel with them.

Who let the dogs out? (woof, woof, woof, woof)
The Prime Minister has thrown his support behind the National Rugby League (NRL), saying the Bulldogs affair should not reflect on the game as a whole.

Today Paedophiles TOMORROW You!
To suggest there is a need to restrict their movement is rubbish! This is a grab for civil liberties in NSW and it offends everyone else who is free to associate because soon it could be you who is restricted or someone you know.

Juvenile Justice in America: Rehabilitation or Retribution?
What do you think should happen to juvenile criminals who commit serious crimes? Do you believe in the possibility of rehabilitation for these youthful offenders? Or do you believe in retribution or the punishment of these young criminals in the adult justice system?

Sexual Abuse: Testimony
I'm Debbie Ingraham, and I'm an activist for Restorative Justice. I'm also a former litigant who filed an unsuccessful civil suit against a family member for incest, and a former victim advocate. I bring a 30 year personal perspective of "real life" experiences that come from living with the effects of sexual abuse.

Sex offenders: The Umbrella and the Violin [REGISTERED]
The Umbrella: John Watkins the NSW police minister has now convinced State and Territory Police Ministers to categorise label, packaged and bar code people, who have been convicted of Sex offences, as dogmatic.?

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.

DPP must decide on next step in Volkers case by end of week! Rock Spider V's the Justice System? Queensland's Attorney-General wants a report from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) by the end of the week on how it will respond to criticism about its handling of indecent dealing charges against swimming coach Scott Volkers.

Plan to keep sex offenders from young after release
Child-sex offenders would be subject to court orders prohibiting them from visiting such places as parks when children are present under a re-elected Labor Government, said Carr.

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).

Alleged Rock Spider speaks out about sexual assault accusations
Volkers was committed to stand trial last year after being charged with indecently dealing with three girls he had coached in the 1980s.

Alleged Rock Spider rules QLD DPP?
One of three women behind indecent dealing allegations against top swim coach Scott Volkers says the matter will continue to haunt her unless it goes to trial.

Punishment By Imprisonment Is A Medieval Concept
The following accounts of prison rape are taken from various human rights sites on the WWW that deal with this abuse, which seems to be in epidemic proportions in the US, Australia, and many other countries.

Jailbreak: 2ser 107.3FM

2SER FM presenter Ariane Minc.

Tuesday evenings 8.00pm - 8.30pm or www.2ser.com

Sex Offenders and treatment in NSW gaols - 3 part interview with David Bright, therapeutic manager of CUBIT ( Custody Based Intensive Treatment for Sex Offenders), NSW Department of Corrective Services.

Part 1 July 27th, Tuesday 8.00PM Sex offenders in NSW gaols and their treatment.

Part 2 August 3rd, Tuesday 8.00PM Custoday Based Intensive Treatment for Sex Offenders - What goes on during the treatment program.

Part 3 August 10th, Tuesday 8.00PM Societal considerations regarding sex offending.

By Ariane Minc posted 27 July 04

Regards
Ariane Minc
Jailbreak Health Project Coordinator
Community Restorative Centre ( CRC)
174 Broadway, (Cnr Shepherd St)
BROADWAY 2007 NSW
Tel: (02) 9288 8700
Fax:(02) 9211 6518
ariane@crcnsw.org.au

Related Prison Treatment Links:

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).

Vic database to track sex offenders' movements

The Sex Offenders Registration Bill is due to be tabled in Parliament later this week. Sex offenders will have to tell police if they change their names, address or work and will not be allowed to work with children.

Today Sex offenders TOMMORROW YOU!

To suggest there is a need to restrict their movement is rubbish! This is a grab for civil liberties in NSW and it offends everyone else who is free to associate because soon it could be you who is restricted or someone you know.

NSW: Rapists more criminally versatile than Paedophiles

Parents to be given paedophile details? But rapists are more criminally versatile than Paedophiles! So who let the dogs out? Police Minister John Watkins! That's who.

Gang-rape, police, disparity and the law..

The young woman and her friend have told police they met the players in Coffs Harbour on the evening after the Bulldogs played a trial match there and went back to the team's hotel with them.

Govt stands by child sex offender program

The Western Australian Government is standing by a taxpayer-funded agency that offers conditional confidentiality to child sex offenders.

Therapy key for teen sex offenders

US: One girl allegedly was raped in the boys' bathroom at Folsom High School on a warm midday in March. Another told officials the same boy, a freshman at the school, had tried to rape her days earlier in a girls' bathroom. Two other girls told investigators the boy had committed lesser sex crimes against them at school within the previous week. If true, such a pattern of escalation is worrisome, according to experts who study and treat sex offenders.

Related Prison Links:

Carr Govt dramatic increases in the NSW prisoner pop...
Following the opening of the 500 bed Kempsey prison, and a new 200-bed prison for women at Windsor the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS) and community organisations specialising in the rehabilitation of prisoners, have expressed concern....

Prison: A hard sell for more compassion
One of the best things about the now cult Australian soap Prisoner was the dialogue between the women locked up in Wentworth Detention Centre as they scrapped and gnawed at each other, fags hanging out of their mouths: "You'll get yours, you fat dyke bitch!"

JUSTICE ACTION: TOUCH
What: An event for the campaign for community access to prisons Why: Because secrecy breeds abuse. On Bastille Day 1984, Breakout was officially launched with a start-up grant of $108,000. Breakout began business as an employment project for ex-prisoners.

Community: Daily Telegraph, you're out of "touch"
The Daily Telegraph is out of "touch" with Judges, Magistrates and the Community on every type of crime and penalties should be lessoned, an exclusive law and order survey for GKCNN has found.

WA: Boronia Prison for women
'Boronia's security includes an electronic perimeter control system with lights and cameras, a monitoring room, access controls on units and movement controls in key areas, and is unusual in a minimum security prison.'

Justice Action: NSW Corrective Services undermine prisoner contact For nearly 20 years, Justice Action has been corresponding regularly with individual prisoners without seeking approval from the Commissioner of Corrective Services for each individual letter sent to them.

Abuse within prisons makes prisoners more violent upon release
The Australian public was confronted with similar accusations during 1978 when the NSW Royal Commission into Prisons headed by Justice Nagle found that the NSW Department of Corrective Services and its Ministers of both political persuasions had unofficially sanctioned the systematic brutalisation of prisoners at Grafton Jail from 1943 to 1976. A former Grafton prison guard, John Pettit, testified to the extent of that brutalisation:

Abu Ghraib one day, Queensland the next
To know prison you have to experience the finality of a cell door slamming shut behind your back.

Prison abuse outrage hypocritical: Burnside
A prominent human rights lawyer has accused the Howard Government of hypocrisy in expressing outrage over the treatment of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail.

Death in custody: In memory of Scott Simpson
Scott Simpson 34 died in custody on 7 June 2004 leaving behind a child. It is alleged that he hanged himself in a segregation yard at Long Bay Prison Complex.

Charity likens Qld prisons to Abu Ghraib
Queensland's anti-discrimination commissioner has been asked to investigate claims of human rights abuses in the state's women's prisons.

PRISONERS' STRIKE
The world was shocked by the images of Abu Ghraib prisoner torture. But around the world the prisoner community knows that worse happens every day. The US presidential election will happen in November. George Bush is floundering in the wake of his government's exposed moral bankruptcy in Iraq. His terrorism against citizens has been exposed. Australian Prime Minister Howard has been caught with equal responsibility. They are on the defence.

Hatzsistergos defends speedy draconian laws
The New South Wales Government has been accused of "ramming" through a bill designed to make it much tougher for people to get bail if they are accused of terrorism-related offences, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East.]

QLD: Parole and Borrallon Prison
Well firstly thank you for sending the latest copy of Framed Magazine to me. I was very surprised, as I had no idea that I was still on your books. If you like I can send some more drawings for possible submission in the future.

Summary of 'Ombudsmen's Jurisdiction in Prisons'
* Ombudsman's main power comes from publicity it generates and possibility of reporting to Parliament. * According to author, they "exert considerable influence over administrative officials and may often persuade [one] to revoke or vary a decision". (p182).

Vic database to track sex offenders' movements
Liberty Victoria vice president Jamie Gardiner has described the new database as flawed and dangerous. Mr Gardiner says the database punishes people for what they might do rather than what they have done.

Ngo loses High Court appeal bid
Phuong Ngo has lost a High Court special leave application to appeal his 2001 conviction for the murder of Cabramatta MP John Newman.

No Legal Aid? Milat loses conviction appeal!
Ivan Milat today, without any legal representation, which includes Legal Aid, lost an application in the High Court to appeal against his 1996 convictions.

ACTION BREAK THEATRE
Our theatre workshops for Script Development and Acting aim to enable Female ex-prisoners, Women at-risk of being caught up in the justice system, Survivors of Child Abuse and Domestic Violence, to dramatically craft their real-life stories for the stage, radio and video.

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.

Hep C rife in Victorian jails
The study released by the Department of Justice, [? Department of Law, because there is no justice in prisons], revealed 57 per cent of prisoners had evidence of the hepatitis C infection, compared with one per cent of the general population.

AUSTRALIA: RIOT ACT READ AGAINST INSPECTION TEAM
The secrecy of the unit holding several people charged with terrorist offences, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], here in Australia was confirmed during an attempted community inspection by a delegation from Justice Action. The delegation comprised four women and two men.

Sisters Inside: The power of standing on your own two feet
The old jail, overcrowded and dilapidated, had been simmering with barely contained tension for some time. Many of the 106 women were locked together; two to a cell, in the "bottom" section of the jail behind a gate that prison officers chose to keep shut, restricting the already minimal movement of prisoners and ensuring a tinderbox environment of festering pressures.

Govt stands by child sex offender program
SafeCare offers certain child sex offenders conditional confidentiality if they admit their crime, move out of the home and attend a two-year rehabilitation program run by the agency.

Australian Prisons 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.

Rally for Inspection of Terror Unit, the HRMU
On Saturday, 15 May 2004 at 1p.m concerned citizens including families and friends will rally at the High Risk Management Unit, Goulburn Jail to demand entry and inspection of the unit where several people charged with terrorist offences, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], are imprisoned.

Australia: Prisoner Abuse Not Just in Iraq
The shocking revelations of abuse of prisoners by US prison guards in Iraq have been denounced by politicians around the world, including our own Prime Minister. But before he feels confident in criticising prison practices elsewhere, Howard needs to know a few things about prison administration in his own country. Justice Action has exposed similar acts here in Australia, but have had no response from authorities.

Doctor Ron Woodham I presume?
"Corrections Health staff provide medical care. However, its staff's authority is essentially limited to making recommendations to corrective services on treatment. Corrective services staff can then decide what treatment can be given."

Justice Brian Sully subscribes to jail retribution
"The high odds are that you will be found out, tracked down and sent to jail . . .then you will be as much at risk from others as your victim was at risk from you."

I was bashed by colleagues: warden
A prison officer doing his rounds at Parklea jail ended up in the emergency ward claiming he had been beaten unconscious by four colleagues.

Probation and Parole in NSW
I am a prisoner at the Goulburn Prison I refer to the New South Wales Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999 Sect 135.

At The Ministers Pleasure?
Most of these prisoners are held at the *Governors Pleasure* however, it's more like the *Ministers Pleasure* because the Health Minister holds the key and not the board of professional doctors whom even though recommend release the prisoner's remain locked away for political leverage.

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 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.

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.

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.