NSW Corrective Services: Security Threat Group?

They want to see a (VJ)! A VISITING JUSTICE!

Hi there, we recently visited a very friendly social group called Justice Action for some help.

The problem we have is that our boyfriends are in prison and are being excluded from their friend's in the main prison and are being mistreated in an inhumane an degrading way.

Firstly, they were housed at Parklea Prison back in 2003, they were accused of being gang leaders (who deserve special treatment) the consequences of which Ron Woodham the NSW Commissioner of Corrective Services doesn't have to prove and most likely won't be at all challenged on it by any 'toothless watchdog's' that are beholding to the authorities, regardless of the real truth.

These alleged gang leaders of all ethnic groups are house in the one unit within the prison parameters and are separated from the main prisoners', effectively dividing and conquering any idea about socialising with other prisoners (de-socialisation). Pretty normal?

In 2004, our loved ones and the rest of those prisoners were all transferred to the 'Supermax' prison at Goulburn Correctional Centre at the HRMU.

As for the conditions at the HRMU there have been many reports. Click on the link below.

The STG prisoners' are gassed and have been gassed in their unit when things get out of hand and the problem is that others get collective punishment by being gassed too because they cannot escape from their cells.

Jill says, "My boyfriend gets gassed and is suffering Asma and so is his friends because they cannot escape as the gas affects everyone in the unit regardless of who was gassed.

In 2004 our boyfriends were transferred to Lithgow Correctional Centre in a special Unit. Perspex was placed over the windows leaving only a golf ball size hole for air to breathe.

In short they are ventilated with stale air and have trouble breathing and are gassed, this is degrading treatment as they cannot escape the gas in their cells and have been closed in for up to 23 hours a day.

Justice Action informs us we should ask the Department of Corrective Services for their 'Case Management Plan'?

We hope with our friends help we can see what the departments intentions are in relation to the rest of the time they must serve in prison and how long they must be isolated and mistreated.

They have gassed our loved one's in November 2004 then gassed again in February 2005.

They've had enough and our loved ones have asked us for help. There names have been withheld so there won't be any retaliation by DCS! We hope! But if we don't speak out for them there is no one else.

This gas causes sickness and as I have said Asma to some of those caught up in this process.

We have been advised to draft letters to the Minister for Justice Mr John Hazistergos, The Commissioner Ron Woodham and the office of the NSW Ombudsman.

Furthermore, we have also been told not to expect any help from those people. Because in the past they have failed to assist when complaints were acknowledged by them but were not acted upon by the State or the State Ombudsman's office for 11 months. Complaints were made in relation to the HRMU from 2003-2004, and to date no action against the authorities has ever been taken?

In that case Justice Aciton sent the prisoners at the HRMU a form to get the prisoners' authorisation to act on their behalf and those authorities were confiscated by the Commissioner of Corrective Services for the good order and security of the prison?

That meant that under the 'Privacy Act' Justice Action could not act on their behalf and take up their complaints with the authorities?

They told us that they thought the Privacy Act was for people who wanted privacy not for public authorities to withhold authorisations from prisoners seeking assistance or who are in grave danger?

That is why we have raised this article to inform the community of the dangers and hopefully shine some light into the Darkness of the Alleged Corrective Services.

Prison is not a normal environment

It makes no sense to mistreat people just because they're popular or someone doesn't like them.

Does the DCS have some other motive to house them at low cost or to claim that there is some need to treat people like that?

If they have friends (because they're well liked) then they're gang leaders? Excuse us, but can we have a report with a Case Management Plan that conforms to a common sense approach opposed to a collective punishment regime, exclusion, inhumane and degrading treatment and brutality, whilst in the custody of the STATE! We're not going to take this anymore and we've been asked by our loved ones for some help.

Justice Denied In NSW Corrective Services
There used to be a (VJ) or Visiting Justice who would go into the prison and judge any claim or accusation that was made by any prisoner or prison guard. If it were found that a prisoner had offended then punishment was metered out.

By Jill and Natali 3 February 05

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Jail's drug problem 'out of control'

UK: A jail condemned as "dismal" by the chief inspector of prisons had a drug problem which was out of control and threatened its security and safety of prisoners, an inspection report claimed yesterday.

Nearly half the inmates at The Mount prison in Hertfordshire said they felt unsafe, 25% had been victims of bullying and another 44% said it was easy to get hold of illegal drugs, according to the inspection report.

Prison staff failed to relate to the large numbers of ethnic minority prisoners - even though they had been a "significant" part of the prison population for years - and so were unable to pick up on tensions between the different groups.

Commenting on the report, the chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, said: "The first priority of those running a prison is to provide a safe and decent environment. At the time of the inspection The Mount was neither."

The 760-inmate men's prison in Bovingdon was a category C training prison. But only two out of three prisoners were able to take part in any meaningful training or work, said the report which was based on an inspection last October.

A third of the inmates were employed in the prison as cleaners but there were still ingrained dirt and litter across the prison, the report said.

Most of the cells in the segregation unit were in an "appalling condition" and prison officers "inexplicably" re-housed inmates in the dirty cells rather than those which had been refurbished.

Ms Owers said record keeping was "the poorest we have ever seen" and sentence planning was in "disarray" with a backlog of cases stretching back a year.

The single glimmer of hope at the prison was the education provision which Ms Owers described as "the jewel in the crown".

But it was out of the reach of many prisoners because of the absence of systems which made sure prisoners were able to access to service.

Ms Owers said : "The prison service needs to, and undoubtedly will, take decisive action in relation to The Mount.

"But prisons should not be allowed to deteriorate to this level. The Mount shows the importance of ensuring that managers, in our current pressurised prison system, are sufficiently scrutinised and supported in their difficult task."

The director general of the prison service, Phil Wheatley, said the previous inspection report for The Mount nearly three years ago identified it as a "good prison".

It had gone downhill since because of "significant population pressures and the level of drugs" coming into the prison, he said.

A new management team was already tackling the issues raised in the report including reducing overcrowding, he said.

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