Prison Moratorium Needed Now To call penology a science is stretching definitions a little, but if a century of intensive study of prisons and their effects on inmates and society has produced a clear conclusion about anything it is that prisons don't work. Not as a deterrent to crime. Not as a means of rehabilitation. Not as means of reducing recidivism. Not as a way of increasing public safety. In fact the weight of informed opinion is now that prisons most likely aggravate the very problems they claim to address. As well as being colleges of criminal techniques, they actually increase the very stresses on individuals, families and communities which have been shown to cause crime in the first place. Or as the Thatcher government's White Paper on the prison system puts it, "Prisons are an expensive way to make bad people worse". It's hard to imagine them having a salutary effect on the many good people who find themselves behind bars either. In recent decades many alternative ways of dealing with crime have been tried and many demonstrated to be more effective than prison, with those concentrating on repairing the community rifts which both cause crime and are caused by it showing the greatest promise. So we are moving away from imprisoning our citizens and towards more rational and potentially successful ways of controlling crime, right? Wrong. In fact the last ten years has seen an unprecedented increase in inmate numbers all over the world. Imprisonment rates in the US, China and Russia are now at the highest level of any society in the history of civilisation, and Australia is no slouch either with inmate numbers more than doubling in the last ten years. Queensland has the dubious distinction of having the fastest growth rate of incarceration anywhere in the world. Prison budgets are being increased at the same time that huge cuts are being made in education, health and community services. Those who cite increased population pressure and a skyrocketing drug problem as possible reasons are missing the point. Prisons are not a method of dealing with drug issues. Around a quarter of heroin users in NSW gaols injected for the first time while in prison. While prisons they may teach people about pressure cooker living conditions, these are generally not the sort of lessons we would want to apply to society in general. The fact is that while prison populations have been going through the roof, crime rates are stable or falling. Blaming the victims just doesn't wash. People who point at the increasing commercialisation of state endorsed punishment may be closer to the mark. Listed companies need to provide good growth prospects to investors in order to attract, and retain, capital. Reducing our dependence on bars and razor tape might be good for society in general, but is a threat to those with money invested in locking people up. At a recent criminology conference, the secretary of Victoria's Justice Department, Peter Harmsworth, failed to detail how this obvious conflict of interest is to be resolved. This was despite being asked twice and ignored the fact that, with over 50% of its inmates in private prisons, Victoria is the world leader in the brave new world of punishment for profit. In the eighties, people noted the trend and talked about a 'punishment wave', but waves peak, then pass. Ten years on, the growth rate is still increasing. The positive feedback loops created by law and order politics, media shock jocks and commercial expectations have created an addiction spiral, whereby the only answer is seen as being increased doses of the very cause of the problem. The more damage done to communities by these counterproductive policies, the greater the public fear of crime and the louder the calls for tougher sentences. How can we bring sanity into the criminal justice system? Basically we need to sit back, take a breather, and think about what we are doing to ourselves. A bit of time and space to clear the fear and hysteria and allow a bit of space for sense to find a way in. What we need... A moratorium would see a five year freeze on prison building, of itself saving hundreds of millions of NSW taxpayers dollars. A freeze on inmate numbers via a one in one out principle would also save over $50,000 per inmate per year. If this money was redirected to health, education or crime reduction methods that actually worked the results could easily be imagined. At the end of five years, crime trends could be examined again to help determine the next step, whether it be a reduction in inmate numbers, or a return to the "lock 'em all up" philosophy of crime control. This is not a call for abandoning the outmoded, ineffective practice of locking people up in an effort to improve their behaviour. Heaven forbid. This is a call for a controlled experiment to find out if a failure to keep accelerating prison development will result in more crime, or whether it will encourage more constructive and cost effective methods of dealing with crime in our society. Michael Strutt

Behind the Banana Curtain The interviewee for this article is no stranger to the prison systems of both Queensland and NSW. Recently released on bail for what could be best described as traffic related offences, and having spent five months in custody on remand at the privatised Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, this interview provides an insight into the appalling Qld criminal justice system and the ever expanding prison population. On the day of the interviewee's release, a corpse of a 20-year-old suicide victim was being carried out the gates at the same time as the Australian Prisoners Union was delivering donated computers to the prison. What do you consider as the most pressing issues effecting Qld prisoners within the new millennium? Makkah: Qld has, under previous regimes, inflicted a great deal of suffering on its prison population, with its archaic concept of imprisonment stemming from the brutality of former prisons such as Boggo Road, Woodford Prison and, of course, the notorious Townsville Prison. It is little wonder that the transitional changes, during the reform process started in the late 80's and early 90's, have had little opportunity of success in a state renown for its systemic corruption. However, these changes were simply the improvisation of privatised prisons, and the dressing up of very antiquated public prisons. Qld prisoners were treated to improved conditions that were so essentially basic that it had a profound effect on prisoners generally, almost deceiving. Suddenly, Qld prisoners perceived that the reform process would offer some sort of hope beyond the razor wire. Unfortunately, what the early nineties brought with it was an ever increasing demand, whipped up by the media, for an expansion of the prison system with all the problems of increased prisoner populations. This expansion goes hand-in-hand with the explosion in prison numbers, which, of course, sadly reflects a prison program that has gone off the rails in every state in Australia, demonstrated by increasingly entrenched problems such as violence in prison and deaths in custody. Unfortunately racism exists, and is being used as a means of control within certain prisons: a divide and conquer mentality that serves only to retard the brotherhood of prisoners. The Australian Prisoners Union will serve to bring about a change in that perspective. We are all prisoners and, therefore, we are all brothers who in strength can bring about changes. It is in the best interests of every prisoner to bring about that unity. Recently you conducted an interview with the ABC radio concerning the release of a report from the Australian Institute of Criminology on deaths in custody. You maintained that a major problem exists with the privatised prison program. Where does the APU stand on that issue? Makkah: Privatised prisons are seen by the public as the lesser of two evils. What the public has failed to understand is that the expansion of privatised prisons has become an international "Corporate America" program headed by very political masters such as the former US Attorney General and, in its infancy, a former member of the FBI. The very powerful Kentucky Fried Chicken Company initially funded this same corporate giant. Any study of the corporate program, and research on American litigation involving companies like Wackenhut, sets alarm bells ringing. Lets not forget, American Corporate programs are powerfully political, and have been running an agenda of privatisation that is so diverse that prisons are merely one ambit of the program. It encompasses the advent of enterprise agreements, corporate take over and for example secrecy clauses, these are all big issues that involve all Australians. There is no denying the correlation between the explosion in prison numbers in Australia and every other country, including South Africa, where privatisation has taken place. Warehousing prisoners is big bucks, and that involves everything from detention centres, immigration centres, prisons and, in some countries, airport security contracts. Privatisation is under scrutiny in Victoria due to the high rate of deaths in custody and, as of this moment, a Coroners Court Inquiry is under way. The APU stands firm on the issues as we know the other side of the coin is that privatisation has led to the increased imprisonment of prisoners. In some states, for example Qld and WA, people who normally would not end up in prison for offences such as fine defaulting do so merely to fill prison beds. That is insidious and immoral; all these prisons are doing is undermining the very fabric of our Society. They continue to impoverish not only the individual prisoner but also the community as a whole. Ultimately, welfare programs are the first to suffer within communities; and, of course; normal resources for legal and welfare reform and direct prisoner needs are the first to suffer. You only have to talk with Prisoners Legal Services to realise the effect of privatisation; there is a simply stretched and limited resource to cope with the influx of prisoners. Recently you highlighted some very damning abuses in the Qld prison system and further the justice system, in a report tabled at a Justice Action meeting. What were the worst examples? Makkah: A case involving a young man who bore the scars of wounds from a dog handled by a burly Qld coppa. The dog handler had sicked his dog onto the man repeatedly, causing punctures to his legs and lower torso. The wounds were so obvious that you can actually see the teeth marks of the dog. Of course, his lawyer was so incensed that he photographed the man whilst he was hospitalised and complained to the CJC. Another case involved a pregnant female prisoner who had hemorrhaged during the course of the week. She was only in her early twenties, and was 5 months pregnant. She had breached a lousy community service order and some callous inhumane Magistrate sent her to prison. She had complained about her medical condition to doctors and was only prescribed panadol to relieve her pain. Unfortunately she miscarried after attempting to alert the screws on a cell buzzer that was inoperative. Another case involved the bashing, by five screws, at Sir David Longlands CC, of a prisoner in the High Security Area. This is the same prison where management will not permit Law Books in prisoners' cells attempting to represent themselves in Court. Of course the Corrective Services Commission has failed to adequately respond to the release of high security prisoners from segregated areas in maximum security prisons, and many examples of abuse stem from the failure to abide by their own rules. It really is a major concern and one that Prisoners Legal Service continues to fight. At the Arthur Gorrie Jail, such is the rapid development taking place that future problems are already obvious. Limited and restricted access to the oval, and programs generally, means they are not coping with the present situation how the hell do they intend coping with an even bigger population. You have to request to go to the Law library, however, very rarely do you even get access. That prison was originally deigned for just under 400 prisoners. Now they are talking in excess of 700 and more Unit areas that were designed to accommodate 24 men, were increased to 38, and as many as 40 men simply by two outing single cells. You can imagine the tensions between prisoners and frustration. Whilst there I was very fortunate to have experienced a roof top protest. The prisoner was protesting his transfer. Has the Qld Justice system improved since the Fitzgerald Inquiry? Makkah: You know prisons are a valuable means of putting a criminal justice system under the microscope, using the analogy of the old into the new, much of what shaped the outpourings of the Fitzgerald inquiry has still managed to survive the past. For example the Qld Law Society recently criticised with appalling gutless arguments that it was concerned about the recording of telephone conversations between prisoners and counsel. It is obvious that presents one hell of a debate concerning privileged legal communication. Further at the same period Legal Aid has such a serious depletion of funding for criminal cases that severe limits are placed on counsel between client and solicitor. In Caboolture Magistrates Court a journalist is being charged under a Corrective Services Act for printing a story involving an interview between a victim and the prisoner. Of course the most basal principle of a democratic society is the universal freedom of speech. These type of situations are appalling insights into what manifests corruption, it is a system that has no checks or balances, and is open to abuse. Qld police are about to have the power that was taken from them because of the Fitzgerald inquiry and carry out there own checks and balances. It is business as usual behind the banana curtain but probably less obvious then before. What is obvious is the appalling miscarriages of justice and signs that the system is not coping with providing prisoners with their legal needs. How do you see the role of the APU in counteracting the ongoing problems? Makkah: Never underestimate the power of a dedicated brotherhood who collectively have the strength and purpose to better not only themselves but the very system that abuses the universal rights that are common to us all. At the very moment of this interview prisoners in Western Australia have endured the longest lockdown in the history of Australian prisons for the largest number of prisoners, that is how bad the situation grows and every other Australian state fares little better. It is the beginning of a new appalling chapter in the history of Australian prisons. Do not underestimate the Australian public in drawing the line at such abuses, enough is enough! The Australian Prisoners Union in conjunction with Justice Action has recently undertaken the CARE program, what is it? Makkah: Justice Action and the dedication of its volunteers has consistently stood for the truth, they are the only organisation with the proud tradition of having maintained a healthy proactive relationship with not only prisoners but the entire prison debate. That includes an International network as well as a domestic one. It does not include selling their souls to any form of Government funding. It is only by the community and business resources of Breakout Printing and Design that the JA organisation survives along with its most valued members, which includes the community of prisoners. The APU is not interested in selling that quality to a bureaucracy of bullshit bosses and lies. That is why the CARE program works and why the APU and JUSTICE ACTION have worked towards donating computers into prisons that are donated by businesses, responsible corporations, community organisations and individuals. CARE stands for Communities Aiding Reform and Education it is strongly supported by trade unionists and other members of the community concerned about prisoners needs. So far they have delivered computers to prisons in Qld and three prisons in NSW all through volunteer resources, that is something to be admired as for a long time a lot of phony organisations have grown up around the prison debate and simply ignored the prisoners. The APU is the prisoners' choice and Justice Action has always stood by the prisoner. Never underestimate the power of a dedicated brotherhood who collectively have the strength and purpose to better not only themselves but the very system that abuses the universal rights that are common to us all. RETURN TO THE TOP

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