WORKING FOR ACCESS
On Sunday 12 August Justice Action and Stop the Womens Jail celebrated IPJD outside the Silverwater complex handing out leaflets and talking to visitors. We hope that some of you on the inside heard us on the loudhailer too! It was a lovely day, we met heaps of great people, and demonstrated the reality that prisoners have a network of supporters on the outside.
The theme we adopted this year was “Community Access”. Our news release reiterated our belief that social interaction and unhindered communications are vital to the health and development of prisoners and their eventual resettlement. As Noha said, isolation does nothing to transform the community in a positive way, and much more to disable the social skills, confidence and sense of responsibility of prisoners.
That all sounds pretty uncontroversial, right? But look at the trouble we get into when we try to implement it! We’ve had the Authorised Visitor pass knock-back (see page 2) and Brett’s conviction and banning (see page 6). As well, the management at Junee Correctional Centre has backed out of an initial agreement to take six PCs we were trying to donate them, after being advised by the Department that procedures do not allow for donations of electrical goods.
The donation attempt was made in the context of a computer project JA started in conjunction with the APU in 1999; the idea is to provide PCs to enable prisoners to access the standard range of education databases and networks available to community-based school and TAFE students. Junee accepted computers donated through the project only last year; management there now say they shouldn’t have done so, even though the computers are still being used and appreciated. (And yo! We were devastated that our months of fine tuning the skills of concealing illegal drugs within the internal wiring of the computers has been a waste of time. What are we doing here???)
Community participation in corrections was also the theme of JA’s presentation at the 4th National Outlook Symposium on Crime in Australia, held in Canberra in June. We pointed out that everybody was there talking about prisoners – and where were the prisoners themselves? Over recent months we’ve given papers at other conferences too – like the Mental Health and the Legal System Symposium in May and the Men’s and Boys’ Health Conference over the Labor Day weekend. We always raise the issue of prisoners’ right to speak for themselves to the rest of the community on issues that affect them. Since this doesn’t happen, though, we at least make our first port of call in researching our papers what you on the inside tell us about your experiences and proposals. So keep writing!!
International Prisoners Justice Day is, of course, celebrated all around the world. In Western Australia, the Prison Reform Group held a vigil at the old Fremantle Gaol with the social justice committees of the Uniting, Anglican and Catholic Churches. The focus was on overcrowded and disgraceful conditions at Bandyup Women’s Prison and the urgent need for decarceration. PRG estimates that one third (70+) of all women prisoners in WA – many of whom are the primary caregivers for their children – could be released to community-based programs without any threat to the community. The vigil called on the new WA Attorney-General to speed up his policy of decarceration. PRG tells us that WA incarcerates at more than 220 per 100,000 – the highest incarceration rate of any Australian state.
International Prisoners Day marks the anniversary of the death of Eddie Nolan, who bled to death in solitary confinement in Millhaven Penitentiary, Canada, in 1974 after guards deactivated his emergency call button. The following year, Howie Brown, Eddie’s cell neighbour, initiated a strike and fast in memory of this failure of the justice system. The day is set aside to honour the memory of those who have died unnatural deaths in prison, and to express solidarity with the millions of people who are daily being dehumanised by this archaic justice
system.
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