Women in Prison Conference
International Women in Prison Conference

"If this system is the answer, it must have been a bloody stupid question"
– Women at BWCC to the Sisters Inside conference.

In November 2001, eight campaigners from Stop the Womens Jail travelled north to attend a gathering of feminist prison activists from all over the world.

Brisbane-based organisation, Sisters Inside, played host to the International Women in Prison Conference for three days of challenging debates, intimate discussions and network meetings which brought together folks from all walks of life.

The conference could not have been held at a more crucial time. As the speakers and participants stressed across the three days, more and more women are going to prison, for longer periods of time. The trend is global. All over the world women are the fastest growing group of the prison population and in countries such as Australia, USA and Canada, it is Indigenous women and women of colour who are being locked up at the highest proportional rate.

The conference boasted a range of excellent local and international speakers, such as Melissa Lucashenko, Murri novelist and a founder of Sisters Inside, who attacked the complex issues of race and gender privilege, Aboriginal women and violence. "We are the people we've been waiting for," she stated, empowering us all to become the struggle and know our own wisdom.

Angela Davis - former Black Panther, exprisoner, prison activist and academic - spoke on the Prison Industrial Complex as it relates to global trends, immigration, and the "War on Terror", and placed the struggle for prison abolition within a broader movement for social change. Amanda George, Victorian prison activist and criminal lawyer, spoke on the campaign against privatisation and the abuse of public funds to extract profit through the mistreatment of women in the former Deer Park women's prison. Kim Pate, from the Canadian association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, spoke about the Canadian situation, similarities with the plight of prisoners globally, and the importance of international coalitions.

But the most credit goes to all the women ex-prisoners who spoke in the workshops and various panels. Your voices rang out loud and clear, and gave insightful and thought-provoking views on the prison system, the struggle of post-release, drugs, violence and many other important topics. You reminded us not only of the pain but the joys and solidarity that can come out of negative experiences like imprisonment. The participation of ex-prisoners was vital to the feel of the conference, and was strong enough to outweigh the unpleasant presence of some Corrective Services Staff (including the Governor of the BWCC, a tedious and embarrassing presentation) and their usual Government lies and recruitment drives (no we won't work for your jails!).

On the other hand, some Corrective Services staff were seen in one panel actually taking notes. Yes! We reckon it's about time that Corrections staff sit in the audience and listen to different voices for a change.

A highlight for SWJ was the Young Women in Detention workshop, which was wholly prepared by a group of girls inside Brisbane Youth Detention Centre and showed an awesome insight into how these intelligent and we thought damn ace girls manage their situation.

The Violence panel was overwhelming in its content and the amount of information presented.

Thanks go to the UTS Students Association, the Wollongong SRC, Bankstown SRC, Christine and the Wollongong kids and Justice Action for their finances and resources to get us up to Brisbane, as well as to Sisters Inside for their amazing effort in organising the conference. Also for helping us with registration costs.

Sisters Inside are putting together a CD ROM of the conference papers. For further info, contact:
Sisters Inside
PO Box 3407, South Brisbane, Queensland 4101
ph 07 3844 5066
or email admin@sistersinside.com.au

• Stop the Womens Jail plans to run a series of workshops and discussions to share what we learnt from the conference and discuss ideas for campaign activity in 2002. If you want more info or to get involved please contact Justice Action.
• The full report can be read by downloading either the ".pdf" file or the text file attached





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Sexual Assualt: a plea
PLEA FOR REAL SOLUTIONS TO SEXUAL ASSAULT
– FROM THE WOMEN OF AUSTRALIA

We the undersigned are seriously concerned at the continuing high levels of sexual assault in the community and the low level of conviction even amongst reported cases. However, we object to the political and racist use of the problem to gain cheap political points.

We urgently appeal to the Government and Opposition in NSW to address these problems.

We oppose life sentences for sexual assault in company for the following reasons:

• If sexual assault in company and murder carry the same maximum penalty then offenders might more commonly resort to murder in order to eliminate the witness of their crime.

• In the 1980s the life sentence option for sexual assault was repealed as it resulted in fewer guilty pleas and fewer convictions.

• International experience of incarceration has shown that longer sentences do not act as an effective deterrent.

• Greater social and economic investment is urgently needed in education, re-education and rehabilitation to change the behaviour of those who commit or are at risk of committing sexual assault.

We urgently appeal to the NSW Premier to withdraw his legislation and look for other ways to reduce all forms of sexual assault.

In the name of the estimated 100,000 women who suffer sexual assault each year in this country, we urge the Premier to find genuine ways to reducing the incidence of this terrible crime.






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Costa: Cops for Comment

Some envious glances shot from the NSW ALP backbench when Michael Costa was elevated to Minister for Police after only 17 days experience in parliament. But jealousy may soon turn to pity as Costa struggles to put an acceptable public relations face on a deeply divided police force which has utterly failed to meet the challenge of reform posed by the Wood Royal Commission in time for its key role in Bob Carr's law and order re-election strategy.

The shiny new minister has moved quickly to shore up the crumbling facade of the NSW Police, providing plum jobs to its most vocal critics and hobbling embarrassing inquiries into police malpractice. At the same time he has continued the NSW government policy of rolling back Wood Royal Commission reforms, with the formation of specialist crime squads and proposals to allow police to moonlight as security guards flying in the face of some of the strongest recommendations made by Justice Wood.

Last year was not a good one for the image of the NSW police.

The Qualitative and Strategic Audit of the Reform Process (QSARP) was not "terminated forthwith" as Commissioner Ryan had wished, but instead delivered a stinging indictment of a police administration which has lost its way on reform and failed to implement measures identified as vital to reducing corruption.

A parliamentary inquiry into policing in Cabramatta produced a report which confirmed the QSARP findings – revealing a management culture of command by fear and a decision-making process totally out of touch with community experience of crime and policing or input from front line officers. More embarrassing has been the stream of stories of corruption and incompetence coming out of the Police Integrity Commission hearings all through 2001, with more set to come in 2002.

In spite of careful media management of Operation Florida revelations of extensive bribery, framing of suspects and greenlighting of drug dealers in Sydney's northern beach suburbs, it remains to be seen whether the NSW public will swallow the government line that this is proof of a new "corruption-resistant" police force – especially given recent suggestions that the Florida investigators themselves engaged in corrupt practices.

The argument will start to look increasingly tatty, in any case, later this year after Operation Rosella reports on police corruption in the Bankstown area and Operation Dakota reveals what it has discovered about serious misconduct among senior officers.

That is, if they don't suffer the same fate as PIC Operation Malta.

Malta had been holding hearings throughout 2001 into allegations of sabotage of reform from the top levels of police management and had already heard serious allegations against the highest ranking NSW police. Head of Internal Affairs, Mal Brammer, told the inquiry that Commissioner Ryan's implementation of Wood recommendations "bordered on maladministration", while other witnesses had identified Deputy Commissioner Ken Moroney as the head of the "Black Knights" – a group of senior police officers dedicated to sabotaging reform.

Alarm bells first started ringing last November when Malta hearings were suspended shortly before Commissioner Ryan was due to give evidence – allegedly so that resources could be concentrated on Operation Florida. Suspicions that the fix was in were strengthened in January when the key counsel assisting the inquiry quit to become a Supreme Court judge – barely a month before he was to finally begin questioning Ryan.

In a cynical move which seems to confirm the nobbling of Operation Malta, Ken Moroney has now been promoted to Senior Deputy Commissioner and given command of all anti-corruption operations.

Unwilling or unable to address the deep and complex problems besetting the NSW police, Bob Carr has always preferred simplistic law and order rhetoric – so it is hardly surprising that he has sought help from its chief purveyor in NSW, Sydney shockjock Alan Jones.

The situation was made clear to Michael Costa from the beginning when he was sent by the Premier to receive the Blessing of the Parrot before being appointed Police Minister. It has become even clearer to the people of NSW as a succession of 2UE staffers and Jones cronies have been appointed to key positions in advisory panels and the Police Ministry – with junk science "criminologist" Richard Basham the only member of Jones' inner circle yet to announce a prestigious new job.

Jones himself has been offered a place on the board of the Police Citizens Youth Club – as has his fellow infotainer, Daily Telegraph editor Campbell Reid. It is not clear whether Australian Broadcasting Authority regulations will now require that Jones name the NSW Police Force as sponsor before delivering an "opinion" piece on law and order.

Costa will have to do some impressive juggling over the next 12 months as he tries to please two masters – the Premier and the Parrot – while playing down corruption revelations, placating dissident police and maintaining the hypocritical "tough on crime" rhetoric of a government in election mode. If he fails, he will lose his ministry and perhaps the elections. If he succeeds, he will confirm himself as "Premier-in-waiting" as he condemns NSW to another term of rising police corruption and collapsing civil liberties.


ROLLER CO STA
Hardly a day goes by without some new act of repression in NSW.

Since December Carr and Costa have passed laws allowing:
• the use of sniffer dogs around entertainment and public transport areas • young people sentenced to juvenile to be transferred into adult jails when they turn 18 or 21
• increased penalties for those who "harbour an escapee"
• increased maximum penalties for a whole range of "gang" related offences They've also halved the amount of cannabis people under 18 can carry for personal use without being charged (from 30 grams to 15) and proposed changes to the Bail Act which will create a presumption against bail for wide ranges of people, violating the presumption of innocence and breaching the principle that the refusal of bail should be the exception.

And hell! The election's not even on till next year!!








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JOHN KLOK:
What Nagle said
One of the first things Woodham did was appoint John Klok Acting Senior Assistant Commissioner. Justice Nagle, in his Report on the Royal Commission into NSW Prisons, 1978, had a lot to say about Klok, who was a prison officer at Bathurst in the early 70s.

On 19 October 1970, there was a riot at Bathurst provoked by appalling conditions; the prisoners surrendered in the afternoon on an assurance that there would be no "biff" (physical assault by way of reprisal).

Resentful at not being allowed to suppress the riot with physical force, a number of prison officers (not all) formed groups the next morning and went from cell to cell, hauling inmates out and beating them up with batons. Ringleaders – or those believed to be ringleaders – were singled out for special punishment, but even prisoners who had not taken part in the riot were bashed.

Justice Nagle, in his Report on the Royal Commission into NSW Prisons, 1978, describes the episode as "a disgrace in terms of ordinary human behaviour and repellent to any standard of decency to be expected of a prison system" (p.61). He reported about Klok specifically: Prisoner JV Bobak was in a cell on the top landing of C Wing, with another prisoner. A number of officers entered the cell. They included Prison Officers Mutton, Klok and Milton. Mutton hit Bobak on the head with a baton, sending him to the floor with blood running from the wound. He was kicked while on the floor, then thrown against the wall. He stood against the wall and was hit with batons on the arms, neck and back. He described them as really hard blows and said that he screamed as he was being hit. Prison Officer Klok denied the allegations, but the Commission does not accept his denial. (p.58) É Prisoner Officer Aitken hit a prisoner Brian Castle with a wooden baton, without reason ... Later Castle, in a semi-conscious condition, was hit by Prison Officer Klok, opening up a bad scalp wound. Klok's denial is not accepted.

(p.59) Prisoner JA Kelly heard prison officers entering B Wing and the opening of cell doors on the ground floor. Soon afterwards, he heard a lot of banging and crashing, screaming and yelling.

He and the other three prisoners in the cell with him barricaded the door with mattresses as the sounds came nearer. The door was eventually opened by prison officer Mutton, who ordered them to throw out their weapons and threatened them with a steam hose if they did not.

Weapons were thrown out and the prisoners left the cell. They were ordered to strip. One of the prisoners in the cell with Kelly was AT ("Meggsy") Morrison. Before he was able to remove all his clothing, he was hit with batons and fists by Prison Officers Mutton, Klok, Best, Draper, Judd and Morgan É Kelly was placed in a separate cell, and Prison Officers Mutton, Klok, Tuck and Best entered it. Kelly was told to spreadeagle himself against the wall, and he was then struck a large number of blows with batons over the head, neck, back, legs and feet.

He received injuries to an ankle and his mouth was split. (p.59) A prisoner who had been a spokesman [in the negotiations to end the riot the previous day] was Errol Baker. Prison Officer Atkins saw Prison Officers Aitken and Klok hit Baker, who apparently possessed a knife. They continued to hit Baker even after he had been disarmed É Prison Officer Klok said that he did not know Baker. He said that he had had to disarm a dozen or more prisoners with knives or similar weapons, and did no more than use his rubber baton to strike these prisoners over the forearm or shoulders to make them drop their weapons.

He denied continuing to hit any prisoner after he had been disarmed. The Commission accepts the evidence of Prison Officer Atkins and finds that Prison Officers Aitken and Klok applied unjustified force in continuing to hit Baker after he had been disarmed. (p.60) Klok was still working at Bathurst three and a half years later, when the big riot occurred in February 1974. Again Nagle mentions Klok by name for his part in the repression which followed. In the aftermath of the insurrection, surrendered prisoners were taken out of a yard, where they had been held overnight, for transfer to Sydney; in the process they were subjected to strip searches and some were bashed. Klok, says Nagle: É hit a prisoner called Bloomfield with his fist three times. Klok was six feet five and a half inches tall and weighed nineteen and a half stone. Bloomfield was five feet eight inches tall and weighed less than ten stone. Klok's denial of the incident is not accepted. This was a disgraceful assault. (p.102) This is the man Woodham has appointed.

No wonder the NSW Upper House wants to know what's going on in Corrective Services.

On 21 March it was announced that the NSW Upper House will hold an inquiry into Ron Woodham, the newly-appointed Commissioner for Corrective Services, popularly known as Rotten Ron.

Woodham, whose appointment was announced in January this year, is the first lock-level prison officer to hold the post in the Department's 128-year history, and has wielded power in the malignant law enforcement system for decades. Insiders found his appointment as Commissioner unbelievable and sinister. For some of the information that's given rise to the inquiry, see articles on this page and the next.

The inquiry will be conducted by the NSW Upper House General Purpose Standing Committee No. 3, which comprises 3 Labor, 2 Liberals and 2 crossbenchers. The terms of reference are wide. Briefly they are to inquire into the appointment of Woodham and senior officers of the department (including Acting Senior Assistant Commissioner John Klok) and they will also be looking at the relationship between senior officers and inmates to ensure professionalism and integrity.

Prisoners inside jails see a chance for hope in this Inquiry, and have expressed a personal and group discipline to help it happen.

We have the opportunity for change in the NSW prison system before us. The Inquiry will be starting as early as the end of April.

We're collating material to present to the inquiry. Anyone with personal involvement with these people should get the info to us ASAP.

New Commissioner Ron Woodham
THE WOODHAM: THE CV


• 1965: Joins the prison service and rises through the ranks to officer in charge of the farm at Long Bay.

Becomes famous for his disciplinary measures on the woodheap, to which prison "boys" aged 18-21 are assigned for punishment.

• About 1977: Starts up the Malabar Security Unit, which later develops the Malabar Emergency Unit, an empire of commando-style teams (which he calls "my wild men") specialising in putting down riots, handling hostagetaking and shanghai-ing troublemakers.

The MEU acquires rifles with image-enhancing scopes, a mobile air chamber fitted with fans, a microphone that listens through doors and windows, an emergency response truck equipped with $500,000 of gear, and a HERV (a thing like a tea tray on wheels for use in hostage situations).

Other prison officers describe the MEU as Rambos, and grumble that money is never a problem when it comes to buying Woodham his toys.

MEU men, hand-picked by Woodham, start making their way into the many senior positions throughout the prison system which they now occupy.

• 1970s: Grafton continues to be – as it has been since 1943 – a prison where prisoners classified as "intractable" are sent in order to be subjected to an infamous regime of brutality. As head of the MEU, one of Woodham's jobs is to take "intractables" out of normal prison communities and transport them to Grafton. Part of the regime they are subjected to is a "reception biff" consisting of a physical beating by two or three officers using rubber batons.

• 1978: Justice Nagle hands down his Report on the Royal Commission into NSW Prisons. Concludes that "every prison officer who served at Grafton during the time it was used as a gaol for intractables must have known of its brutal regime." Woodham, however, is not named.

• 1985: Prison officer Roger Cumming, a marksman in Woodham's Hostage Response Group, is shot with a blank round in the groin during a joint police/prison officer training exercise and loses a testicle. Cumming successfully sues for negligence.

Woodham admits that it was decided that "for the sake of the exercise" the police report on the incident would say, falsely, that Cumming had accidentally shot himself. Woodham also admits visiting Cumming in hospital, but denies that he tried to persuade him to go along with this version of events. Cumming gets $160,000 for physical injury, psychological trauma and loss of career. Woodham survives and prospers.

• 1985: Founds the notorious IIU (Internal Investigation Unit), supposedly to tackle corruption among officers and drugs in the prison population. Builds up another empire to complement the MEU hardware: a network of prisoner spies constructed on a combination of threats and promises. One such informant describes Woodham as a "bizarre man who controlled my life by terror tactics"; another describes him as "powerful and vindictive". An atmosphere of distrust and suspicion pervades the prison system. One prison officer is awarded $150,000 compensation after being on the receiving end of Woodham's heavyhanded investigative tactics. As for his prisoner spies, they live in constant fear of retribution, and eventually "Dog Hilton", a prison-within-aprison at Long Bay, has to be built to house them. Woodham survives and prospers.

• Late 1980s: Anthony Denison, a prisoner at Cessnock, alleges that Superintendent Joe Baldwin, then in charge of the prison, has offered him early parole if he does not give evidence against two prison officers in a sexual harassment case. Woodham as head of the IIU decides to take no action, even though he believes the charge. He later tells ICAC that he and Baldwin are "very good friends".

• Late 1980s: Enquires into the bashing of prisoner Maria Jason by two prison officers at Mulawa. Produces a report that virtually exonerates the officers, recommends that no action be taken against them, and criticises an officer who had reported the assault.

Ombudsman's office eventually reinvestigates. Is highly critical of Woodham's report, saying it "amounted to wrong conduct".

Considers his criticism of the whistleblower "disgraceful". Recommends he be reprimanded. The two officers who assaulted Maria Jason are sacked.

Woodham survives and prospers.

• Late 1980s: Woodham has an argument with John Horton, then director of prison operations and potential Commissioner, and tells him: "Don't you give me orders. The man who owns the guns has the power around here." A report by Woodham on Horton, based on surveillance years before, is mysteriously leaked.

Horton's career crashes. Woodham survives and prospers.

• 1991: ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) launches investigation into the use of prison informers. Hears allegations that Woodham has surreptiously taperecorded conversations with prisoners, offered to alter a prison officer's file, urged prisoners to fabricate evidence about a prison murder, and leaked information that led to the bashing of an informer.

Woodham denies any impropriety, but does admit that he "bent over backwards" to get an early release for William Cavanough, who as well as being one of his informers was, according to ICAC, also a drug dealer, standover man and all round thug.

• November 1991, in the midst of the ICAC inquiry: Is appointed acting assistant commissioner in charge of prisons operations, thus gaining control of the fastest growing public service fiefdom in NSW.

• 1993: ICAC hands down its report.

Commissioner Ian Temby rejects almost all allegations against Woodham due to lack of evidence. He does find him corrupt in relation to the Cavanough business, but a court later throws the finding out.

Woodham survives and prospers.

• 1997: Is promoted to Senior Assistant Commissioner in charge of inmate and custodial services.

• 2001: Inspector-General of Prisons refers to ICAC an investigation into rorting of the DCS promotion system involving Woodham.

• 11 January 2002: Achieves his life ambition. Named Commissioner.

Sources: Sydney Morning Herald 29 July 1989, 24 July 1991, 25 July 1991, 26 July 1991, 15 August 1991, 3 September 1991, 14 September 1991, 23 November 1991; NSW Legislative Assembly Hansard, 11 March 1993; Woodham v ICAC judgement 25 June 1993; exprisoners' personal recollections.

   



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I was going to send this to a Koori friend in Bathurst Gaol. Hope they receive Framed at Bathurst? This is my meaning or interpretation of the drawing but you could see your own things (meaning) through it.

Natasha Lee Samuels - done while at Mulawa Correctional Centre

Code
The circles represent me, or us, as people on our own when we come to jail

The lines are when we meet others in here that we can relate to

The tears are the ones that we have shed by being in here

The eggs represent the newcomers

The handprint in all its different colours [which unfortunately we can't reproduce – Ed.] shows us all the different races and nations here in jail

This heart and lock shows you how all of our hearts and inner selves are locked away while we are in here


This snake is our jail and that's what's locking each and every one of us within our own selves up


The face inside the snake wants to look out towards freedom, the stars, and because I cannot see them it brings the tears which fall




  

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Framed is the Magazine of Justice Action.
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