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PJA Newsletter No 16 |
Welcome to the 16th edition of the People's Justice Alliance newsletter. You will be pleased to know that our web page is back in action is will be regularly updated - so check it out for lastest information!
Since the last newsletter we have been enormously busy (as usual) with the spate of deaths in custody in Victorian prisons - since August 1997 there have now been 17 deaths in custody: nine at Port Phillip private prison, three at Beechworth state prison, one at Loddon, two at the Melbourne Assessment Prison, one at Barwon and Paula Richardson died from hanging at the MWCC on 12.8.98. All of these deaths will be investigated through the Coroners Court. We are expecting that dates will be set for the first hearings early this year.
Additionally we have been involved in the inquest into the death of Cheryl Black who was found dead at the MWCC on Easter weekend 1997. This inquest was originally set down for only one days hearing - perhaps they thought no one would care about a woman dying in custody! Well they were wrong - PJA and the Corrections Working Group of the Federation of Community Legal Centres certainly do care and have been actively involved in trying to ensure that there is a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding Cheryl's death. To this date the inquest has proceeded for 3 days with a further 1-2 days early this year. The Coroner on the third day of the inquest directed further investigation into the numerous unanswered questions - prison officers on duty the night of Cheryl's death will be recalled to the inquest, the computer designer of the software security system will be called and computer documentation of door movements and intercom alarms are being sought.
Donna and Catherine attended the 'Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex' Conference held at the University of California, Berkeley, USA in September 1998. They presented a paper 'From Penal Colony to Corporate Colony: Australia's Prison Experience'. Over 3,000 people attended this amazing conference, most from the USA but Australia (Victoria & NSW), South Africa, Canada and New Zealand were also represented.
Whilst in California, Donna and Catherine were able to meet with numerous prison activists and various organisations working and struggling for the rights of prisoners and the end of prisons and the prison industrial complex. Catherine also went to Canada to meet up with activists there. A copy of the paper that they presented can be obtained by writing or emailing PJA and we will send it out.
The following is an extract from "The Prison Industrial Complex and the Global Economy" produced by Prison Activist Resource Centre in Berkeley.
"Over 1.8 million people are currently behind bars in the United States. This represents the highest per capita incarceration rate in the history of the world. In 1995 alone, 150 new U.S. prisons were built and filled.
This monumental commitment to lock up a sizable percentage of the population is an integral part of the globalisation of capital. Several strands converged at the end of the Cold War, changing relations between labor and capital on an international scale: domestic economic decline, racism, the U.S. role as policeman of the world, and growth of the international drug economy in creating a booming prison/industrial complex. And the prison industrial complex is rapidly becoming an essential component of the U.S. economy.
Like the military/industrial complex, the prison industrial complex is an interweaving of private business and government interests. Its twofold purpose is profit and social control. Its public rationale is the fight against crime.
Not so long ago, communism was "the enemy" and communists were demonized as a way of justifying the use of tax dollars for the repression and incarceration of a growing percentage of our population. The omnipresent media blitz about serial killers, missing children, and "random violence" feeds our fear. In reality, however, most of the "criminals" we lock up are poor people who commit nonviolent crimes out of economic need. Violence occurs in less than 14% of all reported crime, and injuries occur in just 3%. ..."
To get a copy of the full pamphlet contact:
AK Press Distribution, P. O. Box 40682, San Francisco CA 94140.
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