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There appears to be never any good news arising out of the Metropolitan Women's Correctional Centre (MWCC). Many of the complaints are consistently about the lack of medical care and treatment, power 'games' by some workers, poor sterilisation of the urine procedures, lack of educational and work opportunities and little provided for those women who have their child living with them at the prison.
Women are continually being 'threatened' with having their access visits with their children stopped if they don't comply to the rules of the prison regime. The whole concept of penalising women through the separation from their children is inhumane and barbaric let alone convenes the rights of the child! This form of punishment holds massive long term damage to primary relationships and to the community as a whole.
Housing is also a major problem for women leaving prison. To access affordable housing at anytime is difficult, so imagine the process women inside must experience. Support and assistance in obtaining housing is minimal with very little funding provided to housing services. Usually with little or no money on release, women are expected to somehow magically find accommodation immediately, especially those with children and start a new life just like that!
If she is lucky enough to find somewhere to live the next issue is employment or some form of financial assistance. Health issues are also a great concern for women inside. Cost cutting on staff means the medical centre is always busy and waiting lists long which inevitably leads to women either having to accept that their medical needs are not met or wait weeks for attention. In cases such as depression and stress these issues cannot be put on hold!
There are also reports that women are being fined up to $100 if found with a dirty urine. Payments of these fines are being deducted from their wages - the maximum wage a woman can earn if working fulltime is $6.50 per day for 5 days!
There are constant reports that the rates of women overdosing and incidents of self harm are continuing at alarming rates - on average 4 per week - when will the government do something? From the governments and CCA's perspective are women in their 'care' expendable as long as their stock exchange figure are high?
I am a frequent visitor to the Port Phillip Prison. Almost every week I undertake a two hour journey from the outer northern suburbs to the Laverton North industrial wastelands. Not having a car, the return journey involves two one hour tram trips, two forty minute train rides on the Werribee line and a short trip on the hourly mini bus from Laverton station to the Prison. The isolation of the prison is stark and oppressive.
Eighty per cent of the visitors to the prison are women and young children (mostly pre-school children). Travelling to the Prison by car is also very time consuming and expensive; and comes with one added humiliation. Group 4 "Correction" Services Pty Ltd have engaged in a relentless, brutal and indiscriminate regime of using dogs and the Security Emergency Services Group (SESG), the Victorian Prison System's Paramilitary Prison Squad, to search visitors cars. Without any reasonable explanation or suspicion visitors must open up every part of their car to allow prison dogs (of the two legged and four legged variety) to rummage through. Other dogs, some in cages some still in the back of SESG vehicles bark incessantly. SESG officers bark back at them. The searching is indiscriminate. If the dogs are in the car park all personal visitors are subject to these forms of humiliation. No dog search - no visit. Welcome to humane containment, Victorian style. Small children are naturally afraid of large dogs (german shepherds and Rottweilers.)
Many people in the community are on prescription medication for a variety of personal health conditions. Sometimes people need their medication close at hand, for example people with heart conditions or asthma. The dogs invariably find these medications in visitor's cars and they are then subject to a barrage of personal questions as to what the medication is for. The SESG and Group 4 Security are officious and like to wear as many weapons of restraint as possible on their belts - Welcome to the Group 4 Way.
In my experience these searches hardly find any contraband whatsoever. They are used to terrorise and criminalize visitors. Visits are one of the few life lines for prisoners through which people on the inside and outside attempt to maintain some semblance of a normal relationship with their lovers, children, friends and supporters. The use of dogs and strip searches only threatens and damages this critical life line.
Prisoners in Victorian are arguably the most strip searched and urine tested prisoners of any Australian State or Territory. For example an FOI request undertaken by PJA revealed that for a twelve month period in the former Melbourne Remand Centre (which holds approximately 220 prisoners) there were over 26,500 strip searches done. This relentless assault on the body is all done in the name of "winning the drug war in prisons." However in prison, there are no medical detoxification facilities, a very limited methadone program, no needle exchanges, no bleach and no real commitment to harm minimisation whatsoever. Already four prisoners have died of suspected drug overdoses in Victorian prisons; two in Port Phillip Prison alone. Many prisoners die of suspected overdoses within hours and days of leaving prison. Attempting to "win" the drug war inside prison is as useless, self-destructive, hypocritical and lethal as trying to "win" the drug war in the outside community.
All visitors are subject to biometric handscanning. There is no information available about how the biometrics identification system operates that is available to visitors or anybody else. We don't know what information is registered on Group 4's security and intelligence computers, where the information is stored and what procedures are in place to ensure the information is not abused, traded or data matched with other computer data bases. When the prison was opened visitors had to be handscanned twice before entering the prison. This was first done to insert the handscan memory into the computer and a second time when you entered through the first set of doors to confirm that the same person was entering the prison. This no longer happens - now you are only handscanned once before entering. This indicates that Group 4 already has records of a visitor's handscan registered on their computer that is not wiped when the visitor leaves the prison. Why the change in procedure? Why is there still no basic information about how the system works? Where are the safeguards?
The Prison began receiving prisoners on the 10th September 1997. In twelve months nine prisoners died in custody within the prison. This is a horrific death rate, unmatched by any other new prison in Victoria. The Government and Group 4 have persistently argued that many of the deaths and other "incidents" at the prison are the outcomes of "teething problems" and that similar problems were evident with the opening of other state run prisons.
However, a comparison of death rates exposes the lie in these justifications. In the last nine years there have been four deaths in custody at the Melbourne Remand Centre, the prison that Port Phillip Prison ostensibly replaced. At Barwon, in the past eight years there have been three deaths in custody. At Loddon Prison there have been two deaths in the last six years. These comparisons are not made to minimise the tragic and preventable reality of all these past deaths - but to illustrate the profound deaths in custody crisis that has always existed at Port Phillip. It took four deaths by hanging and numerous hanging attempts for the Government and Group 4 to remove hanging points in cells which should never have existed in the first place. Belated admissions by the Corrections Minister, Bill McGrath will not bring back anyone's son or father.
The inquests into the first seven deaths at Port Phillip Prison and the Inquiry into the Fire which occurred at the Scarbarough South Unit on the 10 - 11 March 1998 will not be heard until early this year.
Almost everything that occurs in the prison is shaped by the culture of profit that pervades not just private prisons but increasingly CORE prisons. Access to education, programs, adequate food, visitors, wages, employment, medical care etc are all dictated by issues of cost or profit to the company. You cannot borrow books from the library or education centre because they are not sufficiently resourced to allow prisoners to borrow books. There is insufficient employment available at the prison and the vast majority of work available is devoid of any skills or learning and training content eg. screwing bolts onto nuts and packing them into bags.
Much of the maintenance done in the prison is undertaken by the prison maintenance gang. The removal of hanging points was done using prison labour, the rebuilding of the Scarbarough South Unit after the fire and riot was also undertaken by prisoners. Prison labour enables the prison to run on a self-sufficient basis - very profitable, but what useful skills is this kind of work giving to the prisoners? There have been numerous complaints about the payment of wages and many prisoners believe that they are underpaid fifty cents a day.
To what extent the culture of profit and expendability has contributed to the horrific death rate must be exposed both inside and outside the Coroner's inquest.
The regimes of Government and Corporate secrecy that have allowed all these things to occur within the prison has protected the Government and the Group 4 from disclosing what is really happening inside. Many activists, families of those who have lost loved ones in the prison and prisoners have attempted to speak out about what has occurred and continues to occur at the Prison. This speaking out and agitation is one of the most powerful tools to challenge the silencing and accountable actions which occurs around all prisons, everyday. It must continue, louder, stronger.
Bill McGrath, Minister for Corrections, made the statement that "the new Fulham Correctional Centre is a model for the future" at the opening of the privately run prison in March 1997. 12 months down the track the so-called 'model' prison still has not sorted out many of the problems that appear to be common amongst privately run prisons. Reports coming through from Fulham from inmates indicate that there is a shortage of staff and therefore programs for prisoners.
There are problems with the education program with a long waiting list for prisoners wishing to gain access to education. Prisoners wanting to do the drug and alcohol program are finding there is a six week delay to access this service which is not good enough considering some of these prisoners need to do this program to meet parole conditions. There is a lack of staff to facilitate sport and recreation programs which creates boredom among the prisoners. There are also delays in seeing a doctor which backs up the saying "don't get sick in prison" as well as no psychological support what so ever. Not all the prisoners are employed with complaints from prisoners suggesting that it is easy to get the sack as there is plenty of unemployed prisoners to replace you. This creates problems as you receive the grand total of $5 a week to spend at canteen buy-ups (excluding phone money) if sacked. There also appears to be inconsistencies with what prisoners can access to help them with their hobbies. Some prisoners appear to be able to get equipment where others are refused. This has the potential to create tension among prisoners and staff. Prisoners being transferred to Fulham from other prisons are finding delays in receiving their property as it has 'gone missing' in transit!
The isolation of Fulham (200kms from Melbourne) is creating numerous problems for prisoners and their families. Most prisoners have to ring STD to contact loved ones which means phone money goes nowhere. Barristers and solicitors visit rarely with welfare workers also being harder to access compared to prisons closer to Melbourne. There have also been reports of visitors being turned away after driving from the other side of the state because of 'mistakes' being made by administration. Another area of concern is the openness of the prison. Welfare workers have expressed concern about their safety when visiting and one recently released prisoner has been quoted as saying that "people could be stabbed and not be noticed until muster".
On the 26th May this year, a riot erupted between up to 150 prisoners. Seven prisoners were injured during fighting which erupted after a soccer match. Four of the injured prisoners were taken to Sale Hospital and three of them were later transferred to St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne. One of the prisoners taken to Melbourne suffered a serious head injury. Another suffered a compound fracture of the hand and the third facial fractures. Reports coming out of Fulham indicate that up to 100 white prisoners attacked 50 Vietnamese prisoners with wooden stakes, knives and other weapons. It has been alleged that prison officers stood back and allowed the violence to continue.
Drugs are another issue in Fulham. An inmate claimed that "people are walking around off their face everywhere". Another recently released prisoner from Fulham described the place as "awash with drugs". Visitors cars are regularly being searched for drugs which does not appear to be making any difference - Questions have to be asked as to where the drugs that are finding there way into Fulham coming from? It appears NOT from family or friends visiting guys in Fulham!
*Victoria's corrections minister, Bill McGrath, introduced a Public Correctional Services Authority Bill in State Parliament on 30 April 1998. It will transform the Public Correctional Enterprise (known as CORE) from a service agency within the Department of Justice to a public authority. In effect, this corporatises the remaining public prisons and correctional centres. The Minister proposes that the public authority will: separate the service provider from the service purchaser and policy maker (Department of Justice) and regulator (Correctional Services Commissioner); result in a more level playing field between private prison operators and the public sector correctional agency; compete with the private providers on a competitively neutral basis.
The Bill sets out the new authority's objectives. These are designed to emulate "as far as practicable" the statutory and contractual framework established for private prison operators". The board of management will comprise directors with "both commercial and correctional expertise and skills".
*The performance of both the public and private sectors will be evaluated over the next three years. If the private sector is found to be more cost effective and performing better on prisoners' rehabilitation then "it would be a very difficult argument not to proceed further with privatisation" said McGrath.
* A privatisation consultant hired by the Victorian Government has criticised the existing prison privatisation program for lack of regulation. In an interview with The Australian (30.4.98), Dr. Peter Troughton of Victoria's Treasury Energy Projects Division said that in every privatisation a strong regulator was needed, at arm's length from the Government, to keep the management honest with public reports. He said that he was "worried" that Victoria's three private prisons have no independent regulator or Ombudsman. He was also critical of the Government's investigation into the recent problems at Port Phillip Prison. This is being conducted by the Corrections Commissioner, Mr. John Van Groningen, and he's report is unlikely to be made public. Dr Troughton said that he would not trust that the investigation was adequate unless the results were published.
* Group 4 has hired public relations firm Royce Communications to try to counter the negative publicity surrounding the company's recent problems at Port Phillip Prison. Royce is the company that the Victorian Government used to promote its New Prisons Project which oversaw the development of private prisons.
*If elected to office in 2000, Victoria's Labor Party would try to restore private prisons to public ownership and control. A policy document debated at a recent conference of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) stated that:
"Labor, in the absence of any compelling evidence to the contrary, is not convinced that privatisation of prisons, prisoner transport, court security or other ancillary activities will produce either improved correctional services and outcomes or any cost savings. In allowing the private sector to operate correctional facilities, there is reduced accountability and transparency in prison activities, lower staffing, minimised security standards and higher costs to government.
"Accordingly, Labor will supervise the administration and operation of the correctional system where privatised and immediately review state government contracts with the private sector service providers with a view to reverting their function to the public sector as soon as practical to do so." The ALP does not say how their plans will be financed.
*A prison officer and seven prisoners were injured during a "riot" following a football match at Australasian Correctional Management- run Fulham Correctional Centre in Victoria on 26 May 1998.
Some 150 of the 590 prisoners were involved in an incident believed to have been caused by racial tension which had been developing for some time between white and Asian prisoners.
The prison's general manager, Terry Easthope, said that "Racism is no different in prison to what it is outside, although it is probably more intense in prison. We've screwed the drugs down very tight here with a very effective detection program. And that could be another factor."
The company is holding an inquiry into the incident. Opposition corrections spokesperson, Andre Haermeyer, has called on the Government for a wide-ranging inquiry to assess security at Victoria's three private prisons.
* The State Government has taken the unprecedented step of warning the managers of Port Phillip Prison that they had to run the troubled prison better. The Acting Commissioner for Correctional Services, Mr. Terry O'Donohue, said the concerns were raised in a meeting with representatives of the British company Group 4 Securitas.
Mr. O'Donohue said that the company would have to satisfy performance standards in a contract signed with the State Government. If those standards were not met, he said the company ran the risk of financial penalties.
Mr. O'Donohue said the company had until the end of the year to satisfy specific performance standards. "We want a clear, definitive statement from the prison about what they have done and what they plan to do" he said. Mr. O'Donohue said the State Government needed to be confident that Group 4 Securitas could meet its obligations. "If we are not happy with that, we will certainly take further action". Further he said that although there was pressure to take stronger action against the company, the contract to run the prison was not under review.
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