A REAL PRISONER REHABILITATION PROGRAM

Tim Watson-Munro was a young Prison psychologist working at Parramatta Prison in the 1970’s.   Although I had met him, I doubt that he would remember me and it’s fair to say that I do not know him.

In 1978 I was training recruit prison officers at Silverwater to work in Parramatta Gaol.  I visited Parramatta Gaol on a very regular basis for training and orientation purposes for my trainee prison officers.  It was there that I met Tim.  He was largely responsible for conducting one of the most successful prisoner rehabilitation programs I have witnessed. 

A Judge or Magistrate would sentence a first time prisoner to one day in gaol at Parramatta.  Parramatta Gaol was a very old, convict built prison that was commenced in 1833.  It was built of sandstone and to my mind is a stately group of historic buildings.

The idea behind this rehabilitation program was to show first time prisoners what gaols are really about.  The young offender would present himself to the main gate early in the morning.  He would be processed like all other prisoners having a description sheet taken, completely stripped searched, placed in prison greens complete with a prison number which was the system in the 1970’s.  The prisoner was brought before the Superintendent where he was informed of the prison routine.  He was then escorted to an area where he would be given mundane tasks such as polishing brass and locks.  He would spend time on Parramatta’s Intractable Circle, locked in a yard completely on his own.  He would be fed the normal prison food and locked in a cell for some time over the lunch break.

Following the lunch break, the young offender would be subjected to a group committee, made up of very heavy and dangerous prisoners, chaired by Tim Watson-Munro and with a prison officer or two also present.

During this group session, the prisoners would tell him what prison was really like and what their personal experiences were leaving nothing to the imagination including the possibility of being raped.  At the end of the day, the young offender was released to freedom.  Most realised that they were very fortunate and never returned to their former criminal ways.

The do-gooders however, thought in their wisdom that a day in prison was too harsh and the program was soon dropped.  Perhaps those do-gooders might reflect that the young offenders who are not afforded the opportunity to see for themselves that prisons are not holiday camps as the media may portray them will continually be going through the revolving door of the criminal justice system.

You can read more about this rehabilitation program and others in my eBook Australia’s Best Prison Stories, available through this web page or Amazon.

Please take the opportunity to view the attached sixty minutes segment on the above rehabilitation program.

This I believe.
Peter T. Egge

PRISON RIOT CHAOS

Recently the Western Australian Government released the report on the Greenough Prison riot.  Greenough is a regional prison near Geraldton, approximately 400km north of Perth.

Governments right across Australia learn nothing from past disturbances in our prison systems.  The McGowan Government, like most governments, realizes there are no votes in prisons, hence a major reduction in the W A prison budget. 

I have seen this all before, in New South Wales in particular, but also in other states.  The first thing that the pencil pushers look at when reducing the budget is Prison Officer’s overtime.  It was no different in Greenough Prison. The Superintendent had successfully, under instructions from the Minister, reduced his overtime bill of 1.6 million dollars by $500,000.  This automatically causes crucial security positions to be left unmanned.  It also meant the prisoners spent large periods of time locked in their cells. 

When I was about ten years old, a friend of mine had a blue heeler cattle dog that he kept tied with a six foot chain.  When he let the dog off the chain, the dog would run wild, and that is exactly what has occurred at Greenough Prison. 

Most riots contain three major factors.  Hot weather, overcrowding and overtime worked by Prison Officers.  It seems to me that all three were present in this disturbance.  The prison was overcrowded but understaffed by ten positions.  The roster on the day of the riot showed seven positions vacant that were crucial to the smooth operation and good order of the prison.

These positions. I believe, could have easily been filled by Prison Officers who are rostered on duties other than within a correctional centre.  Departments of corrective services these days, have a number of specialized units that operate outside of an institution. Officers working within these units should be placed back within a prison which is the core business of the department.  I am led to believe that most correctional departments throughout Australia have in excess of 100 Prison Officers working outside of institutions.  This to my mind causes major blowouts to the department’s budget and most of the units could be well done without.  Get back to the core business which is running prisons humanely and safely for all concerned, officers and prisoners alike.

It is common sense that if you lock the prisoners in their cells for long periods of time, they will soon become fed up and restless.  It is not necessary to have prisoners out of their cells for 12 to 16 hours per day but it is necessary that a normal prison routine would be a minimum of eight hours and that would allow ample time for work, eating, exercise and hygiene, as well as access to facilities such as libraries, education and visits.  Providing the prisoners have adequate diet, and discipline is maintained there should be no riots occurring.  That of course is mostly wishful thinking. 

It must be remembered that although Greenough was not classified as a maximum security prison, all prisoners that are classified and housed there come from a maximum security prison.  The officers working in such institutions should, to my mind, spend a considerable amount of time working in maximum security institutions to enable them to handle these prisoners when the going gets tough.  The problems faced at Greenough are the same problems that occur throughout Australia and overseas on a regular basis.  

Politicians and the do-gooders running the institutions do not understand how the criminal mind works and the intricacies that occur on a daily basis within a prison environment.

Whilst the riot was in full swing, and before Prison Officers and Police could be placed strategically to secure the perimeter, ten of the prisoners escaped using poorly secured ladders from within the prison, creating unnecessary and unwarranted Police action in order to recapture the escapees.

During the riot several male prisoners broke into a section that housed female prisoners.  They were there with the female prisons for a considerable time, unsupervised, because of the riotous conditions.  Females, I believe, should never be housed in adjacent area to male prisoners.  No good can ever come from a situation where male prisoners are able to forcible occupy female quarters.

The pen pushers, in their endeavor to save $500,000, cost the tax payer of Western Australia a great deal more than was initially saved by the reduction of overtime.

This I believe.

Peter T. Egge

Have you read my best selling eBook on New South Wales prisons, “It’s all in the Fall”, available through this website or Amazon?