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?
