A first-hand account in a book (‘Court in the Middle’) by convicted lawyer Andrew Fraser, lays bare the obscene reality behind the ‘rehabilitation’ rhetoric in Australia’s
prisons. Keith McEwan provides a precis of Fraser’s telling comments.
For those seeking to penetrate the best-kept secret about present-day life in Victoria, Andrew Fraser`s book ‘Court in the Middle’ is well worth reading.
A high-profile criminal lawyer, with a thriving practice for 30 years, Andrew Fraser became a cocaine addict and in December 2001 was sentenced to seven years imprisonment (minimum five) for being involved in importing a commercial quantity of cocaine. This was a harsh sentence for an offence to which he pleaded guilty, expecting a first offender`s sentence of six months.
Some of the insights he gained while being confined in two maximum security prisons are starkly revealed in layman`s language, in the book. Here, briefly, are some of events he writes about in his book:
MELBOURNE ASSESSMENT PRISON (MAP), where prisoners are held for short periods when in remand or needing medical treatment, is poorly run. I was shocked by the language of the jail governor and most of the screws, with every second word being ‘fuck’. I was put in the protection unit – away from other prisoners – although I had not requested to be isolated.
PRISON RULES. As is the practice I was given no instructions as to jail procedures and regulations. When you are about to be released you are given a book entitled ‘Getting Out’; why aren`t you given similar instructions on going in? No doubt it`s because you are easier to control if you are kept in the dark!
THE KEEPERS. It takes a special kind of person to turn the key in the cell door and lock up another human being. Despite claims by prison officers that they take on the job because of good pay and conditions of work, the reality is that you must have some sort of sadistic streak if you want to be a prison officer.
THE PRISON CELL. Some are single cells, some are doubles. The beds have a camp stretcher mattress plus two rough, army-type blankets and two putrid pillows without pillowslips. There is the prevailing stench of stale urine. My cell had been inhabited by people who had lost all self-esteem and human waste had permeated the floor and walls.
OPTIONS WHEN SENTENCED. There are three options when you are sentenced:
- you either sit in the corner and cry, which a lot of blokes do;
- you neck yourself, which some do as well; or
- you get on with it – do the best you can.
VIOLENCE IN JAILS. Tension is high; everyone is edgy and anxious; blow-ups can occur very easily; fights break out. There is danger of stabbing in the food queue. A key factor in the circle of violence is the gratuitous violence by screws on prisoners, such as smashing a prisoner`s head against the wall and punching him in the face – for back-chatting. Prisoners won`t complain as nothing will be done and they will suffer in turn.
RAPES. Young prisoners are vulnerable. One young man who had constantly resisted the sexual advances of another prisoner was taken to the toilet and bashed; then his anus was slit with a razor blade and he passed out. He regained consciousness only to find himself bent over the toilet being raped from behind. He has now lost his reason and his drug use has gone through the roof.
SHACKLES and LEG IRONS are used when prisoners are being transferred. When being taken from MAP to Barwon Prison, near Geelong, I was fitted with a large belt with a steel ring in front to which handcuffs are attached. A chain that is attached to the steel ring runs down to your ankles to a T-piece at the bottom of the chain that has two short chains which go to clamps on each ankle.
It was impossible to walk properly and when I questioned why this was being done I was told by a screw that I was a risk.
STRIP SEARCHES are a regular part of prison life and are conducted before and after being moved to another cell (which can happen at any time without notice) or to another prison. Personal items were continually confiscated on the pretext that they had not been officially approved. Screws, smug and superior when dealing with prisoners, gave no avenue for raising a complaint or a request.
NO REHABILITATION. The high moral ground the courts look to impose – namely, that all those who go to jail are rehabilitated – could not be further from the truth. The bottom line is that there is no rehabilitation in jail. The screws don`t care. Sentence Management doesn`t care. The entire existence of a prison officer is dedicated to counting crooks on muster four times a day, watching television, being fed by crooks, smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee – generally doing as little as is humanely possible. There was one officer who, if you went to him and asked him a question, would stand up, grab his crotch, wiggle his hand up and down and say, ‘suck my big fat one’. What a terrific, professional approach to adopt to a sensible question being asked of you!
NO EDUCATION IN JAIL. I applied for further education (to do another degree) and I was told that I would have to apply for full-time education and I was then told by the lady in education I would be given forms the next time she was at the jail. That never happened despite my constantly requesting the forms. Later I was told I would have to be assessed as suitable for full-time education (although I had been a lawyer for nearly 30 years). After two years a bloke from the education section turned up at the unit but, after giving me a signed education assessment, I was still not given full-time education.
I had no hope of getting into the computer course at Port Phillip jail as there was only 10 computers in a small room to cater for 700 blokes.
When you have someone who can barely read, let alone read the contents of a book, their authority to decide on which book you may or may not read is not an easy thing to accept.
NO VOTES IN JAILS. Mr Kelvin Anderson, the Corrections Minister at the time, did not care for rehabilitation but concentrated on warehousing and segregating prisoners from the community. As there are no votes in jails nothing is being done to prepare prisoners for their re-entry into society.
The number of young men I met in jail who were totally or partially illiterate was astounding. There is no political will to remedy this situation…as soon as these blokes are released they get straight back into drugs and criminal behaviour.
THE MENTALLY ILL IN JAIL. I was dumbfounded by the number of mentally ill people in the prison system…in fact they should be in proper facilities for the mentally infirm. When I was at Port Phillip a young Aboriginal prisoner came into the unit and he was clearly not well mentally. He was screaming and shouting and started smashing up his cell. A screw raced up and locked him inside his cell. Then a six-member riot squad appeared wearing helmets with visors and holding riot shields and long batons. The screaming that followed was blood curdling. After being severely beaten the young Aborigine was dragged out, covered in blood and barely conscious. He was then thrown down the steel steps to the ground floor. He was removed and not seen again.
LOCKDOWNS IN JAIL. Usually, prisoners are locked in their cells from 4.30pm to 8.30am, a total of 16 hours. During my three years, approximately, at Port Phillip Prison, run by a private company that could not run a pie cart, lockdowns were constant. I endured lockdowns on 132 of those days. When I wrote to Mr Anderson detailing each and every lockdown and its duration he wrote back denying some of the lockdowns had taken place as they were not on the prison records.
You were never told when a lockdown was going to occur and never told its likely duration, so you sat there, in your cell, at 8.30 each morning wondering and wondering when you would be let out. The prison guards try to keep you as wrong-footed as possible. The ever-present boredom is stifling.
COURT CHALLENGE TO LOCKDOWNS. A prisoner Steve Pavic took the Corrections Commissioner to court over the lockdowns and lost. The Court of Criminal Appeal in the Supreme Court of Victoria effectively said that they were not prepared to interfere in the administration of the prison system. This was a pathetic, gutless copout. If prisoners cannot seek redress from the Supreme Court for wrongs done to them by the administration of the prison system, then what hope is there? The answer is that there is no hope whatsoever for prisoners and this is yet another example of the complete failure of the system to rehabilitate anybody.
FAREWELL FROM JAIL. You might think that, after four years and ten months , something pleasant might be said to you on departure. No such luck. Instead the inevitable jail farewell was delivered by the screws: ‘Fuck off!’
With that my jail sentence was complete.
Title: Court in the Middle Author: Andrew Fraser Publisher: Hardie Grant Books URL: http://www.hardiegrant.com.au/Books/Books/Book.aspx?isbn=9781740665551
– supplied by Keith McEwan, CLA member, Bendigo, 4 May 09