Part 1

 

NT Labor
'Tough on poor'

by Mick Lambe
May 26, 2003

The cost of superannuating NT Labor

When I was in Berrimah prison a couple of years ago for refusing to pay court costs etc... to the State for my part in an East Timor protest, Berrimah was near capacity and prisoners were being moved to Alice Springs. Remand seemed to have less problems with crowding .

Last I heard - about a week ago - there were about 60 people in remand. This latest report from the NT News states 104. Well done NT Labor.

As the Head of NT Public Prosecutions has directly intervened in the 'Parliamentary Invasion' case to demand imprisonment, I will probably have an opportunity for a further study of matters in Berrimah prison.

Having met (or at least cross-examined ) the Labor hierarchy lately, I can assure you that the discomfort of the imprisoned poor is not a Labor priority. Nor is reducing crime - because such conditions are a petri dish for future crimes. How Aboriginal people, who are not even sure why they are in prison in some cases, can realistically be expected to be deterred from future transgressions is beyond me.

This prison overcrowding is an amazing feat by Labour. We are supposedly rid of a sentencing regime (mandatory) and a Country Liberal Party (CLP) government that endorsed the demonising and imprisonment of Aboriginal people and yet the situation is worse. Why? Because little has changed. Apart from an anti-drug campaign that even the CLP feel - is a little over the top and the spin Labor use to justify their racist policies.

 

 

"Fuck the NT Police State!" (Sign carried by NAP member into NT Parliament)

The corrupt State that existed under the CLP is still with us. The same public service, magistrates, judges and police that thrived under a quarter of a century of corrupt and racist CLP rule are still in place.

Labor have gained a turn at power, because they promised no change and no enquiry into the previous government. Attorney General - Peter Toyne, Former Police Minister - Syd Stirling and the rest of their mean spirited team, should be charged with impersonating an alternative government.

And now - due to Labor's attempt to out-CLP the CLP, the prisons are overcrowded and people, possibly innocent of any wrongdoing, face incarceration with some potentially dangerous people. Lifers with nothing to lose - as Life in the NT is Life.
(George Martin's killer is in Berrimah. I'm sure the screws will arrange a meet for me.)

Berrimah's 'racial' divide

The violence at Berrimah was ongoing during my stay - screams and an alert over the PA system - were good indicators that something ugly was happening. During my eight days inside, there were 4 to 5 of these occurrences.

Part of the problem was the encouragement by guards, of Aboriginal prisoners, to bash Indonesian prisoners - imprisoned - because they had been found fishing inside their once traditional waters. This ensured segregation along cultural lines and created a 'racial' tension, fostered and appreciated by Prison Wardens planet-wide.

My treatment by the guards was singular, as pointed out by some of the inmates.

Extra body searches and remarks such as - "Why can't you be like everyone else?" (servile? - ingratiating? - racist?) - support my view that the guards were aware of my exposing a number of former Prison Wardens, living on the Cox Peninsula - as racists and liars.

 

 

Prison is the State intensified

On one occasion when most people were absent from my cell dorm - a prisoner decided to pick a fight with me over the playing cards being untidy. As I was probably the only person who didn't play cards in the dorm, I felt that I was being set-up.

After my stirring speech about how the guards enjoy seeing prisoners at each other's throats, the gentleman involved, decided to cease threatening me. He was moved from our dorm the following morning.

Conditions will be far harsher in Berrimah now - thanks to NT Labor's 'Tough on Drugs' campaign, which recently saw a person imprisoned for a month, because he had one cannabis plant.

Mandatory sentencing for drug offences, does not seem to attract much ire from law reform activists, despite many of its (mandatory) injustices being the same as those for property offences. For example, extenuating circumstances and cultural disadvantages - such as being an Aboriginal person in the Northern Territory.

Despite being well aware of the risks an activist faces in Berrimah Prison, the State has not deterred PARIAH.

We will not be silenced.

 

"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them,
but to be indifferent to them:that's the essence of inhumanity."
-- George Bernard Shaw

 

Mixed prisoners to spark trouble
By Edith Bevin
May 26, 2003

 

People in custody waiting to appear in court will now be thrown into the general prison population, the Northern Territory News learned last night.

Attorney-General Dr Peter Toyne has approved the mixing of remand prisoners with sentenced prisoners at Darwin Correctional Centre.

It is the first time such a move has been made in the Territory.

Remand prisoners have traditionally been kept isolated from sentenced prisoners because they have not been found guilty of any crime.

The move has already met strong criticism from the Australian Council of Civil Liberties.

Dr Toyne told the Northern Territory News he had been forced to take the unusual step because of the unprecedented numbers waiting on remand.

He said Darwin's remand facility was over capacity with 104 prisoners awaiting court hearings.

Dr Toyne said mixing people on remand with jailed criminals was the only way they could properly manage the high numbers.

"Mixing remand prisoners with sentenced prisoners is unusual but highlights the fact we currently have high numbers in our jails," Dr Toyne said.

"Eligible remand prisoners will have previously served a sentence of imprisonment in the Territory,

consent to being housed with sentenced prisoners and have access to legal services before making that decision."

Dr Toyne ruled out building a larger remand centre to cope with the numbers of prisoners.

Australian Council of Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman said the decision was ``fundamentally wrong'' and described it as a backwards step for civil liberties.

"The whole system of being refused bail and being held as a remand prisoner is that you are supposed to at least have conditions of confinement that reflect that you're innocent,'' Mr O'Gorman said.

"That is greater freedom of visitors, phone call access and a prison that makes it easy for lawyers to have access to you.

"Across Australia there is a proportion of prisoners on remand that when at hearings they are either acquitted or not jailed.''

Mr O'Gorman said the Government needed to look at other remand reforms _ such as bail hostels.

Mr O'Gorman said the move also put people on remand at extreme physical risk.

"It would put remand prisoners at some danger _ where prisoners are housed at one remand prison the risk of becoming the victim of a sex attack in particular is minimised,'' he said.

"If you put people in the general prison population you expose younger prisoners to sex attacks and in particular you introduce them to far greater opportunity to learn to how to improve their criminal offending by mixing with the hard-core type.''

Northern Territory News



 

Part 2

 

NT Prison crisis - NT Labor Party's contribution to progress

 

Recent article with links to Prison statistics

 

Incarceration Index