Acacia
Prison
Wooroloo, Australia
Serco (AIMS, and Sodexho formerly CCA)
Sep 15, 2018 dailymail.co.uk
Six former female prison officers accused of having 'inappropriate
relationships with inmates after grooming them' are under investigation
Six female prison officers accused of having 'inappropriate relationships
with prisoners' are being investigated by the Corruption and Crime
Commission. Each of the women allegedly engaged with prisoners at Acacia
Prison in Western Australia, but have since quit their jobs or been sacked
from the corrective facility. The former officers from the privately run
Serco prison in Wooroloo were allegedly 'groomed' by inmates before
developing relationships, Perth Now reported. Corrective Services Minister
Fran Logan said it's not the first time 'grooming' has been an issue at
Acacia prison and he's requested an urgent meeting with Serco. 'I have
requested the department to refer all matters relating to the six officers to
the CCC for further examination and investigation,' he said. Mr Logan said he
previously raised his concerns about staff misconduct at Acacia with CCC
after two female officers allegedly under investigation quit their jobs.
Serco also reported the misconduct to the CCC after they allegedly received
evidence from intelligence officers at the corrective facility. Each of the
six women left their jobs at Acacia between 2015 and 2018. No charges have
been laid, partly because it was deemed difficult to charge an officer who
has already resigned, the CCC committee revealed on Wednesday. Corrective Services
Commissioner Tony Hassall said while they can't prevent prison officers from
resigning from their jobs, they can prevent them from being re-employed. The
issue of consent between prison guards and inmates was another obstacle that
made it difficult to prosecute officers, he added. The recent allegations of
inappropriate behaviour come weeks after another prison guard was accused of
having sex with an inmate. Married prison officer Amy Mershell Connors
allegedly engaged in a 12-month-long sexual relationship with convicted cop
killer Sione Penisini. The former prison officer from Kempsey Correctional
Centre in News South Wales, faced court on August 20, where it was revealed
Penisini allegedly 'groomed' her to lose weight before engaging in a long-term
sexual relationship. Ms Connors is due to face court again on November 21.
aily Mail Australia has reached out to the CCC for comment.
Dec 9, 2017
theguardian.com
Two officers at Serco-run prison suspended over drug smuggling
investigation
The head of Western Australia’s corruption watchdog has stood down two
prison officers at a Serco-run jail and warned more could follow in an
ongoing investigation into the smuggling of drugs and other illegal items.
Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) boss John McKechnie said the
investigation had discovered “disturbing information and evidence about the
ease by which serious drugs and steroids can be smuggled into prisons”. The
two custodial officers who were suspended are employed at Perth’s Acacia
Prison, which is run by private company Serco. The officers were suspected of
engaging in serious misconduct following a joint inquiry by the CCC,
Department of Justice and WA Police, a statement said. The investigation was
focusing on improper associations between custodial officers and prisoners,
and the facilitation of drugs and contraband into WA prisons. McKechnie told
6PR radio on Friday that he was also disturbed about the lack of proper
security checks at Acacia. “Also, the ability of some prisoners to attempt to
groom some prisoners outside and make relationships, which they then use to
subvert the officers,” he said. The joint investigation is also looking at
prisons all over the state, and people including other prison officers,
McKechnie said. Those people may avoid more serious punishments if they come
forward now. “If they think they have been doing the wrong thing, they want
to come and tell us,” he said. “We are more interested in the systemic
problem. They may not know we are already looking and listening.” The CCC has
special powers to compel people to be interviewed confidentially and under
oath, but can also offer protection to witnesses. The Department of Justice
would not comment on the two officers but said it had “zero tolerance for any
form of corruption or misconduct that compromises the safety and security of
the prison estate and WA community”. “Prison officers hold a position of
trust and any action that undermines this and the valuable work done by the
majority of prison officers is unacceptable,” a statement said.
May 11, 2017 bunburymail.com.au
Acacia Prison incident not result of 'short-staffing
Private prison operator Serco has rejected claims its Acacia prison is
short-staffed after a WA union said the corporation had failed to address
"rising tensions" inside the facility. An incident occurred in the
medium security prison where two officers were assaulted by inmates on
Friday. The Western Australian Prison Officers Union (WAPOU) said the
facility had been about 17 staff short on the day of the incident, and the
incident was a result of poor staffing levels. "Acacia is full and the
staff are stretched," WAPOU secretary John Welch said. "The tension
and pressure in the prison is being felt by members, who are concerned that
it could escalate. "Prison staff are consistently run off their feet and
working under pressure because the prison is working at maximum
capacity." The Acacia medium security facility is currently run by the
private security firm Serco; a company also responsible for court security
and non-clinical services at Fiona Stanley Hospital in WA. As of January
2017, 1513 offenders were kept at the facility. This prison population means
it is currently the largest facility in WA. A Serco spokesman said the
concerns raised by the WAPOU were not justified, and the incident was a
one-off. "The safety and security of staff and the men in our care is a
priority at Acacia Prison," he said. "This isolated incident was
handled extremely well by our staff. Unfortunately two staff were injured and
we are working closely with them to provide support and care. "The
prison "temperature" is measured daily and has not seen any
specific increase in tensions over the past weeks." In WA, both public
and private corrective services operate on a "dynamic"
offender-to-staff ratio, and local agreements between the Department of
Corrective Service and private facilities allow operating regimes to adapt in
order to ensure "safe and secure" operation. A Department of
Corrective Services spokesman said the department keeps a close eye on all
prison facilities to ensure they meet staffing agreements. "The
Department of Corrective Services has a rigorous contract and performance
monitoring system to manage privately operated prisons," he said.
"The performance of private operators is monitored daily and they can be
abated for not meeting contractual obligations." However Mr Welch said
Serco's perceived "low staffing levels" continued to be used as a
means to justify the claim private prisons were cheaper to run than the
public sector. "In the private sector, we have grave concerns that the
lower staffing levels impact not only prison officers' and prisoner safety,
but it also impacts on prison officers' ability to have positive interactions
with prisoners which are necessary to maintain trust and stability within the
prison," he said. "The more stressed and busy the staff are, the
more it impacts on the quality of what's delivered. We're not suggesting
Acacia doesn't deliver some good outcomes for prisoners, but staff are being
affected by the stress of always operating at maximum capacity, and so are
prisoners." But Serco denied the Acacia facility was currently
short-staffed. "There is no single officer-to-prisoner ratio as Acacia
runs a dynamic security model with staffing to meet the needs of the cohort
and facility on a daily basis. It is not short-staffed," a spokesman
said. Serco referenced the Department of Corrective Services 2015/2016 annual
report in order to reject claims there had been more recorded problems in its
private facility in comparison to other state-run prisons. "The union
claims are not borne out in fact. Over the past 12 months the rate of staff
assaults from prisoners at Acacia is 1.35 per 100 prisoners. "In the
2015/16 year the level of assaults in WA public prisons was 1.5 per 100
prisoners." In a December 2016 report, the Office of the Inspector of
Custodial Services Neil Morgan outlined a number of overcrowding issues with
the Acacia facility. It was found that only 536 beds and cells at the
facility met the Australasian Standard Guidelines, despite a population of
1468 prisoners. Acacia is still crowded in many units through double-bunking,
despite a significant expansion made in 2014 Access to the oval and gymnasium
was further restricted since the expansion, especially for protection
prisoners, although efforts are being made to install more unit based
activities Dental and mental health services proved insufficient for the
population. The detention unit was not expanded, affecting punishment and
other regimes. Some other services are insufficiently resourced for the
population, including the Aboriginal Visitors Scheme and Outcare (which has
the re-entry contract). However overall, the report also said Serco continued
to fulfil its obligation to the State Government. "Serco do have a very
strong sense of what is required and a proven capacity for innovation.
Importantly, they have also demonstrated a strong professional commitment to
the prison that has certainly not been driven by profit alone," Mr
Morgan said.
January 15,
2010 West Australian
Confiscated contraband which could include weapons, drugs and pornography is
missing inside WA's biggest men's jail, prompting an internal investigation
into the security breach. The Department of Corrective Services confirmed the
contraband was found to be missing at privately-run Acacia Prison last week
and that some had not been recovered. Corrective Services security director
Simon Kincart said the department was confident the contraband, which was
taken from a storage cabinet, would be found soon. The department refused to
say what the contraband was and would not answer questions about whether
prisoners or staff were suspects or whether the cabinet had been left
unlocked. "Internal investigations are continuing and I'm not prepared
to make any further comment which may risk compromising prison
operations," Mr Kincart said. Shadow corrective services minister Paul
Papalia said the incident was a serious security breach and highlighted the
pressures from chronic overcrowding in WA jails. Corrective Services Minister
Christian Porter said he was aware of the situation at Acacia and the
department was investigating the matter. Serco Australia, which runs the
jail, said it had nothing to add to the department's statement.
December
29, 2009 The Western Australian
A violent prisoner who assaulted four jail staff and was involved in a
dozen other aggressive outbursts was allowed to stay in the general
medium-security prison population, leaked emails from Acacia Prison reveal.
The confidential emails from concerned workers to management claimed staff
shortages were partly to blame for the unsafe working environment. The
emails, obtained by "The West Australian", said management
should have put the violent prisoner on a close supervision order or under a
specialist management regime. The staff indicated in some of the emails,
written between September and this month, that individualised attention was
increasingly difficult as staff were struggling with heavy workloads at the
overcrowded jail. There is one less staff member now compared with when the
prison had 150 fewer inmates. The staff said there had been 22 staff recruits
since the additional inmates, but 23 had left or were on long-term leave. The
emails said the violent prisoner's 16 aggressive incidents included him
groping the jail's female chaplain. "We are all aware that we work in a
prison, but allowing one prisoner to perpetrate four assaults in six months
and still stay medium security needs to be addressed," a worker wrote.
The staff claim that managers from Serco Australia, which could not be
contacted yesterday, told them they wanted to keep the prisoner in the
mainstream jail population to "normalise" him before he was moved
to a country facility. Another guard said in an email that a lone female
guard had to supervise 150 inmates during outdoor activity. The guard was
concerned at the big number of prisoners and feared for her safety because
the group included a prisoner who had continually threatened to rape and kill
her. "Incidents of a threatening/confronting nature have resulted in
staff securing themselves rather than controlling situations," the guard
wrote. "Recent incidents reflect the sentiment of prisoners who are
fully aware of the staff's lack of ability to contain the prisoners here in
an emergency situation." Shadow corrective services minister Paul
Papalia said it was important to discuss the problems because Serco Australia
was likely to be considered for new jail contracts. Mr Papalia said staff
shortages meant the prison was not achieving the number of organised
activities required under its contract. The Community and Public Sector Union
said there were continuing concerns about staff safety as prison populations
increased, causing tensions in sleeping quarters and in places such as the
kitchen and gym. Attorney-General Christian Porter said yesterday it was
difficult to verify the accuracy of the staff claims but said: "I have
asked the Department of Corrective Services to check each of these
allegations thoroughly to see if they can be verified."
November 26, 2004 The
West Australian
A drug dealer is suing the company that runs WA's only private prison over an
injury he sustained while working in the prison workshop. Pasquale "Peter"
Mancini has twice been operated on at Hollywood Private Hospital while
serving a 10 1/2-year jail term resulting from police operations that netted
big amounts of heroin, cocaine and speed. He launched legal proceedings
against Australian Integration Management Services this month over the
rupturing of his pectoral muscle. His writ alleges he was exposed to danger
while working as the leading hand at the Acacia Prison workshop and wasn't
given prompt medical treatment, exacerbating the injury. He claims AIMS
failed to maintain a safe system of work, required him to lift boards alone,
and did not provide mechanical or other assistance.
April 7, 2004
GUARDS at privately run Acacia Prison in Wooroloo remained
on strike last night in a stand-off with prison management over the guards'
claim of dangerously low numbers of staff and the suspension of a union
delegate. About 100 guards on strike claim that Australian Integration
Management Services does not put enough staff on each shift to ensure safe
working conditions. The union wants at least 32 guards on a shift to
supervise about 740 inmates. Spokesmen for the company did not return
phone calls yesterday. The strike began on Monday when the company
suspended a union delegate who had called an Acacia Joint Unions meeting,
then escorted from the jail about 40 guards at the meeting and locked them
out. Jail guards on the next shift voted not to work. Community and
Public Sector Union branch secretary Toni Walkington said the union wanted
the suspended delegate reinstated and an opportunity to discuss staffing and
other issues with management. "They just don't appear to be prepared to
sit down and discuss in a meaningful way," she said. Before the strike,
guards had met at the start of each shift to make sure there were enough
staff on it. "Basically, Acacia has paid less than rates payable in
public prisons and staffing levels have not met the same standards and we
have tried bargaining processes and a whole range of different avenues to
meet what are adequate standards, not necessarily the same as public
standards, but adequate standards," Ms Walkington said. "We have
managed mostly to be able to talk that through but what has become evident is
that Acacia need to make savings in their operations. "Basically,
we think that they can't return a profit as a privately operating prison so
they're just squeezing their workforce to make the difference between a
profitable operation and an operation running at a loss." The jail
was being run by a skeleton staff, mainly of management. "Without
a doubt, the normal activities of the prison cannot occur at the moment so
prisoners will have to be spending most of their time locked up in the
cells," she said. "There will be no programs addressing issues of
why people first offended, no education, their activities, rehabilitation
programs won't be happening." (The West.com)
April 6, 2004
The union representing prison officers at the Acacia Prison east of Perth
says workers will continue to press their claim for increased staffing
levels. The Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union says
officer numbers at the private prison are simply inadequate. (ABC.net)
October 4, 2000
The Victorian Government has taken control of one of its prisons away from
CCA claiming it failed to act on security issues. However, CCA has the
contract to run West Australia's new Acacia at Wooroloo. Labor's spokesman
for justice, Jim McGinty, says the situation will have to be closely
monitored.
Adelaide Remand Centre
Jan 2, 2021
abc.net.au/news
Adelaide Remand Centre fined
$100,000 for prisoner Jason Burdon's clothes rope escape
The South Australian Government
has fined the privately operated Adelaide Remand Centre $100,000 over the
escape of prisoner Jason Burdon last month. Police said Mr Burdon fled from
the maximum security prison's kitchen area on the morning of December 1,
using items of clothing as a rope to climb out of a metal louvre window. They
said he got away on a stolen electric bicycle and then allegedly stole a
four-wheel drive from West Lakes Shore and was recaptured, 15 kilometres
south of the city, more than 24 hours later. The 33-year-old pleaded guilty
to the escape, but not guilty to resisting arrest. Police and Correctional
Services Minister Vincent Tarzia on Saturday announced the prison's private
operator, Serco, had been fined $100,000 for allowing the escape to occur.
"The punishment is fitting because we've made it very clear to Serco
that any escape is completely and utterly unacceptable," Mr Tarzia said.
"We're taking this very, very seriously." Mr Tarzia said Serco, the
Department for Correctional Services and SA Police were each conducting
reviews into how the escape had occurred. He said "remedial works"
has been conducted on the prison to prevent further escapes and he was
receiving regular updates from his department on the situation. Mr Tarzia
said prisoners had not been let back into the kitchen area since the escape.
The State Opposition said the Government was taking too long to release the
findings of the department's review. "A month later, we're still waiting
for answers," Labor correctional services spokesperson Lee Odenwalder
said. "South Australians deserve to know how this dangerous prisoner was
allowed to escape, they deserve to know why it took 25 minutes for the police
to be called, but most of all they need some assurance of why this won't
happen again." But Mr Tarzia described the criticism as "rank
hypocrisy". "During Labor's 16 years of government, we had 60
escapes from our prison system," he said. Soon after the escape, Public
Sector Association (PSA) general secretary Nev Kitchin argued that
"privately run prisons simply don't work". "We're looking at
multinational companies, we're looking at fewer staff, we're looking at
inferior training, we're looking at more assaults occurring in the private
prisons, we're looking at more contraband getting into the private prisons,
and we're looking at overall reduced safety," he said. But Mr Tarzia
said that "there is nothing before me to suggest that the staffing level
was inadequate at that particular location". Mr Burdon did not apply for
bail and will face court again in January.
Dec 2, 2020 PCWG watch Australia: Serco escape
Hunt continues for fugitive
prisoner Jason Burdon who escaped Adelaide Remand Centre
ABC Radio Adelaide
An investigation into the escape
of a prisoner from the maximum-security Adelaide Remand Centre will examine
why staff did not contact police until 25 minutes after the incident.
Prisoner Jason Burdon, 33, remains on the run after breaking out of the
facility in Adelaide's CBD on Tuesday by using clothes as a makeshift rope.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said the search had since expanded well
beyond the city. "We're also utilising all of our mobile patrols … to
participate in that search process, so we do have wide coverage over the
entire state," Commissioner Stevens said. "From my understanding,
any delay is obviously an impediment to mobilising our resources to
potentially apprehend the person as quickly as possible, so we'll be very
interested to see what the circumstances were." After allegedly stealing
an electric bike and being tracked via CCTV through the city, Burdon was seen
on cameras heading towards Port Road. Around 12:45pm, he allegedly stole a
black Toyota RAV4 in West Lakes Shore, 15 kilometres north-west of the city,
and police believe he has since changed the plates. "The car is
distinctive with silver roof racks and a camping awning on one side,"
police said in a recent update. "Investigators believe the RAV4 is now
displaying stolen plates S817AYS." Minister for Correctional Services
Vincent Tarzia said it was not the first time Burdon had escaped custody.
"This individual has been evasive, he has been slippery. We know that
there was an incident in 2010 when he escaped from a hospital at the
time," he said. South Australia's Department of Correctional Services
[DCS] chief executive David Brown told ABC Radio Adelaide that Burdon had
been working in the facility's kitchen area before he escaped. Mr Brown said
kitchen operations were under the supervision of staff from Serco — the
private company which has run the remand centre since 2019 — and said because
the facility was high-security, it was also under CCTV coverage. Whether
anyone was watching the CCTV feeds at the time of Burdon's escape was "a
matter for the investigation", Mr Brown said. He said the investigation
would focus on the events leading up to Burdon's escape, as well as the
conduct of staff and operation of the prison. Mr Brown said the alarm was raised
at 10:13am, and said police were notified at 10:20am — 25 minutes after the
man escaped "at approximately 9:55am". He said it was a "very
good question" as to why it took that length of time to notify police
that someone had escaped. "Our priority is to do a thorough
investigation into the incident, establish how the physical breach
occurred," he said. "We need to understand the supervision that was
in place — the adequacy of that supervision — leading up to that
incident." Mr Brown would not comment on whether staffing levels had
dropped at the remand centre since its privatisation, but did say the
operation had "clearly changed" from a public sector-operated
prison to a facility operated by Serco.
Mr Brown conceded that although the operations and staffing of the
facility "are a responsibility for Serco", it ultimately fell on
his shoulders. "Ultimately it's my responsibility — I'm the chief
executive of the Department for Correctional Services," he said. Serco
has been contacted for comment. Mr Tarzia today repeatedly refused to say who
was responsible for the breach, saying that was a matter for investigation.
"What we're doing is to make sure we do all we can to make sure we know
what happened, how it happened and why it happened," he said. "DCS
have been in very, very frequent meetings with Serco. "We're not shying
away from the fact that it is completely unacceptable." Public Service
Association (PSA) general secretary Nev Kitchin was critical of the
privatisation of the prison, which was announced in the 2018 State Budget.
"Privately-run prisons simply don't work," he said. "We're
looking at multi-national companies, we're looking at fewer staff, we're
looking at inferior training, we're looking at more assaults occurring in the
private prisons, we're looking at more contraband getting into the private
prisons, and we're looking at overall reduced safety." Mr Kitchin said
the PSA had "reliable information" that there were "around 50
per cent less staff" working at the remand centre since it was privatised.
Burdon is described as being about 165 centimetres tall, with a medium build
and light brown hair. Police do not believe he is a danger to the public, but
have urged anyone who spots him to not approach, and instead contact police
on 131 444 or triple zero. Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas was also
critical of the prison's privatisation. "We should be clear about this —
the Adelaide Remand Centre is a maximum security facility," Mr
Malinauskas said. "It houses some of our most dangerous criminals, and
prisons are there to protect the public, not deliver a profit to a private
operator." Hunt continues for fugitive prisoner Jason Burdon who escaped
Adelaide Remand Centre
Arthur Gorrie Correctional Center
Wacol, Australia
GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections)
Sep 16, 2018 dailymail.co.uk
Prisoner, 21, dies in shared jail cell after being
found unconscious by security guards
A 21-year-old prisoner has died in his Brisbane jail
cell after being found unconscious. The inmate was found by guards in a
shared cell at around 11.30 pm on Saturday at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional
Centre. Prison officers administered CPR but he was declared dead when
paramedics arrived around midnight, a Queensland Corrective Services
spokeswoman said on Sunday. Queensland Police have been notified of the man's
death and are being assisted in their inquiries by Queensland Corrective
Services. The prisoner's death in the shared cell comes after it was revealed
in a 2017 report there were around 315 'double-up' cells at the Brisbane
prison and prison population had increased by 35 per cent since 2012. The
report also revealed a 500 per cent increase in serious assault as well as a
700 per cent spike in sexual assault between 2013 and 2016. One former
inmate, who left the jail in April, said the facility was 'one of the most
nastiest and corrupt prisons I've ever been in,' according to ABC News. In an
18 month period leading up to September 2017, 37 inmates had attempted
suicide - compared to just two in 2012. A prison officer at the jail
said under the cover of anonymity that overcrowding was a major reason behind
a rise in violence and attempted suicide. They said: 'It's drastically
overcrowded. It seems calm as anything then all of a sudden, it'll kick-off
and some are huge incidents with multiple people involved. Arthur Gorrie is
one of two private prisons in Queensland, managed by GEO Group Australia.
Mar 23, 2018 4bc.com.au
Handcuff key missing for three days in notorious jail
An investigation is underway after a handcuff key went missing from
Queensland’s Arthur Gorrie jail. Ray Hadley received a tip on Thursday that
the key had been lost on March 15 and wasn’t found until three days later.
It’s the second time in a week the prison’s operator GEO Group has come under
fire. An extendable baton was stolen from guards at Parklea Correctional
Centre last week and still hasn’t been found. Queensland Corrective Services
has released a statement following the incident: “At about 5pm on March 15, a
custodial officer at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre reported a handcuff
key missing. A range of searches were conducted throughout the facility
before the key was located on March 18. An investigation is underway, and, as
it is considered a major security incident, GEO is required to provide a
report into the incident to Queensland Correctional Services.” GEO Group has
a history of dismal administration at the Parklea facility and their contract
has now been terminated.
Sep 29, 2017 couriermail.com.au
Arthur Gorrie and Southern Queensland correctional
centre management contracts out to tender
QUEENSLAND’S high-security private jails, deemed unsafe by staff, are set for
the biggest shake-up in 10 years as management contracts go out to tender.
Arthur Gorrie and Southern Queensland jails could get new management after
the State Government expressed its desire to have a local operator. However,
there are currently no jail management operators in Queensland, opening the
door for international applications. American-based GEO group currently runs
the high-risk Arthur Gorrie and UK-based SERCO runs Southern Queensland, near
Gatton, however both have been criticised for their management and treatment
of staff. Queensland Minister for Police and Corrective Services Mark Ryan
says a “Backing Queensland Jobs” policy will apply to prison contracts. Staff
claim the prisons have become dangerous to work in, with not enough guards to
patrol overcrowded units. Strikes took place at Arthur Gorrie earlier this
year as tensions reached breaking point, with claims officers were forced to
supervise more than 60 inmates. The number of inmates at the jail was
yesterday 1175, or more than 30 per cent over capacity. The two providers
were given a six-month contract extension until mid-2018 but Corrections
Minister Mark Ryan said the tender would have a “Backing Queensland Jobs”
policy. Potential operators could include Core Civic, the largest private
company in the US, which has also been criticised for understaffing and
violence. One of its prisons was dubbed “Gladiator School”. Privately run
prisons save the State Government about $10 million a year. A Queensland
audit report last year found it cost the State Government $175 per prisoner a
day, but private operators were about 20 per cent cheaper. Opposition
corrections spokesman Tim Mander said: “This news only adds to the
uncertainty around our prisons which have been turned into fight clubs under
Labor because they have failed to deal with chronic overcrowding.” It’s
unclear if the jails will be advertised as one contract or if they will be
separated.
Jul 8, 2017 dailymail.co.uk
High-security Queensland prison enters second day of lockdown amid claims
of overcrowding, drugs and prisoner violence
A Queensland high security prison remains in lockdown after correctives
officers were refused entry by the facility's state government-employed
operators. Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre in Brisbane's southeast went
into lockdown at 6am on Friday over an industrial relations dispute. The
lockdown started when 40 corrections officers were refused entry to the
establishment after a long-running dispute over work conditions. It comes
amid ongoing enterprise bargaining negotiations between staff and the state
government contracted GEO Group. United Voice spokesman Damien Davie said GEO
Group had formally notified union members the staff lockout would continue on
Saturday, reported Sky News. Mr Davie said prison staff had called on the
company to boost staff numbers to deal with overcrowding. 'There's currently
one officer to between 36 and 40 (inmates), and sometimes as bad as one to
62. There should be two on the floor at all times.' He said staff shortages
had led to assaults on officers, prisoner violence, drugs in the prison going
undetected and prisoner behaviour not being properly addressed. A spokesman
for Queensland Corrective Services said it would not seek to interfere or
influence EBA negotiations. 'In the event of industrial action, GEO is
responsible to ensure the safe and secure operation of the facility,' said in
a statement. Responding to concerns that staff and inmate safety would be put
at greater risk once the lockdown was lifted, GEO Group spokesman Ken Davis
said on Friday they planned to cool heightened tensions among inmates with
icecream. 'I don't know what (the
prison manager) will do when he lifts it ... we can go out and buy them ice
creams or something like that for their dessert,' Mr Davis said. A correctional officer at the centre said
it currently housed around 1200 inmates, despite having a single bed capacity
for 890 men with a maximum security wing for up to 18 inmates. 'In the last
couple of months we've had an officer knocked unconscious,' he said. The
officer told AAP the flow of undetected drugs had also risen, the most common
being Subutex, generally used to treat opioid addiction but abused by
inmates. He also said requests to double staff numbers and address a culture
of bullying had been ignored. 'There is a culture of bullying from management
and it comes down through the supervisors,' he said. 'They just don't seem to
want to hear about it. They, I believe, are more concerned about their
profits.' GEO Group spokesman Ken Davis declined to provide the current
officer to inmate ratio, referred questions about staffing to the state
government and denied bullying claims. He said only two reports of bullying
had been made in the 2016/17 financial year and that both were found to be
unsubstantiated. Mr Davis also denied Mr Davie's claims staff assaults were
under-reported and said additional officers were brought on when the prison
was over-crowded.
Jul 7, 2017 dailymail.co.uk
That should help them chill out! Security says it will give ICECREAM to
angry inmates at locked down high security prison
A company employed by the Queensland government to manage a high-security
prison in lockdown over an industrial relations dispute says it will cool
heightened-tensions among inmates with ice cream. The Arthur Gorrie
Correction Centre in Brisbane's southeast went into lockdown about 6am on
Friday when 40 corrections officers were refused entry due to a long-running
dispute over work conditions. It comes amid ongoing enterprise bargaining
negotiations between staff and the state government contracted GEO Group.
Responding to concerns that staff and inmate safety would be put at greater
risk once the lockdown was lifted, GEO Group spokesman Ken Davis said the
prison's general manager would buy prisoners ice cream. 'I don't know what
(the prison manager) will do when he lifts it ... we can go out and buy them
ice creams or something like that for their dessert,' Mr Davis said. United
Voice spokesman Damien Davie said staff had called on the company to boost
staff numbers to deal with overcrowding. 'There's currently one officer to
between 36 and 40 (inmates), and sometimes as bad as one to 62. There should
be two on the floor at all times. 'That is leading to assaults on our
members, it's leading to prisoner violence, drugs in the prison going
undetected, prisoner behaviour not being corrected, just sheerly due to the
lack of boots on the ground.' A correctional officer at the centre said it
currently housed around 1200 inmates, despite having a single bed capacity
for 890 men with a maximum security wing for up to 18 inmates. 'In the last
couple of months we've had an officer knocked unconscious,' he said. The
officer told AAP the flow of undetected drugs had also risen, the most common
being Subutex, generally used to treat opioid addiction but abused by
inmates. He also said requests to double staff numbers and address a culture
of bullying had been ignored. 'There is a culture of bullying from management
and it comes down through the supervisors,' he said. 'They just don't seem to
want to hear about it. They, I believe, are more concerned about their
profits.' GEO Group spokesman Ken Davis declined to provide the current
officer to inmate ratio, referred questions about staffing to the state
government and denied bullying claims. He said only two reports of bullying
had been made in the 2016/17 financial year and that both were found to be
unsubstantiated. Mr Davis also denied Mr Davie's claims staff assaults were
under-reported and said additional officers were brought on when the prison
was over-crowded. A spokesman for Queensland Corrective Services said it
would not seek to interfere or influence EBA negotiations. 'In the event of
industrial action, GEO is responsible to ensure the safe and secure operation
of the facility,' said in a statement.
Jun 25, 2017 ouriermail.com.au
Raw sewage dumped behind Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre after jail
sewage pump failure
A TRUCK shipped sewage out of a Brisbane jail for weeks after a pump
“mechanical failure” in one of the cell blocks. The Courier-Mail has been
told the truck dumped the waste near railway lines behind Arthur Gorrie
Correctional Centre after the breakdown in “Whiskey Block”. The Department of
Environment and Heritage Protection was notified. “A sewage truck pumped out
tanks every two hours and dumps raw sewage,” a prison source said, claiming
it was at risk of flowing into the nearby creek. “In one of the prisoner
blocks the sewerage system has been broken for months.” The Arthur Gorrie
Correctional centre in Wacol. The waste was reportedly dumped near the
railway line behind the jail. The truck was used to pick up the waste and
dump it for up to 12 hours a day for weeks before a pump was fixed this
month. A Queensland Corrective Services spokeswoman confirmed there was a
mechanical failure of a sewage pump. Questions about costs, how much was
transported and if environmental reports were gathered were not answered. The
jail is run privately by GEO Group but the Department of Public Works looks
after facilities. “The pump was repaired as quickly as possible,” the QCS
spokeswoman said. “For a period of time sewage was transported off site. We
are not aware of any effluent spillage.” The Department of Environment and
Heritage Protection was advised the sewage pump station overflow released an
unknown amount of untreated wastewater to land, a day after it happened in
April. “The Department of Housing and Public Works reported that the
contaminant had been contained on-site and was not released to the receiving
environment,” a spokesman said. “Appropriate steps were taken to isolate and
clean the area.” The jail’s management also engaged environmental consultants
to help with the clean up. “The potential for environmental harm was low and
no further compliance action is required at this stage,” the spokesman said.
It comes as 10-year contracts for Arthur Gorrie and Southern Queensland jails
are about to end. The Courier-Mail has been told they are likely to get a
one-year extension – without it necessarily being put out to tender. A
spokeswoman said “commercial in-confidence applies to all government
contracts”. “QCS strictly adheres to all guidelines around the conclusion of
contracts and the tendering process.”
Aug 14, 2014
brisbanetimes.com
A
prison officer at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre has been stood down after
she publicly raised concerns about resources and over-crowding at the Wacol
prison. United Voice union delegate Kylie Muscat on Tuesday went public with
her concerns following the assault of a fellow prison officer on Friday
morning. She said overcrowding, under-resourcing and a prisoners' smoking ban
had made conditions for prison staff unsafe. The story was first published by
Fairfax Media about 1.30pm on Tuesday. United Voice prisons co-ordinator
Michael Clifford said within a few hours of that story appearing online Ms
Muscat had been suspended on full pay. “She’s pretty devastated, but she’s
also a very courageous union delegate who knows what she’s doing is the right
thing,” he said. Management of the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre has been
outsourced to the Sydney-based GEO Group since 1992. A spokesman for GEO said
the only comment the company would make was that Ms Muscat had been
“suspended for breaching company policy”. Mr Clifford said Ms Muscat had been
suspended as an act of “pure intimidation”. “This is an employer who should
be addressing the safety issues that Kylie is raising. Instead of addressing
the safety issues, they’re attacking the person that’s trying to have them
addressed,” he said. “This is just about intimidating people into silence.
“There’s a lot of talk in this country about free speech, but there’s a lot
of employers who think free speech stops the minute you walk inside the
workplace, that you don’t have a right to raise these sorts of issues.” Mr
Clifford said Ms Muscat’s actions were protected under the Fair Work Act
section 346, which protects people involved in industrial activity from
“adverse action”. “She is a union delegate – she can and should raise safety
issues and, if they’re not being addressed, she should do whatever it takes
to make sure they are addressed and that’s what she was doing,” he said.
“…Kylie was fulfilling her role as a union delegate and not talking as an employee
of Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre. “Under the Fair Work Act, union
delegates have rights to pursue the industrial interests of their members
without any adverse action from employers. “So, our union will be writing to
GEO today. They can expect a letter from our lawyers identifying that we
believe they are in breach of those provisions of the act and we’ll be asking
them to cease any action they’re taking against Kylie.” The GEO spokesman
would not comment on United Voice’s claim the move breached the Fair Work
Act. Mr Clifford said the union would back Ms Muscat “100 per cent of the
way”. “It’s not just Kylie,” he said. “All union delegates and members know
that they have the right to speak up about safety issues in the workplace,
particularly when those safety issues are life threatening.”
November 24,
2013 heraldsun.com.au
YEARS
in US and Thai jails, a book published about his drug smuggling exploits -
resumes don't come much more colourful than Phil Sparrowhawk's. Yet when he
applied for a job at Brisbane's Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, nobody
bothered to ask about his dark international past. Sparrowhawk, who managed
to humiliate prison authorities by working undetected under their noses for
three years, revealed yesterday just how easily he pulled off the
extraordinary security breach. And in another damning twist, The Sunday Mail
can reveal the prison management's claim on Friday that Sparrowhawk worked
only as an administration clerk and had no prisoner contact was wrong.
Yesterday the red-faced jail was forced to admit Sparrowhawk interviewed
incoming prisoners daily and held roles which allowed him to access all
prisoners' files and records. In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Mail,
Philip Sparrowhawk has revealed how he even worked with prisoners as a
corrective services officer inside the jail. Sparrowhawk, the subject of a
Random House book, Grass, about his former international drug smuggling
lifestyle, says nobody at the jail ever asked him any questions about his
past. Although prison managers GEO on Friday claimed Sparrowhawk only worked
as an administration clerk, with no prisoner contact, it has now confirmed he
had daily contact with prisoners. GEO spokesman Ken Davis said yesterday
Sparrowhawk was an administration clerk, but also worked in sentence
management administration and as a prisoner classification specialist. The
jobs allowed him access to all prisoners' files and computer records and he
interviewed incoming prisoners. Mr Davis said once the prison became aware of
internet stories about him being a drug smuggler and ex-prisoner, checks
revealed no evidence he was involved with drugs in jail. "I do deny I
was a drug smuggler. I was never convicted of anything,'' Sparrowhawk says.
"If you are asked have you ever killed anybody you don't say 'yes I
have', you say 'I've never been convicted of it'.'' Sparrowhawk, who worked
in Arthur Gorrie from March, 2010, was suspended in September and sacked
three weeks ago, says he had nothing to do with drugs inside the jail. When
asked why he wanted to work in a Queensland jail after having been in
overseas prisons he says he just wanted a job and he loved the work. "I
never abused my position at GEO," he said. "I took every available
course and test available … and passed all requirements'' Sparrowhawk says he
was arrested in Thailand, held in jails there and then extradited to the US
where he was charged with racketeering as part of a criminal organisation.
After five years of being moved between more than 40 jails, he says the charge
was dropped. Sparrowhawk claims there are "a lot of people working at
Arthur Gorrie who are involved with a criminal organisation''. Speaking about
how he got his prison job so easily he said: "You fill out an
application form and I answered it truthfully''. Sparrowhawk is cagey when
questioned about the book, which claims he was a large-scale cannabis dealer
from Thailand who was targeted by the US Drug Enforcement Agency. He says the
book, which has his name on the cover, was written by others and any money he
received he donated to charity. Former UK drug lord and convicted racketeer
Howard Marks, known as Mr Nice, who is a friend of Sparrowhawk, referred to
him on the book cover as "Mr Big''. Sparrowhawk hints at having been
involved with British secret intelligence service MI6, as does Marks. When
asked about it he says: "I've worked for a lot of people and I've signed
a lot of these official secret acts for a lot of different countries.''
Sparrowhawk says he has left Australia and is about to take up a consultancy
for a security agency in Vienna.
March
11, 2010 ABC
Queensland's Indigenous community will march on State Parliament today,
enraged over the circumstances surrounding a recent death in custody. An
18-year-old prisoner died late last month and there are claims Brisbane jail
staff denied him adequate medical treatment even though he was too sick to
walk. Today's march coincides with the reopened inquest into the
controversial Palm Island death in custody. Prison chaplain Reverend Alex Gator
says inmates at the Arthur Gorrie correctional centre called her with news of
the latest tragedy last month. "This young youth, only 18 years of age,
he had spent five weeks on remand and then the five weeks he was at Arthur
Gorrie he became ill, so he was ill for six days," she said. "The
first time he'd gone to the medical centre he was given Panadol, other times
he'd gone he was told that there was nothing wrong with him. So he was
repeatedly denied medical assistance. "Towards the end the boys had to carry
him, the Murri boys in his unit had to carry him, because he could hardly
walk. "They nearly caused a riot, the Murri boys. They yelled out to the
officer, 'get him to the hospital' because something was wrong with him.
"And one officer made the comment, 'Well if he can go to the toilet,
there's nothing wrong with him'." Reverend Gator says the teenager was
ultimately rushed to hospital and put on life support. But he died a few days
later on February 20. "I conducted a memorial service. The boys said they
only saw him a couple of weeks ago talking, laughing, joking and next thing
they hear this young man is dead," she said. Reverend Gator says the
teenager should never have been put in jail because he had a serious
pre-existing medical condition. "That is the question we're asking -
why? Why was he in prison, not in hospital? I mean he wasn't a terrorist, a
paedophile, rapist or a murderer," she said. "He was in there for a
misdemeanour. And as far as I'm concerned, it's just racial discrimination
towards Aboriginal people. This is about racial hatred attitudes towards
Aboriginal people. "They're deliberately turned away and told there's
nothing wrong with them. And Corrective Services have failed in their duty of
care to provide a service to this young man." 'Could have been avoided'
-- Brisbane Indigenous community leader Sam Watson says news of the death in
custody has spread like wildfire. "We are very concerned about this
because this appears to be yet another Aboriginal death in custody that could
have been avoided, that should have been avoided," he said. Queensland
Corrective Services has issued a written statement saying "there are no
suspicious causes" in the teenager's death. The statement adds that all
deaths in custody are referred to the coroner and to the chief inspector of
prisons for investigation. But Mr Watson says the Indigenous community is
calling on the Queensland Government to instigate a full coronial inquest.
"There have to be a lot of questions answered. We want to get to the
bottom of this and we want to do it very, very quickly," he said.
June
1, 2008 Courier Mail
A CAREER criminal on remand for assault was accidentally released from a
privately run Brisbane jail last week. Three prison staff have been suspended
over the security bungle at the Arthur Gorrie correctional centre at Wacol in
Brisbane's west. Prison sources said the breach occurred when staff were
processing the inmate for release into police custody. Police had been
granted a court order to remove the inmate on Tuesday in relation to a
break-and-enter investigation. However, prison staff discharged the inmate
for release and gave him his property. Police arrived to collect him from a
high-security area at the rear of the jail, which is used for transferring
inmates, but they were directed to the reception area. Queensland Corrective
Services denied the man was wrongfully discharged, saying the jail's
operator, the GEO Group Australia, had reported there had been a "breach
of internal security procedures". She said at no time was the inmate,
who has since been returned to the jail, not in prison or police custody. She
confirmed jail management suspended three staff as a result of an internal
report on the incident and an investigation was under way. State Opposition prisons
spokesman Vaughan Johnson demanded a full investigation into the incident,
saying the jail had mismanaged the custodial process.
January
19, 2008 ABC
Prison guards who walked off the job at Queensland's biggest remand
centre yesterday are now back at work. Brisbane's Arthur Gorrie Correctional
Centre had been locked down since Friday afternoon, with only a skeleton
management team running the centre and police patrolling the perimetre. The
guards began their strike after being ordered to stop handcuffing prisonners
with their hands behind their backs. The remand facility operators, Geo, had
requested a hearing before the Industrial Relations Commission this morning,
but Geo spokesman Pierre Langford says Geo and the Miscellaneous Workers
Union representing the guards will instead continue their talks on Monday.
"I suppose I would like to say on behalf of Geo Group Australia that we
appreciate the assistance that the commission has provided us with
today," he said. "At this point in time the parties have agreed to
get back together early next week, to have further discussions and our
employees have returned to work today, so we're pleased with that."
October
25, 2006 Townsville Bulletin
A TENDER for the state's two privately-run prisons is not a criticism of the
current operators, the Queensland Government said today. Corrective Services
Minister Judy Spence said new tenders to run Borallon and Arthur Gorrie
correctional centres, valued at a total of $200 million, would ensure
taxpayers got value for money. "It is not about the performance of the
current operators,'' Ms Spence said. The Arthur Gorrie jail has been under
fire in recent years over a number of deaths in custody, security failures
and assaults on prisoners by staff. Borallon made headlines four years ago
when a report showed it had the highest rate of illicit drug use in the
state, with almost one in three prisoners using drugs. Four companies will be
invited to tender: GEO Group Australia Pty Ltd, GSL Australia Pty Ltd,
Management and Training Corporation Pty Ltd and Serco Australia Pty Ltd. GEO
currently operates Arthur Gorrie, and Management and Training Corporation
operates Borallon. Ms Spence said the contracts would be for five years, with
an option for Queensland Corrective Services to extend them for a further
five years. The tenders will be evaluated in the first half of next year with
new contracts to start on January 1, 2008. An independent probity auditor has
been contracted to oversee the entire project.
November
30, 2005 Australian
THE bonus and penalty system on which private prisons in Australia are run
has been accused of encouraging operators to cover up riots and drug abuse by
prisoners. Queensland Prison Officers Association secretary Brian Newman
yesterday accused private prison operators of covering up incidents in their
facilities that could threaten performance bonuses worth up to $500,000 a
year. "Nine years ago I worked at Arthur Gorrie (Correctional Centre at
Wacol, west of Brisbane) and I would make drug finds but the drugs would be
flushed down the toilet in front of me by senior officials," Mr Newman
said. "You were powerless to do anything about it. "Anecdotal
evidence given to me is that it still goes on today. There is no incentive
for privately run prisons to report incidents." The management contract
of Arthur Gorrie operator, the GEO Group, formerly known as Australasian
Correctional Management, with the Queensland Government provides a $500,000
performance bonus to prevent crime, drug abuse and riots. The Arthur Gorrie
contract, a copy of which has been obtained by The Australian, says the
$500,000 bonus will be reduced by $100,000 for each escape, "loss of
control (riot)" or death in custody. Penalties of $25,000 are also
imposed for a string of problems such as discharging a prisoner in error,
assaults by prisoners resulting in injury or a case of self-harm or attempted
suicide. Other incidents that incur the $25,000 penalty include serious
industrial injuries, deliberately lit fires, major security breaches such as
attempted escapes or hostage-taking and loss of high-risk restricted
articles. If random urine tests disclose that drug use in the prison is
higher than 9 per cent and does not reduce towards the target of 4per cent,
the penalty applicable is also $25,000. The bonuses and penalty provisions
are the same for the contracts the GEO Group, the Australian subsidiary of
the Miami-based Wackenhut, has with the Victorian and NSW governments to run
the Melbourne Custody Centre and the Fulham and Junee prisons. Mr Newman said
his association had asked the Queensland Government to conduct an inquiry
into allegations by staff at Arthur Gorrie that "incidents" had
been covered up "to avoid financial penalty to breach of contract".
GEO Group is paid almost $800 a week for each of the 710 prisoners housed at
Arthur Gorrie. A spokesman for Queensland Corrective Services Minister Judy
Spence yesterday confirmed that contracts for privately run prisons did
provide for performance bonuses. "However, we are not able to confirm
amounts or any details on payments or deductions regarding the bonuses as
these matters are commercial in confidence," he said. Col Kelaher, GEO
Group executive manager of operations, said he could not comment on the
contract with the Government.
January 26, 2005 South-West
News
WORKERS at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre at Wacol staged a strike
from noon Friday to 5pm on Saturday over a wages and conditions dispute. The
Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union accused correctional centre owners
GEO Group of not meeting its obligations under the Queensland Industrial
Relations Act. Union prisons organiser David Pullen said the centre's 700
prisoners were locked down in cells during the strike. GEO group managing
director Pieter Bezuidenhout said the action ended after an IRC officer
recommended a return to work.
December 24, 2004 Courier
Mail
QUEENSLAND'S prisons are overcrowded and urgently require more funding to
stop the growing number of inmate deaths, a report by a state coroner has
found. The findings came at the end of an inquiry into the suicide of
prisoner William Mark Bailey in November 2002 at the Arthur Gorrie
Correctional Centre. Deputy state coroner Christine Clements found no one
else was responsible for Bailey's death and recommended no further action.
Arthur Gorrie, a remand and reception centre that temporarily holds prisoners
awaiting court hearings, can hold up to 800 people. It is managed by GEO
Group Australia but owned by the Queensland Corrective Services department.
"Evidence was given that there are 250 cells at Arthur Gorrie but at the
time of the inquest there were 750 prisoners being held at the
facility," Ms Clements said.
October 28, 2003
SEVERAL serious security flaws have been uncovered at Brisbane's privately
run Arthur Gorrie prison, which houses Queensland's most notorious inmate,
Postcard Bandit Brendan Abbott. An internal report conducted after an
assault on a prisoner in the jail's maximum security unit found major
deficiencies including prison doors jamming and staff being unaware for up to
90 seconds that doors were open. The revelations will put further
pressure on jail operator Australasian Correctional Management, a subsidiary
of US giant Wackenhut. Corrective Services Minister Tony McGrady put
the company on notice that it might lose its contract after staff failed to
report the alleged assault within the required time. The assault led to
the resignation of the prison's general manager, the suspension of four
maximum security unit prison officers and a correctional manager being stood
down. The jail houses some of the state's most dangerous prisoners
including convicted killer Jason Nixon. An internal investigation was
launched at the jail after Mr McGrady found out about the incident through The
Courier-Mail and issued ACM with a non-compliance notice. Mr
McGrady is yet to view the report of the investigation, which has been
obtained by The Courier-Mail. The report was prompted by an
alleged assault on serial rapist Troy Burley on October 11 in the MSU of
the Arthur Gorrie Remand and Reception Centre after a bungle enabled an
inmate to get through a door in the exercise yard to a common area and bash
him. The report found: • The doors in the exercise yard tended to
bounce away from the magnetic hold and were not constructed specifically
for the electronic security system. • Electronic failure did not
contribute to the alleged attack on Burley and a prison officer had not
waited for confirmation a door had closed. • The closed-circuit
television which monitors prisoners was obsolete and inadequate for a such a
high-risk area. • The practice for prisoners to open doors under
intercom direction from staff had led to an "undue familiarity".
Prison sources said the intercom system was used because there was not enough
staff in the MSU. "The crims are escorted at all times for the
first few weeks they are in the MSU, after that they can buzz the main
controllers to get in and out of their cells," a prison source
said. The internal report recommended the four officers in the MSU be
disciplined over the Burley incident, console operation training be reviewed
and the surveillance and electronic security door control be upgraded.
The breach at the jail came three days after inmate Mark Day was killed in
the exercise yard at the nearby Sir David Longland jail's MSU. State
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg accused Mr McGrady of double standards
for not taking action against staff at Sir David Longland over Day's
murder. "Mr McGrady jumped up and down demanding answers from
Arthur Gorrie. We didn't see that when a prisoner was murdered in a state-run
prison," Mr Springborg said. The Queensland Prison Officers
Association said the report's findings showed ACM was more interested in
profit and cost-cutting than rehabilitation of prisoners. "It's an
example of human warehousing – locking criminals away and moving them around
by remote control rather than them having one-on-one interaction with prison
officers," spokesman Brian Newman said. (The Courier-Mail)
October 23, 2003
A QUEENSLAND private jail being investigated over security failures is again
under scrutiny over an alleged assault. A Department of Corrective
Services spokesman said today an investigation was under way into a maximum
security prisoner's claim that he was assaulted by staff while being
handcuffed. Operators of the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre,
Australasian Correctional Management, were issued with a non-compliance
notice after they failed to notify authorities of an alleged assault between
two prisoners in the maximum security unit last week. (News.com.au)
October 14, 2003
STATE Prisons Minister Tony McGrady has put a Brisbane jail on notice and
warned its private operators they may lose their contract after the company
failed to report an assault on an inmate in a maximum security unit.
The attack in the Arthur Gorrie Remand and Reception Centre at Wacol on
serial rapist Troy Burley last Friday follows the murder of an inmate in a
similar unit at a nearby state-run jail. It also emerged last night the
attack on 28-year-old Burley was the second major security breach in the
jail's MSU since July. The first breach also involved Burley. The
second incident happened when a staff bungle enabled an inmate to get through
three doors into the common area and bash Burley. The most dangerous
prisoners are housed in Queensland's two maximum security units. They are
allowed to move outside their cells only while handcuffed and under
escort. An angry Mr McGrady last night served a non-compliance notice
on Australasian Correctional Management after he learnt of the assault
through The Courier-Mail. "Indeed, had they been issued
with a prior non-compliance notice, termination of the contract would have
been a likely outcome today," he said. ACM has seven days to
respond to the Corrective Services Department with a new MSU strategy.
Mr McGrady declined to comment on whether he was still confident of their
ability to operate the jail. (The Courier-Mail)
January 13, 2003
GUARDS at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre fear the maximum security prison
could be severely under-staffed for up to 48 hours, placing staff and
prisoners ar risk. About 300 prison officers are expected to walk off
for 24 hours after meeting today about failed negotiations on an enterprise
bargaining agreement. Their union expects Australasian Correctional
Management, which operates the prison, to retaliate by locking out the guards
for another 24 hours. Prison officers have made a claim for a 7.5
percent, or $52-a-week, pay rise. ACM has offered 1 percent less than
the CPI, or 2 percent, whichever is greater.
February 12, 2003
Prison guards at Brisbane 's
privately-run maximum security Arthur Gorrie jail will walk off the job for a
three-day strike from Sunday, in an attempt to force a pay rise. The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous
Workers Union (LHMU) warned the dispute would continue until the jail's
employer, Australasian Correctional Management, matched the guards' pay to
that of public sector prison employees.
"The wages of private prison officers are already behind those of
public sector officers, therefore if we accept any less we will forever and a
day be going backwards," LHMU Queensland secretary Ron Monaghan
said. Mr Monaghan warned the prison
operator not to use untrained staff to do the guards' work during the
upcoming strike - the third in as many weeks.
"It's a maximum security reception and remand centre so you have
all sorts including hardened criminals - it can be volatile," Mr
Monaghan said. (AAP Newsfeed)
Auckland Central Remand Prison
New Zealand
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
July
19, 2005 Stuff
An inmate in Auckland's former private prison who stowed away in a shipping
container to depart New Zealand should be sent back here to face rape
charges, says a Fiji court. The Suva Magistrate's Court recommended
that Shumendra Nilesh Chandra, 30, a computer operator, of Auckland be sent
back to New Zealand. Australasian Correctional Management, which
managed Auckland Central Remand Prison until its contract expired recently,
had to pay the Government $50,000 for the escape, under the terms of its
contract. The company said at the time that its investigation into how
Chandra allegedly slipped his handcuffs and fled guards was unable to find
out how he did it.
July 13, 2005 Scoop
The return today of New Zealand's only privately run prison to public sector
management is an opportunity for the Corrections Department to prove it can
deliver a first-class service, Green Party Justice Spokesperson Nandor
Tanczos says. The Department took over management of Auckland Central Remand
Prison from the GEO Group at midnight last night. "The Green Party
welcomes the handover today of the management of the Auckland Central Remand
Prison to the public sector," Nandor says. "I call on new
Corrections Department CEO Barry Matthews to use this as an opportunity to
deliver best prison practice. There is no reason why the public sector can't
provide a better service than the private and now is the time for Mr Matthews
to demonstrate this. "International experience shows widespread abuse
and poor conditions in many privately run prisons. ACRP was clearly a loss
leader designed to be a foot in the door for the private prison
conglomerates. It is extremely unlikely that any further private prisons here
would all be run as well as ACRP was by Mr Karauria and his team. "But
the principle issue is that prisons must be run by the public sector. As one
of the most tangible manifestations of state power, they must be fully
accountable to the people of New Zealand. A profit-driven service is
ultimately only accountable to its overseas shareholders. "There have been some clear cases of this lack of
accountability in Australia. For example ACM, the predecessor to Geo, placed
a contractual obligation upon some of their staff to not provide information
to the judiciary, which would have the effect of inhibiting the investigation
of abuse and mismanagement. "It must also be remembered that private
prisons can have a corrupting influence on the political system, in that they
create a profit motive to the lobby for longer custodial sentences. "The
Green Party have taken a number of steps to increase accountability in the
public sector through changes to the Corrections Act and a written commitment
to the establishment of an independent prison inspectorate from the
Labour-led Government," Nandor says.
July 13, 2005 Scoop
The Public Service Association (PSA) is welcoming the return of the Auckland
Central Remand Prison to the public prisons service. The Public Service
Association (PSA) is New Zealand’s largest state sector union, and has a
growing membership at the Department of Corrections. The contract between the
Department and Australasian Correctional Management Limited to run the remand
prison expired overnight. It will now be run by the Department of
Corrections. PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott said workers employed by
the private prison operator had, in effect, made the operation profitable
since they were employed on poorer terms and conditions than the rest of the
nation’s prison staff. “Imprisoning people for the crimes they have committed
is a core role of the state and it should never be hived off to a private
operator for profit. “The ACRP experiment proved that the exercise was a
simple cost-cutting exercise of the type imposed across the public sector
during the 1990s. “It employed fewer officers per inmate and paid them less
than staff employed by Corrections at all the other prisons across the
country. “At a time when Corrections is finding it increasingly difficult to
recruit and retain quality staff it beggars belief that National would
advocate greater use of private prison contracts. More private prisons would
inevitably drag down pay and conditions for all prison staff and make
recruitment even harder. “National’s advocacy of tougher, longer sentences
for a wider range of offences means it must be planning to employ many more
prison staff. We have to ask who they think is going to staff them?,” Brenda
Pilott said.
July 13, 2005 New Zealand Herald
Prisons run by private companies are not an option, Corrections Minister Paul
Swain says. Opposition parties have said
that ending private participation in the prison system is a triumph of
ideology over commonsense, but Mr Swain said the simple issue was that
private companies should not make profits out of prisoners. However, Auckland
Central Remand Prison (ACRP) was well managed before it was handed back to
the state today. "In the end, we have a public prison service, a public
police force, a public courts system," he said on National Radio.
"This is a role the Government or the public should be involved in, not
the private sector."
July 12, 2005 Scoop
The GEO
Group, holders of the private management contract for the Auckland Central
Remand Prison, said today that although they were extremely disappointed that
the contract had come to a close they would like to thank all of those people
who have supported them during their time in New Zealand. The contract
ends at midnight on July 12.
January 25, 2004
An investigation into how an inmate from Auckland's private prison slipped
his handcuff and fled guards has been unable to find out how he did it.
Nilesh Chandra was due to appear in court on sex-related charges, including
rape, when he escaped during a hospital visit last May. He was being
escorted by two guards from the Auckland Central Remand Prison. An
internal report by the prison found insufficient evidence to say whether the
cuffs were incorrectly applied. It says the prison would have to
examine Chandra's wrist to determine whether the handcuffs were incorrectly
applied "or whether some deformity, peculiarity or abnormality in the
prisoner's hand/wrist enabled him to slip from the restraint".
Chandra, a Fiji-Indian, later stowed away to Fiji inside a container on a
ship and was arrested by police at the port. New Zealand police are
seeking legal advice on his extradition. Australasian Correctional
Management paid the Government $50,000 for the escape, under the terms of its
contract to manage the prison. (NZ Herald)
December 4, 2000
A violent inmate placed a dummy in his bed, changed into new clothes and walked
out the front door of the privatetly run prison during visiting hours. The
escape is the first from the privately run prison in New Zealand. Under ACM's
contract with the Department of Corrections the company must pay $50,000 for
every escape. (AAP News Feed)
Australian Federal Government
Companies
Use Immigration Crackdown to Turn a Profit: Expose on immigration
by Nina Bernstein at the New York Times, September 28, 2011
Duty
of Care: Expose by Clare Sambrook on G4S and the death of
Aboriginal elder Mr. Ward. June 8, 2011
Mar 10, 2019 dailymail.co.uk
Australia: GEO and G4S inmates win
cash payments
A backpacker killer and university shooter have won a payout of more than
$10,000 each after they were bashed behind bars. The duo successfully claimed
guards used unnecessary force in two separate incidents at jails in Victoria.
Jonathan Horrocks, who shot and killed Leon Capraro at a La Trobe University
campus bar in Bundoora, Melbourne, in 1999, won the compensation over an
incident in 2010, the Herald Sun reported. Luke Wentholt also won a payout
for a 2014 altercation with a prison guard, while serving time for killing
Irish backpacker David Greene after stomping on his head in 2012. A relative
of Mr Capraro was shocked to learn of the payout when they were told by the
Herald Sun. 'How does a prisoner in jail for murder apply for
anything?' the relative said. 'It's a
pity he (Horrocks) didn't break his neck. These people deserve nothing. The
more I think about it, the more angry I get.' A relative of Mr Capraro
(pictured) was shocked to learn of the payout Horrocks, who broke his arm
after he refused to leave his cell, filed his case seven years after the
incident, county court documents reveal. He argued the incident caused a
'psychological disturbance' and tried to receive cash for loss of future
earnings. He is eligible for parole in 2024. Geo Group Australia, the private
security running the prison, rejected his complaint claiming Horrocks did not
cooperate with security when incident occurred. Wentholt sued prison
operator G4S after he was allegedly attacked by a guard while handcuffed. His
statement of claim said he was allegedly thrown on a bed, hit multiple times
and then his head was pushed to the ground.
May 13, 2016 ntnews.com.au
Prison visit sparks privatisation fears
FORMER Corrections Commissioner Ken Middlebrook was seen strolling the
grounds of Darwin’s prison in his new role with a US-based company that
specialises in running private prisons. Mr Middlebrook’s Tuesday visit with
his new employer, Management & Training Corporation, and the fact he once
threatened unions with outsourcing work to private contractors, has sparked
concerns NT prisons are headed for privatisation. Mr Middlebrook resigned as
commissioner following a string of failures — the tipping point being the
escape of axe-murdering rapist, Edward Horrell, from a prison work camp in
December last year. When asked if the NT Government was looking into the
possibility of privatising prisons Corrections Minister John Elferink said:
“no”. During a debacle last year that saw two juvenile offenders break out of
Don Dale after a rampage causing tens of thousand dollars worth of damage, Mr
Middlebrook sent guards from the adult prison over to help safeguard the
centre. In an email to a union representative who expressed concerns about
the arrangement, he responded by writing: “Should you not be happy with
(correctional officers) working along side (youth justice officers) I am
willing to consider private sector involvement from G4S, Serco or GEO all of
whom have expressed a willingness and eagerness to work with NTDCS”. A
spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services told the NT News Mr Middlebrook
was not employed by the department. “Mr Middlebrook is employed by the
US-based Management and Training Corporation which is looking at new prison
designs and operations in Australia, hence their interest in visiting the
Darwin Correctional Centre,” the spokesman said. United Voice secretary Erina
Early said prisons were an essential service and “no essential service should
be privatised”. “Privatisation means prisons would become a business and
businesses need to make a profit ... it would adversely affect the conditions
of those working in them, the care of the prisoners and the safety of
Territorians,” she said. “If the CLP is looking at privatising the prison
we’ll ensure Territorians take this to the vote and vote out a government
that is continually privatising ... assets and jobs.” Mr Elferink distanced
himself from the visit saying: “Access to the Darwin Correctional Centre is
at the discretion of the Darwin Correctional Centre operations management”.
Jun 15, 2014 perthnow.com.au
NINETEEN people –
including five in WA – have escaped Immigration Department custody this year
and remain on the run. And a Vietnamese man who gave his Serco escort the
slip at the check-in desk of Perth International Airport last week is one of
those still missing. Secrecy surrounds the 36-year-old man’s escape, with
Serco refusing to say how many guards were with him, whether he was
restrained and how he managed to slip away. The man dodged Serco guards in
the check-in area about 9.15am last Saturday, sparking an unsuccessful
five-hour search involving Australian Federal Police and WA Police from three
stations. The search ended that day, but the man hasn’t been found. Detainees
are not handcuffed, but Serco is warned by the department if a particular
detainee is considered a flight risk. It is not known if they were warned in
this case. Serco would not comment on the incident for “operational and
security reasons”. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison would not say what was
being done to search for the man, who he described as an “illegal maritime
arrival”. “The Department’s compliance team is continuing investigations into
the potential whereabouts of the man,” a spokeswoman for Mr Morrison said.
“It would not be appropriate to comment on operational matters as this could
impact the investigation.” Only eight of the 27 people who have escaped the
department’s custody this year have been located. Twelve of the escapes and
seven of the recaptures happened in WA. Eight people, mainly Vietnamese
nationals, escaped from Yongah Hill Detection Centre in Northam in January,
prompting Mr Morrison to call for a review of the centre’s management. The
centre is run by Serco. Under its contract with the department, Serco can be
penalised for underperformance – including losing a detainee – and
potentially lose up to 5 per cent of the value of its contract. Mr Morrison’s
office said it would investigate how the man escaped and consider invoking
those penalties. It is the latest in a series of costly and embarrassing
mistakes by the private contractor, which has a $50 million prisoner
transport contract with the State Government, as well as the
multibillion–dollar immigration detention centre contract with the Federal
Government.
Jan 25, 2014 abc.net.au
The State
Opposition has accused the government of trying to cover up its dealings with
private contracting firm Serco by not ordering an independent inquiry into
its performance in WA. The company, which has a custodial management contract
with the State Government and detention centre contracts with the Federal
Government, has been criticised for a number of prisoner escapes in recent
weeks. The Prison Officers Union, Police Union and WA Labor have all added
their voice to calls for an independent inquiry into the company. Opposition
spokesman for Corrective Services, Paul Papalia, says news that Serco's
Australia Pacific chief executive has also welcomed an independent inquiry,
makes the state government look like it has something to hide. "The
Barnett Government has apparently signed up to a very poor contract with
Serco for the provision of prisoner transport services, and it looks like
they are trying to cover up their own failures," Mr Papalia said.
"They need to have an open, independent inquiry." The Corrective
Services Minister Joe Francis will not be commenting on the issue.
Jan 9, 2014 The West
Australian
The
boss of WA prisons has admitted weaknesses in the security of prison vans
were partly to blame for the escape of a dangerous rapist last week. Cameron
John Graham was just weeks into an 11-year sentence for rape when he was
permitted to move closer to his family in the north of the State for
Christmas. Private prison contractor Serco, which runs WA's prison transport
services, was transferring Graham back to Perth last Friday when he and
another prisoner, alleged armed robber Kelden Edward Fraser, broke out of a
prison van at Geraldton airport. The fugitives stole a car and went on the
run for 36 hours, sparking a massive manhunt and a furious public reaction.
New Corrective Services Commissioner James McMahon said yesterday the reasons
for the escape were "procedural and mechanical". Mr McMahon refused
to give details, citing security reasons, but said security had been
increased since. "I have put directives in place that fix those issues .
. . and that is important because I need to know I can transport prisoners
securely," Mr McMahon said. _The West Australian _has copies of new
directives issued to corrective services staff, which may shed some light on
the circumstances of the escape. Assistant Commissioner of Custodial
Operations Jon Peach issued a directive on prisoner movements on Monday.
"With immediate effect, all prisons are to ensure that, unless in a
secure location or for the purposes of providing food, water or emergency
assistance, any escort vehicle with prisoners on board shall have all doors
closed and locked at all times . . . until such time as the prisoner
occupant(s) of the vehicle is physically transferred out of the vehicle,"
the directive said. Corrective Services Minister Joe Francis said he would be
addressing the issue of the recapture costs in a meeting with Serco next
week.
Jan 5, 2014 PERTHNOW
A
NOTORIOUS rapist allowed privileges at Christmas and another fugitive were
captured overnight as Corrective Services Minister Joe Francis was last night
trying to contact the rape victim to apologise for the debacle. The shambolic
escape also resulted in Corrective Services chief James McMahon yesterday
cancelling all non-essential prison transfers. Cameron John Graham, 22,
sentenced in November to 11 years jail for brutally raping a mother, escaped
from custody after being flown from his Perth prison cell to Geraldton to be
close to his family for Christmas. Graham and another prisoner, Kelden Edward
Fraser, 23, were captured after police used a plane to find their bush camp
in the Mullewa area, near Geraldton. Officers were deployed to the camp where
they arrested Graham and Fraser just after 1am this morning. The men were taken
to Geraldton Police Station and have been returned to Greenough Regional
Prison. Police say charges will be laid in "due course" and the
pair will appear in Geraldton Magistrates Court later this week. Mr Francis
told The Sunday Times that he was "gobsmacked" to learn notorious
rapist Cameron John Graham had been flown from Perth to Greenough Regional
Prison at taxpayers' expense to be closer to his family for Christmas. In a
press conference today, Mr Francis said he understood the van door was unlocked
and the prisoners were not handcuffed. He also said he had not yet received a
formal briefing on the incident, but that he was certain that would happen
this week. The brutal rapist was only a month into his 11-year jail sentence
for a crime a judge found "difficult for a reasonable human being to
comprehend." Mr Francis said he felt for Graham's victim, who has
subsequently left the country following the ordeal. When Graham broke into
the woman's home on January 15 last year he threatened to murder her children.
He then forced her to undress before repeatedly raping his terrified victim
in her walk-in robe. Afterwards he ordered her to drive to a nearby cash
machine and withdraw $400. "I am endeavouring to contact her and keep
her informed and say I'm sorry for what happened," he said. "I was
gobsmacked when I found out he (Graham) had been flown to Greenough.''
"It wasn't until this happened that I even knew the department moves
prisoners around the state to make things easier for their families to visit.
"The move for him to go to Geraldton wasn't sanctioned by me as minister
or the Commissioner (prisons' boss James McMahon). Clearly the people who
made the assessments on this got it wrong. I am led to believe it was some
senior prison officers who made the decision. I am trying to find out
(who)." Mr Francis denied he had been missing in action yesterday as the
fallout from the scandal continued. The Sunday Times understands he was
moving house. Earlier, acting-Premier Kim Hames appeared curious earlier in the
day about his colleague's whereabouts when he was left to face questions from
the media. Dr Hames said: "I don't know where he is. He is not my
responsibility." "I don't know the circumstances behind Joe not
being able to talk today. The Minister has a full understanding of the
implications of his responsibilities as a Minister. It's up to him to make
those decisions and up to the Premier to make judgments on whether those
decisions are accurate or not." The escape has increased heat on Serco,
the private company responsible for prisoner transfer. In a thinly-veiled
threat to the contractor, Corrective Services Minister Joe Francis told The
Sunday Times last night: "Of course I am disappointed in Serco. They are
skating on thin ice.'' He also said today that if the company were good
'corporate citizens', they would foot the bill of the manhunt. In the wake of
the security failure, Commissioner McMahon also ordered a review of the
prisoner transfer process, as the State Opposition called for a parliamentary
inquiry into the debacle.' Mr McMahon said that as a result of the incident
only prison transfers approved by him would go ahead. "At the department
we take this very seriously. Our ultimate job is to provide safety to the
community," he said. "We failed. The ultimate responsibility for
that is me. Let me very clear about that." He added: "I think it is
an outrage. I am going to get to the bottom of it." Mr McMahon also put
Serco on notice. Serco was transporting the escapees. "There have been a
number of incidents that have come across my desk that have involved
Serco," he said. "Do I have concerns? Absolutely I do. And I am
reviewing that in its entirety. "I will be making my point very strongly
and clearly to Serco that the minimum requirement I require of any
organisation that are trans-porting people from a custodial perspective is
that it needs to be done securely." Opposition spokesman for corrective
services Paul Papalia said yesterday Labor would move a motion calling for
the inquiry when parliament resumes next month. Mr Papalia said it was
"inconceivable" that one month after starting his jail term Graham
would be transferred from maximum security at a Perth prison - believed to be
Hakea - to medium-security Greenough Regional Prison to be closer to his
family for Christmas. Mr Papalia said that Graham did not deserve the festive
season perk and the "risks were too high''. Mr Papalia said: "
Corrective Services minister Joe Francis needs to provide the community a
full explanation as to why this perk was allowed. "When parliament
resumes we will attempt to have this investigated and (we) want the
government's support. "In this case, it would appear the prisoner was
transferred to Greenough so that his family could go and see him in prison -
just one month after he was sentenced. "This is a guy (Mr Francis) who
chases publicity for self promotion and spin but is shy when there is an
issue. I will be writing to the Minister and asking him for the specific
process that occurs for transfers of Mr McMahon said a detailed investigation
was also being conducted by Serco. Mr Papalia said Serco should also be part
of the inquiry. "Serco has had a series of failures in the past few
months,'' Mr Papalia said. Graham was being transferred back to Perth on Friday
when he kicked the door out of a prison van at Geraldton airport and stole a
rental car at 1pm. Fraser, 23, on remand at Greenough for alleged armed
robbery, also escaped with him. The car allegedly stolen by the pair was
found bogged 39km north of Mullewa. Police officers had resumed the search at
first light yesterday after reports the escapees were seen refuelling at a BP
service station in Cue, 651km northeast of Perth, about 8.30pm on Friday.
They were seen by police travelling along Great Northern Highway but
disappeared 15km north of Mount Magnet. About 2.30am, police spotted the car
on the Geraldton-Mount Magnet Rd heading east. A car chase ensued but
officers lost them. Police last night used helicopters and night-vision
equipment to locate the men. Serco declined to comment.
Jun
1, 2013 brisbanetimes.com.au
A
whistleblower employee of a security company with a $1.8 billion Australian
government contract says its managers routinely underplay risks of guarding
asylum seekers and prisoners to cut costs, putting the public at risk. The
man who holds a senior position in Serco Asia Pacific, which provides
security for immigration detention centres, has leaked in-confidence
documents to Fairfax Media detailing how the company misjudged recent
operations that led to escapes. “The operational plans are always incomplete
and usually just a cut-and-paste job,” said the whistleblower working in the
company. “This is what they have been directed to do to save time ... the
director calls it generic cost-effective planning.” Documents show that
German-born criminal Carlo Konstantin Kohl, who escaped from Bangkok airport
two weeks ago, had a history of violence, had been addicted to drugs and was
rated as “dangerous” under Aviation Transport Security Regulations. But
documents show that two Serco guards, a man and woman, who were assigned to
travel with him on commercial flights from Australia to Germany, were given
documents telling them he was unlikely to attempt to escape or to “commit an
unlawful interference with aviation”. A Thai police investigation found the
guards were asleep when Kohl wandered around the airport before escaping
through a fire exit door on May 16. He is still on the run in Thailand with a
reward for his capture. Documents show that only three Serco staff were
assigned to escort 18 Vietnamese detainees from an immigration detention
centre in Darwin to church on 28 April, including Van Binh Tran who had been
assessed as “medium risk”. Tran and another prisoner, Van Hung Ngyuen,
escaped while the guards smoked and talked outside the church during mass,
said the whistleblower who asked for anonymity. Despite that escape, only six
Serco staff were assigned to guard 28 Vietnamese detainees during an outing
from the Darwin immigration centre to a clinic for X-rays when six of them
escaped on May 21. “The planning and risk assessments were not done,” the
whistleblower said. The whistleblower, who works in the company's transport
and escort branch, also claimed that an inadequate security assessment was made
for career PNG-born criminal and heroin addict Solomon Baker who fell to his
death from a hospital in the Sydney suburb of Liverpool on April 19. Baker,
33, who was being deported to PNG after living in Australia since he was a
child, had warned Serco staff at Sydney's Villawood detention centre in 2011
he was prepared to use “any violence required” to avoid being returned to his
home country after he had punched a guard 10 times. He attacked two staff at
the hospital before he died. The whistleblower said he decided to break the
company's strict secrecy rules “in the hope the attention will force Serco to
improve and stop thinking about the bottom line and more about the big
picture.” “At the moment they are getting a flogging but still don't care about
our reputation as long as the money rolls in,” he said. “What is happening is
disgraceful and is placing not only our lives at risk but the lives and
general safety of the Australian public.” Serco spokesman Paul Shaw said the
company was committed to preventing escapes and protecting staff and those in
detention from coming to harm. “Our policies and procedures require thorough
operational planning to ensure appropriate resourcing and to mitigate risk,”
Mr Shaw said. “We take failure to follow operational planning procedures
seriously.” Mr Shaw said two staff have been suspended pending the outcome of
an internal investigation. A Senate estimates hearing was told on Tuesday
there were 25 asylum seekers still at large out of 63 who had escaped
immigration detention centres guarded by Serco in the past year. Fairfax
Media revealed last month that Serco's contracts with the government had
blown out by $1.5 billion as Australia's border protection strains under the
weight of increased flows of asylum seekers. The British-based company has
operations worldwide, running prisons, immigration detention, hospitals and
traffic management, among others. It employs more than 3000 people, providing
immigration services in Australia. A spokesman for the Department of Immigration
and Citizenship said sanctions could apply to Serco if the company did not
meet into contractual obligations. “In the absence of more specific detail,
however, it would be inappropriate for the department to speculate on this
matter,” he said. Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/escapes-blamed-on-serco-costcutting-20130529-2nb0l.html#ixzz2UxtBiJaY
February
1, 2012 The Conversation
Victoria has the among the highest level of inmates imprisoned in
privately run jails in the world, alongside the US. The Productivity
Commission has just released a report on Government Services 2012 containing
a 177 page chapter on corrective services. It found one third of Victorian
prisoners were held in private prison cells compared to the national average
of 19.2%, and it cost $257 to house a Victorian prisoner per day compared to
the national average of $216. For several decades, Victoria has been able to
boast the lowest imprisonment rate in Australia, a rate almost half that of
New South Wales. But not for long, given the Baillieu government’s “tough on
crime" agenda. Reading through the lengthy chapter reporting on the
nation’s corrective services, it is difficult to see how the Productivity
Commission has assessed the value of corrective services throughout the
country. Did the community get “value for money”? Did imprisonment keep the
community safe, and did it prevent re-offending? These are the questions most
concerned citizens would want to see addressed. What represents value in a
prison? The report largely focuses on operational objectives, such as
providing a safe, secure and humane environment, and effective “management”
of offenders. It speaks of “reducing the risk of reoffending”. These
objectives reflect more operational goals of harm minimisation, accepting
that imprisonment in its present form can only be effective in “warehousing”
offenders, rather than actually bringing about real change. But the most
interesting aspect of the report is the fact Victoria has almost twice the
proportion of its inmates in private prison cells compared to the rest of the
country, and that the private prisons are no cheaper to run than those run by
the State authorities. The report fails to report that Victoria most likely
has the highest level of prison privatisation compared to any jurisdiction in
the world, far higher than the United States. The prison industry Since the
privatisation of prisons throughout Australia over the past two decades, it
may not be coincidental that the national prison population has increased at
almost three times the rate of the national population. In Victoria, the
Productivity Report found expenditure on prisons has increased by 18% over
the past five years. Clearly the private prison industry, more interested in
doing well than doing good, has kept their shareholders very pleased. Their
businesses grow when governments seek to incarcerate more of its citizens. It
would be in their interests to inflame fear of crime in a community and to
encourage state governments towards law and order agendas.
November
7, 2011 ABC News
A Tasmanian Liberal Senator has slammed the sacking of security guards at an
immigration detention centre in southern Tasmania. Eric Abetz says 36 people
have been dismissed from the Pontville facility, north of Hobart, which is
currently housing about 200 male detainees. He says the Federal Government
promised the centre would create much needed jobs in the area and it is yet
another broken promise. "Tasmanians were promised lots of jobs and that
it would be of real benefit to the Tasmanian community." "Today we
have witnessed 36 people losing their employment and the Tasmanian people
have a right to feel betrayed," he said. Serco, the centre's managers,
insist staffing levels are adequate. A spokesman says the security guards
were contractors employed on a temporary basis, while surveillance systems
were brought online.
October
11, 2011 Canberra Times
The Commonwealth Government is suing its former immigration detention
operators for failing to protect it against lawsuits lodged by people kept in
detention facilities. The case will be heard in the South Australian Supreme
Court on November 21. It is part of a long-running case launched by former
asylum-seeker Abdul Amir Hamidi, who won a confidential settlement against
the Federal Government after almost five years in detention. As The Canberra
Times revealed on Saturday, Mr Hamidi's lawyers predict that the confidential
settlement will spark dozens more claims for damages. In a case to be heard
on November 21, the Commonwealth will claim its former detention centre
operators - GSL and Australasian Correctional Services - breached their
contracts by exposing the Government to the legal action. The Commonwealth
will argue both companies agreed to indemnify it against damages based on
their running of Australian detention centres. Australasian Correctional
Services operated Australia's mainland immigration detention facilities until
early 2004. Group 4 Falck Global Solutions Pty Ltd (which later changed its
name to Global Solutions Limited, or GSL) commenced management of the centres
in late 2003. Both companies will fight the claim, with ACS arguing it had
insufficient time to respond to the allegations and the terms of its
agreement included dispute resolution measures. GSL says it is not
responsible for indemnifying the Commonwealth for any ''negligent, wilful,
reckless or unlawful acts or omissions of the Commonwealth, its employees,
officers or agents''. Between 2000 and March 2010, detainees in Australian
immigration detention centres were paid more than $12.3million in
compensation for personal injury or unlawful detention.
August
15, 2011 9 News
Queensland's opposition has asked the auditor-general to review the state
government's handling of a jail tender it has described as "dodgy".
The government announced last month it would temporarily mothball Borallon
prison in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, and transfer inmates to a new prison
near Gatton due to be opened next year. Meanwhile, the federal government has
confirmed plans to convert the jail into immigration accommodation, however
no final decision has yet been made. Security company Serco, which manages
Borallon jail, has been awarded the contract to operate the new jail,
Southern Queensland Correctional Centre at Spring Creek. The Liberal National
Party (LNP) has labelled this a "dodgy deal". LNP corrective
services spokesman John-Paul Langbroek said the party had referred the matter
to the auditor-general. The auditor-general's office has confirmed it
received the LNP's request but as of Monday morning, it was yet to view the
details. Mr Langbroek argues the government did not conduct a proper
tendering process. "The way this secret deal between Serco, who
currently run the prison at Borallon, and the state government has been
handled raises many questions," he said. "Under the normal
tendering for service process, the contract for service delivery at the new
Gatton prison should have been advertised and put to the market to ensure the
best value for money was achieved. "This matter deserves due
consideration and that's why I have written to the auditor-general seeking
advice on whether this deal is in fact legal and meets the state government's
own rules and guidelines."
June
3, 2011 The Daily Telegraph
A SAFETY order was issued to the federal government less than three weeks
before riots broke out at the Villawood detention centre, warning that
sections of the facility posed a serious safety and security risk. The
Improvement Notice issued by Comcare, and tabled in Parliament on Wednesday,
also warned the detention centre at the time could not cope with transfers of
potentially violent asylum seekers from Christmas Island. It said Villawood
had a "lower level" of health and safety and security. It also
discovered broken and missing security cameras and found Serco staff did not
have proper training to deal with asylum seekers. "There are likely to
be significant risk to health and safety associated with the relocation of
the Christmas Island detainees to the Villawood IDF," the April 1 report
warned. The release of the report came as parliament yesterday voted to begin
a joint inquiry into mandatory detention and the Villawood and Christmas
Island riots. The Comcare document raised concerns specifically about the
transfer of 10 asylum seekers involved in Christmas Island riots to
Villawood. But the government claimed that none of the detainees involved in
the Christmas Island riots was involved in the riot at Villawood. Those
transferred to Villawood were under lock and key at the western Sydney
facility's high security Blaxland compound when the riot broke out in a
neighbouring compound. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen's spokesman last
night confirmed the Minister was aware of the issues raised by Comcare at the
time. "The government only approved the transfer of the clients from
Christmas Island after evidence was provided to Comcare that appropriate risk
management measures were in place," he said. "These were in place
by the allotted deadline, before the transfer occurred and well before the
incidents at Villawood." Comcare had ordered the department to take
action within three days to begin training staff and to repair the security
and the safety breaches. Comcare deputy CEO Steve Kibble this week said that
a follow-up investigation on May 24 found it was "generally"
satisfied with the Immigration Department's response to fixing the problems.
But opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said that the report
should have been a "flashing light" for the government. "(The
government) were warned not to proceed but they went ahead anyway," Mr
Morrison said. "What disturbs me about this is that a department was
forced to cut corners as pressure continued to mount from the government's
failed border protection policies. It also shows the significant pressure the
network was already under prior to the riots."
May
12, 2011 The Australian
The Gillard government has secretly doubled the fee paid to global prisons
contractor Serco, which will now charge taxpayers $712 million to manage the
nation's immigration detention network. Government tender records reveal that
the Department of Immigration and Citizenship secretly increased the contract
price in November last year, barely 11 months after publicly announcing the
cost to be $367m. Serco, which manages government prisons in Australia,
Britain, the US, Europe and New Zealand, has also been fined several times
for breaching contract conditions. The Immigration Department yesterday
refused to say how or when Serco had breached its contract, or how much the
department had penalised the company by withholding contract payments.
"We can't got into detail on the total amount of any fines imposed, as
this information is considered commercial-in-confidence," a department
spokesman said. "Disclosure of such details has the potential to damage
the commercial reputation of the detention services provider. "The
contract provides for the contractor to be penalised where it is proven that
lax work practices or incompetence have resulted in negligence and
contributed to loss and damage of commonwealth assets." During Serco's
management, asylum-seekers recently set fire to detention centres on
Christmas Island and at Villawood, in Sydney, where they have staged regular
rooftop protests and hunger strikes. Nine Chinese nationals escaped from
Villawood last year. This week's budget papers reveal that the Gillard
government has also granted Serco legal and financial indemnities. Serco is
responsible for insuring the Immigration Department against loss and damage,
or any personal liability claims arising from its management of detention
centres, but the government has agreed that Serco will be liable to pay only
$75m, on top of any insurance payouts. "What this means is that in the
course of negotiating the contract, the commonwealth has agreed to meet any
additional liability beyond $75m in the event of certain circumstances,"
the department's spokesman said. "This is consistent with previous
detention service provider contracts, and for Serco to achieve unlimited
liability in all circumstances would result in additional contract costs.
"Such a decision was taken to ensure value for money and was subject to
a full risk assessment." The spokesman confirmed that the contract price
had blown out to $712m because Serco had been handed extra facilities to
manage and needed to recruit more staff. The government has opened four
detention centres: the high-security Curtin facility and a lower-security
family centre at Leonora in Western Australia; Scherger in Queensland's Cape
York; and Inverbrackie in South Australia. A Serco spokeswoman said yesterday
the government did not allow it to discuss any conditions of its contract.
"We don't give staffing numbers for our sites due to security
reasons," she said. Serco won the five-year contract in 2009, taking
over from rival provider G4S. In a statement to the British stock exchange,
Serco revealed that the contract "may be extended for a further four
years" -- a detail left out of the Immigration Department's public
announcement.
March
5, 2011 The West Australian
The Barnett Government is secretly planning to privatise a slab of the
State's judicial system in a move critics believe marks the takeover of
justice by multinational corporations. A leaked copy of a draft Bill reveals
the Government wants to allow private companies to take over the management
of prisoners who have been released from jail on parole or are awaiting
trial. Private contractors would enforce parole conditions, such as drug
testing, attending rehabilitation programs and finding accommodation and
work. Part six of the Corrective Services Bill 2011 would allow companies
such as Serco, which runs Acacia Prison and is bidding for the right to
provide other Government services, to become major players in the State's
justice system. The laws, which are outlined in a section of the Bill
entitled Contracts for Community Services, have been condemned by the
Community and Public Sector Union. Union secretary Toni Walkington said the
move would compromise public safety as profit-driven companies would be put
in charge of sometimes unstable criminals. "We are alarmed that
community corrections in any way, shape or form could be contracted
out," she said. Shadow minister for corrective services Fran Logan said
the Government was selling off "core" public services. "These
contracts are based on key performance indicators and making sure the right
boxes are ticked," he said. "It is not about rehabilitation of
people who have been through the justice system. "What are we going to
have? Are we going to have Dog the Bounty Hunter here in WA, tracking people
down who have skipped their parole?" The British Government last year
scrapped a contract with company Clearsprings after a 24-year-old man on bail
for assault was beaten to death by two other inmates at one of the company's
properties.
July
29, 2010 WA Today
The family of an Aboriginal elder who roasted to death in searing heat in the
back of a prison van will receive a $3.2 million compensation payment from
the WA government, one of the largest such payouts in Australian history. It
is an ex-gratia settlement by the government to the family of Mr Ward, whose
full name cannot be used for cultural reasons, and includes a $200,000
interim payment already awarded. Attorney-General Christian Porter today
revealed $1.4 million of the money would go to Mr Ward's widow, Nancy Donegan,
with amounts of $400,000 to be placed in trust accounts for each of her four
children. Mr Ward, 46, of Warburton, died in January 2008 while being
transported 360 kilometres from Laverton to Kalgoorlie to face a
drink-driving charge. Temperatures in the van, operated by private security
company G4S, reached more than 50 degrees after it was revealed the
air-conditioning in the van was broken. The compensation - which Mr Porter
said was one of the largest ex-gratia payments by a government in Australian
history, as well as that of common law countries - came after negotiations
with the family's lawyers, the Aboriginal Legal Service, and on receipt of
legal advice detailing what action could be brought against the state, and
what that case might look like. It represented an "unequivocal
apology" by the government. "It's meant to show contrition... deep,
deep, remorse for what has occurred," Mr Porter said. It also took into
account the fact that no criminal charges would be laid. While it did not
come with an admission of liability, Ms Donegan could still take legal action
if she chose. An "initial view" was that legal action would be
likely, Mr Porter said. "I don't know if that position will change by
virtue of this payment," he said. "If this does not bring finality
to the family, (if civil action was to be launched), we don't want to stand
in the way of Ms Donegan embarking on that action." ALS chief executive
Dennis Eggington said that his organisation would consult with Mr Ward's
family about possible civil proceedings against both the government and G4S.
The ALS also requested further information to determine whether it would
apply to have a coronial inquest into the death reopened. He described the
culpability of G4S as "astronomical" and called on the company to
apologise. "That's the least G4S can do," he said. "They have
been very quiet in all of this. We've been very disappointed." ALS
director of legal services Peter Collins said the role of G4S in Mr Ward's
death was "absolutely diabolical". "It was their van, their
employees driving the van, at a bare minimum (G4S) should be offering
compensation to the family," he said.
March
9, 2009 Sidney Morning Herald
AS A state open to the peddling of political influence from those who
have donated to government election coffers, NSW takes some beating. Starting
with Sydney's foundation 221 years ago, bending the rules of governance - and
worse - to help mates who have helped you has been part of the political
culture. Fortunately there is far more transparency now than in the bad old
days about who makes financial donations to whom. But three recent cases in
Sydney show how the culture still lives in the state Labor Party in a
worrying way. The first involves Nick Lalich, the Mayor of Fairfield and
state MP for Cabramatta. He presided over a meeting of Fairfield City Council
last week that considered a $1 million application from Fred Pisciuneri, a
developer. Coincidentally, Mr Pisciuneri had made a $2000 donation to Labor
at a fund-raising dinner for Mr Lalich in October, when he won the seat in a
byelection. Mr Lalich declared a "non-significant, non-pecuniary
conflict of interest" at the council meeting. He now says he
"probably" could have been more cautious and abstained from voting.
Then there is Virginia Judge, the Minister for Fair Trading, who organised a
campaign against a Coles supermarket being built near Strathfield Plaza, a
shopping centre in her electorate. She also successfully lobbied her
colleague Tony Kelly, the Minister for Police, to have a police station
shopfront set up in the plaza. Outwardly, there seems little to question. But
then we learn Strathfield Plaza is owned by Memo Corporation, a company that
has donated more than $50,000 to Ms Judge's political campaigns over six
years. Finally Paul McLeay, the MP for Heathcote, was vice-chairman of a
parliamentary committee reviewing a $26 million government contract with GEO
Group to run the state's only private prison at Junee. The same company had
donated $2000 to Mr McLeay's political campaign. It later gave more than
$45,000 to Labor, before the 2007 election. While all three MPs protest their
innocence at charges of inappropriate behaviour, the cases nonetheless
suggest a distinct trend for a party that seems bereft of fresh initiatives
after 14 years in power. Instead of its traditional pursuit of social
justice, Labor seems to have succumbed to what the state Opposition rightly
calls a "donations-for-decisions culture". Its most brazen, and
extreme, manifestation was on display in the scandal that engulfed Wollongong
City Council last year. Equally, the Sydney deals show the need for tougher
rules against what has become in effect the recycling of political money to
do favours for donors.
March
6, 2009 The Examiner
THE father of a Government MP who accepted a $2000 donation from a
private prison operator is a lobbyist for another company bidding to run two
more NSW jails listed for privatisation. Leo McLeay, whose son Paul also
chaired a committee that reviewed private prison contracts, appears on the
NSW Premier's Department lobbyist register as a consultant for Enhance
Corporate. Enhance lists Serco as a client. Serco, a multinational that runs
a jail in Western Australia, has lodged an expression of interest with the
NSW Government to run Parklea and Cessnock jails. But both Leo McLeay, a
former speaker of the House of Representatives, and Serco say Enhance
Corporate is not involved in lobbying for the jails contract. A spokeswoman
for Serco, Emma Needham, said the company had engaged another lobbying firm,
Government Relations Australia, for the contract. "We are not using
Enhance on this project," Ms Needham told the Herald. "Our most
recent relationship with them was earlier this year. They were advising us on
transport issues. That work concluded earlier this week." Mr McLeay
confirmed he had worked with Serco but "on a small scoping study".
He said: "It is completely unrelated to prisons." According to a
list posted by the NSW Department of Commerce, four other companies have also
tendered for the contract. They are GSL Australia, Management and Training
Corporation, the London-based Sodexo and GEO Group Australia, which donated
$45,000 to the Labor Party before the state election in 2007 and which Paul
McLeay said had paid for a table at one of his fund-raising dinners. Leo
McLeay's firm lists several blue-chip corporations and organisations as
clients in NSW, including Cisco Systems, Lend Lease, United Group, the
Australian Rugby League and the Law Society. The executive director of the group
is the former Queensland deputy premier, Jim Elder, who quit politics in late
2000 after being caught up in an electoral fraud scandal. An associate
director is Chris Ellison, the former justice minister for the Howard
government. Meanwhile, NSW prison officers will begin overtime bans at Long
Bay jail this morning, with staff at Parklea, Grafton and other prisons
expected to impose similar bans over the weekend. The officers are angry
about comments made last week by Ron Woodham, the Corrective Services
Commissioner, to an upper house inquiry into the proposed privatisation of
Cessnock and Parklea jails, in which he accused them of the
"manipulation" of overtime rosters. "Commissioner Woodham has
repeatedly claimed that prison officers are chasing overtime, when the
reality is the prisons rely on overtime because of low staff levels,"
said the chairman of the Prison Officers Vocational Branch, Matt Bindley.
March
5, 2009 Sidney Morning Herald
THE LABOR MP Paul McLeay is under pressure to stand down as chairman of a
parliamentary committee after it emerged that he accepted a donation from the
company that runs the state's only private prison. When he accepted the
donation from the GEO Group the committee was reviewing the company's $26
million contract. GEO donated $2000 to Mr McLeay's personal campaign on
August 28, 2005 when the member for Heathcote was vice-chairman of the Public
Accounts Committee that was looking into whether the private Junee prison was
providing value for money compared to public jails. A month later a report
from the committee concluded that the Government should keep the prison
operating. GEO donated more than $45,000 to the Labor Party in the lead-up to
the last state election but the donation to Mr McLeay was the only one from the
company that went to an individual MP. Mr McLeay, who is now committee
chairman and receives an extra $17,440, said he doubted there was any
"overlap". "From my recollection the report was well and truly
over and I had a fund-raising dinner or luncheon sometime after that, and
there were about 12 people there, one of which was GEO," he said
yesterday. "Maybe the committee had finished the work and it took a
while for the report to be tabled because I wouldn't have accepted a donation
if we were still looking at it because that would have not been
appropriate." The committee's report concluded that Junee provided good
value for money because it was able to house prisoners for $73.59 a day
compared to the state-run Kempsey jail which costs $91.75 a day. GEO is the
second biggest operator of private prisons in the US. It is favoured to take
over Parklea and Cessnock jails when they are privatised. A spokesman for GEO
said there was no discussion of the committee's report at Mr McLeay's dinner
and the company had understood that the report had been written long before
the fund-raiser was held. The Greens MP Sylvia Hale said Mr McLeay should be
stood down as committee chairman. "It was completely inappropriate for
Mr McLeay to accept a personal campaign donation from GEO while he was
vice-chairman of the public accounts committee that was examining the GEO
private prison contract," Ms Hale said. "It is fundamentally wrong
for a company that is receiving public funds from a government contract to be
donating some of those funds back to the party that granted them the
contract. All of this is even more concerning when the donations are from a
company with the international reputation of the GEO group." Ms Hale
will today introduce a private member's bill into the upper house to prevent
the privatisation of the state's prisons unless any sale has the support of
both houses of Parliament.
September
11, 2008 The Age
COMPLAINTS about Victoria's private prisons have risen up to fourfold in
the past two years, fuelling concerns by a public sector watchdog about the
state's growing reliance on business to provide government services. State
Ombudsman George Brouwer yesterday tabled his 2007-08 annual report, vowing
to shine a light on the more murky aspects of public-private partnerships and
outsourcing and noting the "high risk" that comes with the blurring
of the private and public sectors. In the report, Mr Brouwer highlights a
"growing interdependency" between government and business, which
brings "a high potential for conflict situations and confusion about the
ethical standards required". While issues of conflicts of interest, poor
customer service and failure to fulfil legal requirements remain his core
work, the Ombudsman says public-private contracts and public sector compliance
with the new human rights charter are two new areas of focus. The 2008 report
also shows: ■Overall complaints were up 13% to 16,344 on the previous
year. ■Complaints about freedom of information rose by 16%. ■Whistleblower
disclosures more than doubled. ■The largest single source (29%) of
complaints related to the Justice Department. ■Local government made up
23% of complaints and the Department of Human Services 19%. Deputy Ombudsman
John Taylor said his office was concerned that private sector involvement in
services traditionally supplied by government may lead to the erosion of
citizens' rights. He pointed to private prisons, noting 400% and 100%
increases in complaints respectively about Port Phillip prison (rising to
443) and Fulham prison (129) since the 2006 annual report. While rising
complaint figures are partly explained by the installation of phones for
inmates, Mr Taylor described the increases as "disproportionately
high". The emphasis on private contracting is a wake-up call for a state
increasingly reliant on PPPs for services ranging from jails to water and now
schools. Mr Taylor said the Ombudsman's office would make a point of
scrutinising deals with business. "Every time there is a major contract
or outsourcing of what traditionally has been a government function we have
an interest; we want to make sure that the normal rights of a citizen to
complain are retained and that the Government doesn't legislate away the
right of an individual to complain to the Ombudsman." Individual agencies
with the most complaints were VicRoads and Port Phillip Prison. ■The
Government is expected to table legislation tomorrow to toughen rules and
guidelines for councillors, including clarifying confusing laws on conflicts
of interest.
November
24, 2007 The Age
THE State Government has made it more difficult for independent observers to
monitor what goes on in jails, lawyers claim. "It's getting harder to
get information about the way the prison system operates," said Hugh de
Kretser, executive officer of the Federation of Community Legal Centres.
"The Government, instead of increasing scrutiny, is going the other
way," he said. This week, Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre was
told it could not set up a legal clinic at Port Phillip Prison to give advice
on issues such as prisoners' treatment in jail, according to the centre's
principal lawyer, Philip Cottier. In the past three months, the Government
had moved to restrict prisoners' rights to make freedom of information
requests and given jail governors overly wide discretion to restrict
prisoners' mail, Mr de Kretser said. The laws about mail were badly drafted
and could potentially capture even innocent mail exchanges, he said.
Corrections Victoria had recently made secret key operational procedures about
how guards should deal with force and firearms, Mr de Kretser said. These
procedures were previously open to public scrutiny. "If we cannot access
the rules Victoria's prisons operate under, how can we hold our prisons
accountable to complying with them?" he said. The criticisms follow the
release of a report this week by the State Ombudsman, George Brouwer, into a
violent incident at the Melbourne Custody Centre earlier this year. Mr
Brouwer found that guards used excessive force against a prisoner and called
for a review of the centre, which is run by a private company, the GEO Group,
under the supervision of Victoria Police. Deputy Ombudsman John Taylor told
The Age that the custody centre was "a closed shop" with limited
public scrutiny: "It's a place that no one can go. It's a de facto jail,
but it's a police jail, and it's very hard to go there unless you are a
lawyer or are from the Ombudsman's office." Mr de Kretser said
Government monitoring of assaults by prison officers in privately run prisons
was weak. "The private prison contractor and the Government have a
common interest in burying the issues," he said.
October
31, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
THE Federal Government is winding back private management of immigration
detention centres after years of controversy over the compromised health and
psychological care of detainees. The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone,
said yesterday the Government was relieving a private company of its
responsibility for health and psychological services, which would be
transferred to the direct control of her department. The move follows the
recommendations of a review triggered by the Palmer report into the
deficiencies of care in detention highlighted by the case of Cornelia Rau,
the psychiatric patient whose illness went undiagnosed for several months.
Global Solutions Ltd, whose management of health services has drawn
criticisms of care standards and conflict of interest, denied the loss of
services was "in any way the result of dissatisfaction with the services
provided" by Global Solutions. A company spokesman said the review of
the centres had not criticised the health and psychological services it
managed. But the company's management of the centres and detainee health
services had represented a "fundamental conflict of interest", said
Louise Newman, a psychiatrist and a member of a government expert advisory
panel on detention health. Professor Newman said the failings in health care
and psychological services, highlighted by the Rau saga and other cases of
inadequate care, had resulted in "incalculable" suffering for
detainees.
October
25, 2006 Townsville Bulletin
A TENDER for the state's two privately-run prisons is not a criticism of the
current operators, the Queensland Government said today. Corrective Services
Minister Judy Spence said new tenders to run Borallon and Arthur Gorrie
correctional centres, valued at a total of $200 million, would ensure
taxpayers got value for money. "It is not about the performance of the
current operators,'' Ms Spence said. The Arthur Gorrie jail has been under
fire in recent years over a number of deaths in custody, security failures
and assaults on prisoners by staff. Borallon made headlines four years ago
when a report showed it had the highest rate of illicit drug use in the
state, with almost one in three prisoners using drugs. Four companies will be
invited to tender: GEO Group Australia Pty Ltd, GSL Australia Pty Ltd,
Management and Training Corporation Pty Ltd and Serco Australia Pty Ltd. GEO
currently operates Arthur Gorrie, and Management and Training Corporation
operates Borallon. Ms Spence said the contracts would be for five years, with
an option for Queensland Corrective Services to extend them for a further
five years. The tenders will be evaluated in the first half of next year with
new contracts to start on January 1, 2008. An independent probity auditor has
been contracted to oversee the entire project.
March
2, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
The immigration department made an unexplained $5.7 million payout to the
company that used to manage Australia's detention centres, an audit has
found. The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has identified a series of
anomalies, potential conflicts and inadequate record-keeping in a review of
the department's contracts with companies paid to run the centres. The
department put detention centre management out to tender in 2001 and a $400
million, four-year contract with Global Solutions Limited (GSL) was
ultimately signed in August, 2003. But the ANAO has found DIMIA, now DIMA,
wanted to "encourage" the former contractor to end its management
of the centres with a contract "completion payment". As a result,
Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) received a payout of almost $6
million. "DIMIA was not able to provide evidence of the criteria it used
to make its determination to pay ACM $5.7 million in contract completion
payments," the ANAO said in its report. "The basis on which DIMIA
made these payments was doubtful," it said. Labor says the audit's
findings are a scandal. "What we have is nothing short of a scandal in
the way the government has handled this," opposition immigration
spokesman Tony Burke said. "The people who were involved in the
negotiations of the contracts on behalf of the department became horribly
compromised. "Records weren't kept, records were lost, and some of the
records that we have are conflicting."
November
2, 2005 Sidney Morning Herald
Laws that follow through on the government's compromise deal with rebel
backbenchers over its tough immigration detention policy were introduced to
the lower house on Wednesday. Three-month time limits on deciding protection
visa applications and decisions by the Refugee Review Tribunal are two of the
major changes introduced in the bill. In addition, the department will be
able to release the identity and photographs of people being detained when
all other efforts to identify or locate them have failed. This is to rectify
the reluctance on DIMIA's part to release information about the mentally ill
Australian resident Cornelia Rau who was wrongly locked up in immigration
detention for 10 months. Labor's immigration spokesman Tony Burke described
the bill as "an incremental step in the right direction". Mr Burke
wants the government's contracts with the private company running Australia's
immigration detention centres, Global Solutions Ltd, terminated and the management
of the centres returned to government hands.
July 14, 2005 Daily
Telegraph
THE federal government has apologised to Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez for
their treatment at the hands of the immigration department. Prime
Minister John Howard said both women were owed an apology. "Both
Cornelia Rau and Mrs Alvarez are owed apologies for their treatment, and on
behalf of the government I give those apologies to both of those women who
were the victims of mistakes by the department," Mr Howard told
reporters. Mr Howard and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone today
released the Palmer report into the immigration department, which catalogues
a litany of failures that led to Ms Rau being wrongly detained for 10 months,
and Ms Alvarez, also known as Vivian Solon, being wrongly deported. In a
statement accompanying the release of the report, Senator Vanstone said the
pair would receive assistance. Mick Palmer, a former federal police
commissioner, was appointed to look into the case of Ms Rau. His inquiry
was later widened to include the case of Ms Alvarez. After criticising
the government's contract with Global Solutions Limited (GSL), which runs the
immigration detention centres, Mr Palmer recommended an expert group review
the company's contract. Senator Vanstone said Mr Palmer was critical of
the department's policy of 'exception reporting', where instead of outlining
what should be done, the contract outlined what must not be done to make it
as flexible as possible. "But Mr Palmer's not of the view that the
other regulations surrounding detention allow that flexibility to be
there," Senator Vanstone said.
November 13, 2004 AP
Doubts have been cast on the financial stability of security contractor AIMS
Corporation, with a new Department of Justice report warning of possible
risks to the Government over the corporation's $21 million a year contract to
manage Acacia Prison. The department's annual report on WA's only private
prison, tabled in the Legislative Assembly this week, revealed plans to
scrutinise AIMS' books to uncover any financial risks the company posed to WA
taxpayers. The report said the department had held concerns over the
financial health of AIMS for two years, and closer monitoring of the prison
over the last year exposed multiple financial issues, including cashflow
problems and long delays in invoice payments by the prison. The report
attacked AIMS over a host of other problems at the $79 million prison, most
significantly, the level of illicit drug use. Nearly one in 10 random urine
samples tested positive for illicit substances in the past financial year,
the most cases ever recorded in the three year history of the prison. Another
cause for serious concern was the high number of test refusals. Criticism was
also levelled at faulty electronic systems. AIMS was penalised $211,598 for
various deficiencies at the prison, including the drug problem. Its five-year
contract to manage Acacia expires in May 2006, with the department to review
the contract before it expires. The performance of AIMS, which also manages
court security and custodial services in WA, was thrust into the spotlight
this year when nine dangerous criminals escaped from the Supreme Court lockup
in June.
November 5, 2004 New
Zealand Herald
The Land Transport Management Act has paved the way for Public Private
Partnerships (PPPs) in road transport and the Public Finance (State Sector
Management) Bill will accelerate this privatisation into the health and
education sectors. It is commonly argued that PPP schemes provide the
necessary roads and other infrastructure assets more quickly and cheaply than
direct taxpayer funding. This is unlikely to be true. Research by Sanjiv
Sachdev, of the Kingston Business School in England, shows the apparent efficiency
of private prisons is not the result of innovative management but shorter
holidays, lower pay and worse pensions. The average basic pay is 30 per cent
lower and annual leave is five to eight days fewer than in the public sector.
Taking into account pension losses, he estimates that privatised staff are up
to 70 per cent worse off.
July 23, 2004
The private security company lambasted over the mass escape of prisoners from
Perth's Supreme Court has issued a public apology. AIMS Corporation's
contract with the West Australian government first came under scrutiny
following a breakout by nine maximum security prisoners from the central
Perth courthouse on June 10. But the pressure on the company
intensified still further with the escape last week of Adrian John Ugle, who
slipped out of his handcuffs and fled from AIMS officers who had been
transporting him to a hospital appointment. Ugle, 28, who was serving a
two-year sentence at Casuarina Prison for aggravated burglary and previous
escapes, spent four days on the run before being returned to custody last
Saturday. Ugle's escapade prompted the State Government to consider
dumping AIMS from their contract to protect and transport the state's
convicted criminals. (News.com)
June 19, 2004
Australasian Correctional Management ran 12 immigration detention centres on
behalf of the Howard Government from early 1998 until early this year.
According to the Australian National Audit Office report, the Department of
Immigration, Indigenous and Multicultural Affairs had no strategy for
detaining asylum seekers, let alone a contract management plan with
ACM. The damning report found: No risk management strategy in the
contract. No contract management training or guidance. No
performance targets and an ad hoc approach to changing numbers. No
contract monitoring or assessment. No financial risk strategy or asset
management plan. "This meant that DIMIA was not able to assess
whether its strategies were actually working in practice," the
report said. During the contract the number of detainees varied from
just a handful in 1998 to 3000 in the year 2000. And the auditors could
find no assurance that the financial aspects of the $500 million contract
"operated as intended". The report also found a gap in the
audit trail." Invoicing procedures where the audit trail between the
services provided and payments made did not provide senior managers with
assurance that full value for money was being achieved," it said.
"A systematic approach to risk management, including the establishment
of an appropriate and documented risk management strategy, should have been
an integral part of contract management," the auditors said. According
to the report a manual for departmental centre managers was not issued until
four years after the contract began and had not been kept up to date.
In its response to the report the department agreed with the six
recommendations made by the auditors. It defended itself by saying the
audit did not "fully reflect and take account of the complexity of the
environment and the nature of the previous detention contract".
"Many aspects of the contract were intended to be flexibly addressed
through negotiation and discussion," it said. Opposition
immigration spokesman Stephen Smith demanded the return of immigration
detention centres to government management. "The report is a
comprehensive condemnation of the Government's policy of the privatisation of
the management of immigration detention centres and a comprehensive
indictment of DIMIA's administration of it," Mr Smith said. The
auditors found that 38 of the 100 immigration detention standards issued by
the department had no performance measures and another 37 were only partially
covered. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone's spokesman did not respond
to the report. (The Courier Mail)
March 2, 2004
The Pope clearly opposes the federal government's policy of mandatory
detention of children, according to an Australian asylum seeker advocate
honoured by the Vatican. Adelaide Centacare director Dale West will
next month be awarded a Venerable Cross by the Pope in recognition of his
work for detainees. The welfare worker said the awarding of the
Venerable Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice showed the Pope opposed mandatory
detention of children. "That message is clear," said Mr West,
a member of the Uniting Church who is believed to be the only non-Catholic in
Australia to receive the Papal honour. "It's support at the
highest level in the Catholic Church for what we're doing. "It
says we have got support even beyond the bishops in Australia and, without
sounding conceited about this, it says we've taken the right
view." Mr West has for four years been a vocal opponent of holding
children in mandatory detention. He was instrumental in bringing the Baktiari
children to Adelaide last August after they were released from the Baxter
detention centre. (The Age)
February 9, 2004
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon will be given
responsibility for regulating the state's private security industry under
proposed tough new laws. The Age believes responsibility for the
more than 20,000 Victorians who work as crowd controllers, security guards
and private investigators will be taken from a police unit known as the
Private Agents Registrar and placed directly under Ms Nixon's supervision to
tighten controls on the industry. The regulation of security staff came
to prominence last month after the death of former Test cricketer and media
personality David Hookes outside a St Kilda hotel. St Albans bouncer Zdravko
Micevic, 21, has been charged with manslaughter. (State Political
Reporter)
January 22, 2004
The Bracks Government was yesterday accused of incompetence for breaching its
own laws by failing to establish new security industry regulations after
existing ones expired three years ago. A report last year by a
parliamentary sub-committee that scrutinises regulations had criticised the
Government's inaction, it was revealed yesterday. Opposition Leader
Robert Doyle said the Government had been lazy and incompetent by not
establishing new regulations to tighten controls on the security industry,
despite having begun a review in 2000. (State Political Reporter)
October 10, 2003
Australia's treatment of refugees in detention centres was the harshest
in the world, federal human rights commissioner Sev Ozdowski said
today. Dr Ozdowski said the billion dollar system removed basic
liberties from refugees, resulting in levels of despair unseen in detention
camps elsewhere. "It (Australia's system) is the harshest - the
harshest mainly from the point of view of the length (of detention)," he
told seminar guests at Monash University. "I've never seen the
level of despair (in camps anywhere) that I've seen in Australia."
He said the longest a child had been held in detention in Australia was five
years, five months. By April this year, 50 children had been detained
for more than two years. Dr Ozdowski, who has conducted an inquiry into
detention centres and will have his findings tabled in federal parliament
next year, said the social implications of indefinite detention were
shattering. Family life disintegrated, people became suicidal and he
had seen children as young as 10 with signs of self-harm. He quoted
from one detainee who said "it's 16 months since my detention. My life
has been taken away from me ... I've become a useless person who wishes for
death everyday." Dr Ozdowski, who was once himself a Polish refugee,
also said the government's system of temporary protection visas (TPVs) was
"ill-conceived". "I personally believe that the TPV system is
a disaster and we'll be paying for it for a long time," he said.
He said TPVs stopped people integrating into Australian society and
contributed to mental health problems. Dr Ozdowski said that unlike
prison life, where inmates have regular routines with access to TV, sport,
literature and education, detention centres offered no such
distractions. He said officials that he interviewed from the
immigration department showed a lack of interest in improving the lot of
detainees. "My view is that this culture in the department
contributes to the harshness in the detention system," he said. He
said the biggest human rights abuses had occurred during riots at the
centres. "(It happened) where basically control was lost and gas
was used and physical force was used," he said. "You just
don't keep people imprisoned for a long time for no good reason."
Senator Vanstone issued a statement saying Australia was "one of the great
immigration success stories". "We have a generous, robust and
ordered immigration system," she said. "It is very difficult
when people jump the queue and arrive in Australia with no paperwork. The
systems that we have in place are there to make sure that those people who
are most in need get help, and those who aren't are repatriated."
(The Age)
July 9, 2003
The Federal Government will go to the High Court in an attempt to keep five
children in an immigration detention centre after the Family Court yesterday
dismissed an application to overturn a landmark ruling that it had the power
to set them free. The Family Court yesterday granted the Government
permission to appeal to the High Court over the June judgement, in which two
out of a three-judge bench found the indefinite detention of children was
unlawful and that the court could order their release. This was because
there were "important questions of law and of public interest
involved". But the Family Court refused the Government's demand
that, in the interim, it should issue a "stay" on the judgement,
preventing any court acting on the ruling and ordering the release of any
children from detention. A spokesman for the Immigration Minister,
Philip Ruddock, responded to yesterday's ruling, saying "we'll look at
possibly asking the High Court to consider a stay". There are more
than 100 children in immigration detention centres in Australia.
(Sidney Morning Herald)
January 2, 2003
Up to 39 people have been moved from immigration detention centres to jails
or police cells across the country to try to end several days of violence in
five detention centre. The Federal Government also threatened
strip-searches at detention centres yesterday as senior immigration officials
prepared reports on the four days of violence, which have caused an estimated
$8 million damage. (The Age)
January 1, 2003
The Australian Federal Police will look into whether the series of arson
attacks that have hit five immigration detention centres in as many days were
part of an organized campaign. The Federal Attorney-General, Daryl
Williams, said he had heard suggestions that the fires and violence - which
caused $8.5 million damage - were "an orchestrated set of events"
but he thought there was no substantive evidence to support the claim.
The Department of Immigration said tension was still high at Western
Australia's Port Hedland centre, South Australia's Baxter and Woomera centres
and the centres at Christmas Island. The five days of violent protest
culminated with fires and a car-ramming at Sydney's Villawood centre on New
Year's Eve. (smh.au.com)
January 1, 2003
A ring of militant asylum seekers planned and coordinated the fires in
immigration detention facilities across the country, centre managers claimed
yesterday. Five of the country's seven centres have been hit by fire
over the past week, causing more than $8 million damage. In the latest
incidents, about $500,000 damage was caused during a riot on New Year's Eve
at Villawood in Sydney. Staff from Australasian Correctional Management
believe that detainees from various centres had been in regular telephone
contact since December 27, when the first of the fires broke out at Baxter in
South Australia. A group of about 50 to 60 men from Baxter are alleged
to be among the ringleaders. The allegations come as about seven
handcuffed detainees from Woomera were transferred to Port Augusta police
station for questioning over a rampage in the early hours of Tuesday
morning. (The Age)
December 31, 2002
Asylum seekers who have caused about $8 million damage to detention centres
in the past week have been warned by the Federal Government they will housed
in "far less comfortable" circumstances if they do not stop
destroying property. The warning followed fires that caused about $2.5
million damage at Woomera, including the destruction of 33 accommodation
blocks. The Department of Immigration said that in the latest incident
at Woomera, guards were pelted with stones and threatened with metal bars as
they tried to extinguish fires. "Staff attempting to extinguish
the fires were set upon by around 10 detainees in each compound," the
department said. A fire at Port Hedland in Western Australia caused $3
million damage and a blaze at Baxter in South Australia, caused about $2.25
million damage. The Federal Government is considering closing the
Woomera centre, at which there have been escapes, protests and riots in
recent years. (The Age)
December 30, 2002
It could
be "very difficult" to prosecute the asylum seekers responsible for
fires at detention centres across the country, estimated to have caused about
$5.25 million worth of damage, Attorney-General Daryl Williams said yesterday.
After fires in the
remote Western Australian facility of Port Hedland caused damage estimated at
$3 million, Mr Williams conceded court action could prove impossible. "If they are not cooperating, and it's
not likely they will cooperate, it may be very difficult to identify those
who are directly responsible," he said.
The fire at Port Hedland is believed to have been deliberately lit in
a copy-cat style act after fires at South Australia's new Baxter detention
centre, which caused $2.25 million damage.
The Department of Immigration also revealed that detainees at the
Woomera centre in South Australia had deliberately lit fires on Sunday,
causing little damage, and a guard at the detention centre at Perth airport
had been hospitalised yesterday after a scuffle with four detainees. An Iranian inmate of the Baxter centre who
witnessed the fires said people were extremely frustrated and had behaved
irrationally because Australian Correctional Management were mistreating
people. "It is the incompetent management of the ACM, that
they couldn't understand the detainees have not good mentality in here,"
the man said. "They must manage all of the people in here and calm them
down." (The Age)
December 4, 2002
The Howard Government yesterday bowed to pressure to soften its treatment of
women and children asylum seekers as Labor began debating a dramatic
departure from the refugee policy it took to last year's election.
Under new guidelines released by Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock,
unaccompanied minors will now be placed in foster care and women with
children will be offered an alternative to living in high-security detention
centres. (The Age)
November 15, 2002
Some 533 Afghan asylum seekers have accepted the Federal Government's
$2000 cash offer to return home rather than face continued detention in harsh
and isolated detention centres. (The Age)
Australian Immigration Department
Companies Use Immigration Crackdown to Turn a Profit:
Expose on immigration by Nina Bernstein at the New York Times,
September 28, 2011
Duty
of Care: Expose
by Clare Sambrook on G4S and the death of Aboriginal elder Mr. Ward. June 8,
2011
December
12, 2011 The Daily Telegraph
RIOTING asylum seekers have caused almost $20 million in damage to
immigration detention centres - nearly double original estimates. New
Department of Immigration figures show five riots at Villawood in Sydney,
Christmas Island and Darwin have cost an estimated $17.6 million - and that
could rise. The most damage was caused at Villawood with the repair bill
reaching $9.271 million. While insurance will cover much of the costs, the
government revealed it would be liable for the first $1 million of each
claim, or 10 per cent of the total bill. According to documents released last
Friday night, the cost of the Christmas Island riot in March is now estimated
at $5.05 million - double the original figure of $2.5 million. The government
claimed the subsequent riots at Villawood, when inmates set fire to several
buildings a month later, will cost 50 per cent more than the $6 million
originally estimated. There were two riots also at Darwin and another at
Christmas Island. "The total cost of estimated damage across all five
events as of October 14, 2011, is $17,636,366," the department said.
"This estimate is likely to change as quotations for repairs are
obtained and works undertaken." The revised costs follow the release of
an independent report last week which suggested overcrowding was the cause of
the tension and unrest and the trigger for the riots. But, it found no fault
with the Department of Immigration or the detention centre operator, Serco. A
spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said, "This government's
contracts with Serco require it to have full private insurance cover of its
facilities, which is why the costs to the Commonwealth relating to damage
caused at detention centres are so low. "In its hypocritical hysteria,
the Coalition seems to have forgotten its record of passing on the costs of
detention riots to the taxpayer: they had four detention centre riots in a single
month - December 2002 - at a cost of many millions."
November
23, 2011 The Age
THE multinational company that runs Australia's immigration detention network
has been fined $15 million for failing in its duty of care to asylum seekers
and underperformance . The immigration department has told a federal
parliamentary inquiry it had docked $14.8 million from monthly payments to
SERCO between March 2010 and June 2011 because of poor management of the
detention centres, and docked another $215,000 from SERCO's contract to run
immigration housing centres. SERCO was paid $375 million to run immigration
centres last year, and $101 million in the three months to October 2011. The
secretive contract the federal government signed with SERCO withholds payment
for audited ''abatements'' each month. Escapes, failure to secure perimeter
fences, not providing activities or reporting major incidents, not giving
access to visitors, interpreters or legal representatives, poor building
conditions and food safety can trigger fee reductions. The penalty is limited
by the contract to 5 per cent of SERCO's monthly fee. The $15 million fine,
revealed in written submissions to the inquiry, is therefore near the upper
limit of what the Immigration Department would have been contractually able
to penalise SERCO in a period plagued by riots, fires, suicides and
escalating detainee self harm.
August
19, 2011 The Age
A MENTAL health nurse has been sacked from a Darwin detention centre for
saying she believes mandatory detention contributes to mental illness in
asylum seekers. A letter sent by her employer, International Health and
Medical Services (IHMS), and obtained by The Age, says her job was terminated
last Friday after Serco detention centre managers and Immigration Department
staff complained that she was ''expressing negative political opinions''
about detention. The federal government's Detention Health Advisory Group,
the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses and the Australian
Psychological Society yesterday called for mandatory detention to be
abandoned. Their call came after documents submitted to a parliamentary
inquiry showed high levels of self-harm, with 213 detainees treated for
self-inflicted injuries and 700 for ''voluntary starvation'' in the first six
months of this year. The chairwoman of the advisory group, Professor Louise
Newman, said she was concerned that a political view could be held against a
health worker. IHMS spokeswoman Melissa Lysaght said last night that staff
were entitled to political opinions but needed to work in a team environment.
''In fact, that is not a reason for terminating someone, because everyone is
entitled to a political opinion,'' Ms Lysaght said. ''In hindsight, the
phrasing of the letter was incorrect.'' She said the woman had been sacked
for professional standards reasons, after working there for two weeks. Amanda
Gordon, of the Australian Psychological Society, said yesterday there was
clear scientific evidence of the harm caused by indefinite detention, which
''exacerbates trauma, and creates mental illness, in contravention of the
government's own commitment to reduce it''. Australian Medical Association
president Steve Hambleton said yesterday his attack on the mandatory
detention policy at the AMA's parliamentary dinner this week had been
prompted by ''terrible stories'' being reported by paediatricians and
psychiatrists who went inside detention centres. Dr Paul Bauert, director of
paediatrics at the Royal Darwin Hospital, said children as young as four and
five had been caught up in hunger strikes that their parents were involved
in, and were treated at his hospital. ''They weren't eating and required
intravenous and gastric drips,'' he said.
August
17, 2011 IT News
Australia's Department of Immigration has blamed IT systems for delays in
turning over detailed information on serious incidents recorded at detention
centres to a parliamentary inquiry. The Joint Select Committee on Australia's
Immigration Detention Network, established 16 June and convened for the first
time last night, received 597 pages of data [pdf] from the department on
incidents recorded at detention facilities since January 2008. It had sought
from the department copies of all incident reports filed by immigration
facility managers Serco and health services provider International Health and
Medical Services (IHMS). The department said it had received 9157 incident
reports from Serco between 1 October 2009 and the 30 June 2011. These were
recorded in a Compliance, Case Management, Detention and Settlement (CCMDS) portal.
The department also received 1869 reports from G4S, a firm that managed
detention centres before Serco was contracted. G4S incidents were recorded in
a "legacy system" called the Immigration Services Information
System (ISIS). The department claimed there was no quick way of accessing
incident reports, such as use of a batch process for extraction. "It
would take a departmental officer approximately 919 hours of work (this is
equivalent to around 25 weeks of work for a full time officer) to extract all
reports from the system as each report needs to be extracted
individually," the department said. Instead, the department produced a
spreadsheet that aggregated every incident recorded according to tags such as
"escape", "voluntary starvation" and "self-harm".
The department said that getting to IHMS incident reports prior to January
2010 was difficult because they were not electronically recorded at this
time. Alleged abuse against staff -- The committee had also sought detailed
data on actions taken by Serco for incidents where the contractor's or
department's staff had been allegedly abused or threatened "by detainees
or other persons within the Detention Network". Department figures
showed Serco recorded 871 instances of "alleged or observed inappropriate
behaviour... towards Serco staff" until 30 June this year. "Action
taken by Serco in relation to these incidents are recorded in multiple
systems depending upon the nature of the incident," the department
noted. "The very detailed information sought in the [committee's]
question is not readily available in consolidated form and it would be a
major task to collect and assemble it. "In order to report on the
outcome for each incident, the department would need to manually interrogate
these systems. "The department estimates that this would take a
departmental officer an average of 30 minutes for each incident. This equates
to approximately 58 working days." Figures that were released by the
department showed the number of detainees hospitalised, treated for starvation
and injuries from self-harm.
August
17, 2011 The Age
THE full extent of despair and unrest in Australia's immigration detention
centres has been exposed, with documents showing 1507 detainees were
hospitalised in the first six months of this year, including 72 psychiatric
hospital admissions, and 213 treated for self-inflicted injuries. The
documents, released to a parliamentary committee by the Department of
Immigration, also show more than 700 detainees were treated for ''voluntary
starvation''. And it emerged that police had been notified 264 times of
possible criminal behaviour in detention centres. The figures were released
as Australia's top immigration bureaucrat last night urged MPs to rethink
mandatory detention of asylum seekers and asked whether the hardline policy
actually deterred boat arrivals. In an extraordinary opening address to the
inquiry last night, Andrew Metcalfe, secretary of the Department of
Immigration and Citizenship, urged a more flexible approach. The inquiry was
instigated by the opposition and Greens, and has begun to lift the veil on
the secretive private contractor, Serco, that runs Australia's detention
centres. Hundreds of pages of data supplied to the inquiry by the department
include the time and nature of every recorded incident inside the nation's 19
detention centres. However, Serco is refusing to state how many staff it
employs at each centre, claiming this is sensitive. The department told last
night's hearing that Serco was not required under its contract to meet any
staff-to-detainee ratios. Mr Metcalfe said Serco was refusing to disclose its
staffing ratios because it was concerned detainees would find out. Last
night's hearing was also told that Serco had been fined every month in
2010-11 for failing to meet contract goals. Serco has reported 871 instances
of inappropriate behaviour towards its staff, and 700 instances of
inappropriate behaviour between detainees. There have been five substantiated
complaints against staff - but no resulting dismissals. In June alone, there
were 135 critical incidents across the network, covering multiple serious
injuries, assaults, two escapes and self-harm. Christmas Island is
particularly plagued by suicide attempts. There were 620 self-harm incidents
there in the year to June, including 193 actual acts, 31 serious attempts and
476 threatened acts. The island's four detention centres were over capacity
on 27 occasions. Hunger strikes were reported at most centres, and at least
17 cases of children starving themselves were noted in the past year. The
surge in incidents began in mid-2010, coinciding with a rise in boat
arrivals. Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the data
revealed the detention system had collapsed, with the government sitting ''in
policy denial'' while centres filled. Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young said
she wanted more details, including the daily cost of operating the network.
Mr Metcalfe said rising unrest, self-harm and suicide were unfortunate and
sad, but ''defy simple solutions''.
July
29, 2011 ABC
Commonwealth ombudsman Allan Asher has launched an investigation into the
psychological health of asylum seekers in detention and what is contributing
to the high level of suicide and self-harm. Citing more than 1,100 threatened
or actual incidents in the past financial year, Mr Asher has questioned
whether the immigration detention values the Government announced three years
ago today have become lost in its effort to deal with the increases in asylum
seekers arriving by boat. Professor Louise Newman, a psychiatrist who heads a
mental health advisory group for the Immigration Department, says she
believes the rate of self-harm is higher than the figures which prompted the
ombudsman's investigation. "There is currently no very clear system for
the definition of what constitutes self-harm as opposed to protest-type
behaviours as opposed to suicidal behaviour - very unclear in terms of how
data is actually collected," she said. "I think the difficulty with
a system such as we have it at the moment is that many behaviours will just
be classified and really dismissed as signs of protest or bad or manipulative
behaviour. And we've heard comments from Serco to that effect today."
Professor Newman has welcomed Mr Asher's announcement, saying the current
system is falling short in its ability to identify those detainees at risk of
self-harm. "I think what we actually need is a collection of data that
actually understands the psychological issues going on here so that we can
set up a system that better identifies people who might be at risk of more
serious behaviour, including suicidal behaviour and completed suicides,"
she said. She says suicide attempts are a daily occurrence in immigration
detention centres. "These figures are likely to be an underestimate. I
think at the moment, anecdotally, we are looking at at least across the
system every night one very near-miss suicide," she said.
July
28, 2011 Big Pond News
An inquiry into the mental health of those in Aust's immigration detention
centres has begun. The commonwealth ombudsman has launched an inquiry into
suicide and self-harm in Australia's immigration detention centres. Allan
Asher witnessed the deteriorating mental health of asylum seekers when he
visited Christmas Island in June. In the week the ombudsman visited the
detention centre there were more than 30 incidents of self-harm by detainees
there. "This reflects an upsurge in the number of incidents of self-harm
and attempted suicide reported to IHMS (International Health and Medical
Services) across all immigration detention facilities," Mr Asher said on
Thursday. "My investigation will assess the extent of this tragic
problem." It would examine the root causes, and consider practical steps
that the department and its service providers Serco and IHMS should take to
identify and manage those at risk of suicide and self-harm. Mr Asher wants
the investigation to give evidence-based, expert-endorsed advice on guidelines
and protocols for reducing the number of suicide and self-harm incidents. The
ombudsman hopes to release the results of his inquiry by the end of 2011.
May
30, 2011 TangataWhenua.com
Not only is Serco’s contract commercial in confidence, it has now been
revealed the detention centre operator receives little scrutiny from the
Department of Immigration, reports Adam Brereton from Canberra. Not only is
the $1 billion contract awarded to detention centre operator Serco beyond the
reach of public scrutiny, but Senate Estimates hearings today revealed that
the Department of Immigration and Citizenship collects scant data on breaches
and has limited knowledge and oversight of staff training levels. In what was
a stellar confirmation of the Greens’ reputation as Senate watchdogs, Senator
Sarah Hanson-Young doggedly pressed DIAC assistant secretary Fiona
Lynch-Magor over allegations that Serco has been posting untrained and
inexperienced guards to Australia’s overcrowded detention centres, with
surprising results. When asked by Hanson-Young, the DIAC official was unable
to list the number of times Serco had breached the “management and service”
provision of the contract, relating to detention centre operations, because
the contract “doesn’t record specific breaches per incident”, instead
measuring Serco’s performance under a “series of abatements that apply to
certain metrics”. The abatements, issued as retrospective fines, have been
occurring on Lynch-Magor’s admission “since the beginning of the contract”, but
are “not recorded in a recordable number”. “Systemic” breaches trigger
“continuous failure” under the contract, which has a multiplier effect on the
abatement issued. Senator Hanson-Young appeared increasingly frustrated with
Lynch-Magor’s answers, which became more circuitous as the questioning
continued. When asked whether a failure to train staff properly could be
considered a breach, she replied that Serco was “required to undertake all
the training we require them to do”, and listed Certificate 2 requirements
for centre chefs and guards. Lynch-Magor told the Standing Committee on Legal
and Constitutional Affairs that DIAC had requested Serco prove their staff
were properly trained “earlier this week”, and had received an immediate
response. When Senator Hanson-Young asked the number of staff who “were asked
to leave”, she was told that wasn’t information the department usually
requested from Serco. “So the department doesn’t know how many untrained
staff have been on the ground… as of earlier this week?” the Senator replied.
The assembled DIAC officials assured Senator Hanson-Young they “have ongoing
monitoring of the Serco contract” — a contract manager in each facility, plus
centre and national level monitoring, and “would expect Serco to respond immediately.”
“You’re telling me you have no record of how many times the contract
supervisors have had to request staff be removed?” Senator Hanson-Young
asked. DIAC asked the question be put on notice, ending that line of enquiry.
When queried about public disclosure, DIAC explained that those parts of the
Serco contract that were outside public scrutiny were justified — centre
maps, operational details, and commercial performance indicators. The Senator
didn’t buy it. “So the list of items that could qualify as a breach of the
contract are not public, and the department doesn’t audit the list of
breaches — what breaches happen, how many breaches happen — at what stage is
there any type of transparency?” she asked. By this stage Lynch-Magor was
feeling the heat. She told the Standing Committee the abatements regime is
audited and can be quantified. Serco’s abatements regime is a “performance
metric” assessed against a number of criteria, compiled by DIAC monthly —
individual breaches aren’t collated — and there is no ticking or crossing.
It’s not a system where “five particular events occurred and that added up to
the number five”, Lynch-Magor said. “And where is that publicly disclosed?”
Senator Hanson-Young asked. “It’s not publicly disclosed,” Lynch-Magor confessed.
“So the contract whereby the list of requirements that Serco has to fulfill
is not for public disclosure, the possible items that would qualify as a
breach is not publicly disclosed, the performance of whether they are
actually upholding or breaching that service delivery performance is not
publicly disclosed — where in this process is there the public interest and
transparency of this contract?” Lynch-Magor made a noise much like the last
puff of air being expelled from a balloon. “It doesn’t exist, does it? If
it’s up to Senate Estimates, well we need to see those things tabled,” the
Senator added. “It might be worth noting Senator that we have an extensive
process of internal and external auditors,” Lynch-Magor added. “I think I’ve
made my point,” Senator Hanson-Young concluded. The Federal Opposition is
currently seeking the support of the independents and Greens to conduct a
broad-based inquiry into immigration detention.
May
12, 2011 The Australian
The Gillard government has secretly doubled the fee paid to global prisons
contractor Serco, which will now charge taxpayers $712 million to manage the
nation's immigration detention network. Government tender records reveal that
the Department of Immigration and Citizenship secretly increased the contract
price in November last year, barely 11 months after publicly announcing the
cost to be $367m. Serco, which manages government prisons in Australia,
Britain, the US, Europe and New Zealand, has also been fined several times
for breaching contract conditions. The Immigration Department yesterday
refused to say how or when Serco had breached its contract, or how much the
department had penalised the company by withholding contract payments.
"We can't got into detail on the total amount of any fines imposed, as
this information is considered commercial-in-confidence," a department
spokesman said. "Disclosure of such details has the potential to damage
the commercial reputation of the detention services provider. "The
contract provides for the contractor to be penalised where it is proven that
lax work practices or incompetence have resulted in negligence and
contributed to loss and damage of commonwealth assets." During Serco's
management, asylum-seekers recently set fire to detention centres on Christmas
Island and at Villawood, in Sydney, where they have staged regular rooftop
protests and hunger strikes. Nine Chinese nationals escaped from Villawood
last year. This week's budget papers reveal that the Gillard government has
also granted Serco legal and financial indemnities. Serco is responsible for
insuring the Immigration Department against loss and damage, or any personal
liability claims arising from its management of detention centres, but the
government has agreed that Serco will be liable to pay only $75m, on top of
any insurance payouts. "What this means is that in the course of
negotiating the contract, the commonwealth has agreed to meet any additional
liability beyond $75m in the event of certain circumstances," the
department's spokesman said. "This is consistent with previous detention
service provider contracts, and for Serco to achieve unlimited liability in
all circumstances would result in additional contract costs. "Such a
decision was taken to ensure value for money and was subject to a full risk
assessment." The spokesman confirmed that the contract price had blown
out to $712m because Serco had been handed extra facilities to manage and
needed to recruit more staff. The government has opened four detention
centres: the high-security Curtin facility and a lower-security family centre
at Leonora in Western Australia; Scherger in Queensland's Cape York; and
Inverbrackie in South Australia. A Serco spokeswoman said yesterday the
government did not allow it to discuss any conditions of its contract.
"We don't give staffing numbers for our sites due to security
reasons," she said. Serco won the five-year contract in 2009, taking
over from rival provider G4S. In a statement to the British stock exchange,
Serco revealed that the contract "may be extended for a further four
years" -- a detail left out of the Immigration Department's public
announcement.
March
2, 2011 ABC
The company in charge of Australia's detention facilities has been fined for
a series of escapes by detainees. The Immigration Department claims Serco has
breached the contract conditions to run the detention centres, with almost 50
detainees escaping since June 2009 and 35 still on the run. The fines are
reported to exceed $4 million, but the Government has refused to comment. Yesterday
Opposition spokesman Scott Morrison said an escape from Sydney's Villawood
detention centre was a sign of a system in crisis. On Tuesday morning a
Fijian national being held at the facility after his visa had been cancelled
managed to escape. Six other men also attempted to flee the centre but were
stopped by staff. The department ordered an investigation into the escape.
February
19, 2011 ABC
The Immigration Department says there are 16 people still missing from the
country's detention centres after they escaped during the past year. The
Department says there has been 41 escapes from detention centres across the
country between July 2010 and January this year. Twenty-five people have been
found but officials have no idea where the remaining 16 are. A spokeswoman
for the Minister for Immigration says the Government considers any escapes
from detention to be unacceptable. She says the company contracted to run the
centres, Serco, has been fined for several escapes, saying the breakouts have
been a breach of the contract conditions. The Government says if further
action is required against Serco, it will not hesitate to act. It says the
number of escapes has decreased significantly compared to 10 years ago.
July
2, 2010 APP
Protesters over an Aboriginal elder's death from heat stroke in a prison van
have accused the West Australian Director of Public Prosecutions of racism
for not laying charges. More than 100 people rallied outside DPP Joe
McGrath's office in downtown Perth office on Friday chanting "Racist
Police" and "Racist DPP". Mr McGrath announced on Monday that
no charges would be laid against two security guards over the 46-year-old
elder's death because there was insufficient evidence of criminal negligence.
May
16, 2010 Northern Territory News
A CHINESE woman was still on the run last night - two days after she escaped
detention from a Darwin motel. The Immigration Department confirmed the woman
slipped away from the motel on Thursday morning and is yet to be found. The
same firm, Serco, that allowed eight people to flee from Sydney's Villawood
detention centre, is being blamed for her escape. A source told the Sunday
Territorian that federal police had detained the woman and a Chinese man at
Darwin airport after the pair allegedly arrived from a Bali flight with fake
passports. The source said the woman had to be rushed to hospital when she
panicked and swallowed a ring at the airport. She was allegedly left
unattended at the hospital before she was moved to the Darwin motel and put
into the care of security guards. The man is still believed to be in
detention.
April
3, 2009 The Age
THE Federal Government is set to dump controversial company G4S as operator
of immigration detention centres. The Department of Immigration has announced
that Serco, which runs prisons and immigration centres in Britain, is its
preferred tender to run Australia's six detentions centres. The contract is
believed to be worth up to $500 million. But human rights advocates have hit
out at the decision, saying Serco has a poor record in Britain, and detention
centres should be operated by the public sector. Advocate Charandev Singh
said Serco's record in Britain showed a "prison mentality" would be
brought to its operations in Australia. "The Government just wants a
clean skin in Australia — somebody with no blemishes (here)," Mr Singh
said. "G4S and Serco are basically the same company. They come from the
same corporate background, running prisons."
October
31, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
THE Federal Government is winding back private management of immigration
detention centres after years of controversy over the compromised health and
psychological care of detainees. The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone,
said yesterday the Government was relieving a private company of its responsibility
for health and psychological services, which would be transferred to the
direct control of her department. The move follows the recommendations of a
review triggered by the Palmer report into the deficiencies of care in
detention highlighted by the case of Cornelia Rau, the psychiatric patient
whose illness went undiagnosed for several months. Global Solutions Ltd,
whose management of health services has drawn criticisms of care standards
and conflict of interest, denied the loss of services was "in any way
the result of dissatisfaction with the services provided" by Global
Solutions. A company spokesman said the review of the centres had not
criticised the health and psychological services it managed. But the
company's management of the centres and detainee health services had
represented a "fundamental conflict of interest", said Louise
Newman, a psychiatrist and a member of a government expert advisory panel on
detention health. Professor Newman said the failings in health care and psychological
services, highlighted by the Rau saga and other cases of inadequate care, had
resulted in "incalculable" suffering for detainees.
March
2, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
The immigration department made an unexplained $5.7 million payout to the
company that used to manage Australia's detention centres, an audit has
found. The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has identified a series of
anomalies, potential conflicts and inadequate record-keeping in a review of
the department's contracts with companies paid to run the centres. The
department put detention centre management out to tender in 2001 and a $400
million, four-year contract with Global Solutions Limited (GSL) was
ultimately signed in August, 2003. But the ANAO has found DIMIA, now DIMA,
wanted to "encourage" the former contractor to end its management
of the centres with a contract "completion payment". As a result,
Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) received a payout of almost $6
million. "DIMIA was not able to provide evidence of the criteria it used
to make its determination to pay ACM $5.7 million in contract completion
payments," the ANAO said in its report. "The basis on which DIMIA
made these payments was doubtful," it said. Labor says the audit's
findings are a scandal. "What we have is nothing short of a scandal in
the way the government has handled this," opposition immigration
spokesman Tony Burke said. "The people who were involved in the
negotiations of the contracts on behalf of the department became horribly
compromised. "Records weren't kept, records were lost, and some of the
records that we have are conflicting."
July 29, 2005 ABC
Detention centre operator to pay for maltreatment. The private
operators of Australia's detention centres, Global Solutions Limited (GSL),
will be penalised more than $500,000 for poorly handling five immigration
detainees. The GSL officers have been accused of treating the detainees
in an inhumane and undignified manner when the detainees were being
transferred from Maribyrnong detention centre in Victoria to the Baxter
centre in South Australia in September 2004. An investigation has found that
the GSL officers used force against one detainee. It has also found
that overall they failed to provide adequate medical assessment, deprived the
detainees of toilet breaks, did not allow them to rest and did not give them
enough food during a seven-hour road trip.
May 13, 2003
A year after a national call for the release of all children from immigration
detention centres, a study has found unprecedented rates of mental illness
among young asylum seekers. The study of 10 families found that just
one child out of a total of 22 children and 14 adults was not suffering a
major depression. Some were suicidal, and had harmed themselves. Some
were also suffering from post traumatic stress disorders, which started, or
worsened, during their detention. Findings from the study, to form the
the keynote address at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of
Psychiatrists congress in Hobart today, were said to be causing great concern
among health professionals. "There isn't a cohort of children as
distressed as this group that we have been able to find anywhere in the
medical literature in the world," said Zachary Steel, who co-ordinated
the study. Mr Steel is a clinical psychologist in the School of Psychiatry at
the University of New South Wales. The study's findings come a year after an
alliance of doctors and health professionals called for the immediate release
of children from detention centres and a review of Australia's detention
policies. The study's findings come a year after an alliance of doctors
and health professionals called for the immediate release of children from
detention centres and a review of Australia's detention policies. (The
Age)
February
17, 2003
Children held in Australian immigration detention camps spend an average of
15 months behind the razor wire. One child was detained for more than
five years, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock told Parliament. Labor MP Tanya Plibersek said most
Australians would be shocked to learn how long children were detained.
(The Age)
August
27, 2002
A night spent in immigration detention can cost an asylum seeker more than a quality
bed in some five-star hotels. The Federal Government bills detainees up to
$191 per person for each day spent behind barbed wire. The price of a night
in detention, however, varies across the nation's six immigration compounds:
some detainees can be kept more frugally - for $60 a night per person, an
Immigration Department spokeswoman confirmed. The Migration Act makes
detainees liable for all costs the government incurs in keeping them
detained, from food to one-way air fares out of the country if they are
deported. Inquiries by The Age confirm some former detainees who have been
released into the community have received bills in excess of $200,000. (The
Age)
Australasian
Correctional Management Pty Limited
Australia
Wackenhut
July 9, 2004
A damning report by the Auditor-General, released two weeks ago, showed
initial detention arrangements with private prison operators Australian
Centre Management to be a farce. Appalling hygiene and frequent escapes
perpetuated by ACM's lackadaisical attitude to detainees was highlighted as a
failure of the immigration department. With a second report by the
Auditor-General expected to detail arrangements with ACM's replacement Global
Systems Management later this year, the department maintains it. (The
Austrailian)
March 17, 2004
The company dumped last year as manager of Australia's
immigration detention centres could soon be back in charge if a change of
ownership goes ahead. Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (now known as
the Geo Group) has offered $490 million to buy Global Solutions, the company
now managing the centres. The Geo Group
also owns the company formerly known as Australasian Correctional Management,
now Geo Australia. ACM was stripped of
management of the detention centres in December 2002, less than halfway
through a 10-year contract. Its four-year
tenure was dogged by riots, hunger strikes, suicide attempts and allegations
of human rights abuses at the six detention centres under its management,
including Woomera, Port Hedland, Villawood and Maribyrnong. ACM earned an estimated $328 million during the life of its
contract. But the transfer of management
was criticised at the time because both ACM and Global Solutions were owned
by the Danish firm Group 4 Falck. Group 4
later sold off Wackenhut Corrections, which changed its name to the Geo Group
last December. Group 4 Falck, which is
merging with British security firm Securicor, now wants to sell Global
Solutions. And the prime bidder is the Geo
Group – which has offered $490 million. An
Immigration Department official said the department was aware of the
corporate manoeuvres. He said the sale of
Global Solutions was a matter for the two companies, but there were
provisions in the detention service contract about changes of the contractor
which would have to be met before any change of ownership could take place.
"The department is currently in dialogue with GSL
(Global Solutions) to resolve these matters prior to the sale
proceeding," he said. The conditions
of the contract remain confidential. Opposition
immigration spokesman Stephen Smith yesterday said: "This is but another
illustration as to why the management of detention centres needs to be
returned to Commonwealth officers on Commonwealth territory. "You can take over a company but you can't take over the
Commonwealth," Mr Smith said. Howard
Glenn, national director of A Just Australia, said he had reservations about
management of the detention centres returning to the same hands.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission was
soon to release a report into the treatment of children in detention under
ACM's management. Mr Glenn said the report
could be highly critical of ACM. "There's
kids who have been in detention through all the owners, for over three
years," Mr Glenn said. "While the
company structures change, there's no action from the Government in moving
these kids out. "Before giving the
keys back to this company who had it in the crisis days of 2001, let's hear
what the Human Rights Commission says." (The Courier Mail)
September 26, 2003
The Government has been hiding the real reasons why a private company lost
the contract to run six immigration detention centres. The Immigration
Minister, Philip Ruddock, is covering up the poor performance of Australasian
Correctional Management (ACM) when it managed six of Australia's immigration
detention centres from February 1998 to December 2002. Also covering up the
poor performance is the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and
Indigenous Affairs (Dimia), which is acting in the commercial interests of
ACM despite continuing revelations about the poor performance of the
company. BRW has discovered a serious contractual breach relating to
ACM and its handling of an escape that the department is keeping secret. Despite
the seriousness of the breach - and the amount of about $90 million in
taxpayers' money paid to the company for each year of the contract - the
Federal Government refuses to disclose details about why a default notice was
served on ACM. It also brings into question the Government's claim that
ACM lost the contract to manage the detention centres because of poor value
for money rather than poor performance. After a lengthy
freedom-of-information request that began in May 2002, BRW has established
that the department secretary, Bill Farmer, or his agent, issued a default
notice to ACM under the contract. The default notice, which warns that a
contact may be cancelled, was issued between March 1, 2001 and September 5,
2002. The assistant secretary of unauthorised arrivals and detention
services, Jim Williams, wrote to BRW on September 5: "I believe that
there is a real risk that disclosure of the document would cause unreasonable
harm to ACM's business reputation and potentially prejudice its ability to perform
competitively in its industry." Despite a long history of violent
incidents at detention centres, including a mass breakout from Woomera
detention centre, South Australia, in June 2000 and a riot in August 2000, it
is the only default notice issued by Dimia to ACM under its "general
agreement" contract. In October 2000, the Victorian Government took back
the contract for the Melbourne Metropolitan Women's Correctional Centre, in
Deer Park, after issuing three default notices to its operator, Corrections
Corporation of Australia. ACM held the detention centre contract from
February 1998. Dimia announced on May 25, 2001 that it would be re-tendering
the contract. On December 22, 2002 Ruddock announced that Dimia would enter
negotiations with another company, Group 4 Falck, to provide detention centre
services. Group 4 Falck is a majority owner of ACM's United States owner,
Wackenhut Corrections Corp. Dimia's sensitivity to ACM's business
reputation is characteristic of its defence of ACM in numerous public
inquiries. In 2001, despite direct questions about ACM's performance under
the contract, Dimia staff, including Farmer and the then deputy secretary
Andrew Metcalfe (now promoted to the Department of Prime Minister and
Cabinet) said the removal of the contract from ACM was based on
value-for-money reasons. Since some of Dimia's stonewalling defences of
ACM in 2001, the poor performance of ACM in managing detention centres has
been revealed even more starkly. In July 2002, the former operations officer
at the Woomera detention centre, Allan Clifton, told the Human Rights and
Equal Opportunity Com-mission inquiry into children in immigration detention
that it was regular ACM practice to inflate figures on services provided. He
also said that staff at Woomera were under-resourced in training, numbers and
medical supplies, and that children had been endangered in riots. (Business
Review Weekly)
December 23, 2002
The new manager of Australia's detention centres will have to comply with a
51-page list of obligations to detainees if it is to receive the full value
of the $100 million-plus contract. The manager, Group 4, will have to
provide native-language newspapers and agree to a requirement that the
Immigration Department be told within one hour if any detainee is placed
under restraint. The list exposes Group 4 to fines if standards are
breached. The present operator, Australasian Correctional Management,
which lost its contract renewal bid at the weekend, had been subject to only
a four-page general statement of detention principles during its six-year
term. The ALP has described the new contract with Group 4 - whose
international parent merged with ACM earlier this year - as a
"sham". It was inappropriate with an international business
in corrections to be handling detention centres, it said. A union
representing detention centre workers warned yesterday that there could be
industrial strife if ACM did not pay outstanding entitlements before
departing the scene. It claimed that ACM was yet to pay staff 2002 wage
increases. (The Age)
December 23, 2002
RIOTS, arson attacks, hunger strikes and lip-sewing protests were no match
for the dollar yesterday when the Federal Government replaced the private
operators of Australia's detention centres for a better deal. As a
refugee activists vowed to stage mass protests this Easter at the new Baxter
Detention Centre near Port Augusta, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock
yesterday announced his preferred contractor for the centres. Austalian
Correctional Management lost the multi-million dollar deal to Group 4, Falck
Global Solutions Pty Ltd, with which it recently merged. (The
Advertiser)
October 9, 2002
Australia's immigration department and detention centre management have been
told they must give evidence in public to a national inquiry into child
detention. The Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous
Affairs (DIMIA) and Australiasian Correctional Management (ACM) have wanted
secret hearings, arguing open evidence could put staff and detainees at
risk. However Australian Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski today
rejected submissions arguing the confidential nature of their evidence
justified a private hearing. DIMIA and ACM will now have to publicly
release any documents required by the commission. In today's report,
Dr. Ozdowski said each document needed to be assessed at face value, and the
majority of documents requested by the commission would not pose a credible
risk to safety. DIMIA and ACP's argument that the inquiry would hinder
tender processes for new detention services did not satisfy the
commissioner. "I have decided that any prejudice to the tender
process that may be caused by the holding of public hearings involving DIMIA
and ACM is outweighed by the public interest in the inquiry being held in an
open, efficient and timely manner," Dr. Ozdowski said.
(Smh.au.com)
May
1, 2002
Police arrested 31 protesters, charging one for using firecrackers on police
horses, during May Day protests in Sydney today. City East regional
commander Dick Adams said about 400 protesters took part in today's May Day
action. One horse fell, bringing a policewoman down with it. The
horse was quickly up, while the policewoman rolled onto her side with horses
stepping all around her. The policewoman returned and remounted,
joining the drive to clear the protesters from the driveway leading into the
building housing ACM. (smh.com)
May 1, 2002
Police and M1 protesters have clashed outside the Australasian Correctional
Management building in Sydney this morning. Police attempted to push
back the protest line after about 100 demonstrators moved from the front to
the side garage entrance. More than 500 people gathered to blockade the
front of the building, with protesters letting off bungers and chanting
before the clash. (The Age)
October 4, 2001
Wackenhut Corrections Corporation/ -- In the news release, "Wackenhut
Corrections' (NYSE: WHC) Australian Subsidiary Renews and Expands Health Care
Services Contract for Victoria Public Corrections Enterprise," issued
Sept. 18, 2001, we are advised by the company that the headline should read
"Wackenhut Corrections' Australian Subsidiary Is Nominated as the
Preferred Tenderer of the Health Care Services Contract for Victoria Public
Corrections Enterprise." Also, the first paragraph, third line, should
read "Australasian Correctional Management Pty Limited
("ACM")has been nominated as the preferred tenderer of the health
care services contract for The Public Corrections Enterprise, Victoria ('CORE')
-- with the final outcome of the tender process contingent on a number of
other factors, including purchase and funding approval" rather than
"Australasian Correctional Management Pty Limited ('ACM') has renewed
and expanded its health care services contract.
Baxter Detention Centre
South Australia, Australia
Global Solutions (formerly run by Group 4 and by Wackenhut Corrections)
September 6, 2011 The
Australian
THE refugee lawyer who helped extract a multi-million-dollar payout for
Cornelia Rau from the Howard government is preparing multiple civil lawsuits
on behalf of asylum-seekers who claim they were assaulted and drugged on
Christmas Island during mass escapes and rioting in March. George Newhouse
will also ask West Australian police to investigate alleged assaults,
sedations and wrongful detention of boatpeople as far back as July 2009 when
Labor awarded a five-year contract to security firm Serco. Mr Newhouse told
The Australian he was acting for detainees who had been isolated at Christmas
Island's high-security "behaviour management unit" called Red
Block, had their possessions taken from them and who believed sedatives had
been put in their food without their knowledge. "I have been approached
by a number of former detainees from Christmas Island who say that they were
sedated without their consent and we are putting together a brief for the
West Australian police," he said. Mr Newhouse intends to advertise in
the Arabic and Farsi press for other detainees to come forward. The
advertisement, entitled "A Message to All Former Immigration
Detainees", states in part: "If you were assaulted, had your
possessions taken from you, sedated without your consent and/or moved into
restrictive custody, you may be entitled to pursue your legal rights and
entitlements." The push comes six years after Ms Rau, an Australian
resident, won a payout reported to be $2.6 million over her wrongful
detention at Baxter detention centre. The treatment of Ms Rau, a psychiatric
patient, sparked a government inquiry into the possible wrongful detention of
more than 200 people. Mr Newhouse worked on that case and said yesterday he
still had serious concerns about the use of force on immigration detainees,
who were "obviously seriously mentally unwell". He said he regarded
any sedation of anyone without their knowledge or consent as an assault. The
Department of Immigration and Citizenship was not aware of any instance of
detainees being sedated without their knowledge or consent. "The
department requires medical intervention to occur with the person's consent
within immigration detention facilities at all times. This includes
sedation," a spokesman said. The Australian has been told at least two
detainees allege they were assaulted and sedated on Christmas Island between
March 13 and March 17 after being deemed ringleaders.
September
13, 2008 Sidney Morning Herald
About 10 o'clock one evening in January 2003, Mary Rohde got out of her four-wheel-drive
to lock the gate to the visitor carpark at the Baxter immigration detention
facility near Port Augusta, where she was a detention officer. She felt a
presence but saw no one, and returned to the car to radio the control room.
Suddenly an arm was round her neck, a blade at her throat. Terror and
incomprehension overwhelmed her. Eventually the arm loosened and she looked
round; in the back seat was her boss. It had been a security drill.
"That'll teach her to lock the car door," a supervisor later
remarked. Rhode was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and, five
years later, has not recovered, despite psychiatric treatment. Her symptoms
are typical. She suffers from nightmares and insomnia. She cannot manage
social situations, cannot sit in a doctor's waiting room; even visits from
her adult children are too much to cope with. Half an hour after they arrive
she finds herself weeping in her bedroom. "I'm now the shell of the
person I was. I drink and take drugs; for me to cope, that's what I have to
do," she says. Rohde is one of many former officers who developed
post-traumatic stress disorder and other stress-related disorders while
working in detention centres around Australia. Statistics from WorkCover
South Australia record 62 claims for post-traumatic stress disorder and other
mental disorders made by guards at Woomera and Baxter. Many are unlikely to
work again. We have been told a lot about the impact of detention on asylum
seekers, but not about the impact on those who worked there. By 1999 leaky
vessels were making their way to Australia carrying mostly asylum seekers
from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. Arrival numbers overwhelmed detention
centres at Curtin and Port Hedland, both in northern Western Australia. The
overflow shifted to a makeshift camp near Woomera, South Australia, where
they languished in desert heat until given visas or sent home. Five hundred
kilometres from Adelaide, with access to the detention centre barred to
almost all, it was impossible for outsiders to know what happened within.
Woomera's carrying capacity was 400. By April 2000 it held more than 1400
detainees, and officers were needed to keep order. Detention services were
privatised by the Howard government in 1997. The successful tenderer was
Australasian Correctional Management, or ACM, a subsidiary of the US giant
Wackenhut corporation, which ran private jails in Australia and overseas.
Many ACM detention centre officers had been jail staff but the company also
advertised for them. With free accommodation and the minimum requirement of
five 12-hour shifts a week, the conditions seemed excellent - about $1200 a
week. For Rohde, recently separated from her husband and experiencing
financial difficulties, the job seemed a godsend. Many officers believed they
were on important duty. In 2000 Australians got the message they were under
siege; that the boatloads surely included terrorists. Still others thought
this was a chance to show kindness. Within weeks, the new recruits would find
themselves kitted up in riot gear and wielding batons, extinguishing fires,
or cutting down would-be suicides. Trevor Robertson signed up to Woomera in
June 2000. He had recently completed training as a prison officer in
Brisbane. His partner, Kendall Jones, expecting their first child, urged him
to apply. As with Rohde, the move would be the mistake of their lives. An
imposing figure, Robertson was respected by colleagues and soon became a
supervisor. When Woomera closed and the operation transferred to the Baxter
centre near Port Augusta, Robertson went too. One former colleague remembers
him as even-tempered, fair and good in a crisis - "the best operator at
Woomera". Robertson has been unable to work, his marriage teeters in the
balance, and he rarely leaves the loungeroom of his modest Port Augusta home.
He does not socialise, and spends his time bent over the computer, poring
over state and federal law, or on the phone to any bureaucrat or politician
who will talk to him about immigration detention. It is an obsession. He has
reflected long and hard about why it all went so wrong in immigration
detention centres. All the officers interviewed for this story said training
was inadequate. In an intensive four- to six-week course, new recruits
practised restraint and riot drills, became familiar with the Migration Act,
and were encouraged to treat detainees with respect. Robertson does not think
any training could have prepared officers for the dire daily situations. He
told ABC TV's Four Corners program that three days after training he was at
Woomera when 500 detainees attempted to escape. The job was close to
impossible. Detention centres became violent; chaos reigned. These desert
prisons held people who were distressed and traumatised for months or years
on end, waiting for news on their visa applications. Many eventually became
deranged. Riots, hunger strikes, self-harm and suicide attempts were common.
Officers became the focus of detainee anger and resentment, and threats were
made against them and their families. It angers Robertson that he and
colleagues were denied help. "We were the police; we were the mental
health-care workers; we were the social workers," he recalls bitterly.
Detention centres had rules, and most detainees obeyed them. A core group,
however, was troublesome and the only consequence of their behaviour was
incarceration in the "management unit", a form of solitary
confinement where detainees frequently became so unmanageable it was easier
to return them to their compounds. Troublemakers lit fires, smashed windows,
stood over and bullied others and assaulted officers with relative impunity.
Experts argue that incarceration in detention centres induces mental illness.
According to ACM statistics for October 2001, three psychologists saw 764
residents at Woomera. A psychiatrist visited every few weeks, but daily care
of people with mental illness was left to untrained officers. Rod Gigney, a
kindly officer, would bribe Anna with fruit, trying to curb her behaviour.
The young woman wandered around naked at Baxter and defecated on the floor.
To officers less sympathetic, Anna was just a heroin-addicted, damned
nuisance. She turned out to be the schizophrenic German-born Australian
Cornelia Rau. Gigney made many reports about Anna to management, without
effect. Carol Wiltshire was deeply concerned about a woman who had not left
her room for 10 months. She was catatonic, covered in bedsores and unable to
tend to her small child. Wiltshire's supervisor suggested she "poke her
with a stick and see if she's still alive". It was another month before
she was transferred to Adelaide's Glenside mental health facility.
Understaffing was significant and chronic. Often an officer as young as 20
would be left alone in a compound where three officers were required, leaving
them vulnerable and insecure. Sean Ferris was alone at Baxter when a riot
broke out. He locked himself in the office, which was pounded with stones and
set alight. Simon Forsyth, then 21, faced a fire on his first shift at
Baxter. He did not know how to use the extinguisher. An October 2005 report
recounts the incident that ended Robertson's career. By then, Baxter
detainees were predominantly visa overstayers and criminals awaiting
deportation. There was a fight, Robertson was assaulted and "suddenly I
lost control". "I was really trying to hurt people; I had my hands
around their throats." And that was that. The once solid and reliable
officer, mentor to fellow workers, finally cracked. Battered, bruised and
hysterical, he was driven home. When he said he was fit to return to work
three weeks later, he broke down, was subsequently diagnosed with an
adjustment disorder and has not worked since. Clive Skinn, a Port Augusta
local who worked at Woomera and Baxter, loathes all detainees. Sitting
uncomfortably on the couch in Robertson's lounge room, he is tense with
anger. "My body is full of hatred," Skinn says. He had not given
refugees a thought before he went to Woomera; he knew nothing about Muslims.
On his second day on the job, a detainee head-butted him. Another spat at him
soon after. Wiltshire says Skinn was never the same after having to cut down
a man who attempted to hang himself. Life became unmanageable. Skinn was
quick to anger, could not get on with his children, could not sleep. He awoke
suddenly one morning convinced that there were Muslims in his house. He
seized a chair and trashed the place, smashed windows and the TV, broke holes
in the walls. He was diagnosed with anxiety and depression and spent 18
months on workers' compensation. While still profoundly affected, he holds
down a job in an underground mine at Roxby Downs, but the past catches up
with him. "I'd like to kill them all," Skinn says of detainees.
"And I feel the same way about the children. They were as bad as the
parents." Gigney's breakdown was a consequence of concern for detainees.
He listened to their despair, smuggled extra milk rations for children, and
watched helplessly as they suffered physically and mentally. A boy, 12, was
among the three would-be suicides he cut down. Officers who displayed
compassion were held in contempt by many co-workers, and became known as
"care bears". The diminutive and softly spoken Annie Brown (not her
real name), 55, thought working at Baxter would be an opportunity to help the
unfortunate. Each day she would say to herself, "I've got 12 hours to
make these people's lives better." For this she was taunted and
ridiculed by fellow officers; for Annie, the worst part of work at Baxter was
the attitude of many co-workers. Annie's husband is also a former Baxter
officer. "We were people who had normal lives," Annie says through
tears. "We don't have them any more." After being ignored by
superiors, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety,
depression and agoraphobia, and for a year could not leave her house. Many
people with post-traumatic stress disorder have to confront the fact that
what was normality is not likely to return. This is Rohde's reality. "I
want my life back," she says. "But the psychiatrist has said that I
will never be the person I was before. I have to try to learn to live with
the person I am now." Three years since his diagnosis, Robertson shows
no sign of improvement. For Kendall, life with Trevor is close to unbearable.
She says he is distant, obnoxious and arrogant. He gets angry with the
children, impatient, distracted. He does not go to bed until 3am, and rises
late. As Jones and Robertson do seemingly fruitless battle with bureaucrats,
they are frustrated that former detainees can pursue compensation for
psychological damage but former officers cannot. Gigney continues to try to
find work. In his home town of Whyalla the mining boom is in full swing, but
being sound of body is not enough for him to take advantage of it. He has
just made his second attempt to get a truck driver's licence. He would pulled
over to answer his phone when a water truck went past, triggering a flashback
to the water cannon used during riots at Woomera, and an incident involving
children. He sat in the cabin and wept. In the suburban Adelaide pub where
she works as a kitchenhand, Wiltshire shares a drink with another former
officer, Barbara Zillner. The camaraderie among former officers is akin to
that between Vietnam War veterans - no one else comprehends what they went
through. In 2000 Wiltshire, a single mother doing it tough, saw Woomera as a
chance to escape the poverty trap. Like others, she broke down, diagnosed
with an adjustment disorder. Her road to recovery has been hard, but she now
holds down a job and a relationship. Having recovered a measure of
equilibrium in her life, she looks back and wonders at what she went through.
"I was proud to be a detention centre officer, protecting Australia's
borders. Then I changed. I became a monster, a cowboy, like all the other
officers. They were all driven crazy. When I look back, I just think - what
the hell did I do that for? To end up hating people for no reason."
November
14, 2007 The Age
THE Federal Government faces another humiliating compensation payout that
could run into millions of dollars as a result of court action taken by a
Vietnamese-born man. Tony Tran, 35, was unlawfully detained for more than
five years and badly bashed in early 2005 at the Baxter Detention Centre by a
mentally ill inmate with a history of violence, a statement of claim filed in
the Supreme Court of Victoria says. He was also separated from his son Hai
and not told by the Government in 2000 that Hai, then two years old, would be
taken by the boy's mother to South Korea, the country of her birth. Three
years later the boy was left by his mother with Mr Tran's brother in
Australia and later placed in foster care for 14 months after the brother
could no longer care for Hai. Mr Tran is seeking compensation from the
Federal Government for physical and psychological damage. If successful, any
compensation was likely to run into millions of dollars, said litigation
expert Anne Gooley, from Maurice Blackburn Cashman. "How do you
compensate somebody for detaining them unlawfully for five years?" she
said. Ms Gooley expects the case to be settled before it goes to a full
hearing.
April
9, 2007 The Australian
THE Federal Government says it is still waiting for a list of claims from
the lawyers for Cornelia Rau, an Australian resident detained as an illegal
immigrant. Ms Rau's lawyers said today they would sue the Government over her
treatment, amid difficulties in reaching a negotiated resolution. Immigration
Minister Kevin Andrews said the Government still hoped to reach an
out-of-court settlement. "The Government has written to Ms Rau's lawyer
a number of times over the past few months seeking to obtain a list of claims
to enable the Commonwealth to settle this matter," Mr Andrews said
through a spokeswoman. "We wish to settle it as expeditiously as
possible. "We're just waiting on Ms Rau to provide us with a list of her
claims. We can't process a final settlement ... quickly without actually
receiving a claim for what she may wish to have compensation for. George
Newhouse, one of Ms Rau's solicitors, said the Government's contracting out
of Baxter detention centre's operations to Global Solutions Limited appeared
to have complicated his client's compensation claim. "The Commonwealth
Government has its own financial arrangements with the operators of the
detention centre that appear to be complicating Cornelia's case," he
said. "That's not Cornelia Rau's problem. It was the Commonwealth
Government that set up this ridiculous system of immigration detention.
"She shouldn't suffer because of the Commonwealth Government's privatisation
of detention."
December
12, 2006 ABC News
More than 30 detainees are reported to be staging a protest at the Baxter
detention centre near Port Augusta in South Australia. A caller to the ABC,
who says he is a detainee at Baxter, says a group of detainees has blocked
the front gate of the detention centre, and others are on a hunger strike. He
says the protest follows reports of several detainees harming themselves to
draw attention to their frustrations. "It's just a process of long-term
immigration detention, it's unnecessary, it's unreasonable," he said.
"Any other country in the world - and Australia is a wonderful country -
but any other country in the world, they detain you for 30 days, they
identify you, then they release you. "There is no purpose for us being
here. "We have been vilified by the Government in order to justify our
detention. This is unfair." The Immigration Department says there have
been five incidents in the past four days. The Department says this morning a
detainee was taken to hospital after an incident that is still being
investigated. It says two detainees jumped from the roof on Friday, a
detainee climbed a tree on Saturday and was treated for heat exhaustion when
he came down, and on Sunday another man climbed onto a roof before coming
down again.
October
31, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
THE Federal Government is winding back private management of immigration
detention centres after years of controversy over the compromised health and
psychological care of detainees. The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone,
said yesterday the Government was relieving a private company of its
responsibility for health and psychological services, which would be
transferred to the direct control of her department. The move follows the
recommendations of a review triggered by the Palmer report into the
deficiencies of care in detention highlighted by the case of Cornelia Rau,
the psychiatric patient whose illness went undiagnosed for several months.
Global Solutions Ltd, whose management of health services has drawn
criticisms of care standards and conflict of interest, denied the loss of
services was "in any way the result of dissatisfaction with the services
provided" by Global Solutions. A company spokesman said the review of
the centres had not criticised the health and psychological services it
managed. But the company's management of the centres and detainee health
services had represented a "fundamental conflict of interest", said
Louise Newman, a psychiatrist and a member of a government expert advisory
panel on detention health. Professor Newman said the failings in health care
and psychological services, highlighted by the Rau saga and other cases of
inadequate care, had resulted in "incalculable" suffering for
detainees.
March
20, 2006 The Age
AT LEAST two long-term immigration detainees — one held for 6½ years —
are in a psychiatric hospital after developing mental problems while in
detention, the Greens claim. The man who has spent more than six years in
detention, a 34-year-old from Bangladesh, was moved from Baxter detention
centre last August to Adelaide's Glenside psychiatric hospital. The other
man, whose family are Australian citizens, has been detained for more than
two years. "This period of time in detention makes this man another
Peter Qasim, the long-term detainee who was recently released after seven
years," Greens senator Kerry Nettle said. Their cases have been raised
by the Greens as up to 100 detainees at Sydney's Villawood detention centre
entered the fourth day of a hunger strike aimed at forcing the release of
mentally ill detainees held for more than two years.
March
3, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
A DAY of turmoil in the nation's immigration system ended with the
Federal Government backing down on several fronts yesterday. It agreed to pay
damages to a boy traumatised in detention and allowed a deported Melbourne
man to return to Australia on humanitarian grounds. A damning report released
by an independent auditor yesterday also raised questions about a successful
2003 bid by the immigration detention contractor GSL, whose contract the
Government refused to renew on Wednesday. In Sydney, an 11-year-old Iranian,
Shayan Badraie, was offered damages for trauma he suffered in Woomera and
Villawood detention centres. The move comes after a 63-day Supreme Court
hearing. While in detention between March 2000 and August 2001, the boy
became severely traumatised after witnessing riots, a stabbing and a string
of other disturbing incidents. He subsequently spent 94 days in hospital, and
still requires treatment. Commonwealth lawyers approached lawyers
representing Shayan this week to offer a settlement for damages. The exact
sum will be fixed at a hearing this morning but is expected to be more than
$1 million. Meanwhile, the immigration detention contractor GSL was found to
have been hired even though it was more expensive and provided inferior
services to competitors, the National Audit Office announced yesterday. GSL's
bid was $32.6 million higher than that of the incumbent detention centre
operator, ACM, when the latter's bid expired. The audit office found the
basis on which ACM was paid $5.7 million after it missed out on the contract
was "doubtful", since the department was only required to
compensate for matters pertaining to detention. Immigration could not provide
evidence of the criteria under which the sum was paid. The audit also found
the head of the steering committee, which was heavily involved in the
evaluation of the bids, gave a reference for ACM's bid. An independent probity
adviser told the steering committee seven months later that this should not
happen again.
March
2, 2006 The Age
THE CONTROVERSIAL private operator of Australia's detention centres will not
have its lucrative $90-million-a-year contract extended. An independent
review, carried out in the wake of the Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez Solon
scandals, found that changes to the contract were required. Yesterday
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said all detention services would be
re-tendered as part of sweeping reforms to prevent a repeat of the problems
that engulfed the Immigration Department last year. GSL, which also operates
Victoria's Port Phillip Prison, took over the running of Australia's
detention centres in late 2003. The company has come under intense scrutiny,
with critics claiming it has introduced a punitive prison regime to detention
centres, including the use of solitary confinement. In July last year GSL was
penalised more than $500,000 after a report said five detainees endured 6½ hours
in the back of a van with no toilet breaks and no food or water while being
transferred between the Maribyrnong and Baxter detention centres. Senator
Vanstone said that although there was an option to extend the contract with
GSL when it expired late next year, the Government had decided to re-tender
after a report by former Health Department deputy secretary Mick Roche found
changes to the contract were required.The Palmer report on the treatment of
Cornelia Rau, an Australian resident wrongfully detained for 10 months in a
Brisbane jail and the Baxter detention centre, was scathing about the
inadequate health care she received at Baxter. It also said the Government's
contract with GSL was "fundamentally flawed" and failed to deliver
the immigration detention policy expected by the Government. A damning
Auditor-General's report last year said health standards in detention centres
were not clearly spelt out in the contract. Another National Audit Office
Report, to be tabled in Parliament today, is also expected to be critical of
the detention services contract.
January
31, 2006 Scoop
The Victorian Greens Spokesperson on Refugees, Peter Job, today expressed his
concerns about growing discontent amongst asylum seekers about their
treatment in Baxter detention centre due to the Intransigent policies of the
Department of Immigration and its subcontractor Global Solutions Limited. Mr.
Job explained that he had just completed a three day visit to Baxter, during
which he met with over twenty detainees from a variety of backgrounds.
“Despite claims from the Department to be cleaning up its act, the detainees
I spoke to claimed the situation in Baxter is actually getting worse, giving
consistent accounts of increasingly repressive and heavy handed treatment by
management,” Mr. Job said. “They spoke of increasingly intrusive and
undignified searches of their bodies and property, especially when accessing
the visitor’s compound. They spoke of run down facilities, where broken
telephones, kitchen items and leisure facilities were not fixed for months,
despite continued requests from detainees. They also continued to complain
about the appalling quality of the food, which they claimed had not improved
despite the Minister’s assurances to the contrary. “Above all they pointed to
a culture in which their opinions and complaints are belittled and ignored,
where incidents of discontent are further provoked rather than deescalated,
and in which detainees are given little respect as human beings.”
November
23, 2005 Green Left Weekly
I wasn't involved in the asylum seeker debate in 2001 when the government's
actions on Tampa were, in their opinion, decisive in getting them re-elected.
It was an accident of circumstance that my family was given a voice this past
year: we had an obligation to point out the hypocrisy of having one set of
rights for citizens and another for suspected "illegals" who are
left to rot for years in detention centres without the rule of law to protect
them. Even though it took months for all the nasty specifics of Cornelia's
treatment to emerge, the broader themes were clear from the outset: the lack
of morality - not to mention the expense - of detaining innocent people and
hiding them away in the desert; the overall levels of secrecy; the farming
out of detention centres to for-profit corporations; the use of punitive
isolation to control behaviour; the unchecked power of ill-qualified
immigration bureaucrats and privately employed security guards; and the
absence of judicial review. The failures exposed by Cornelia's case have
hardly been addressed. The reforms emanating from Mick Palmer's inquiry into
the wrongful imprisonment of Cornelia have given a greater review role to the
federal ombudsman (but only after someone's been detained for two years) and
many long-term detainees are being quietly released. A couple of sports
fields have been added to Baxter and some of the razor wire in Villawood
coming down with great fanfare - only to be replaced by electrified fence. In
detention centres, the lack of palatable food has been a deeply felt source
of contention. The food issue, so seemingly trivial when compared with
indefinite detention, can lead to avoidable tension and abuses. This has not
changed. Cornelia's case: In early February, Cornelia was just another non-person
in Baxter, receiving no treatment for a florid psychosis. The rest of our
family was living in suburban obscurity. We were dragged into public life in
early February 2005 when the media became interested. Even before the
government announced the Palmer inquiry - only five days after Cornelia was
identified - we were getting calls from people with information about what
had happened to her during her brush with DIMIA. I was determined to expose
the more appalling misuses of power during Cornelia's time behind the wire,
much of it in punitive isolation. In the first few days, Senator Amanda
Vanstone's office put out various bits of misinformation about how wonderful
DIMIA had been to Cornelia and to us. No-one had contacted us. We learned of
the phantom medical care being given to detainees. There were horrific cases
of neglect: the young child with a broken thumb, which turned purple and
swollen in the week it took for him to get medical attention; the man
complaining of severe headaches who was fobbed off with Panadol for two years
until he collapsed one night between compounds and started to turn blue after
which he was finally rushed to hospital where neurosurgeons operated for 12
hours to contain the burst aneurism. There was the woman in Villawood in NSW
who couldn't establish breastfeeding with her newborn because guards were in
her hospital room 24 hours a day. During the delivery, a guard even gowned up
to watch the caesarian, worried no doubt, she might jump up from the table
and abscond during the procedure. There were stories of sexual assaults by
guards, and in one case, a hastily arranged abortion. Many of our
interviewees were worried about repercussions and asked for confidentiality.
The former detainees and their families were able to tell us how places like
Baxter really worked in practice, how the medical services that DIMIA
described in such glowing terms, breached the duty of care requirements.
Interview transcripts and court affidavits, including from DIMIA staff that
flagrantly contradicted the sort of eyewitness evidence we were getting, were
passed onto the university. One such chilling document was the
"Behaviour Management Plan" (BMP) from Global Solutions Limited
(GSL, the company that runs Baxter among other corrections institutions),
which set out rules for detainees in the punishment compound at Baxter, Red
One. This is where Cornelia spent 94 days in a psychosis, which had been
discerned by other detainees. Evidence we were given showed GSL even flouted
its own management plan for much of the time Cornelia was in Red One. For
example, detainees have to sign a consent to the BMP before they enter the
compound. Cornelia signed no such document. Under the strictest stage of the
plan, detainees are allowed four hours out of their cell. In Cornelia's case,
we were told by eyewitnesses that on many days she was given only two hours'
egress, or none at all. At least on one occasion, Cornelia was punched in the
chest so hard she fell backwards into her cell so the guards could lock her
inside. [Abridged from a speech by Christine Rau, Cornelia's sister, to the
Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House on October 18. For the full
text see <http://www.qpilch.org.au/>.]
November
14, 2005 The Age
THE Immigration Department says it will have no hesitation in pursuing
criminal charges against detainees who allegedly lit a series of fires at the
Baxter detention centre. One detainee was taken to hospital and five others
were treated for smoke inhalation on Saturday as a result of four fires that
destroyed 14 accommodation rooms and forced the evacuation of 58 detainees at
the South Australian facility. The Immigration Department said the damage
bill was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The fires forced the
removal of 54 detainees to other parts of the centre. Four who are of
interest to the police have been isolated and are under constant watch. The
fires began in a kitchen, and fire authorities have said the fact there were
a number of separate fires suggested there was some unrest at the centre.
November
12, 2005 The Age
One man has been taken to hospital and five others treated for smoke
inhalation after a series of fires forced evacuations at the Baxter Detention
centre in South Australia. Fifty-eight men being held in detention were
evacuated from the White One compound after fires started at the Port Augusta
centre around 4am local time a spokesman for the immigration department said.
Six of those evacuated were treated on the scene for smoke inhalation with
one of them taken to hospital for further treatment. The four separate fires
caused more than $25,000 worth of damage and were probably deliberately lit,
according to a fire services spokesman.
November
2, 2005 Sidney Morning Herald
Laws that follow through on the government's compromise deal with rebel
backbenchers over its tough immigration detention policy were introduced to
the lower house on Wednesday. Three-month time limits on deciding protection
visa applications and decisions by the Refugee Review Tribunal are two of the
major changes introduced in the bill. In addition, the department will be
able to release the identity and photographs of people being detained when
all other efforts to identify or locate them have failed. This is to rectify
the reluctance on DIMIA's part to release information about the mentally ill
Australian resident Cornelia Rau who was wrongly locked up in immigration
detention for 10 months. Labor's immigration spokesman Tony Burke described
the bill as "an incremental step in the right direction". Mr Burke
wants the government's contracts with the private company running Australia's
immigration detention centres, Global Solutions Ltd, terminated and the
management of the centres returned to government hands.
September 13, 2005 The
Australian
ILLEGAL immigrants held in detention will be offered taste testing of
prospective menus and weekly barbecues in a further attempt by the Howard
Government to soften its hardline image on asylum-seekers. The move follows
complaints from detainees about the quality of food, including reports of
maggot-infested meat, at the privately run Baxter Detention Centre at Port
Augusta, South Australia. A confidential government report found food quality
had been so bad at Baxter - administered by British conglomerate Global
Solutions - that consultants witnessed three-quarters of meals being thrown
in bins, with some detainees reporting they were prepared to eat only three
or four main meals a week. The report says meals at Baxter often developed a
"stewed" appearance, with food "very wet at times, the sauce
unthickened and tasteless, or dried out". Immigration Department deputy
secretary Bob Correll said yesterday food at Baxter had not been provided to
standards required under the contract with GSL. He said there was a direct
link between unrest in detention centres and food quality. "Sometimes
food has not been served at correct temperature or it is bland," he
said. "Special requests in relation to cultural and religious issues
were also not being met." The federal Government's $300million contract
with GSL is under review. The Palmer Report into the case of Cornelia Rau - a
mentally ill Australian resident wrongfully detained at Baxter - found that
GSL's contract had "little emphasis on service quality or the establishment
of an equitable detention environment".
September 6, 2005 The
Age
CONDITIONS at Baxter detention centre are not conducive to good mental
health, with more than a fifth of detainees on tranquillisers and
anti-depressants, a damning report by a bipartisan parliamentary committee
says. The joint standing committee on migration, chaired by Liberal
backbencher Don Randall, spoke to about 25 long-term detainees during a visit
to Baxter detention centre, near Port Augusta in South Australia, in April
this year. "For the committee the three main concerns to emerge from the
inspection were the length of detention, mental health in detention and the
possibility of physical abuse," Mr Randall says in a report tabled in
Parliament yesterday. "The committee cannot deny the impact of long-term
detention." When the committee visited Baxter on April 19, more than 50
of the 240 detainees were on anti-depressants and many slept for long periods
during the day. The report comes two months after the scathing Palmer inquiry
into the wrongful detention of Cornelia Rau, which found mental health care
at Baxter was inadequate by any standards.
August 26, 2005 The
Age
Police have launched an investigation into claims that guards at South
Australia's Baxter detention centre deliberately twisted an asylum seeker's
leg until it broke. The Immigration Department has confirmed Peter Mode, a
24-year-old from Zimbabwe, suffered a broken fibula during a violent incident
involving three detainees and several guards at the centre on Tuesday. South
Australian police are investigating the incident and Mr Mode plans to make an
official complaint. Mr Mode said he was assaulted by guards when he sought to
protect another inmate, named John, after he threw his meal against a wall,
complaining the fish being served to detainees tasted of dust. Mr Mode said
seven guards arrived at John's room on Tuesday night to take him to the Red
One maximum security unit. "I started arguing with them; 'No you can't
take him out of his room, he had an operation last week'," Mr Mode told
ABC Radio. "And then I was trying to struggle with them and then they
pushed me down to the ground and then one of the officers held my leg.
"I was kicking back (saying) 'Just leave me alone'. "Then they
pushed the leg and it broke to the ankle." Mr Mode said he told the
guard he had broken his leg but he continued to twist it.
August 2, 2005 The
Age
The Immigration Department has admitted it had provided misleading answers
about a group of detainees who were found to have been inhumanely treated
during a transfer to Baxter detention centre. The department yesterday blamed
private contractor Global Solutions Limited for its mistake, saying it was
relying on information from the detention centre operator. A spokeswoman from
the department's media unit admitted it had provided misleading answers to
questions from The Age about the incident because "this is what we were
told at the time". The admission has sparked renewed calls for GSL's
contract to be terminated. Five detainees claimed they were forcibly removed
from Maribyrnong detention centre on September 17 last year, put in the back
of a van and driven for what seemed to be 10 hours with no toilet breaks and
no food or water. In a detailed response to the allegations on September 21
last year, the department said the detainees travelled in "a
special-purpose air-conditioned vehicle". "There was a break in a
major regional centre a number of hours out of Melbourne where the detainees
had a meal and stretched their legs for an hour," the spokeswoman said.
"During the drive they had access to food and drink and secure places
for toilet stops all along the routes, so the detainees only needed to ask if
they required a stop." An independent report on the incident, released
late on Friday night by the department, found that the detainees were treated
in "an inhumane and undignified manner" and denied food, water and
toilet breaks for 6½ hours on the Melbourne-Mildura leg of the journey. The
report, by the former head of Queensland Corrective Services, Keith
Hamburger, found that appeals for assistance from the detainees were
disregarded. One of the detainees said he was forced to urinate "like a
dog" in the compartment of the van where he was held. The report also
found that force was used on one detainee and that the van used to transport
them was "totally unsuitable" for the long trip from Melbourne to
South Australia. The Immigration Department and GSL have apologised to the
detainees, two managers have resigned and the company has been fined more
than $500,000. The Immigration Department spokeswoman said yesterday that the
"information (given to The Age) was what should have happened" and
that the Hamburger report confirmed that GSL officers had given the
department misleading information. "Someone from GSL has already been
sanctioned for supplying wrong information to the department," she said.
Labor's immigration spokesman, Tony Burke, said the episode showed a lack of
clear lines of responsibility and communication. "The department should
be out there on the front line so that it knows what's happening to detainees
and so it can communicate the message rather than become an extension of the
culture of cover-up," he said.
August 1, 2005 The
Age
A traumatised asylum seeker has told how he was forced to urinate "same
as dog" in the back of a van during a hellish trip between Maribyrnong
and Baxter detention centres last year. A damning report, released late on
Friday night by the Immigration Department, found that five detainees were
denied food, water, medical treatment and toilet stops for six-and-a-half
hours on the Melbourne-Mildura leg of the journey. The independent report
found the detainees were humiliated and treated in an "inhumane and undignified
manner". The asylum seeker, who does not want to be named in case it
affects his visa application, told The Age a guard gave him 10 minutes'
notice of his transfer last September from the Maribyrnong centre in
Melbourne to Baxter north of Port Augusta in South Australia last year.
"I wanted to call a lawyer. He said, 'No, take your stuff now',"
the asylum seeker said. He said the five detainees were pushed into the van
by guards working for detention centre operator Global Solutions Limited. One
detainee, who struggled, broke a bone while being forced into the van, the
asylum seeker said. He said the van, which was divided into compartments, was
dark. The space he was put in was so small he couldn't move. "The guards
said, 'If you die inside no one will know'," the man said. "I can't
see anything. For eight hours there was no toilet, I had to go in the van,
same as dog." He said the detainees were not fed until they arrived at
Mildura police station, where they had an hour's break. "I can't believe
it," he said. "GSL and the Immigration Department are the law, they
can do anything. I didn't know much English, I didn't know what to say to
who." He said that although he still felt angry, he did not want
compensation. "I'm angry for treating me like a dog," he said.
" I don't want money. All I want is for the minister to give me the
visa." The Immigration Department apologised for the "very
regrettable incident". New department secretary Andrew Metcalfe said GSL
would be penalised more than $500,000 and he would refer the matter to police
to investigate if criminal offences were committed. Two GSL managers have
resigned.
July 25, 2005 Herald Sun
DETAINEES at the Baxter detention centre rioted on Friday night, causing up
to $70,000 worth of damage to the complex. The riot was sparked by complaints
of bad food, according to police. Police are expected to charge some of
the 25 detainees who damaged a kitchen, mess hall and store room during the
disturbance. The Department of Immigration said the five minute riot
caused between $50,000 and $70,000 damage to the centre in South Australia's
North. A Department spokesman said complaints about the evening meal of lamb
aubergine sparked the riot in a compound called Blue Two.
Detainees damaged security cameras, lighting, tables, chairs and food warmers
during the disturbance, the spokesman said.
July 14, 2005 The Age
The Immigration Department has stalled for weeks over transferring from
Baxter to a psychiatric institution three severely depressed men who a mental
health expert says need immediate hospital care. This is despite the
department being severely criticised by the Palmer inquiry over the
inadequate mental health treatment it provides for immigration detainees.
Former police commissioner Mick Palmer's report on the wrongful detention of
mentally ill Cornelia Rau, which is highly critical of the department's
culture, will be released today, with the Government's plans for action on
mental health, identification and other aspects of immigration detention.
June 29, 2005 The Australian
IN his explosive report on the detention scandals, former police commissioner
Mick Palmer refers to Cornelia Rau's four months in Baxter detention centre
as "Anna's journey". Using the name she took at the time of
her admission to the South Australian holding centre, Mr Palmer tells how her
mental health deteriorated inside Baxter, yet systemic failures allowed her
to remain on the periphery of psychiatric care even after the intervention of
the state's director of mental health. Anna arrived at Baxter, on the desert
outskirts of Port Augusta, on October 6 without any documentation on her
medical history. She was assessed and screened by a contract nurse but things
soon got out of hand. "She was unco-operative during the medical
induction, by crying, being confused and upset," Mr Palmer says. An
assessment by Adam Micallef, a psychologist employed by Global Solutions Ltd,
the company with the detention centre contract, was ordered for the next day
as a "precaution". Medical papers were sent from Brisbane Women's
Correctional Centre, including discharge papers from the Princess Alexandra
Hospital. Micallef decided her problems appeared "behavioral",
rather than stemming from mental illness. "Anna's behaviour continued to
be bizarre," Mr Palmer says. Critically, Micallef wrote that Baxter was
not equipped to handle cases such as Anna's, and he recommended that she be
moved to an all-female compound such as the one in Villawood detention centre
in Sydney. The option was never pursued. Anna had been a month in Baxter when
she was seen by the centre's consulting psychiatrist, Andrew Frukacz. Despite
two attempts, he was unable to make a definitive diagnosis. He recommended
she be assessed in a mental health facility. Acting on Frukacz's advice,
attempts were made to bring in South Australia's Rural Remote Mental Health
Service to assess Anna. "The RRMHS triage team seemed unsure of their
relationship with Baxter and said they would need to clarify matters and then
get back," Mr Palmer says. "They did not do so." On November
12, Micallef called a psychiatrist working at Glenside -- South Australia's
only dedicated mental health facility -- to discuss Anna's "issues"
with Baxter staff. The psychiatrist advised that Anna's problems sounded behavioural
but later told Mr Palmer no sense of urgency was conveyed to him at the time.
The next day the RRMHS took Anna off their books as to be placed at its
allocated beds in Glenside. But no-one at Baxter was told. Micallef sent
Anna's psychiatric assessments to Glenside but there was not enough detail in
the file to admit her to its waiting list. On New Years's Eve last year, NSW
psychiatrist Louise Newman, Adelaide refugee lawyer Claire O'Conner and a
local doctor visited 12 detainees at Baxter. After examining several of the
detainees, they decided to commit two under the state's mental health act. By
January 4, Baxter staff urged Glenside to accept and assess Anna. Three days
later a rural doctor contracted to Baxter diagnosed possible "schizoid
or schizotypal personality features and possibly schizophrenia", but
further discussion with a Glenside psychiatrist resulted in no action.
On January 24, South Australia's then director of mental health services,
Jonathon Phillips, offered to have Anna assessed at Glenside. Department of
Immigration officials in Canberra sought RRMHS assistance to arrange this,
but its director suggested she be examined at Baxter. "It was clear the
efforts made by Glenside, RRMHS and Baxter were unco-ordinated and no one took
overall responsibility for the arrangements to admit Anna to in-patient
care," Mr Palmer says. Eight days later, after media reports of a
mentally ill German woman in Baxter, it was finally decided that Anna be
assessed under the Mental Health Act. That same day, it was revealed she was
in fact Cornelia Rau.
June 5, 2005 The Advertiser
SECURITY guards have been moved on to the grounds of Glenside Mental
Health Service to watch over nine Baxter detainees receiving treatment. The
guards, employed by the Baxter Detention Centre operators, are costing an
estimated $150,000 a month. Effectively, two guards have been assigned to
each detainee. They operate out of a hired demountable hut which was recently
delivered to the grounds of the hospital. State health officials have made it
clear the guards are not welcome. Director of Mental Health, Learne
Durrington, said she has approached the Immigration Department about the
impact of the guards on other patients. "We're running a hospital here
and it needs to be managed as a hospital," Ms Durrington said.
"I've proposed that we get rid of the guards and replace them with our
own staff who are better trained in mental health care." The Baxter
guards are employees of Global Solutions Limited (GSL) subsidiary Group 4, the
security company that has the contract to operate the Baxter Detention
Centre. "We've taken additional troops from another part of our
company," the spokesman, who did not wish to be named, said. "As a
result we've got staff shortages and we're recruiting more people – mainly
for our Baxter contract." One of the guards told a visitor to Glenside
hospital the demountable was hired at a cost of $300 per day. Figures from
the Miscellaneous Workers Union show the salary costs of the 54 daily
eight-hour shifts to be more than $150,000 per month. A spokesman for the
Glenside hospital confirmed two guards were allocated for each detainee.
"That's 18 guards on three eight-hour shifts, making a total of 54
guards on a daily basis," he said. The increase in numbers of detainees
needing mental health treatment has occurred subsequent to the Cornelia Rau
case where an Australian resident suffering psychosis was wrongly detained in
Baxter until her real identity was discovered in February this year. Health
officials have confirmed that in the year prior to the Rau case only one
person had been referred to Glenside, but now nine people were in treatment.
Glenside hospital officials are still waiting for a response from the
Commonwealth on the presence of the Group 4 guards. Meanwhile, the legal team
assisting the Rau family's submission into the Palmer inquiry has questioned
the timing of an internal Baxter memo about the identity of a detainee. A
story in the Sunday Mail of November 21, 2004, described a missing woman as
168cm tall, 58kg, with dark blonde hair, brown eyes and a brown mole on her
left cheek. It subsequently turned out to be Cornelia Rau. It's since been
revealed that an internal memo dated November 24 raised the possibility a
detainee was an Australian citizen. Legal representatives for the Rau family
will ask the Palmer Inquiry to check if the memo was sparked by the article
in the Sunday Mail.
February 9, 2005 The
Age
The detention centre where mentally ill Australian Cornelia Rau was wrongly
held was not visited by a psychiatrist for at least three months last year,
documents filed in Adelaide's Federal Court suggest. South Australian Legal
Services Commission lawyer Claire O'Connor claimed in documents that Group 4
Falck, the company that runs Australia's detention centres, and the
Department of Immigration had breached their duty of care by failing to
provide adequate psychiatric care for three mentally ill Iranian men at the
Baxter detention centre. Outside the court, she said there were parallels with
the Rau case. "Cornelia was sick and wasn't treated, my clients are sick
and they are not being treated," Ms O'Connor said. "She is no
different to people in there." In documents supporting her attempt to
get urgent psychiatric treatment for the men, Ms O'Connor said the centre's
suicide and self-harm unit did not employ a psychiatrist. "It is
believed there has been no psychiatric visit . . . since about August 2004
and certainly none since November 2004," she said in an affidavit. Ms
O'Connor said the problem of the lack of psychiatric care at Baxter was
compounded by the fact that the centre itself was contributing to the poor
mental health of detainees. She said psychiatrists visited Baxter
infrequently and were forced to deal with a series of seriously ill people in
a short time. "All they can do is medicate them, they just keep renewing
the prescriptions," she said.
February 7, 2005 The
Age
Only a full judicial and public inquiry would be sufficient to establish
the facts about the detention of a mentally ill Australian woman, her sister
said today. Cornelia Rau, a 39-year-old former flight attendant who was
released from Baxter immigration detention centre last week after spending 10
months locked up, has caused a national debate over services for the mentally
ill. Her sister, Christine Rau, said an inquiry independent of the government
and open to public scrutiny was necessary to get to the bottom of the case.
Adelaide public defender John Harley, who represents mentally ill people,
said he had grave concerns for the fate of other people suffering mental
health problems imprisoned by the immigration system. "This is not
isolated at all," Mr Harley told ABC radio. "I was informed that
(Ms Rau) was in solitary confinement and that involves her being under lights
24 hours a day (with) closed circuit television. "She was allowed out of
her room six hours a day, but in some occasions it required four men in riot
gear to remove her back into her cell," he said.
February 7, 2005 Herald
Sun
THE Federal Government will hold an inquiry into the detention of a mentally
ill Australian women at the Baxter centre for illegal immigrants. Prime
Minister John Howard yesterday said it was regrettable Cornelia Rau was held
in custody for three months in Baxter and before that six months in a
Brisbane jail. "Obviously it's . . . a very regrettable incident,"
Mr Howard said. Ms Rau, a 39-year-old former Qantas flight attendant, was
released from Baxter in South Australia on Friday. Australian Democrats
leader Lyn Allison said the Government should not be trusted to investigate
its own actions. "It is bad enough that Ms Rau was being held in an
immigration detention centre," Senator Allison said. "But why did
she spend six months in a women's prison before that? Senator Allison said
state and federal governments had allowed prisons and detention centres to
become "the new psychiatric asylums".
February 5, 2005 The
Age
A family snapshot of Cornelia Rau, detained as a suspected illegal immigrant.
A mentally ill Australian woman found by Aborigines in a remote Cape York
township has been mistakenly held in immigration detention for nearly a year
while her distressed family thought she was dead. Cornelia Rau, 39, who
suffers from schizophrenia, was last seen in March after she escaped from the
psychiatric unit of Sydney's Manly Hospital. The Immigration Department
confirmed last night that Ms Rau, who was speaking German and some English,
had been held in a Queensland women's prison until September when she was
transferred to Baxter detention centre. Ms Rau's sister, Chris Rau, a Sydney
journalist, read an article from The Age last Monday about a mystery
German-speaking woman held at Baxter, known only as "Anna". Baxter
authorities faxed her a photograph, which showed her missing sister.
"We're just relieved that she is alive," Chris Rau said. They were
also bewildered why the department could not establish her identity when
police had her details. Ms Rau was first taken into detention in April. She
had been staying near an Aboriginal camp at Coen, in far north Queensland.
The Aborigines became concerned that she was sick and brought her into Cairns
police. A spokesman for Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the woman
was handed over to the Department of Immigration by police in April 2004. She
was held in a Queensland women's prison until September when she was
transferred to Baxter. Greens senator Kerry Nettle last night called for an
inquiry into "this staggering case of mismanagement and abuse".
During her three months in Baxter, Ms Rau was kept in isolation for a week,
then in a high- security unit locked in a room on her own for 18 hours a day,
refugee advocate Pamela Curr said. She said her sister had "been through
hell". "We don't know what the implications are going to be for her
future condition or her treatment."
December 13, 2004 The
Age
The immigration department today accused refugee advocates of inciting
incidents within the Baxter detention centre by exaggerating reports of a
detainee hunger strike. Refugee support group Rural Australians for Refugees
(RAR) today said 27 Iranians within the South Australian centre were
participating in the hunger strike, now into its second week. Among those
were five men who had sewn their lips together and three who were staging a
protest on the centre's gymnasium roof, RAR spokeswoman Kathy Verran said.
She said those on the roof had been denied water since last night, after
guards stopped other detainees bringing water to the men. Ms Verran said
detainees had also reported the guards were bouncing balls against the
ceiling of the gym, underneath the detainees, to prevent them from sleeping.
December 3, 2004 The
Age
Four Sri Lankan men have been hospitalised after refusing food for up to
10 days in a hunger strike at South Australia's Baxter detention centre. Two
of the men had also been admitted overnight earlier this week, she said.
December 1, 2004 The
Age
Eleven Sri Lankan men at the Baxter detention centre have stepped up their
hunger strike and are now refusing medication, a refugee advocate said today.
The detainees were determined to continue their hunger strike until death, in
a last bid to be granted refugee status in Australia, according to Rural
Australians for Refugees spokeswoman Mira Wroblewski. Ms Wroblewski said
other hunger strikers were angry that the pair, after their release, had been
forced to walk from the detention centre medical facility to their compounds
in pouring rain. "It (forcing them to walk in the rain) has just
strengthened their resolve.
September 20, 2004 The
Age
A hunger strike, a High Court action and a direct appeal to Immigration
Minister Amanda Vanstone are among last-ditch efforts to stop the forced
return of asylum seekers to Sri Lanka. The man on hunger strike, who is 34
and was detained after his visa expired, was put into Baxter's management
unit on Thursday and forcibly fed. He resumed his hunger strike on Saturday,
Ms Wroblewski said. Eleven other Sri Lankans held at Baxter yesterday entered
the fifth day of a peaceful sit-in at the compound.
August 20, 2004
A food sample from South Australia's Baxter detention centre will be
presented to health authorities for inspection after detainees complained
they had been served a meal crawling with maggots. The Immigration Department
last week said one maggot had been found in food and an investigation was
under way. South Australian Greens MP Kris Hanna said he would today present
a sample of meat and rice to the state Environmental Health Department for
examination. Mr Hanna said the food sample was smuggled out of Baxter
following frustration among detainees about the situation. "According to
reports in the centre, the food was crawling with live maggots," Mr
Hanna said. Detainees at the Baxter centre last week upturned rubbish bins in
protest after complaining about maggots in their food. (The Age)
July 29, 2004
Two murals border a grassy patch in the fenced-in adult education compound of
the Baxter immigration detention centre. Goldfish feature in one. The
other, still being painted by detainees yesterday, is an abstract composition
of nine blue eyes and brown faces. For the first time since the fires
in 2002, journalists were allowed in the centre. An Iranian detainee, who
said he had been in detention for about four years, waited until the
Immigration Department official was out of earshot before he started
whispering to the Herald. The mural of the eyes represented confusion,
he explained. "People don't know what they're doing, they've lost
their personality, they don't know what happens to them," he said.
And the fish? "If you scream underwater, nobody hears your voice,
if you're crying, nobody hears." One area the media had never seen
before was the grim "Management Unit", where detainees with
behavioural issues are put into solitary confinement - sometimes for more
than a month at a time. The Red compound, burnt during the fires in
2002, is for "problem" detainees who have come out of the
"Management Unit" and are being "re-integrated" into the
general detention centre population. There were no detainees in the Red
compound yesterday either - just empty non-carpeted rooms with metal furniture
bolted to the floor and a peephole for guards to look through when doing
their head counts each night. (Sidney Morning Herald)
March 18, 2004
Inmates of Baxter immigration detention centre took control of a compound
yesterday morning and barricaded themselves in. About 50 guards in riot
gear surrounded the compound and forced open the door, Greens refugee
spokeswoman Pamela Cur said yesterday. Furniture was broken in the
confrontation, which followed arguments overnight after guards tried to
forcibly remove a detainee from his room, she said. Ms Cur said the
inmate reportedly had been suicidal and staff had tried to force him into
solitary isolation cells. The man, who has a medical condition, has a
fear of solitary confinement and at one stage he climbed on to the compound
roof, refugee advocates said. A spokesman for the Immigration
Department confirmed that there had been a disturbance at Baxter. A detainee
had scaled a shade structure, but he later came down. The disturbance
had been limited to one compound, the spokesman said. Centre staff were
monitoring the compound where the disturbance had taken place. Late yesterday
afternoon it appeared calm. (The Age)
November 20, 2003
A High Court judge has cleared the way for a challenge to Australia's
detention laws that could ultimately result in all children being released
from immigration detention centres. High Court Justice Kenneth Hayne
ruled in Melbourne yesterday that the challenge, launched by refugee advocate
Eric Vadarlis, could proceed to a February hearing before the court's full
bench. The legal action aims to free four child detainees from South
Australia's Baxter Detention Centre on the grounds that the detention of
children for administrative purposes is unconstitutional. (The Age)
July 30, 2003
An Iranian man at the Baxter detention centre has refused to eat for
the past 18 days after his seven-year-old daughter was sent back to
Iran, the Australian Democrats said today. Kate Reynolds,
Democrats' social justice spokeswoman in South Australia's upper house,
called for authorities to provide medical care and grief counseling to
Amin Mastipour (Amin Mastipour), who was on a hunger strike in a Baxter
isolation unit. "I cannot believe that this man's child - who has
been with him for the past five years - has been torn away from him like
this," Ms Reynolds said. (Sidney Morning News)
July 27, 2003
Alamdar Bakhtiyari, who has spent three of his mere 15 years living in
detention, says he never wants to come out. He says he feels safer behind
Baxter detention centre's razor wire. As he sits with The Age,
his angry father at his side, Alamdar is edgy, fearful. His face switches
like a flashing light, now scowling, now smiling. When he does speak,
his words tumble out filled with accusations and disbelief. "It is not
fair you come and talk to us, and then you go home to your family and a nice
house and we stay here. We are not free to leave. You have lovely homes and
families, but all we have is nothing, not even our freedom. "I am
not allowed to enjoy freedom like other boys. It makes me crazy, I hate it
here. I hate Australia. I am not a criminal, I have done nothing
wrong." Then the switch is thrown again. "You know what ACM
stands for?" he says flashing a smile. "Always Changing their
Minds." Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) is the private
company that runs Baxter and decides what Alamdar can and cannot do.
After almost three years of detention, Alamdar, with his younger brother
Montazar (Monty), bears all the signs of someone completely institutionalised.
His fear of the outside world outweighs his fear of incarceration. He says
his life has been torn apart by the competing forces in Australia's
immigration debate: the refugee activists, the lawyers, the media and
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock. Alamdar carries the scars of
detention, some of which are still visible. At the height of the Woomera
turmoil, when riots and hunger strikes were commonplace and teenage detainees
were threatening to kill themselves and drinking shampoo, Alamdar stitched
his lips together. Out of frustration he slashed himself repeatedly with
razor blades, and in a moment of deep despair he gouged the word
"freedom" into his forearm. (The Age)
April 21, 2003
South Australian police have apologized to protestors after a heavily
tactical response squad drove into their camp near the Baxter detention
centre searching for a rifle that had allegedly been aimed at a police
helicopter. The search of the site turned up a camera tripod. A
total of 33 people were arrested during the three-day Easter protest against
mandatory detention of asylum seekers. More than 350 police were on
hand for the protests. But as protesters left, riot police charged at
selected groups to clear them from the area. (The Age)
April 18, 2003
Police clashed with protesters outside the Baxter detention centre today
after demonstrators climbed barricades and tried to march on the
centre. Ignoring police appeals to remain beyond a roadblock erected to
seal access to the centre, hundreds of protesters confronted police in a
tense stand-off this afternoon. Some protesters climbed the barricades
and attempted to make their way on foot to the centre's main gates, before a
second line of police blocked their path and began confiscating camping
equipment. Hundreds of protesters from around Australia have converged
on Port Augusta to rally against the government's treatment of asylum
seekers. Some 300 police officers were redeployed to Port Augusta this
weekend, after last year's Easter rally at the Woomera detention centre,
during which detainees staged several mass escapes with the help of
demonstrators. Refugee Action Collective protest organiser Fleur
Taylor, from Melbourne, said centre manager Australasian Correctional
Management (ACM), authorized by the Department of Immigration (DIMIA), had
increased punishment of Baxter detainees. (The Age)
March 10, 2003
Two men who escaped from the Baxter immigration detention centre last night
spent just hours on the run before being recaptured by South Australian police
early today. Police said the men fled into bushland north of the Port
Augusta facility at 11.18pm (CDT). A search involving local police and
Australian Federal Police was organised, including the use of a police
aircraft. (The Age)
January 3, 2003
It was
meant to be the new, friendlier face of Australia's asylum seeker policy.
Although an electrified fence runs around the outside, and
security cameras are everywhere except in private areas, the
rooms are modern. There is more grass and play area for children than
in other centres. But today part of Baxter lies in
ruins, and along with it any hope of an easy resolution to the
fate of Australia's asylum seekers. Just after midnight on Friday last week a fire broke out in an
empty room in Red 1, a men's compound at Baxter.
Although detainees cannot possess matches or lighters, arsonists may
have made a lighter from electric wiring or a toaster. They had
mattresses and newspapers - plenty of fuel. Two nights later, a bigger fire was lit in Red 1. Staff tried to
put it out but did not have enough water. Fire
crews arrived, people were banging on doors to wake those still asleep.
Many detainees were collapsing from smoke inhalation.
At about 3pm that day more fires were lit. Desperate
to get out but told not to, detainees broke down the
gate and tried to break out of the compound. Guards in riot gear confronted
them. When some detainees were asked why they had started the
fire they replied: "We were trying to get away. The centre
is making us crazy."
By
Sunday night the fires were spreading, first to Port Hedland detention centre,
later to Woomera, Christmas Island and Villawood. The
"ferocity" of the actions took guards by surprise, an
ACM employee said.
On
December 17, newspapers in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne published
the same article. Carrying headlines such as "Five Star
Asylums" and "It's not all mriots at our Club Fed", it reported that
detainees enjoyed luxuries such as gyms, Foxtel, DVDs and yoga classes.
The article, and a similar one in a Port Hedland
newspaper, made some people in the Port Hedland detention
centre "very angry," says the town's Uniting Church minister, Bev
Fabb. She says most of the article's information was
wrong for Port Hedland. The article also troubled Harry Minas of
the Federal Government's Independent Detention Advisory Group.
Neither Professor Minas nor Ms Fabb suggest a direct
link between the article and the arson but many
asylum seeker advocates feel the article helped to exacerbate what one advocate
describes as a "huge deterioration" in the mood of
detainees in the past month.
A shift
is under way in the centres. Numbers are dwindling. No boat has reached
Australia for 14 months. Baxter, Woomera and Port Hedland are
way below capacity. On New Year's Eve the
Immigration Department handed a letter to 488 detainees in
Baxter, Port Hedland and Woomera. The letter said most of them
had been rejected as refugees and had "no right to
remain in this country . . . You can choose to bring your detention to an
end at any time by leaving Australia". According to what an Iranian detainee told asylum seeker
advocate Ian Knowles, a group of men, infuriated by
the letter, marched to the immigration office and demanded to be
deported straight away. Guards in riot gear
pushed them back to a compound. ACM confirmed that tear gas was
used. Mr Minas adds:
"People are saying, 'It's their (the detainees') own bloody fault',
and in a way it is. "But people have
to ask what makes this group prefer be in a detention centre
environment rather than to go go home. "They are not choosing a soft life in
Australia." (The Age)
January 3, 2003
Thirteen pairs of scissors, two chisels, home-made weapons, broken glass
panels and lighter fluid have been found after searches in Australia's seven
immigration detention centres. But strip searches of the 132 men
detained at Baxter and Woomera in South Australia, conducted this week,
apparently uncovered little. An Immigration Department statement refers
only to two mobile phones and one screwdriver being found. The five-day
spree of violence in five of the seven immigration detention centres has left
a damages bill of $8.4 million. The bill climbed $400,000 yesterday
after the Immigration Department revealed the cost of fires at Christmas
Island four days ago. (The Age)
December 29, 2002
Asylum
seekers who caused more than $2 million in damage by using bedding and
furniture to fuel six separate fires at the three-month-old Baxter Detention
Centre in South Australia face jail terms before being deported. One of the centre's nine compounds was
destroyed after five fires began simultaneously early yesterday, and 13
people, including two guards, were taken to hospital. Forty-seven detainees were evacuated to another compound within
the centre, where another big fire broke out shortly after 3.30pm. Eighty-one rooms were destroyed, including
17 in the second compound. Two en suite units were destroyed and a mess hall
was damaged. According to the
Department of Immigration website, riots in detention centres have caused
more than $5 million in damage over the past 18 months. More than
three-quarters of this has occurred at Woomera Detention Centre, where six
buildings were destroyed in riots in August 2000 and a further three burnt
during riots in November last year. (Sidney Morning Hearld)
December 27, 2002
Inmates at South Australia's Baxter detention centre used mattresses and
newspapers to light three fires that gutted a complex of four rooms,
Australasian Correctional Management said yesterday. The fires, which
caused an estimated $60,000 damage, have been referred by the Department of
Immigration to Australian Federal Police for investigation. A spokesman
for Australasian Correctional Management, which is contracted to run the
Baxter immigration detention centre, said the fires had been lit in the
single men's complex, which included two bedrooms and two toilet areas.
(The Age)
November 6, 2002
Up to 30 detainees at South Australia's Baxter detention centre were hit by
nearly 50 guards in full riot gear last week and then refused medical
treatment, according to an asylum seeker. Afghan Fahim Shah said about
eight detainees were hurt last Thursday's attack in the mess where about 30
people were eating dinner. "They threw my plate and beat me with
the stick and pushed me three times with the shield to go outside from the
mess," he said. He said there had been two other incidents of
brutality by Australasian Correctional Management guards at the centre since it
opened about six weeks ago. (The Age)
Borallon Correctional Centre
Queensland, Australia
Serco (formerly run by Management and Training Corporation)
August 15, 2011
9 News
Queensland's opposition has asked the auditor-general to review the state
government's handling of a jail tender it has described as "dodgy".
The government announced last month it would temporarily mothball Borallon
prison in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, and transfer inmates to a new prison
near Gatton due to be opened next year. Meanwhile, the federal government has
confirmed plans to convert the jail into immigration accommodation, however
no final decision has yet been made. Security company Serco, which manages
Borallon jail, has been awarded the contract to operate the new jail,
Southern Queensland Correctional Centre at Spring Creek. The Liberal National
Party (LNP) has labelled this a "dodgy deal". LNP corrective
services spokesman John-Paul Langbroek said the party had referred the matter
to the auditor-general. The auditor-general's office has confirmed it
received the LNP's request but as of Monday morning, it was yet to view the
details. Mr Langbroek argues the government did not conduct a proper
tendering process. "The way this secret deal between Serco, who
currently run the prison at Borallon, and the state government has been
handled raises many questions," he said. "Under the normal
tendering for service process, the contract for service delivery at the new
Gatton prison should have been advertised and put to the market to ensure the
best value for money was achieved. "This matter deserves due
consideration and that's why I have written to the auditor-general seeking
advice on whether this deal is in fact legal and meets the state government's
own rules and guidelines."
October
25, 2006 Townsville Bulletin
A TENDER for the state's two privately-run prisons is not a criticism of the
current operators, the Queensland Government said today. Corrective Services
Minister Judy Spence said new tenders to run Borallon and Arthur Gorrie
correctional centres, valued at a total of $200 million, would ensure
taxpayers got value for money. "It is not about the performance of the
current operators,'' Ms Spence said. The Arthur Gorrie jail has been under
fire in recent years over a number of deaths in custody, security failures
and assaults on prisoners by staff. Borallon made headlines four years ago
when a report showed it had the highest rate of illicit drug use in the
state, with almost one in three prisoners using drugs. Four companies will be
invited to tender: GEO Group Australia Pty Ltd, GSL Australia Pty Ltd,
Management and Training Corporation Pty Ltd and Serco Australia Pty Ltd. GEO
currently operates Arthur Gorrie, and Management and Training Corporation
operates Borallon. Ms Spence said the contracts would be for five years, with
an option for Queensland Corrective Services to extend them for a further
five years. The tenders will be evaluated in the first half of next year with
new contracts to start on January 1, 2008. An independent probity auditor has
been contracted to oversee the entire project.
February 22, 2004
OFFICERS at a privately-run prison in Queensland will
walk off the job again over the next two days. Prison officers at the
Borallon Correctional Centre, near Ipswich, will lock prisoners in their
cells during six-hour stoppages tomorrow and on Tuesday in a dispute over
enterprise bargaining negotiations The prison is operated by the
US-based prison company Management and Training Corporation (MTC), under
contract to the Queensland Government. Last week, about 500 low and
medium security inmates were locked in their cells for two hours on Monday
and Tuesday morning. The prison officers' union, the Liquor,
Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, said it would increase the length
of the stoppages if the dispute dragged on. About 150 prison officers have been calling for a six per cent
annual pay rise over the next two years but MTC offered an increase of just
1.9 per cent a year. MTC also wants to
reduce prison officers' sick leave entitlements to six days a year from eight
in the last agreement which expired last month. LHMWU spokesman Ron Simon said the union would also ban
overtime at the prison. "Each week we've
increased the length and intensity, of the walkout," he said. "This time our members are stopping twice for six hours
and imposing a two-week overtime ban, commencing Monday morning."
(Townsville Bulletin)
February 9, 2004
INMATES at Borallon Correctional Centre near Ipswich
will be placed in lockdown mode tomorrow and Tuesday as prison officers
strike in support of increased wages and benefits. Almost 500 low and
medium security inmates at the privatised prison will be locked down and
managed under a skeleton staff structure for two hours from 8am (AEST)
tomorrow and on Tuesday, while members of the Liquor Hospitality and
Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) rally for a pay increase. The prison has been run by US firm Management and Training
Corporation (MTC) since September 2000, under contract to the Queensland
government. About 150 prison officers,
whose current enterprise agreement expired last month, are calling for a six
per cent annual pay rise over the next two years in addition to paid parental
leave and income protection. (Townsville Bulletin)
August 14, 2001
Drugs and illegal 'home brew' have been discovered during random searches in
Queensland's prisons. Four prisoners have also lost open security
classification after testing positive to drugs. Two prisoners already
in custody are facing charges after random searches uncovered drugs at
Borallon Correctional Centre and illegal brew at Borallon and Woodford
Correctional Centres. (ABC News)
Broadmeadows Youth Detention
Center
Australia
Serco
July 26, 2011 The Age
THREE teenage asylum seekers stitched their lips together at Broadmeadows
youth detention centre this weekend, posting the photos on Facebook in a plea
for help. Refugee Action Collective volunteer Daniella Olea, who has
previously visited the teenagers, said they were aged between 16 and 18 and
arrived alone from Kuwait, Iran and Iraq. They have been detained for about a
year. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen announced in October that he intended
to release all children from detention centres by June, but Ms Olea said
about 50 teenagers under the age of 18 were still at Broadmeadows. Ms Olea,
who has not been allowed to visit the boys recently, said they stitched their
lips shut on Sunday afternoon. She said the youths were desperate. ''Some of
them haven't heard from their case managers for months.'' A wall has been
built at the centre, she said, so it was no longer possible to see greenery
from its outdoor area. ''Before you could see the trees. Now they have just
boarded all that up.'' The Department of Immigration confirmed the self-harm
and said operator Serco had provided psychological support.
Casuarina Prison
West Australia
CCA
December 7, 2000
A potentially dangerous man serving a six-year jail sentence for various
theft offences escaped from a prisoner-transport van between jail and the
West Australian Supreme Court. David Graeme Hintz, 24, escaped from the back
of a Corrections Corporation of Australia security van as it traveled down a
busy city street in rout to court. The Ministry of Justice said today's
escape was the third from CCA custody since July 31, when the private
contractors took over the service. (News Limited, Dec. 6, 2000)
Christmas Island Detention
Center
Christmas Island
Serco
Companies
Use Immigration Crackdown to Turn a Profit: Expose on immigration
by Nina Bernstein at the New York Times, September 28, 2011
Jul 18, 2017 dailymail.co.uk
Australia: Serco guard smoking ice with detainees
A guard at the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre has been
sacked after being caught smoking ice with detainees in their cell and
smuggling contraband. He was caught after the detainees set up the meeting to
prove corruption at private prison operator Serco, which is funded by taxpayers.
The guard was part of a network that smuggled mobile phones into the facility
via the post, and traded them with asylum seekers for cash and illicit drugs.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has said guards involved in illegal
behaviour could face criminal charges, A Current Affair reported. An
Iranian-born man who was detained at the facility before being granted
refugee status said guards and detainees were regularly involved in criminal
activity. 'The inmates transferred money to the officers' accounts and then
they brought money and drugs inside the camp, there was corruption in there,'
he said. The former detainee said the use of illegal drugs crystal meth and
marijuana was commonplace at the facility. In an incident believed to have
taken place last Boxing Day, the disgraced officer smuggled vodka in for a
group of detainees marked for deportation having a New Year's Eve party. The
detainee who masterminded the meeting that led to the sacking claimed to have
smuggled mobile phones into the facility hidden in gifts sent in the post. He
is believed to been transferred to Sydney's Villawood detention centre. Mr
Dutton said the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity is now
investigating detention centre guards. 'Absolutely this investigation will
continue and it will root out anybody who is involved in illegal behaviour,'
Mr Dutton said. 'There will be serious consequences, including criminal
charges being preferred [and] people being sacked from their current jobs.'
Apr 27, 2016 radionz.co.nz
Australian guards accused of beating New Zealand detainees
Guards in two Australian immigration centres have been accused of beating
up New Zealand detainees. One report claims 50 guards on Christmas Island
armed with batons and shields took on 10 or so detainees who used wheelie-bin
lids as shields to defend themselves. And a 24-year-old New Zealand citizen
being held at a centre in Victoria said guards beat him after he tried to
arrange meetings with a protest hikoi that was visiting detainees. The
accusations come as new figures show New Zealand men now make up the largest
single group being held in immigration detention in Australia. Convicted
armed robber Wayne Hema is locked up at Maribrynong Detention Centre in
Victoria but has been in contact by phone to a detainee in a compound on
Christmas Island about a mass clash there early last week. "Fifty guards
came in with riot shields and clubs to tackle 10 Kiwis," he said.
"The New Zealanders defended themselves, they broke up wheelie-bins, the
iron bars and wheels from the wheelie-bins to protect themselves, as well as
the lids from the bins as shields to shield themselves from the blows they
were receiving." "Fifty guards came in with riot shields" -
Wayne Hema on Morning Report. Another Christmas Island detainee sent a
message to a relative, who did not want to be identified, with a one-line
plea to tell the media and politicians what was happening on the remote
Indian Ocean island. He said in that message that 54 emergency response
guards ran in and kicked them: "We all have boot marks to the
head". RNZ News was unable to get through to anyone on Christmas Island
and has been told detainees have been warned not to speak out. Wayne Hema
said the clash came after a Middle Eastern refugee refused to return a razor
to prison staff and threatened to cut himself with it. The New Zealanders
there, he said, backed him up and refused to negotiate with the centre's
manager. "It may only be a little thing, but when you are harassed
mentally and physically, that little thing is like a big win, to stand back
and say, 'No, I am doing this ... and you're not going to take it off
me," he said.He said all the men had been flown to a prison in Perth,
and it remained unclear what injuries they had. Like Wayne Hema, Maueofa
Fakauafusi, 24, is detained at Maribrynong, which like Christmas Island is
run for the Australian government by private prison company Serco. He was
jailed for assault then had his visa cancelled, and described being woken
early a fortnight ago, being held in an interview room for several hours, and
then, after repeatedly asking a guard to use a toilet, actually getting up to
go. "I went to walk out. He shin kicked me while he was sitting down, I
tripped up through the hallway and the security guards basically jumped on me
and he's jumped over and elbowed me in the chin," he said. "They
had me against the wall and he just started ragging on me, just laying into
me and threw me on the ground, stomped on me, and handcuffed me and took me
into the segregation where they continued to strip search me and basically
punch me up." This comes as the latest figures from Australian
authorities show that for the first time New Zealand men now make up the
largest single group being held in indefinite immigration detention - 181
total compared with 179 Iranian men. Fifteen New Zealand women are also being
held. Many of these people have lived most of their lives in Australian -
Maueofa Fakauafusi since he was six - and those held on criminal grounds have
all served their prison time, while others are held on character grounds. On
Christmas Island the numbers are up 16, to 183 men, since February, and from
150 last December. Australia's Immigration department refuses to tell RNZ
News how many of these are New Zealanders. Wayne Hema said he had heard that
30 more detainees were taken to the Christmas Island in the last two days and
Maueofa Fakauafusi said five New Zealanders had been taken there from
Maribrynong in the month he had been there. Filipa Payne tried to visit
Maueofa Fakauafusi as part of a trans-Tasman hikoi she has helped lead for
the past month to protest at detainees' treatment. "From what we've been
told he was beaten up because he'd tried to make contact with us, for us to
come and see him and other people there, so that he could share with us his
story and share what was happening in the detention centres." Ms Payne
said detainees were being prevented from getting medical treatment and from
ready access to lawyers, whose efforts had not changed anything for them
anyway, though some had spent tens of thousands of dollars on them. Maueofa
Fakauafusi said last week guards bashed a detainee who asked for Panadol. He
and that detainee talked about complaining about their treatment but decided
it was no use, that the authorities would not listen. Wayne Hema described a
pressure cooker situation in the detention centres. He said a few days ago in
early morning room raids, the guards removed all the towels and curtains for
seemingly no reason. In one room the detainee was sleeping naked. "The
guards all ran into the room - 'Get up, get up!' He informed them that he was
naked. They had a female with a camera recording what was happening in the
room. "When he again asked them to leave they said, 'No, get up out of bed
now'. Had he not got up out of bed he would have been beaten." RNZ News
asked Australia's Immigration and Border Protection Department about these
claims and is yet to hear back. Just over three weeks ago New Zealander Rob
Peihopa died in a Villawood detention centre in Sydney. Authorities said it
was a heart attack but detainees and his family suspect he was beaten up by
other detainees. A coronial inquiry continues into that matter.
Jul 13, 2014 The Sidney Morning Herald
A woman
who is in hospital on Christmas Island after attempting suicide was returned
to the offshore detention centre against the advice of mental-health
professionals after being transferred for treatment in Australia. It's
widespread and it's getting worse. Fairfax Media has been told the women was
transferred to Perth earlier this year but discharged from hospital and
returned to detention before being sent back to Christmas Island against the
advice. It is believed the woman, who is not a mother, tried to take her own
life this week and remains in Christmas Island hospital. Sources have told
Fairfax Media there were several asylum seekers who continue to be held on
Christmas Island despite advice that they be transferred to Australia for
treatment for mental illnesses. ''This is not manipulation [of the system],''
a source said. ''It's widespread and it's getting worse.'' It comes as
Christmas Island shire president Gordon Thompson said the number of women on
suicide watch had increased from 11 on Wednesday, to 14 on Thursday. ''They
are [on] constant watch,'' he said. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison this
week denied Fairfax Media reports that up to nine women had attempted
suicide, saying multiple suicide attempts by women on Christmas Island were
''not correct''. Mr Morrison has refused to provide information on self harm
in detention, citing ''government commentary on such issues takes into
account privacy and the impact public commentary may have in encouraging such
behaviour''. On Wednesday, Fairfax Media obtained advice from the Department
of Immigration showing that, following a meeting on Christmas Island this
week, there were ''seven individuals who made threats of self harm, four have
actually self-harmed and one woman attempted suicide''. But an International
Health and Medical Service employee said the categories of ''self harm and
''attempted suicide'' were often hard to differentiate. ''A self harm could
be a suicide attempt,'' the worker said. The Royal Australian and New Zealand
College of Psychiatrists said it was ''concerned but not surprised'' to hear
of reports that women on Christmas Island were harming themselves. ''The
college is extremely concerned that people are finding themselves in such a
desperate situation that they are considering such measures as attempting
suicide,'' said the president, Dr Murray Patton. The government's leader in
the Senate, Eric Abetz, described the incidents on Monday night as ''minor
self harm''. But Greens Senator and immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young
said that response was ''callous and insincere''. ''Suicide attempts are not
'minor incidents' as so ignorantly described by the Abbott government,'' she
said. ''The Department of Immigration's own contract with Serco defines
attempted serious self harm as a critical incident.''
The Sidney Morning Herald, November 16, 2013
Staff
at Australia's immigration detention centres have undergone retraining after
a worker was sacked for having a sexual relationship with a detainee.
Managers of the Christmas Island centre, British-owned company Serco, have
confirmed that a male employee was dismissed in October following an
investigation. ''We take a zero tolerance approach to inappropriate
relationships and any sexual contact is completely unacceptable,'' Serco
spokesman Paul Shaw said in a statement. The matter has been reported to
police and the Immigration Department. A spokesman for Immigration Minister
Scott Morrison told ABC TV the conduct was ''appalling and completely
unacceptable'' and that the department would seek further information from
Serco. The company has also revealed that three other Christmas Island staff,
members of an emergency response team, have been reassigned after breaking
protocol by drinking alcohol. ''During the periods when they are not at work
but on-call, they must remain ready for duty at all times,'' Mr Shaw said of
the stringent physical requirements demanded of team members. ''This
means that they are not permitted to consume any alcohol.'' News of dissent
among staff at the Christmas Island facility comes as the Australian
government faces criticism for operations in its detention centre network,
including the separation of an asylum-seeker woman and her newborn baby.
Refugee advocate Pamela Curr was quick to speak out against the latest
misconduct. ''A sexual relationship between a guard and a detainee is like a
relationship between a student and a teacher, between a doctor and a patient.
The power relationship is such an imbalance it can never be acceptable, it is
exploitative,'' she told the ABC. Serco said it had addressed the problems.
''After our investigation concluded in this matter, we held formal refresher
training sessions for our staff across the immigration detention network,
reinforcing the importance of professional boundaries and respect for the
people in our care,'' Mr Shaw said.
December
12, 2011 The Daily Telegraph
RIOTING asylum seekers have caused almost $20 million in damage to
immigration detention centres - nearly double original estimates. New
Department of Immigration figures show five riots at Villawood in Sydney,
Christmas Island and Darwin have cost an estimated $17.6 million - and that
could rise. The most damage was caused at Villawood with the repair bill
reaching $9.271 million. While insurance will cover much of the costs, the
government revealed it would be liable for the first $1 million of each
claim, or 10 per cent of the total bill. According to documents released last
Friday night, the cost of the Christmas Island riot in March is now estimated
at $5.05 million - double the original figure of $2.5 million. The government
claimed the subsequent riots at Villawood, when inmates set fire to several
buildings a month later, will cost 50 per cent more than the $6 million
originally estimated. There were two riots also at Darwin and another at
Christmas Island. "The total cost of estimated damage across all five
events as of October 14, 2011, is $17,636,366," the department said.
"This estimate is likely to change as quotations for repairs are obtained
and works undertaken." The revised costs follow the release of an
independent report last week which suggested overcrowding was the cause of
the tension and unrest and the trigger for the riots. But, it found no fault
with the Department of Immigration or the detention centre operator, Serco. A
spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said, "This government's
contracts with Serco require it to have full private insurance cover of its
facilities, which is why the costs to the Commonwealth relating to damage
caused at detention centres are so low. "In its hypocritical hysteria,
the Coalition seems to have forgotten its record of passing on the costs of
detention riots to the taxpayer: they had four detention centre riots in a
single month - December 2002 - at a cost of many millions."
November
30, 2011 ABC
The head of the company which runs Australia's detention centres has admitted
that administration staff were told to act as security during the Christmas
Island riots. Serco's chief executive officer David Campbell has been
answering questions before a parliamentary committee in Perth. It is looking
into Serco being awarded a multi-billion dollar contract to provide services
at the city's new Fiona Stanley Hospital. Mr Campbell told the committee that
administration staff formed a perimeter during the Christmas Island riots. He
said they were told to act as observers. Outside the hearing, the union
United Voice said Serco's administrative staff were dressed in the blue polo
t-shirts normally worn by security guards and were put on the front lines.
The union's Dave Kelly says staff were poorly treated. "That they
dressed administrative staff up as security guards and put them on the front
lines, I find that absolutely amazing," he said.
November
30, 2011 The Age
THE Immigration Department was warned severe overcrowding at the detention
centre on Christmas Island would cause a serious incident five months before riots
broke out there. That is the finding of an independent inquiry into the
Christmas Island and Villawood riots, by former public servants Allan Hawke
and Helen Williams. Released yesterday, the report said the failure of the
department to brief Immigration Minister Chris Bowen on the warning until
March 2011 was ''highly regrettable''. The report has described conditions on
Christmas Island before the riots as ''severely compromised'' - with failing
sewerage systems, a ''precarious'' supply of water and access to toilets and
education under stress. Detainee numbers had leapt to 2530 on the island.
Knowledge Consulting warned in October 2010 that safety was compromised,
accommodation was unsuitable and detainees had no meaningful activities. A
freeze on processing Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum claims a year earlier
caused a backlog and ''significant impact on the detention network''. The
inquiry found that adding to this explosive mix was an influx of middle-class
Iranian asylum seekers ''who had higher expectations of service and lower
tolerance for any perceived slowness in processing or inconsistency in
decision-making or failure to achieve a positive result''. Riots on Christmas
Island, sparked on March 11, caused $2.5 million in damages, while riots at Villawood
in Sydney a month later cost $6 million. Serco, the private company that runs
the detention network, was warned of the planned mass escape and riot on
Christmas Island four days earlier, but a teleconference with the Immigration
Department in Canberra dismissed an informant's warning. The report blamed
both riots in part on the detention network's inability to manage a core
group of angry asylum seekers who had been rejected. It said 80 of the 100
detainees identified as taking part in the Christmas Island riot had received
initial rejections and were waiting for a review. Thirteen of the 19 charged
had been rejected as refugees at the first interview. Of the nine detainees
charged over the Villawood riot, all had received a negative primary decision.
The report called for the contract with Serco to be revised to improve
security and co-ordination with police.
September
16, 2011 The Australian
FIREFIGHTERS have repeatedly raised concerns with the government on their
capacity to respond to emergencies at Christmas Island. The Australian
understands concerns were expressed with the Department of Immigration and
Citizenship about the ability of volunteer firefighters to enter violent and
uncontrolled situations inside the centre. The concerns are understood to
have been raised at least once before violent riots in March. Yesterday, a
departmental spokesman rejected the suggestion concerns had been ignored. He
said detention centre operator Serco was required to have appropriate
contingency arrangements to deal with a range of scenarios, including fires.
"Serco works with local emergency services in developing these
arrangements, which are continually reviewed to address any concerns which
may be raised," the spokesman said. The fire brigade, along with the
island's ambulance service, relies solely on volunteers and was on standby
over many nights during the riots, in which detainees set parts of compounds
on fire. Problems with the capacity of Christmas Island's emergency services
to cope with increasing demand - due to the detention centre and associated
influx of workers - are expected to be highlighted in an upcoming
socio-economic report on the impact of detention on the island. The report's
draft findings were detailed to community members at a meeting last week,
where it was revealed there were serious concerns about the capacity of the
fire and ambulance services. Locals interviewed for the report also spoke of
high levels of exhaustion among volunteers. The co-ordinator of the island's
ambulance service, volunteer Barbara Copeland, said call-outs had increased
from five for the whole of 2007 to 50 so far this year. She said 95 per cent
of call-outs this year were related to the island's detention compounds and
included responding to self-harm incidents and evacuations to the hospital or
Perth. Ms Copeland said the island's transient nature made it difficult to
maintain adequate numbers of volunteer workers. The SIEV-221 boat wreck last
December, in which 50 asylum-seekers died, had led some volunteers to walk
away because of burn-out.
September
7, 2011 ABC
A parliamentary committee has heard many of the Christmas Island detention
centre staff have not had the necessary training to deal with detainees' high
rates of self harm and attempted suicide. The committee, which is assessing
the impact of mandatory detention, spent two days inspecting the facilities
and talking to workers there. The committee's deputy chair, Greens Senator
Sarah Hanson-Young says because of the island's remoteness and the stressful
nature of the work, it is difficult to recruit staff with the mental health
skills needed. "Many of the workers in the centres are getting on the
job training yet they are dealing with very vulnerable people," she
said. "We had one man attempt to hang himself while we were visiting the
facility and of course that happens to be a daily occurrence." The
committee will tour the Curtin detention centre in Western Australia's far
north near Derby, today. The joint select committee is visiting detention centres
across Australia, assessing a range of issues relating to the cost, impact
and effectiveness of mandatory detention. The group will also look at the
role of government agencies and private contractors within the detention
network, before making their recommendations to parliament. They are expected
to hold talks with local hospital staff and workers from Serco which operates
the Curtin facility.
September
6, 2011 The Australian
THE refugee lawyer who helped extract a multi-million-dollar payout for
Cornelia Rau from the Howard government is preparing multiple civil lawsuits
on behalf of asylum-seekers who claim they were assaulted and drugged on
Christmas Island during mass escapes and rioting in March. George Newhouse
will also ask West Australian police to investigate alleged assaults,
sedations and wrongful detention of boatpeople as far back as July 2009 when
Labor awarded a five-year contract to security firm Serco. Mr Newhouse told
The Australian he was acting for detainees who had been isolated at Christmas
Island's high-security "behaviour management unit" called Red
Block, had their possessions taken from them and who believed sedatives had
been put in their food without their knowledge. "I have been approached
by a number of former detainees from Christmas Island who say that they were
sedated without their consent and we are putting together a brief for the
West Australian police," he said. Mr Newhouse intends to advertise in
the Arabic and Farsi press for other detainees to come forward. The advertisement,
entitled "A Message to All Former Immigration Detainees", states in
part: "If you were assaulted, had your possessions taken from you,
sedated without your consent and/or moved into restrictive custody, you may
be entitled to pursue your legal rights and entitlements." The push
comes six years after Ms Rau, an Australian resident, won a payout reported
to be $2.6 million over her wrongful detention at Baxter detention centre.
The treatment of Ms Rau, a psychiatric patient, sparked a government inquiry
into the possible wrongful detention of more than 200 people. Mr Newhouse
worked on that case and said yesterday he still had serious concerns about
the use of force on immigration detainees, who were "obviously seriously
mentally unwell". He said he regarded any sedation of anyone without
their knowledge or consent as an assault. The Department of Immigration and
Citizenship was not aware of any instance of detainees being sedated without
their knowledge or consent. "The department requires medical intervention
to occur with the person's consent within immigration detention facilities at
all times. This includes sedation," a spokesman said. The Australian has
been told at least two detainees allege they were assaulted and sedated on
Christmas Island between March 13 and March 17 after being deemed
ringleaders.
August
17, 2011 The Age
THE full extent of despair and unrest in Australia's immigration detention
centres has been exposed, with documents showing 1507 detainees were
hospitalised in the first six months of this year, including 72 psychiatric
hospital admissions, and 213 treated for self-inflicted injuries. The
documents, released to a parliamentary committee by the Department of
Immigration, also show more than 700 detainees were treated for ''voluntary
starvation''. And it emerged that police had been notified 264 times of
possible criminal behaviour in detention centres. The figures were released
as Australia's top immigration bureaucrat last night urged MPs to rethink
mandatory detention of asylum seekers and asked whether the hardline policy
actually deterred boat arrivals. In an extraordinary opening address to the
inquiry last night, Andrew Metcalfe, secretary of the Department of
Immigration and Citizenship, urged a more flexible approach. The inquiry was
instigated by the opposition and Greens, and has begun to lift the veil on
the secretive private contractor, Serco, that runs Australia's detention
centres. Hundreds of pages of data supplied to the inquiry by the department
include the time and nature of every recorded incident inside the nation's 19
detention centres. However, Serco is refusing to state how many staff it
employs at each centre, claiming this is sensitive. The department told last
night's hearing that Serco was not required under its contract to meet any
staff-to-detainee ratios. Mr Metcalfe said Serco was refusing to disclose its
staffing ratios because it was concerned detainees would find out. Last
night's hearing was also told that Serco had been fined every month in 2010-11
for failing to meet contract goals. Serco has reported 871 instances of
inappropriate behaviour towards its staff, and 700 instances of inappropriate
behaviour between detainees. There have been five substantiated complaints
against staff - but no resulting dismissals. In June alone, there were 135
critical incidents across the network, covering multiple serious injuries,
assaults, two escapes and self-harm. Christmas Island is particularly plagued
by suicide attempts. There were 620 self-harm incidents there in the year to
June, including 193 actual acts, 31 serious attempts and 476 threatened acts.
The island's four detention centres were over capacity on 27 occasions.
Hunger strikes were reported at most centres, and at least 17 cases of
children starving themselves were noted in the past year. The surge in
incidents began in mid-2010, coinciding with a rise in boat arrivals.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the data revealed the
detention system had collapsed, with the government sitting ''in policy
denial'' while centres filled. Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young said she
wanted more details, including the daily cost of operating the network. Mr
Metcalfe said rising unrest, self-harm and suicide were unfortunate and sad,
but ''defy simple solutions''.
July
28, 2011 Big Pond News
An inquiry into the mental health of those in Aust's immigration detention
centres has begun. The commonwealth ombudsman has launched an inquiry into
suicide and self-harm in Australia's immigration detention centres. Allan
Asher witnessed the deteriorating mental health of asylum seekers when he
visited Christmas Island in June. In the week the ombudsman visited the
detention centre there were more than 30 incidents of self-harm by detainees
there. "This reflects an upsurge in the number of incidents of self-harm
and attempted suicide reported to IHMS (International Health and Medical
Services) across all immigration detention facilities," Mr Asher said on
Thursday. "My investigation will assess the extent of this tragic
problem." It would examine the root causes, and consider practical steps
that the department and its service providers Serco and IHMS should take to
identify and manage those at risk of suicide and self-harm. Mr Asher wants
the investigation to give evidence-based, expert-endorsed advice on
guidelines and protocols for reducing the number of suicide and self-harm
incidents. The ombudsman hopes to release the results of his inquiry by the
end of 2011.
July
22, 2011 The West Australian
EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE FROM THE ONLY NEWS TEAM ON THE GROUND: Asylum seekers
detained on Christmas Island began rioting for the third night last night,
only hours after Australian Federal Police reinforcements arrived, and amid
increasing speculation the Federal Government has finalised an asylum swap
deal with Malaysia. Fires were burning within the North West Point centre,
including one on the roof of a building. Detainees could be clearly heard
yelling in unison, but their words were indecipherable and many men could be seen
pacing around the centre. A detainee from inside the centre told The West
Australian that the men at the heart of the protest had raided the Green Two
compound and put bags and plastic chairs on the roof and set fire to them. He
said small fires had been lit inside parts of the centre. It is understood
that Serco officers who worked yesterday's day shift were held back last
night to help quell the protests. The Government is expected to announce a
deal with Malaysia as early as Monday. Under a deal announced by Prime
Minister Julia Gillard in May, Malaysia will take up to 800 asylum seekers
arriving by boat, in return for Australia accepting 4000 processed refugees.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said today the Malaysia agreement was a bad
deal. "I don't think it's going to stop the boats," Mr Abbott told
the Nine Network. "It's now two-and-a-half months since the so-called
Malaysia deal was announced and I think in that time we have had 10 boats and
more than 500 people arrive." Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said
yesterday the violence at the island's detention centre was inappropriate
after 20 to 40 detainees caused major damage. He said mattresses and a
temporary building were torched before Federal police moved in to quell the
riots using tear gas and bean bag bullets. "This is way out of
line," Mr Bowen said. He said rioters achieved nothing except risking
jail. An Iraqi detainee in his late 40s described by phone yesterday his fear
during the riots as asylum seekers vented anger at delays in getting visas.
He said he had been in detention on the island more than a year and though
not in the riots, he understood why some chose violent protests. A department
spokeswoman said applications were assessed case by case and some took longer
because they were more complex.
July
22, 2011 Australian
ASYLUM seekers at Christmas Island's detention centre lit fires and destroyed
property for the third evening in a row last night. Tensions boiled over
about 8.30pm local time, with estimates around 100 detainees were involved in
the destruction. A mattress was reportedly set alight on the roof of one of
the compounds and bins were also set on fire. The island's local fire brigade
was called along with Australian Federal Police officers. The AFP fired tear
gas and bean bag bullets inside the detention centre during protests on
Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Last night a detainee from inside the centre
told The Australian Online, "The situation here is very bad.''
"There's no security, it's not safe. Many people make trouble, make
doors smash,'' the man who did not want to be named said. "At night the
policemen have tear gas.'' The stateless asylum seeker said around 600 men
had had their claims for asylum rejected and this had created frustration.
"They have been here a long time and got rejected without reason ...
They can't stay in detention like animals waiting, waiting with no justice.''
He said he wanted Australians to examine the reasons why the detainees were
rioting and not simply ask who had participated. A spokesman from the
Department of Immigration and Citizenship confirmed last night that "a
few small fires'' had been lit. "The department can confirm that there
is an incident underway,'' he said. "Our focus currently and that of the
detention centre services provider is on doing what we can to bring the
situation under control with the assistance of the AFP and local fire
service,'' he said. The recent protests have seen detention centre
"guards'' with just weeks of training being called upon to handcuff
Christmas Island's most volatile detainees and fit them with soft helmets
before locking them in isolation cells known as Red Block.
July
13, 2011 The Australian
THE company running Australia's immigration detention centres is incurring
unsustainable fines from the Department of Immigration for breaches of its
$712 million contract, according to a leaked email from Serco's senior
operations manager at the Christmas Island detention centre. An escape on
July 1 -- about three months after Australian Federal Police were sent to
bolster the security at the centre and insist that electric perimeter fences
be switched on -- is the latest in a string of breaches that will cost Serco
dearly. The company last week appointed a full-time security manager to
prevent further escapes. Guards are now stationed on the perimeter of the
centre under beach umbrellas on 12-hour shifts, complaining it is too hot and
that shade falls on the other side of the fence for several hours each day.
Serco's senior operations manager for the detention centre, Steve Southgate,
addressed colleagues about continued breaches in an email last Monday.
"We can no longer remain where we are," he said. "We are
getting fined for things that should have been completed. We are getting
fined for not paying attention to the detail. We are getting fined for not
doing what we have said we will do. We need to change our culture to a
proactive culture and get ourselves out of this reactive blame culture."
Mr Southgate arrived on the island after mass breakouts, unrest and rioting
in March that led to the AFP taking over the centre temporarily. Those
incidents are likely to have resulted in substantial fines -- called
abatements -- for Serco, though the firm's contract stipulates that fines are
capped at 5 per cent of whatever the company gets paid that month for running
the centre where the breaches occurred. The 5 per cent cap does not apply if
the breaches are deemed "significant or continuous".
June
24, 2011 The West Australian
Security guards patrolling the Christmas Island detention centre are
routinely given a knife specifically designed to cut down detainees who have
tried to hang themselves. In a rare insight into the conditions security
officers face on a daily basis, a former security guard at the centre told
The West Australian his colleagues were turning to alcohol to block out the
emotional turmoil of caring for detainees on the island. The guard said
during induction he was introduced to the "Hoffman" knife and told:
"Before a month is out, at least four of you guards are going to have to
use this knife to cut someone down." "That just freaked me out. I
went from being a run of the mill security guard to doing this," he
said. He said that was one of the many reasons he had quit his job with MSS
Security, despite being paid $120,000 a year. He said his departure from the
island was also fuelled by "disgusting" accommodation, long shifts,
a lack of training and racism some guards displayed towards detainees. Guards
were drinking a lot of cheap alcohol to deal with the stress, with many
calling in sick when "they hit the wall," he said. Christmas Island
Workers Union secretary Kaye Bernard confirmed each guard was required to
clip a Hoffman knife to their belt but said there were often not enough to go
around. She said one guard had broken down in tears when he told her about
having to cut down a detainee who tried to hang himself. A Serco spokesman
said all staff in key accommodation areas at detention centres across the
country would have access to a rescue knife, basic first aid equipment and a
radio. The guard was also upset his complaints to Serco, DIAC and MSS, about
a another guard being racist towards refugees, had not been acted upon. But
the Serco spokesman said an investigation found nothing to substantiate
claims of racism.
June
10, 2011 The Age
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says calm has been restored at the Christmas
Island Detention Centre and only two asylum seekers are persisting with a
rooftop protest following an evening of riots on the island. Australian
Federal Police officers used bean-bag bullets and capsicum spray were called
in to quell a riot among 100 detainees last night. The federal police have
confirmed the force was deployed at the North West Point detention centre
after detainees began throwing projectiles at police and security guards. A
federal police spokeswoman said the detainees had armed themselves with metal
poles fashioned from sporting equipment and concrete. "During
negotiations, some of the protesters began throwing projectiles at police and
security guards. The AFP deployed less than lethal munitions, including
chemical munitions, a bean-bag round and distraction devices, to restore
order," the spokeswoman said. Police were called to the detention centre
by the Immigration Department and Serco at 11pm yesterday. An Immigration
Department spokeswoman said the disturbance involved two compounds of the
facility, and did not involve all detainees at the centre.
June
3, 2011 The Daily Telegraph
A SAFETY order was issued to the federal government less than three weeks
before riots broke out at the Villawood detention centre, warning that
sections of the facility posed a serious safety and security risk. The
Improvement Notice issued by Comcare, and tabled in Parliament on Wednesday,
also warned the detention centre at the time could not cope with transfers of
potentially violent asylum seekers from Christmas Island. It said Villawood
had a "lower level" of health and safety and security. It also
discovered broken and missing security cameras and found Serco staff did not
have proper training to deal with asylum seekers. "There are likely to
be significant risk to health and safety associated with the relocation of
the Christmas Island detainees to the Villawood IDF," the April 1 report
warned. The release of the report came as parliament yesterday voted to begin
a joint inquiry into mandatory detention and the Villawood and Christmas
Island riots. The Comcare document raised concerns specifically about the
transfer of 10 asylum seekers involved in Christmas Island riots to
Villawood. But the government claimed that none of the detainees involved in
the Christmas Island riots was involved in the riot at Villawood. Those
transferred to Villawood were under lock and key at the western Sydney
facility's high security Blaxland compound when the riot broke out in a
neighbouring compound. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen's spokesman last
night confirmed the Minister was aware of the issues raised by Comcare at the
time. "The government only approved the transfer of the clients from
Christmas Island after evidence was provided to Comcare that appropriate risk
management measures were in place," he said. "These were in place
by the allotted deadline, before the transfer occurred and well before the
incidents at Villawood." Comcare had ordered the department to take
action within three days to begin training staff and to repair the security
and the safety breaches. Comcare deputy CEO Steve Kibble this week said that
a follow-up investigation on May 24 found it was "generally"
satisfied with the Immigration Department's response to fixing the problems.
But opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said that the report
should have been a "flashing light" for the government. "(The
government) were warned not to proceed but they went ahead anyway," Mr
Morrison said. "What disturbs me about this is that a department was
forced to cut corners as pressure continued to mount from the government's
failed border protection policies. It also shows the significant pressure the
network was already under prior to the riots."
June
2, 2011 ABC News
In a series of explosive allegations, two former employees of the private
security firm which has a $756 million contract with the Federal Government
claim fines for contract breaches at detention centres are being pushed to
the side "for political reasons". The employees have also detailed
lax security practices at the Christmas Island detention centre. The
Government fines the security firm, Serco, for any breach of its contract,
which can include detainee escapes, riots, or untimely transport escorts. But
despite an extensive audit system, the Christmas Island insiders claim the
financial penalties, or abatements, are not always recouped by the Department
of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC). "The monthly abatements ran into
the many hundreds of thousands of dollars [on Christmas Island] but when it
would reach up into the cluster management or regional manager level, they
would sort it out with DIAC and nothing would ever come to pass,'' a former
Serco manager told ABC's Online Investigative Unit. "The view among
senior management on the ground, who were worried about it, was that they
were sweeping it under the table, probably for political reasons, as they
probably didn't want it getting around how bad the situation was there.
"When it got really bad, the amount mentioned that Serco were going to
be abated [on Christmas Island] was $1.5 million, and always at the end of
the month after they had the final abatement meeting, but it would just be
pushed off to the side. "I'm sure there's a lot at stake to make it look
like Serco is coping or just coping but it is just wrong for Australian
taxpayers that these people are gilding the lily." In response to the
allegations, a DIAC spokesperson said the abatements could not fall through
the cracks. "The Department of Immigration and Citizenship follows up
all breaches at all immigration detention facilities and these are taken very
seriously." DIAC serves abatements against Serco once a month for
unfulfilled contractual obligations yet these are "commercial in
confidence" and not publicly disclosed. Serco did not return calls to
the ABC prior to publication. Waste of money -- One former Serco employee
alleges a range of contractual obligations were not being met on Christmas
Island but that DIAC was unaware. "The wastage of money and lack of
accountability was concerning. [Serco] staff could put down extra hours and
they wouldn't even know where staff were - people claiming wages and they
weren't even on the island," the former employee said. The allegations
coincide with calls by the Opposition for a parliamentary inquiry into
Australia's immigration detention system. The call is backed by the Greens
and by independent MP Andrew Wilkie. The Greens also want a broader inquiry
into mandatory detention and requested that DIAC table Serco abatements in
last week's Senate estimates hearing. "You wouldn't have to be too
clever to find a whole host of financial and human resource mismanagement, it
would be plain to see," the former Serco manager said. "They would
just have to ask for the records of the contract management meetings. They
are all minuted and recorded, pages and pages of evidence." It is
understood that acts of non-compliance such as the escapes, riots and fires
at Christmas Island in mid-March incur some of the highest penalties.
"There were the times when there were the big escapes and the damages
occurring," the whistleblower continued. "Certainly the figures
raised at meetings that I attended, there was the potential to be abated well
over $1 million. That's for one month." The other insider added:
"You could be greeted by a security officer sitting and having a
cigarette and that's when you walked in the gate. And I'd say, 'Well, aren't
you going to search my bag?' It was just not up to scratch. "You were
not supposed to take cameras into the property. I had a camera in my bag
since day one. People are supposed to X-ray your bag coming and going. No.
Not always. "There were a whole heap of people wandering outside the
camps almost on a daily basis, at will. What they were saying is that these
people had escaped because the fences weren't secure. "But what was
occurring and it was common knowledge among the people there - is that there
were people [detainees] who were just wandering in and out of the
camps." In last week's Senate estimate hearings, Greens Senator Sarah
Hanson-Young drew attention to the lack of transparency of the contract,
breaches and abatements. DIAC official Fiona Lynch-Magor responded: "The
Serco contract provides significant capability for the Department to ensure
that the contract is appropriately administered." "We certainly
have abated Serco [in] the period of this contract on many occasions for
their failure to deliver the contract but it is not recorded in a recordable
manner, as in X number of breaches this financial year, because of the way
the abatements work." The Serco whistleblower says a paper trail would
not be hard to locate. "All somebody needs to say to DIAC is, we would
like to see a copy of their minutes from the abatement meetings that are held
every Thursday at approximately 2:00pm [on Christmas Island]."
May
26, 2011 ABC News
Two private security whistleblowers say it is only a matter of time before an
under-qualified or under-resourced colleague is partly responsible for the
death of a suicidal detainee on Christmas Island. Current and former
employees of contractor Serco fear soaring asylum seeker self-harm rates,
combined with staff who are stretched beyond their capacities, could soon
prove fatal at the immigration detention centre. The ABC investigative unit
has obtained confidential documents dated April 27, April 29, May 6 and May
11, 2011, detailing 50 incidents including suicidal intent among asylum
seekers, attempted hangings, self-harm with intent, homicidal thoughts and
self-mutilation. "Serco had protocols to follow in respect to suicide
watch and keeping them [unstable detainees] in separate areas but that wasn't
occurring at all,'' the former Serco employee said. "They [Serco]
certainly didn't have enough people trained to do a specified job like
monitoring people who were on suicide watch - they just weren't qualified to
do that. "There was a whole recording system too where these things had
to be logged, and they just weren't being recorded. "We just didn't have
the people to do it." The revelations come as an Australian Human Rights
Commission report on Sydney's Villawood detention centre detailed extensive
problems of self-harm and depression among detainees. Serco said it was not
policy to comment or divulge protocol for dealing with suicidal detainees. It
is understood, however, that suicidal tendencies should be picked up and
reported on each client's personal file. All self-harm clients are to be
reported and accessed by psychiatric nurses. Clients on suicide watch are
isolated and monitored by a dedicated staff member who signs off on
inspections. In the most serious cases, detainees are taken to the local medical
centre or hospital for treatment. The current Serco employee believes it is
"a matter of time" until a tragedy occurs, and claims there have
been 241 cases of attempted self-harm by detainees in Christmas Island
immigration detention facilities in April. The ABC has been unable to verify
this figure. Last week, ABC News Online reported allegations by detainees at
Villawood detention centre in Sydney that an inadequate response from guards
forced them to use a cigarette lighter to try to save the life of a man who
had attempted suicide earlier this year. Detainees say they tried to burn
through the rope Ahmed Al Akabi had used to take his own life. Serco declined
to comment on the allegations but in a statement to the ABC following the
report, said it ran a comprehensive staff training program that goes beyond
its contractual obligations. "Serco is committed to doing everything we
can to prevent those in our care from coming to harm," the statement
said. "Our staff take this commitment extremely seriously and work hard
to keep those in our care safe and secure." Protocol -- But the former
Serco employee insists staff are not appropriately qualified, nor do they
have a suitable guard-to-detainee ratio to always carry out recommended
protocol. "To escort one person over from one camp to the medical centre
was a whole logistics exercise in itself, especially on occasions when there
might be only two officers to look after 600 or so clients in a camp,"
they said. "Sometimes they just didn't have the people available.
"DIAC (the Department of Immigration and Citizenship) would say to us,
'well, that suicide person was reported at such and such time', there was a
timeline - sometimes it would be hours, sometimes even days out of date - to
escort them to the local hospital or the medical centre." "There
was another time when [Serco] were putting people into an empty dining room
where there was an officers' station and the officers would watch them
through the glass. "The officers wanted to cover up the glass because they
didn't want to be watching the inmates all the time or have the inmates
watching them." The Opposition intends to introduce a motion calling for
a parliamentary inquiry into the nation's immigration detention centres.
May
25, 2011 ABC
The Immigration Department says riots at the Christmas Island and Villawood
detention centres are estimated to have caused about $9 million in damage. A
number of buildings were destroyed during violent protests at both centres
earlier this year. Department spokeswoman Fiona Lynch-Magor told a Senate
hearing the company that runs the centres, Serco, will make an insurance
claim for the damage. "We've made some early assessments of what we
think those costs will be with our insurer," she said. "But Serco
will be pursuing the insurance with their own insurer." The Immigration
Department also says there were not enough federal police on Christmas Island
to arrest asylum seekers who escaped from the detention centre during
protests earlier this year. A large group of asylum seekers broke through the
detention centre fence during the riots and the Senate hearing heard they
were offered a lift back to the detention centre. Department spokeswoman
Jackie Wilson says it was not possible to arrest the group. "The numbers
of police on the island and the need to secure the airport as a priority did
not enable us to have sufficient AFP on the island to do that," she
said. "We were trying to do it in a peaceful way which required working
with the clients rather than using AFP, which were being used for another
purpose at the time." The Opposition says the lack of federal police
left the island in a vulnerable position. Opposition immigration spokesman
Scott Morrison says it backs his argument for a parliamentary inquiry into
the detention network. "[It's] very concerning that there were not
sufficient police on the island when things broke out," he said.
"What makes [this] worse is the department confirmed that the number and
type of incidents were escalating and getting more serious, which was a clear
indication that things were ... [the] temperature was rising and things were
getting out of hand." The Government has already established a number of
inquiries into the detention network.
May
6, 2011 Big Pond
A Christmas Island detention centre guard has accused management of a series
of cover-ups. The guard said Serco, a private company that runs Australia's
detention centres, was keeping the immigration department in the dark about
the problems it faces at its facilities. Choosing to remain anonymous, he
told ABC television on Thursday a management officer shredded a report
detailing an incident in which he was attacked. 'You might get an unruly
detainee, and Immigration will say Oh no, you can't do anything, you can't
touch him' even if he pushes you, shoves ya, you just look at him,' the guard
said. 'If you write him up, sometimes it goes into Bin 13 - and that's it.'
He said Bin 13 was code among staff for the shredder. Asked if such cover-ups
were a regular occurrence, he replied: 'I'd say so.' The man also accused
Serco of inflating staff numbers and having guards on the rosters that didn't
exist. 'Yep, they're not on the island, but they're on the roster.' The guard
said he and his colleagues sometimes would go to work drunk, but were never punished
because of the worker shortage. The ABC broadcast statements from two other
Serco guards who agreed staff numbers were low. One said that during a riot
in February, there had been 15 guards watching over 2500 detainees. Serco has
been contacted for comment. The cover-up claims come as Immigration Minister
Chris Bowen was forced to rebuke his department for not alerting him to the
discovery of a homemade bomb at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre. He
conceded he should have been alerted when the primitive device was found in
March, just a month before a riot and major fire broke out, damaging nine
buildings.
May
10, 2011 The Australian
THERE are now tensions among guards as well as detainees on Christmas Island.
Up to 100 untrained casual detention workers at the centre claim they are
doing the same work as qualified security officers but are paid about $800 a
week less. Serco, the company chosen to run Australia's immigration detention
centres, is battling a shortage of workers on the remote island and has grown
concerned by recent resignations and dissatisfaction among the lower-paid
workforce employed by subcontractor MSS. Serco has begun recruiting MSS
workers in a bid to quell disquiet and prevent further resignations, The
Australian has been told. "We're the ones doing all the work while Serco
workers get the good pay," one MSS worker told The Australian.
"Some Serco officers are sympathetic but some just lord it over you
because you haven't done the Serco course. We're not even supposed to have contact
with the clients (detainees) and we're running the place." Under
Australian law, detention centre officers who interact with asylum-seekers in
detention must complete a training course that usually takes six weeks. The
arrival of untrained security subcontractors from MSS on Christmas Island
last year helped Serco fill positions at the main detention centre and other
camps as the boat arrivals rose. But The Australian has been told the move
took the Department of Immigration and Citizenship by surprise. "DIAC
didn't know they were here, on the island, already working," one
immigration worker said. Serco employs more than 100 Christmas Islanders but
dissatisfaction built up between the fly-in, fly-out workers after the MSS
staff discovered their Serco colleagues had extra benefits. These include a
"living away from home" allowance of $103 a day and a daily
allowance if they shared a room with another guard.
April
19, 2011 ABC Radio Australia News
New allegations have surfaced that staff at Australia's Christmas Island
detention centre are being pressured not to report troublesome incidents.
Kaye Bernard from the Christmas Island Workers union claims the company that
manages the facility, Serco, has instructed workers not to report incidents,
including self-harm. Ms Bernard claims it's because the company doesn't want
to be fined by the Government if its found to have breached its contractual
obligations. "They've certainly instructed some of our members that they
will not, that they will not tolerate them reporting incidents as they are
required to do over the contract with DIAC and if you do report incidents you
get a window seat, you get flown off the island," she said. In a
statement Serco has strongly denied the allegation.
March
26, 2011 The West Australian
Asylum seekers involved in violent protests on Christmas Island armed
themselves with riot gear including shields and handcuffs stolen from
detention centre security guards. The West Australian has confirmed detainees
managed to seize dangerous "restraint equipment" after storming one
of the centre's administration buildings early in the riots. Stolen equipment
included specialist riot shields, plastic flexi-handcuffs and protective
equipment. The equipment was taken from the stores of the detention service
provider Serco. "Some detainees are believed to have gained access to
restraint equipment, including helmets and shields. All items were
subsequently recovered or accounted for," Immigration Minister Chris
Bowen's spokesman said. As well as the riot equipment, detainees are known to
have armed themselves with broom handles and pool cues and a kind of
accelerant described by some as a form of Molotov cocktail.
March
23, 2011 Big Pond News
Federal police have arrested two men in the jungle on Christmas Island during
a search for escaped detainees following break-outs and riots at the
detention centre. The arrests follow conflicting government statements on
whether all detainees had been accounted for after police regained control of
the centre. On Tuesday, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said a first head
count at the centre had not tallied, so a second count, matching detainees
with their photos, was being conducted by the centre's private operator
Serco. As that count was under way, AFP Operations Commander Rob Gilliland
told reporters on the island that two men were taken into custody by AFP
officers conducting searches near the Northwest Point detention centre on
Tuesday morning. The officers 'found these two individuals in the jungle', he
said. Mass break-outs preceded last week's riots, in which accommodation
marquees and small buildings were burnt down as police used tear gas and
'bean-bag bullets' to quell rioters throwing molotov cocktails and rocks. At
least two break-outs occurred, one involving a perimeter fence being pushed
down, and up to 170 detainees roamed the island, heightening safety fears in
the Christmas Island community. Police, who now number 189 on the island,
have secured the centre, imposing a night-time curfew and electrifying a
security fence.
March
22, 2011 The Australian
THE former manager of the Christmas Island detention centre wrote to his boss
at Serco five months before last week's riots, urging the company to hire
more staff to tackle security and safety failures at the overcrowded
facility. The staffing proposal document written last October by then centre
manager, Ray Wiley, urged Serco, which operates all the detention centres, to
hire more personnel and "provide proactive intervention rather than
reactive damage control". The document, obtained by The Australian,
details chronic overcrowding at Christmas Island's main detention centre,
including 144 detainees housed in classrooms, 92 in storerooms, 30 in a
visiting area and 240 in tents. In his letter, Mr Wiley, who has since left
Serco, claims the detention centre was "typically 15 staff short per
day" and says "even if all posts were filled, we would
struggle". "This in itself does not enable confidence in being able
to manage the centre in a controlled and ordered manner, affording a safe
environment for staff, clients and visitors to the centre," he says.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. .End of sidebar. Return to start of
sidebar. After violent rioting last Thursday night in which parts of the centre
were burned to the ground, the Immigration Department asked the Australian
Federal Police to take over control of the facility from Serco, which has a
$370 million a year contract to run Australia's detention centres. Julia
Gillard warned yesterday that the asylum-seekers involved in the riots would
not go unpunished, saying they should face criminal charges. After taking
charge of security at the problem-plagued centre, the AFP has switched on the
electric fences and yesterday patrolled the compound with a tactical police
dog to move detainees to their assigned areas. Some detainees have been
refusing to move to the main compounds from the burnt-out remains of the Aqua
and Lilac compounds at the edge of the centre. There are fears up to 20
escaped detainees are camping out in the jungle, eating robber crabs, and
yesterday AFP operational commander Chris Lines acknowledged that an official
head-count had not been completed. "What I can report is that it was
another calm night at the centre, the third calm night in succession,"
Deputy Superintendent Lines said. Serco was reportedly fined more than $4m
for contract breaches earlier this year. Rosters obtained by The Australian
this month show that on some night shifts since November, there have been
fewer than 10 guards in compounds holding about 1600 men.
March
19, 2011 The Australian
THE rioting detainees on Christmas Island have been warned that they face
20-year jail terms and having their asylum bids rejected, as the government
tries to end six days of running battles with federal police that have left
the detention centre in burnt-out ruins. The rioting sparked a renewed
political battle yesterday, with the Greens describing the border protection
system as having reached breaking point and the Coalition demanding the
government suspend the asylum applications of the rioters to send a message
to other asylum-seekers. The $400 million detention centre built by the
Howard government was a scene of devastation yesterday, with tents and other
accommodation burnt to the ground. A group of 280 non-violent detainees were
being sheltered from others who had allegedly pressured them into joining the
uprising. The centre's contractor, Serco, was yesterday using barbecues to
feed detainees because of damage to the kitchens where meals are prepared for
almost 3000 asylum-seekers. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen rejected
opposition claims that Christmas Island was out of control, saying he was
satisfied the AFP had taken stewardship of the detention facility. He
appointed two former senior bureaucrats to review the performance of his
department and Serco. Describing the violence as inexcusable, Mr Bowen said
he had the power to reject visa applications on the basis of conduct and
character, in a clear warning to the ringleaders that their activities could
cost them asylum even if they are not charged. Mr Bowen told The Weekend
Australian yesterday jail time for the rioters would not be ruled out.
March
1, 2011 The Age
THIRTEEN people were injured, windows were smashed and three asylum seekers
were arrested during a riot at the crowded Christmas Island detention centre
at the weekend. Federal police used capsicum spray to subdue some of those
involved in the fracas, which led to several young Afghans being separated
from other asylum seekers and locked in a dining room overnight for their own
protection. Sources said the altercation was similar to a violent incident
earlier last month at another facility, the Darwin Airport Lodge, where
hundreds of asylum seekers are being held. While the catalyst is believed to
be tension between Afghan Hazara boys and the protective fathers of girls in
the centre, advocates say the violence is the consequence of frustration over
indefinite detention, cramped conditions and inadequate facilities. Many of
the unaccompanied minors are unable to attend school on the island. All are
denied access to the community oval adjacent to the centre because of a
dispute with the local cricket club.
February
4, 2011 The Age
INTERPRETERS for asylum seekers on Christmas Island have been working without
accreditation or translating experience. A Melbourne interpreter said
unqualified staff were ill-equipped to deal with asylum seekers' issues
dispassionately. ''Some of the interpreters are not competent because they
are not actually interpreters,'' the source, who had worked on Christmas
Island, said. ''It's not up to Immigration. They are desperate. The number of
clients has gone up and demand is shocking.'' For certain dialects, the
interpreter said, it was impossible to meet demand from the pool of trained
professionals within Australia. The comments follow a report by the
Commonwealth Ombudsman, Allan Asher, which found asylum seekers had been
assigned interpreters who did not speak their language and were recording
incorrect information on their asylum claims. Amnesty International Australia
said the problems were common to detention centres in Darwin and at Curtin in
Western Australia.
December
2, 2010 Daily Telegraph
THE Department of Immigration is investigating a brawl which broke out
between 100 asylum seekers, some teenagers, at Christmas Island Detention
Centre. Just before 10pm (WST) on Monday, a fight broke out at the detention
centre's construction camp involving Iraqi, Iranian, Afghan asylum seekers
and Indonesian boat crew. A Department spokesman said the construction camp
is where many of the unaccompanied minors who arrive at Christmas Island are
held and the brawl did involve teenagers. "It was just a bit of a
scuffle between a bunch of teenagers really and it was brought under control
fairly quickly," he said. Three detainees suffered minor injuries as a
result of the fight and were taken to hospital after being assessed by the
detention centre's health service providers. Police were called and the
Department ordered a full investigation and report into the brawl by the
centre's service provider Serco.
September
13, 2010 The Australian
A VIOLENT and bloody riot erupted between Sri Lankan and Afghan detainees at
Christmas Island’s detention centre one hour after guards decided it was safe
to re-open security doors separating the brawling ethnic groups. The riot on
November 21 last year involved up to 200 men and saw Sri Lankan
asylum-seekers brandish metal soccer goalposts and attack a vastly
outnumbered group of Afghan detainees, prosecutors allege. Opening the
Commonwealth’s case today against five Sri Lankan men charged with
participating in a riot and possessing a weapon, Ron Davies QC said four
hours before the rampage a violent argument between Sri Lankans and Afghans
resulted in security doors being closed. The doors separated detainees from
accommodation compounds and a communal recreation area. Mr Davies said the
doors re-opened around 7pm and about an hour later tensions boiled over and
the riot began, resulting in 50 people being injured. “Clients (detainees)
were attacking each other with anything and everything they could, buckets,
pool cues, mops, brooms, chairs,” Serco operations manager Mark Bonccorso
told Perth Magistrates Court today. Mr Bonccorso - whose employer managed the
centre for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship - said after the
initial argument he spoke to the detainees involved who told him the problem
was resolved. When the security doors were raised he assured two Afghan
detainees that they could return to their compound because the Sri Lankans
had told him “it was over”. But Mr Bonccorso told magistrate Steve Malley
that when the riot broke out he saw one of the Afghan men he had previously
reassured with severe facial injuries. “He approached me and said to me, ‘you
said it would be safe’,” he said. He told the court that at one point there
was at least 100 Sri Lankans moving towards 40 Afghans, some of whom were
trying to retreat. “(Sri Lankans) had got towards the goal posts and they had
physically ripped them apart to arm themselves with metal bars... they
started to advance to the Afghans,” he said. Mr Bonccorso said he saw one
Afghan man who was not participating in the riot struck in the head from
behind by a Sri Lankan armed with a tree stump. He said he and other guards
tried to break up the riot by arming themselves with sticks and trying to
deflect blows between the asylum-seekers. “My impression was the Afghans were
losing and losing pretty badly,” he said.
August
17, 2010 The Australian
IMMIGRATION officers are investigating how a Kurdish detainee escaped from
Christmas Island's Detention Centre for at least nine hours today. He is back
in the centre tonight after the Australian Federal Police found him about
500m from the boundary at 3.30pm local time (6.30pm AEST). The AFP took him
to the local hospital, and he had no apparent injuries. The Immigration
Department has ordered a report of the incident from the contractor running
the centre, Serco, after a headcount at 7am yesterday confirmed someone was
unaccounted for. Serco will be fined if the escape is found to have resulted
from lax work practices or incompetence. Serco initially believed the man
escaped by digging a hole under a perimeter fence, taking a pillow and a
blanket with him into inhospitable jungle. In April, a man escaped from the
centre by scaling two high fences. A department spokeswoman said the method
of the most recent escape was still being investigated, but there was no
evidence to show he dug himself out.
May
4, 2010 The Australian
A DISGRUNTLED detainee left his tent, scaled two wire fences and stalked
off into thick jungle on Christmas Island last Friday, sparking an Australian
Federal Police operation and warnings to detention centre staff not to speak
about the security breach. The man was seen about 10.30am (WST) escaping from
the $400 million Immigration Detention Centre, built by the Howard government
with security akin to a maximum-security prison. He was spotted climbing an
electric fence that The Australian understands was not activated. He was
picked up by the AFP close to the centre about 2.30pm (local time). The
Department of Immigration and Citizenship refused to answer questions about
whether the fences were electrified, or had been since the Rudd Government
placed the first detainees in the centre in December 2008. But a spokesman
for the Department said the man had been gone for about an hour, between
about 1.30pm and 2.30pm. "He was monitored while he was out," the
spokesman said. The department and contractor Serco has told workers not to
talk about the escape. Escaping from the detention centre is almost certainly
futile; the tiny island is 2700km by sea from Perth. Anyone who breaks out
faces sheer cliffs in one direction, jungle in another and a 20km walk to a
settlement where they would stand out. The escape comes amid increasing
anxiety among detainees about an apparent toughening of the Department's
approach. As the man bolted, a group of Afghans inside the centre was
protesting against a decision to reject 25 of them for visas. The rejections
came as a shock because no Afghan asylum-seeker arriving by boat has been
sent home by the Rudd Government. But Immigration Minister Chris Evans has
hinted that more rejections are imminent.
March
12, 2010 The Australian
PROSECUTORS are unsure whether they have sufficient evidence against 11
asylum-seekers charged over a riot inside the Immigration Detention Centre on
Christmas Island in November. The commonwealth revealed its uncertainty about
the case at the Christmas Island courthouse yesterday when the nine Sri
Lankan men and two Afghanis made their first appearances to answer charges of
taking part in a riot and wielding weapons, including a chair. They all
pleaded not guilty after arriving under guard in a minibus from the Phosphate
Hill detention compound. Prosecutor Joel Grinceri told the court the
commonwealth needed more time to assess the evidence and find out about the
availability of witnesses to the riot. "The commonwealth DPP is not in
possession of all relevant material from the Australian Federal Police to
enable proper consideration of the sufficiency of the evidence and the
possible approach to prosecute these persons," Mr Grinceri said. The
Australian understands CCTV footage of some crucial parts of the rioting
either does not exist or is of poor quality. Julian Burnside QC has been
asked to represent the asylum-seekers if the matters go to trial.
"Identification will be a major issue in this case," Mr Burnside
told The Australian. "The role of Serco (the contractor that runs the
detention centre and supplies guards) in the disturbance will also be an
issue."
February
27, 2010 Green Left Weekly
An asylum seeker accused of rioting in the Christmas Island detention
centre on November 21 recently contacted a refugee advocate about living
conditions inside. The refugee advocate asked Green Left Weekly to withhold both
their name. At the trial of the accused rioters on January 20, the magistrate
did not issue orders to move them. Yet the accused were moved to “red
compound”. The asylum seeker said they felt violated by surveillance cameras
in the toilets, and complained about this. They have since been moved to the
centre’s “alpha compound”. There are no surveillance cameras in the toilets
at the alpha compound, but it is more crowded. The asylum seeker said he was
in a 12-by-10 foot room with two others. It was too small to fit a table or
cupboard, or to display religious items. He said they were not allowed out to
the oval, church or the pool. They were surrounded by an electric fence. They
had access to mobile phones in red compound, but they are banned in alpha compound.
There are two computers for 100 people. He wrote: “We can’t inform this
message [to] anybody, so I inform you: what can we do?” He was distraught
about the fate of his family, fearful of his fate in detention, and desperate
to continue tertiary studies. He was very appreciative of what practical help
the refugee advocate could provide, which was to send him books on learning
English. That there was a need to send books suggests little had changed
since a 2003 report characterised the detention centre’s library services to
asylum seekers as “leftovers and scraps”. The living conditions sounded like
a Siberian prison camp under Stalin. Serco, the company that runs the
privatised detention centre, refused to speak to GLW. However, a Department
of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) spokesperson answered some questions by
email. DIAC advised that if refugees are unhappy with their living conditions
they can “raise such issues with the detention services provider”. The
refugee advocate told GLW that the ombudsman plans to visit the island. It is
not clear if the ombudsman will have access to complaints. There is a higher
security area known as “red compound”. Surveillance of toilet areas is used
only if inmates pose a very high risk to themselves or others. Alpha compound
is an “ordinary holding area”, DIAC told GLW. Asylum seekers are given 50
credit points (worth about $1) per week with which they can purchase items
such as cigarettes or phone cards to use with fixed phones. According to
DIAC, many of the books available were “sourced from the Christmas Island
local school, while some books, magazines and newspapers have been donated by
people living on the island”. However, a “large order” of Tamil books that
includes novels, cricket books and magazines had just been delivered. Given
the serious gap between the asylum seeker’s evidence and DIAC’s description,
it is of grave concern that ordinary Australians cannot freely contact staff
or residents at the centre. Serco Australia has pledged to “meet the highest
standards of performance and accountability”. But has it?
November
24, 2009 The Age
RIOTING refugees could be kicked out of Australia for their part in a
wild brawl that broke out in Christmas Island's detention centre on Saturday
night. Security is also set to be beefed up following the riot, in which 150
Afghan and Tamil asylum seekers attacked each other with pool cues, brooms
and tree branches. The fight was sparked by a dispute over a game of pool. As
a Federal Police probe began, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned that the
ringleaders had jeopardised their asylum claims: ''If a detainee on Christmas
Island has committed a serious offence this will be taken into consideration
as part of the assessment as to whether or not they are granted a visa.'' A fourth
asylum seeker who was badly injured in the brawl was flown to Perth for
treatment, joining three other men already in Fremantle Hospital, in a stable
condition. While 43 asylum seekers were hurt, five guards employed by the
centre's manager Serco suffered minor injuries. Immigration Minister Chris
Evans said the warring groups were being kept separate and he promised
tighter security. The problem started when two Afghan men using a pool table
refused to give it up and taunted waiting Tamils, a source said. ''The
Afghans kept heckling and wouldn't get out. Normally when two people lose,
they leave and let the next two have a go. The men exchanged foul language
and one Afghan hit the Tamil guy and the Tamil guy hit back and then it
escalated with pool cues,'' the source said. A fight erupted and continued
for 45 minutes before it was broken up by Serco staff. After detainees were
locked in their rooms for an hour, those treated for wounds returned to find
50 Afghan men waiting. Another brawl erupted. The source said Sinhalese Sri
Lankans backed Tamil countrymen in the fight that left some with broken bones
and head injuries. Senator Evans dismissed suggestions ethnic tensions, such
as resentment towards the Afghans for getting visas quicker, triggered the fight.
He said Sri Lankan men had become increasingly anxious after some of their
countrymen were deported a few weeks ago. ''There has been some increased
tension around the Sri Lankans in particular being a bit concerned, as we
have had some people removed back to Sri Lanka,'' Mr Evans said. He added he
was ''quite comfortable'' that the centre was being managed properly, despite
becoming increasingly overcrowded as more detainees were squeezed in.
Clarence Correctional Centre
Serco
Oct 12, 2022 arr.news
CCC staff take further action against Serco
For
the second time in 10 days, prison officers from the Clarence Correctional
Centre (CCC) stopped work amidst ongoing frustrations surrounding
multinational Serco’s current refusal to improve what have been described as
unsafe working conditions or increase employee pay rates. In a statement
released last week by the Public Service Association (PSA), the union
announced they had notified Serco of the intended stoppage, which was held
from 6am until 6pm on October 10. The latest event followed a rally at the
Truck Drivers Memorial Park in South Grafton on September 30, which was
attended by more than 80 CCC prison officers, who loudly voiced their
concerns. PSA Assistant General Secretary Troy Wright said officers at the
CCC, which includes a maximum-security division, are paid $26.88 an hour and
have been negotiating for close to two years to secure a new pay deal with
Serco. Mr Wright recently compared their current salary to a Grade 2A retail
worker at Bunnings, who earns $26.31 per hour, and said the prison officers
would be better working in an environment selling hammers instead of working
for appalling wages while they risked being hit by one. “These men and women
put their own safety on the line every day for the rest of us,” he said.
“It’s not right to ask them to do that for the same pay they’d earn scanning
shovels at Bunnings. “Serco is a massive multinational with incredibly deep
pockets. “It can easily afford to pay these workers the same rates as those
who work in public prisons, but instead, Serco have stonewalled us for two
years of negotiations. “I think Serco figured these prison officers would
just fold in the end. “Well, I hope they understand how wrong they were,
because we won’t stop fighting until we achieve a fair outcome.” Mr Wright identified
the “dismal pay and conditions” offered by Serco as the main reasons the
multinational has difficulties recruiting and retaining employees, resulting
in the CCC being regularly short staffed with fewer than five officers on
duty some nights. “Very few of us ever want to set foot in a prison, let
alone work in one, but it’s vital work that has to be done, and those who put
up their hand for it shouldn’t have to struggle to feed their families,” he
said. “This is a private prison, so
one perverse aspect of the chronic understaffing is that every time Serco
don’t fill a shift, that’s more profit they make, and that’s just wrong. “My
message to Serco is clear: stop playing silly buggers, sit down with the
union, offer them a fair wage. “They deserve it, and the Grafton community
deserves it. “We know any pay rise won by prison officers will flow straight
through the economy of this region which desperately needs it. “And I bet
Serco’s shareholders won’t notice one way or the other, so let’s get a deal done.”
Oct 9, 2022 miragenews.com
Australia’s worst paid prison officers set to strike again on Monday
Prison
officers at the Clarence Correctional Centre near Grafton will strike again
this Monday (10/10), incensed over multinational Serco’s current refusal to
improve safety standards or boost pay rates that sit below that of Bunnings
workers. The union has notified Serco of the stoppage to commence at 6am on
Monday 10 October 2022, and continue through until 6pm on Monday 10 October
2022. Officers at the centre, which includes a maximum-security division, are
paid $26.88 an hour and have been negotiating for two years for a new pay
deal with Serco. “These men and women put their own safety on the line every
day for the rest of us. It’s not right to ask them to do that for the same pay
as they’d make scanning shovels at Bunnings,” said PSA Assistant General
Secretary Troy Wright. “Serco is a massive multinational with incredibly deep
pockets. It can easily afford to pay these workers the same rates as those
who work in public prisons. Instead Serco have stonewalled us for two years
of negotiations. “I think Serco figured these prison officers would just fold
in the end. Well, I hope they understand how wrong they were. We won’t stop
fighting until we achieve a fair outcome. “Very few of us ever want to set
foot in a prison, let alone work in one. But it’s vital work that has to be
done. And those who put up their hand for it shouldn’t have to struggle to
feed their families. “The dismal pay and conditions that Serco offer means
they can’t recruit or retain staff. So the gaol is regularly short-staffed.
Some nights there are just four officers on duty. It’s a disaster waiting to
happen. “This is a private prison, so one perverse aspect of the chronic
understaffing is that every time Serco don’t fill a shift, that’s more profit
they make, and that’s just wrong. “My message to Serco today is clear: stop
playing silly buggers, sit down with the union, offer them a fair wage. They
deserve it and the Grafton community deserves it. “We know any pay rise won
by prison officers will flow straight through the economy of this region
which desperately needs it. And I bet Serco’s shareholders won’t notice one
way or the other. So let’s get a deal done.”
Corrections Corporation of
Australia
CCA
January 21, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
HERE'S a conundrum for you. While the introduction of super fund choice mid
last year was supposed to open up the options for the placement of your
retirement savings, a growing number of fund members are finding their options
shrinking. That's because choice, and the introduction of a new licensing
regime by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, are forcing fund
trustees to seriously rethink their commitment to running a fund. A recent
Federal Court case involving trustees sued by fund members for losses
incurred because their fund was not adequately diversified will further test
that commitment. The court case, Kernaghan v Corrections Corporation of
Australia Staff Superannuation Pty Ltd, revolved around whether the trustees
were able to claim on their liability insurance, as they had settled out of
court with the 73 fund members who originally sued them. But it highlights
how even a fund that has produced good performance can run into problems if
the trustees don't do their job properly. In a nutshell, the case arose
because the super fund, which had $5 million of its $6.5 million in real
estate investments, was suddenly faced with having to pay out a large number
of fund members due to retrenchments. The employer sponsoring the fund lost
two contracts in the second half of 2000 and the fund needed more than $4.6
million to pay out members' entitlements before the end of that year. While
the fund had $1.5 million in liquid assets, its major asset was $4.2 million
tied up in units in a trust which owned two properties in Queensland. It also
owned two industrial properties in Victoria valued at $310,000 and $550,000
respectively. To pay out members it was forced to put the properties on the
market. The Queensland properties, in particular, represented a problem as
the remaining period on the leases was relatively short and unless new leases
could be negotiated quickly, the property was unlikely to be sold at the book
values. Tensions with fund members were exacerbated when the trustees reduced
the interim earnings rate on their accounts and then effectively froze their
accounts so that no members could be paid out until the trustees knew what
the real value of the properties would be. As you can imagine, these weren't
ideal sale conditions and the properties were sold at a discount. Both
Victorian properties were sold at a loss on their original sale price. The
trustees, who had been warned before the retrenchments that the fund needed
to be better diversified, eventually settled out of court and paid the
members $275,000 plus costs, which amounted to $539,000. While one of the
founding trustees of the fund strongly defended the fund's investment
strategy in court and pointed to the fact that it had a strong earnings history,
it was interesting to note Justice North's comments on this point. He said,
strong earnings history aside, the investment strategy was fundamental
flawed. "It may have been an appropriate strategy for an entrepreneurial
enterprise, but it was ill advised for a fund designed to provide security
for employees in their retirement and for which risk minimisation should have
been a primary concern," he said. Justice North agreed with the
trustees' legal advice that if the case had gone to court, the fund members
would probably have succeeded. While most major super funds do have
diversified investment strategies, the case sounds a couple of warnings.
First, that producing good returns isn't enough. Risk management and
minimisation is also an essential part of managing other people's retirement
savings. And second, that liquidity is a big issue for super funds. While
this fund may well have been sufficiently liquid to meet its obligations if
the members hadn't been retrenched, funds need to be able to handle the unexpected.
And big investments in illiquid assets like property don't let them do this -
a fact that many self-managed super funds concentrating on property
investments should also consider.
Curtin Detention Centre
Australia
Serco (formerly run by Global solution, GEO Group, formerly known as
Wackenhut Corrections)
November 26,
2011 The West Australian
A Perth man once charged with people smuggling has been working as a guard at
an immigration detention centre for the past year. Jarajo Zirak, 22, has been
working at the Perth Airport centre but his employer, Serco, stood him down
on Thursday after The Weekend West made inquiries about his employment. In a
separate development, Serco, which runs Australia's immigration detention
centres, has been ordered to investigate claims detainees at the Curtin
centre near Derby were pressured by staff to pay money owed for their voyage
to Australia. Mr Zirak, an Afghan refugee who has lived in Perth for five
years, was arrested outside his family's Thornlie home in April last year and
charged with organising or facilitating the proposed entry into Australia of
five or more people while in Indonesia between May 22 and November 26, 2009.
The charge was dropped a month later. At the time, Australian Federal Police
reportedly said there were "significant changes in the strength of
evidence from the witness" that were beyond the control of the AFP and
prosecutors. A few months later, Serco employed Mr Zirak as a client service
officer and, until this week, he had regular contact with asylum seekers. He
declined to comment through his lawyer yesterday. A police check would not
have shown Mr Zirak's charge because he was not convicted, but a Google
search reveals media reports on his arrest. A Serco spokesman said an
investigation was under way into his employment.
November
3, 2011 The Australian
A FEMALE security guard suffered head injuries when she was allegedly bashed
amid rising tensions among asylum-seekers at Western Australia's Curtin
Immigration Detention Centre. The woman's colleagues discovered her
semi-conscious in a laundry room in the centre's accommodation compound at
about 3am yesterday. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship said a
small fire also had been lit in a washing machine in the laundry room, escalating
fears of further attempts to burn down buildings. Centre sources told The
Australian there were rising tensions at the centre with staff worried that a
full-scale riot would break out. There had been several incidents in recent
days, The Australian was told. The centre was reopened last year by the
federal government.
September
7, 2011 ABC
A parliamentary committee has heard many of the Christmas Island detention
centre staff have not had the necessary training to deal with detainees' high
rates of self harm and attempted suicide. The committee, which is assessing
the impact of mandatory detention, spent two days inspecting the facilities
and talking to workers there. The committee's deputy chair, Greens Senator
Sarah Hanson-Young says because of the island's remoteness and the stressful
nature of the work, it is difficult to recruit staff with the mental health
skills needed. "Many of the workers in the centres are getting on the
job training yet they are dealing with very vulnerable people," she
said. "We had one man attempt to hang himself while we were visiting the
facility and of course that happens to be a daily occurrence." The
committee will tour the Curtin detention centre in Western Australia's far
north near Derby, today. The joint select committee is visiting detention
centres across Australia, assessing a range of issues relating to the cost,
impact and effectiveness of mandatory detention. The group will also look at
the role of government agencies and private contractors within the detention
network, before making their recommendations to parliament. They are expected
to hold talks with local hospital staff and workers from Serco which operates
the Curtin facility.
August
25, 2011 The West Australian
A former Serco employee at Curtin Detention Centre says treatment of
detainees by some staff members was "outrageously brutal" and they
were bullied constantly. Seven asylum seekers were flown from Curtin and put
in isolation on Christmas Island on Tuesday night because of increased tensions
at the remote centre, 40km from Derby. The Immigration Department confirmed
two men tried to escape on Friday. They climbed an internal fence but did not
get past the electric perimeter fence. A spokeswoman denied the men were
injured in the incident and said they were not among three detainees denied
treatment at Broome Hospital on Tuesday for speaking to a member of the
public in a waiting room. The former employee, who recently resigned and
asked not to be named, spoke of growing tensions at Curtin where there were
three staff who had "no training, no idea and no perceived intention to
provide any welfare" to detainees. "The fact two Serco guards have
committed suicided since April is evidence that not everyone can live with
this on their conscience," they said. An elderly Afghan man who had
asked in July to be moved to a single room because he believed he
"smelled" - a problem attributed to mental health issues - was
manhandled by staff. They claimed a department case manager and Serco welfare
officer called the man a liar after a short interview and, as he tried to
leave the room, two "burly" Serco guards shoved him to the ground.
He spent four days in hospital with back injuries, the former employee said.
Employees were scared to talk to anyone outside the centre about such
incidents, particularly the media, for fear of being identified or sacked.
"The expulsion of the Serco man at Christmas Island recently and the
sacking of the mental health nurse from Darwin last week is evidence that it
is a real threat," they said. Habib, 28, an Afghan asylum seeker
released in July after 15 months in detention, fears for friends inside. He
said some staff were uncaring and detainees were scared to speak out in case
it affected their status. Many were depressed after waiting many months for
interviews. The immigration spokeswoman rejected claims detainees were
treated badly. "We require that our staff and Serco staff treat
detainees with dignity and respect," she said. There were complaint
processes and allegations were always investigated. She said there were no
recent complaints of mistreatment.
August
23, 2011 ABC
A refugee advocacy group says three Curtin detention centre detainees were
denied medical treatment for talking to a member of the public at a hospital
waiting room. Police and the Immigration Department have confirmed a
confrontation happened at Broome regional hospital this morning as the
detainees waited for appointments. An argument broke out between refugee
advocate Jackie Rehmani and Servo security guards supervising the men. Ms
Rehmani says the trouble began when Serco staff told her not to speak to the
detainees. "At this point the guards became more irate and asked me to
leave and to desist talking to the detainees," she said. "All I was
doing was asking them their names, how long they'd been in detention and the
officers were very aggressive and intimidatory towards the detainees."
Ms Rehmani says it was a distressing scene. "The senior officer left to
call the centre management and then (they were) taken out of the hospital and
were taken back to the detention centre," she said. "These people
get poor health care as it is and their specialist medical appointments were
cancelled simply because a member of the public was talking to them." Police
were called to attend but say no-one was charged. A spokeswoman for the
Immigration Department says the Serco staff stopped the conversation to
protect the privacy of the detainees.
July
11, 2011 The Australian
THE company running Australia's immigration detention centres has
acknowledged the work is traumatic for staff following the death of a young
guard troubled by the hanging of a teenage asylum-seeker. Kieran Webb died
while holidaying with his family last Wednesday after working for six months
as a security officer at the Curtin immigration detention centre in Western
Australia's far north, according to a memo to all staff from government
contractor Serco last Friday. There were no suspicious circumstances, Serco
Immigration Services managing director Chris Manning wrote in the memo.
"If you feel the need for emotional support arising from the work you
do, please consider speaking to someone," he said. "It is important
we acknowledge that our line of work can at times place us in difficult and
traumatic situations as we manage vulnerable people in our care." Five
detainees have killed themselves in immigration detention centres since last
September. Self-harm and threats of self-harm occur daily, and a psychologist
is employed full-time by Serco to help guards deal with the fallout of acts
such as lip-sewing, slashing and attempted hangings. The Australian has been
told detainees are taking increasingly dramatic steps to draw attention to
their grievances. On Christmas Island last Thursday, a detainee sewed his lips
together and had a friend tie him to the compound fence in a crucifix
position. On March 28, Mr Webb was among guards who cut down a 19-year-old
Afghan detainee who hanged himself in his room. Mr Webb was deeply affected
by the death and by the unrest that followed, according to guards who worked
alongside him at the time.
April
25, 2011 The Age
DETENTION centres on both sides of the country were in turmoil last night,
with three detainees maintaining a roof-top protest at Sydney's Villawood
facility and hunger strikes under way at the Curtin Centre in Western
Australia. The Sydney protesters - now in their sixth day on the roof at
Villawood - claimed they are prepared to die unless their demands for asylum
in Australia are met. One of the men, Majid Parhizkar, a 24-year-old Iranian,
said the three were ''sick, hungry, cold, wet and dizzy'', having had nothing
but water since last Wednesday. He said he would not come down until the
Department of Immigration granted him a bridging visa that would allow him to
stay in Australia with his mother, sister and brother. It was his second visa
application rejection, 10 days ago, that prompted him to protest. The other
two men - stateless Kurds Mehdi and Amir - want a meeting with the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. A protest by refugee advocates has
been planned for outside the gates of Villawood today. The unrest spread to
Western Australia's Curtin Air Base detention centre over the weekend, and 16
refugee activists were arrested late yesterday afternoon while blocking the
access road to the centre. Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition,
said a hunger strike and sit-in involving about 300 detainees was expected to
escalate.
February
4, 2011 The Age
INTERPRETERS for asylum seekers on Christmas Island have been working without
accreditation or translating experience. A Melbourne interpreter said
unqualified staff were ill-equipped to deal with asylum seekers' issues
dispassionately. ''Some of the interpreters are not competent because they
are not actually interpreters,'' the source, who had worked on Christmas
Island, said. ''It's not up to Immigration. They are desperate. The number of
clients has gone up and demand is shocking.'' For certain dialects, the
interpreter said, it was impossible to meet demand from the pool of trained
professionals within Australia. The comments follow a report by the
Commonwealth Ombudsman, Allan Asher, which found asylum seekers had been
assigned interpreters who did not speak their language and were recording incorrect
information on their asylum claims. Amnesty International Australia said the
problems were common to detention centres in Darwin and at Curtin in Western
Australia.
August
29, 2010 Green Left
On August 23, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) reported
that a 30-year-old man found unconscious in the Curtin Immigration Detention
Centre in Western Australia had died. After his collapse on August 21, the
man was taken to Derby hospital, 40 kilometres away. That night, he was
transferred to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, more than 2000km south
of Derby. He died the next day. DIAC would not tell Green Left Weekly the
man’s name, but said it didn’t believe there were suspicious circumstances
surrounding his death. A Coronial inquiry will be held. Ian Rintoul, Refugee
Action Coalition spokesperson, said on August 23: “This man’s death raises
yet more questions about remote detention centres. “It seems highly likely
that if this man had been living in the community, the medical services to
treat any medical condition and the emergency services needed to save his
life may have been available for him. We want to see a complete medical audit
of all the detention centres.” Under the former Howard Coalition government,
immigration detention services were outsourced to GSL (Australia) Pty Ltd.
GSL subcontracted medical services to International Medical Health Services
(IHMS). Numerous reports exposed the handballing of responsibility under this
arrangement. Curtin, Woomera and Baxter detention centres were shut down in
an aura of shame. (The federal Labor government re-opened Curtin in June.)
Despite its promises to end outsourcing of immigration detention services,
the Rudd Labor government simply changed the service provider to SERCO, and
contracted directly with IHMS to provide general and mental health care. GLW
was unable to find an IHMS webpage, or any description of its services. When
asked about healthcare arrangements at Curtin, and specifically whether there
was a resident doctor, the DIAC spokesperson simply told GLW: “Curtin
immigration detention centre (IDC) provides mental health support teams and
medical staff.”
July 19, 2005 The Age
The Immigration Department is under fire again for failing to protect a woman
who was sexually abused in front of her daughter in a detention centre.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has found that the
department failed in its duty of care and breached her human rights.
The woman, an Iranian refugee from a minority religious group, complained of
two violent attacks by other detainees at the Curtin detention centre in
Western Australia.
In one incident a man had tried to rape her, and in another a man punched her
in the chest and face, tore her clothes off and broke her finger. Her young daughter,
who came to her aid, was also punched. In preliminary findings seen by
The Age, Human Rights Commission president John von Doussa slammed the
department and the manager of the Curtin centre, Australasian Correctional
Management. News of his finding follows the damning indictment of the
department over the illegal detention of Cornelia Rau and the mistaken
deportation of Vivian Alvarez Solon. In his report last week, former
Federal Police commissioner Mick Palmer identified "a serious cultural
problem" and called for urgent reform.
June 2, 2005 The
Australian
HE was locked up alongside convicted criminals in a maximum-security prison,
but Iranian asylum-seeker Zal Shahbazi was happy to be there. "It was
really much better than detention," he said. "I had a terrible time
in prison, but in detention they put pressure on you mentally because you
don't know when you will be free. As the Howard Government shows signs of
softening on its hardline policy of mandatory detention for women and
children, Mr Shahbazi recalls his blackest days in the now-defunct Curtin
detention centre. In April 2002, he was locked in the mess hall with about 40
other detainees, including women and children. "Forty guards came and
opened one of the doors, and they started beating us," Mr Shahbazi said.
"Everyone -- even the women with kids. Everyone was yelling, we were
terrified. They beat me with a baton, they beat my leg and my back."
After complaining, Mr Shahbazi was arrested and sent to Broome Regional
Prison, where he shared a cell and one toilet with up to eight
maximum-security prisoners. His charge was damaging commonwealth property
during the clash with Australasian Correctional Management guards. He was
told he would be on remand for three weeks.
February 11, 2002
Federal police were investigating claims a female asylum seeker was sexually
assaulted at the Curtin detention centre, Justice Minister Chris Ellison said
today. The woman had since been moved
to the Baxter detention centre in South Australia as the Australian Federal
Police looked into claims the Iranian woman was a victim of assault mid-last
year. Senator Ellison said the AFP was
made aware last year of two separate allegations the woman had been
assaulted, but neither claim involved sexual assault, and only one was
referred to West Australian police.
However, human rights organisation Amnesty International intervened
and wrote to the AFP alleging the assaults were sexual. (Sidney Morning
News )
January 27, 2003
Six months after an alleged sexual assault at Curtin Detention Centre,
Western Australia will investigate. Federal and state police had
declined to investigate the alleged attempted rape of an Iranian mother
because each said it was the responsibility of the other. But, after
The Age reported the stand-off yesterday, Western Australia's Police
Minister, Michelle Roberts, called for a full report from her state police
commissioner, Barry Matthews. Unfortunately, he said, state police
received the complaint from detention centre management only after Curtin had
largely closed and the women had been moved to Baxter in South
Australia. The alleged victim, a Sabian Mandaean (follower of John the
Baptist), said in a statement to Federal Police that she was punched in the
chest and face, her clothes were torn off and her finger was broken in the
assault by an 18-year-old Afghan. Her young daughter, who came to her
aid, was also punched. There is no agreement assigning responsibility
for policing in detention centres, although the AFP wrote to Amnesty
International that such an agreement was a "very high
priority". The AFP is negotiating agreements with each state.
In the meantime, according to Amnesty national director Mara Mousatafine,
women and girls in detention centres have no legal protection against sexual
violence. (The Age)
August 19, 2002
Conditions in Australia's remote detention centres resembled metal hospitals
but without proper staff and facilities, Human Rights Commissioner Sev
Ozdowski said today. The key cause of mental health problems for
detainees were long periods of detention rather than detention conditions, he
told federal parliamentary human rights sub-committee. "To be
perfectly honest, it looks to me that especially Woomera, Curtin and Port
Hedland are a bit like mental hospitals, only without proper staff to run
mental hospitals and without proper facilities." Such problems had
not existed a year ago, he said. "This is really associated with
the length of detention." (The Age)
April 23, 2002
Hysterical
scenes of bleeding asylum seekers smashing their heads against walls and
demanding to be released from their cells at Curtin Detention Centre have
been recorded on a video leaked to the media. The video, made by staff at the
West Australian centre, showed distraught Afghani asylum seekers hurling
themselves against walls in the lead up to a riot at the centre last year.
Centre operator Australian Correctional Management (ACM) recorded the
incident for internal purposes but it was leaked to ABC's Lateline program
last night. An advocate for the detainees told Lateline that hunger strikers
wanted a lawyer but authorities told them they would have to pay for their
own legal representation. Since they had no money they asked if it was
possible to sell their own blood so they could hire a lawyer because they had
nothing else to offer, the advocate said. Lateline said the emotionally
charged scenes preceded a riot last June which resulted in massive damage to
the desert camp. (The Age)
April 23, 2002
Australia's
inhumane detention centres should be closed, Greens Senator Bob Brown has said.
Australia's inhumane detention centres should be closed, Greens Senator Bob
Brown said today. Senator Brown told journalists in Hobart that leaked video
footage from the Curtin Detention Centre, broadcast by ABC TV last night, was
now going around the world and would further destroy Australia's good
reputation. He said the centres were modern concentration camps which
inflicted mental horror on men, women and children. "We don't keep
rapists and murderers in jails with such harsh mental conditions as concentration
camps like Woomera and Curtin," he said. Senator Brown said the
government's selective reporting of events in the centres was censorship like
South Africa's apartheid. (The Age)
April 23, 2002
Detainees at the Curtin Detention Centre in Western Australia were being
treated humanely, Prime Minister John Howard said today. Mr Howard said he
had seen video footage aired last night on the ABC depicting alleged
mistreatment of asylum seekers. He said he had sought advice on allegations
there was an unwillingness to provide medical attention, but advice from the
Immigration Minister's office said this was not true. He said the staff at
the centre in the state's north were in fact prevented from administering
medical attention because of the conduct of the detainees. (The Age)
April 22, 2002
The
Federal Government has warned it may use force to end a tense stand-off
between asylum seekers and authorities at the Curtin detention centre in
Western Australia. After three days of violent unrest, the government was
losing patience, acting Immigration Minister Chris Ellison said yesterday.
Negotiations were continuing with detainees armed with curtain rods,
sharpened broom sticks, knives and cleavers in the main compound at the
centre, he said. About 300 detainees have refused to leave the centre's main
compound since rioting broke out on Friday night. Twenty-eight guards and
several detainees were injured in the violence. Fires were lit in
accommodation blocks, activity rooms and the kitchen were ransacked and
thousands of dollars worth of equipment such as computers, sewing machines
and hairdressing facilities were destroyed. (The Age)
April
21, 2002
Detainees
went on a rampage at the Curtin Detention Centre in Western Australia,
damaging buildings and leaving one guard in hospital after their applications
for asylum were rejected. Buildings and equipment were damaged, fires were
lit and blankets and clothing ransacked during the rampage, leaving what the
Immigration Department described as a substantial bill. Fourteen Australian
Correctional Management officers were injured during the riot which began at
dinner time on Friday night. Acting Immigration Minister Chris Ellison told
journalists the detainees involved had had their applications for asylum
rejected. "We understand that the majority of the people involved in
this disturbance had their applications rejected and are awaiting
removal," Senator Ellison said. The Australian Democrats said the
management of detention centres was out of control. "(Immigration
Minister Philip Ruddock) must recognise that his detention regime has failed
asylum seekers and failed the taxpayer," Democrats immigration spokesman
Andrew Bartlett said. (Sidney Morning News)
April 20, 2002
Staff at the Curtin detention centre were injured and buildings damaged
during rioting by detainees last night. An Immigration Department spokesman
confirmed there was a disturbance at the centre near Derby in which several
staff were hurt and buildings and property damaged. He did not know how many were
involved in the riot. One staff member was taken to Derby Regional Hospital
by ambulance. Natasha Verco, from the Refugee Freedom Bus organisation, said
she received a call from a detainee in the centre about 8 pm pleading for
help. Ms Verco claimed the man said guards were dressed in riot gear and were
systematically beating people. "I could hear screaming in the background
and he said there was blood everywhere," she said. But the department
spokesman denied the allegation that detainees were being beaten. "The
only injuries have been to the ACM (Australasian Correctional Management)
officers," the spokesman said. Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock last
week announced the centre, 44 kilometres from Derby, would be closed because
of a drop in illegal boat people. Refugee Action Collective spokesman Ian
Rintoul said Curtin should be scrapped because it was remote, inhospitable
and the most repressive detention centre. (The Age)
April 11, 2002
The
closure of the Curtin detention centre will badly affect the local economy,
with the loss of about 20 jobs, according to the Derby-West Kimberley shire.
Shire president Elsia (Elsia) Archer said she was disappointed to receive the
phone call from Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock this morning that the
centre would close. "I'm disappointed but I guess I knew it was going to
close. We tried to keep it open," Ms Archer said. "It will have an
impact on the community." Ms Archer said the closure was because the
Royal Australian Air Force wanted the space at its base back. (The Age)
April 11, 2002
Woomera
detention centre will be scaled down and the Curtin centre closed as part of
a long term federal government plan. Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock made
the announcement today following a review of detention centres across the
country. The government plan developed from the review included the scaling
down of Woomera, in South Australia, and the closure of West Australia's
Curtin facility, he said in a statement released to reporters shortly before
a press conference in Sydney. Mr Ruddock said the Baxter centre would be able
to house 1,200 asylum seekers, with about two people to each room and ensuite
facilities available. "It involves a number of internally configurated
compounds which enable people to live in smaller communities with a high
degree of amenities," Mr Ruddock said in Sydney. He said the Woomera
scale-back would result in its capacity being dropped from 2000 to 800. The
detention centre on Christmas Island would increase to 400 places by July and
about 1,000 by the end of the year, he said. (The Age)
October 30, 2001
A
prisons watchdog has described conditions in Australia's migrant detention
centres as "disgraceful" and has called for an independent
inspectorate to improve standards. The Inspector of Custodial Services in
Western Australia, Richard Harding, says a visit to the Curtin Detention
centre near Derby in June revealed overcrowded accommodation, broken toilets
and inadequate medical and dental services. Professor Harding says an
independent federal inspectorate would ensure the centres are managed
properly by contracted firms like Australasian Correctional Management.
(World News from Australia)
June 12, 2001
They were banned from speaking to the media, but the desperate asylum-seekers
refused to be silenced after risking weeks at sea to get to Australia only to
be held behind barbed wire in remote outback camps. First came the
children, may skipping and giggling, holding placards declaring: "Please
save us from these cages" and "Stop demonizing us." One
girl smiled shyly as she showed visitors her neatly written plea:
"Please stop hating us." The camps are normally closed to
public scrutiny but Curtin was opened briefly on Sunday. Media groups
had to sign undertakings they would not interview detainees or take
photographs that would identify them. Detainees at the three biggest
camps -- Port Hedland, Curtin and Woomera -- have staged peaceful breakouts
and hunger strikes, sewn their lips together, and unleashed bursts of
violence to protest being held, some fro years, and denied rights afforded to
those refugees who arrive legally. Critics of the camps protest the
outsourcing of their management to the U.S.-owned prison management firm
Australasian Correctional Management, saying it is wrong for a private firm
seeking to seek profit from managing refugees. (Reuters)
Darwin Airport Lodge Detention
Centre
Darwin, Australia
Serco
January 5, 2012 North Territory News
THE Territory Coroner has called for a review into the number of nurses
working at a Darwin prison after a man "suddenly" died of a heart
attack in custody. Joanne Michel, health services manager at Darwin
Corrections Centre, told a coronial inquest that there was only one nurse on
duty when a young father died on a day she described as a
"disaster". Ms Michel wrote a letter to her manager about
under-staffing at the prison as a "cry for help" after the
33-year-old man's death on March 12 last year. "It was me venting my
frustration," she said in November last year. NT Coroner Greg Cavanagh
found yesterday that "no one was at fault" but said lessons could
be learnt from the tragedy. He recommended that the NT Health Department
review the "appropriate" nurse-to-patient ratio at the prison -
that can house up to 700 inmates. He also asked the department to take into
account the country's "best practice" when negotiating contracts
for the prison's health services. "The tender process should reflect the
fact that the Territory prison population is over 80 per cent Aboriginal,"
he said. The inquest also heard that nursing staff could not contact on-call
doctor Carol Tainsch on that day because she couldn't hear her phone ring. Mr
Cavanagh said it was "entirely unsatisfactory" that an after hours
doctor could not be reached at the weekend. But he said: "I am not able
to say whether the failure of nursing staff to reach Dr Tainsch made any
difference to the tragic outcome." Mr Cavanagh also recommended that the
Government implement a protocol that would give nurses more than one number
to call for an after hours doctor.
December
12, 2011 The Daily Telegraph
RIOTING asylum seekers have caused almost $20 million in damage to
immigration detention centres - nearly double original estimates. New
Department of Immigration figures show five riots at Villawood in Sydney,
Christmas Island and Darwin have cost an estimated $17.6 million - and that
could rise. The most damage was caused at Villawood with the repair bill
reaching $9.271 million. While insurance will cover much of the costs, the
government revealed it would be liable for the first $1 million of each
claim, or 10 per cent of the total bill. According to documents released last
Friday night, the cost of the Christmas Island riot in March is now estimated
at $5.05 million - double the original figure of $2.5 million. The government
claimed the subsequent riots at Villawood, when inmates set fire to several
buildings a month later, will cost 50 per cent more than the $6 million
originally estimated. There were two riots also at Darwin and another at
Christmas Island. "The total cost of estimated damage across all five
events as of October 14, 2011, is $17,636,366," the department said.
"This estimate is likely to change as quotations for repairs are
obtained and works undertaken." The revised costs follow the release of
an independent report last week which suggested overcrowding was the cause of
the tension and unrest and the trigger for the riots. But, it found no fault
with the Department of Immigration or the detention centre operator, Serco. A
spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said, "This government's
contracts with Serco require it to have full private insurance cover of its
facilities, which is why the costs to the Commonwealth relating to damage
caused at detention centres are so low. "In its hypocritical hysteria,
the Coalition seems to have forgotten its record of passing on the costs of
detention riots to the taxpayer: they had four detention centre riots in a
single month - December 2002 - at a cost of many millions."
September 20, 2011 AAP
Three asylum seekers are on the run in Darwin after slipping away from a
weekend church service. The Vietnamese men were part of a group of 50
Christians who were allowed to attend the Catholic church service on Sunday,
escorted by security guards. But part way through the service it is believed
the men left the church and have not been seen since. A spokeswoman for
the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) said local and federal
police had been called in to try and locate the men. "When the service
finished the detention services provider staff identified that the three
detainees were missing," the spokeswoman said. "The department
views any escape from our immigration detention facilities very
seriously," she said. DIAC has called for an investigation and report
that will include details of the guarding and security arrangements in place
at the time of the escape.August 19, 2011 The Age
A MENTAL health nurse has been sacked from a Darwin detention centre for
saying she believes mandatory detention contributes to mental illness in
asylum seekers. A letter sent by her employer, International Health and
Medical Services (IHMS), and obtained by The Age, says her job was terminated
last Friday after Serco detention centre managers and Immigration Department
staff complained that she was ''expressing negative political opinions''
about detention. The federal government's Detention Health Advisory Group,
the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses and the Australian
Psychological Society yesterday called for mandatory detention to be
abandoned. Their call came after documents submitted to a parliamentary
inquiry showed high levels of self-harm, with 213 detainees treated for
self-inflicted injuries and 700 for ''voluntary starvation'' in the first six
months of this year. The chairwoman of the advisory group, Professor Louise
Newman, said she was concerned that a political view could be held against a
health worker. IHMS spokeswoman Melissa Lysaght said last night that staff
were entitled to political opinions but needed to work in a team environment.
''In fact, that is not a reason for terminating someone, because everyone is
entitled to a political opinion,'' Ms Lysaght said. ''In hindsight, the
phrasing of the letter was incorrect.'' She said the woman had been sacked
for professional standards reasons, after working there for two weeks. Amanda
Gordon, of the Australian Psychological Society, said yesterday there was
clear scientific evidence of the harm caused by indefinite detention, which
''exacerbates trauma, and creates mental illness, in contravention of the
government's own commitment to reduce it''. Australian Medical Association
president Steve Hambleton said yesterday his attack on the mandatory
detention policy at the AMA's parliamentary dinner this week had been
prompted by ''terrible stories'' being reported by paediatricians and
psychiatrists who went inside detention centres. Dr Paul Bauert, director of
paediatrics at the Royal Darwin Hospital, said children as young as four and
five had been caught up in hunger strikes that their parents were involved
in, and were treated at his hospital. ''They weren't eating and required
intravenous and gastric drips,'' he said.
August
14, 2011 North Territory News
DETENTION centre staff in Darwin are allegedly afraid to go to work
following a melee in the Northern Immigration Detention Centre on Friday
morning. Two Burmese detainees have been charged with assault over the
incident. A source said Serco staff have cancelled night shifts after one
guard was taken to hospital with cuts to the head and 11 other guards were
allegedly assaulted. The two detainees will appear in the Darwin Magistrates
Court tomorrow. The Australian Federal Police said it was inappropriate to
comment because they were still investigating and the Immigration Department
declined to comment because of the charges. The incident happened between 1am
and 4am. The two men have been held in Australian detention for more than 21
months and are awaiting security clearance. Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and
Advocacy Network spokesman Carl O'Connor said the detainees rang him after
the incident looking to complain to police. One of the men allegedly told
DASSAN that two guards "covered us and the rest others twist from leg, twist
my hands and push down the floor". "A male supervisor stepped on my
stomach and stepped again on my cheek with his knee, while another one
strangle from my throat." DASSAN spokeswoman Emma Murphy said the wait
in detention centres is causing distress and tension, and is a cause of
recent suicide attempts.
August
12, 2011 ABC
The Immigration Department has refused to provide further detail about an
incident at Darwin's detention centre that has sent a worker to hospital. The
department says a number of other staff working for SERCO - the company that
runs the centre - sustained minor injuries in the incident. A department
spokesman says Australian Federal Police are investigating, but no further
detail is being provided about the nature of the incident or the seriousness
of the injuries. The news comes as an asylum seeker alleges brutality inside
the detention centre. A detainee says he was bashed by SERCO staff after
taking part in a peaceful rooftop protest. The Immigration Department says
its been made aware of the allegations but has no reports of injuries to
asylum seekers. It will not say whether the two incidents are linked.
February
11, 2011 AAP
ELEVEN asylum-seekers have been charged after a disturbance involving
about 40 detainees at one of Darwin's detention centres. The 11 males were
taken to the Darwin watchhouse this morning following the latest in a series
of incidents at the Darwin Airport Lodge detention centre, which is used to
house asylum-seeker families and unaccompanied minors. They were later
charged under section 197B of the Migration Act in relation to the possession
of a weapon as a detainee and were due to appear in the Darwin Magistrates
Court this afternoon. The charges come after authorities revealed that six
asylum-seekers had been hospitalised in the past three days as a result of
several "scuffles" between detainees at the detention centre. Three
of the injured detainees have since been returned to the detention centre. An
immigration spokesman confirmed there had been "previous scuffles"
between detainees in the days leading up to the incident. Late yesterday
afternoon a disturbance at the same centre involving several asylum-seekers
led to unrest between other detainees, the spokesman said. The spokesman
confirmed about 20 detainees started protest action just outside the
perimeter. He said police and staff engaged the group, brought the situation
under control quickly and returned the detainees to the facility.
May
16, 2010 Northern Territory News
A CHINESE woman was still on the run last night - two days after she escaped
detention from a Darwin motel. The Immigration Department confirmed the woman
slipped away from the motel on Thursday morning and is yet to be found. The
same firm, Serco, that allowed eight people to flee from Sydney's Villawood
detention centre, is being blamed for her escape. A source told the Sunday
Territorian that federal police had detained the woman and a Chinese man at
Darwin airport after the pair allegedly arrived from a Bali flight with fake
passports. The source said the woman had to be rushed to hospital when she
panicked and swallowed a ring at the airport. She was allegedly left
unattended at the hospital before she was moved to the Darwin motel and put
into the care of security guards. The man is still believed to be in
detention.
Family Court
Australia
August 26, 2003
The Family Court has freed five young siblings detained for 32 months in
immigration centres, saying they had been exposed to violence and other
inappropriate behaviour. The full bench also questioned the Immigration
Minister's "curious" 13-month campaign to keep them behind
wire. Supporters greeted the two teenage boys and their three young
sisters - who will still be deported to Pakistan - before they were driven
out of the Baxter detention centre at Port Augusta. One of the boys had
tried to hang himself while detained - mostly in now-closed Woomera - while
the other had joined hunger strikes and stitched his lips together, the court
heard. Three judges found overwhelming grounds for the immediate
removal of the children, who cannot be indentified. This overturned an
earlier Family Court ruling and forced the Immigration Minister, Philip
Ruddock, to abandon a trial next month opposing their release.
"The minister's interest in detaining them in unlawful detention seems
somewhat curious," the judges said. "It seems difficult to
see how the minister's legitimate interests could extend beyond ensuring the
availability of the children if and when the time comes to have them removed
from Australia." The children spent their first night of freedom
together since arriving by boat in Australia with their mother in January,
2001. Their father arrived 15 months earlier, claiming to have fled the
Taliban in Afghanistan, and lived in Sydney from August 2000 on a temporary
protection visa. But in May 2001 the refugee application by the mother
and children was refused on the grounds they were from Pakistan, not
Afghanistan. Waiting on appeals, the father was re-detained and the two
older boys in particular experienced what the full court described as
"violence and other inappropriate behaviour" at Woomera. The two
boys also escaped from Woomera but were returned three weeks later.
(Sidney Morning News)
August 14, 2003
A Family Court justice today appealed to Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock
to show compassion to an Iranian family held in Australian detention centres
for more than two years. Justice Richard Chisholm ruled he did not have
the power to release the parents and three children from detention, despite
evidence of them suffering "highly damaging experiences in their time in
Australia". But the minister did have such power, he said.
"The evidence indicates that they have had terrible experiences in detention,
and they are now in a serious state of mental ill health and distress,"
Justice Chisholm said. "For over two years, a large number of
highly qualified medical experts have been urging that they be released into
the community, saying their mental health is at risk unless this happens.
"On any view, this is a serious and worrying case." The
parents and children - girls now aged 19 and 15 and a four-year-old boy -
have appealed against the rejection of their visa applications which
subsequently earmarked them for deportation. They asked the Family
Court to release them on an interim basis into residential housing in
Adelaide until their High Court appeal was decided. "I do not have
the power or jurisdiction to make the orders sought by the applicants,"
Justice Chisholm said. "Nevertheless, I hope that now that all the
evidence is available, the minister might give further consideration to
whether some alternative arrangements might be made that would help these
unfortunate children. "The evidence, although untested, strongly suggests
that these children have had highly damaging experiences in their time in
Australia." Justice Chisholm said on evidence presented to him,
the children would benefit from a release into the community but he did not
have the power to do so. "It is within the minister's legal powers
to arrange this," he said. "I express the hope that he will
give careful and compassionate consideration to the urgent needs of this
unfortunate family." The family came to Australian from Iran in
December 2000 and was initially held at the Woomera detention centre in South
Australia's north. The father is now held at the Baxter detention
centre, also in SA's north, while the mother and children are held at a
Woomera home detention program. (The Age)
June 24, 2003
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said today he would appeal a Family Court
of Australia ruling that holding children indefinitely in immigration
detention was illegal. He said applications were filed in the Family
Court and High Court yesterday afternoon. "In the event that the
Family Court certificate is not granted then I will pursue the appeal
directly in the High Court," Mr Ruddock said. (The Age)
June 20, 2003
The Family Court has mounted a major challenge to the detention of children
under Australian immigration laws and claimed the right to order their
release. Detaining children under such laws is probably illegal, the
court ruled yesterday in a decision that could affect 108 children now in
custody. In a blow to the Federal Government's detention practices, the
court claimed the right to order the release of children on welfare grounds,
saying that its responsibility for their well-being overrode immigration
law. A majority decision of the full Family Court upheld the appeal of
two boys and their three sisters against an earlier ruling that the court had
no jurisdiction over children in detention. The court ordered that the case
of the children - boys aged 14 and 12 and girls 11, nine and six - be retried
urgently. The court found that the continued detention of the five
children, whose whose parents are also held under immigration law,
"raises the very real possibility of these children spending their
entire childhood in detention". "It seems to us that the
Migration Act cannot be interpreted to produce this effect," Chief
Justice Alastair Nicholson and Justice Stephen O'Ryan said. They added
that the detention breached Australia's obligations under UN conventions and
was probably "unlawful". A psychological report to the court
said the children's experiences in detention "have been superimposed on
previous trauma". The children showed "unhappiness and depression
and an undermining of their ability to achieve their developmental
milestones". A spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock
said the Government might appeal against the decision. (The Age)
June 20, 2003
The children of asylum seekers should not be kept behind razor wire,
Opposition Leader Simon Crean said today. Mr Crean was commenting after
the Family Court ruled the federal government was acting illegally by
indefinitely detaining children in immigration detention centres. He
said although the court's decision was a preliminary one, children of asylum
seekers should not be held in camps. "I just don't believe kids
should be behind razor wire," Mr Crean told Perth radio 6PR. (The
Age)
June 19, 2003
Over 100 child asylum seekers could be released from detention after the
Family Court ruled today that it is unlawful for the Federal Government to
detain children indefinitely. Chief Justice of the Family Court,
Justice Alastair Nicholson, and Justice Stephen O'Ryan made the majority
ruling while dealing with an appeal against another judge's decision that the
court had no jurisdiction over children being held in immigration detention.
The judges agreed that the court's welfare jurisdiction extended to the
protection of children in immigration detention. (The Age)
Fulham
Correctional Centre
Sale, Australia
Aug 20, 2019
gippslandtimes.com
GEO fined over injured inmates
GEO Group Australia, the contractor that manages the Fulham Correctional
Centre, has been fined $75,000, after it pleaded guilty to a 2017 incident
which resulted in two inmates being seriously injured. A WorkSafe
investigation found on December 15, 2017, three inmates were using a gantry
crane to undertake metal work tasks, which Fulham inmates are regularly
employed to do. The inmates were attempting to move a metal workbench that
weighed about 620 kilograms, when the crane flipped over. WorkSafe's
investigation concluded that the task being undertaken by the inmates was
"dogging work", as defined by the Occupational Health and Safety
Regulations 2017, and accordingly, it required a high risk work licence. None
of the inmates held such a licence, nor was there a safe system of work in
place for lifting and slinging of loads. Sale Magistrates' Court convicted
the contractor on August 8, ordering it to pay the substantial fine, plus
$3891 in costs. GEO said it accepted the findings of the investigation, and
took remedial action immediately after the incident to prevent a recurrence.
This included implementing a new lifting and suspended loads policy and
having two of its industrial officers complete a basic dogging course.
"GEO remains committed to providing a safe workplace for its staff and
for prisoners engaged in work programs at the correctional centres it
manages," the statement read.
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
Mar 11, 2019 gippslandtimes.com.au
Australia: GEO nurses walk off job
NURSES walked off the job on Thursday at Fulham Correctional Centre, as they
continued their campaign for more pay and improved leave entitlements. As a
sizable contingent gathered outside the prison, songs such as Elvis Presley’s
Jailhouse Rock and Twisted Sisters’ We’re Not Gonna Take It were played over
a public address system, with local nurses joined by fellow members of the
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. Wearing red campaign T-shirts,
ANMF members were instantly recognisable, and found support when union
members from the Longford Esso UGLY dispute arrived to stand together,
bringing their inflatable mascot ‘Greedy the Fat Cat’ along for the ride.
Private prison operator GEO Group Australia and the ANMF have been in
enterprise bargaining negotiations since December 2017. GEO has offered to
increase pay by 9.9 per cent over four years, but this has been rejected by
the nurses. ANMF Victorian branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick described the
offer as “pathetic”. “We need more than that for these nurses so that they
actually maintain their parity with other prison nurses across the state,”
she said. “We’re seeking a wage increase that’s comparative with the
percentage increases that other nurses in prisons have got, which is three
per cent per annum. “We’re also seeking a $1500 sign-on bonus that’s in lieu
of the wage increase of February 2018. “Its disappointing that they [the
nurses] have to go to these lengths. “We know that GEO have finally agreed to
come back to the negotiating table, but we do need them to come back with a
revised position, not the position that they’ve been putting up since late
October, early November last year.” Fulham nurse Jessica Loprese, who works
in a team of seven caring for more than 900 prisoners, said GEO’s position was
that it didn’t think the work they did was equal to what other nurses did in
other workplaces. “We would obviously like to argue that point,” she said.Ms
Fitzpatrick dismissed claims that industrial action would put the safety at
the Fulham prison at risk, adding GEO has had ample time to respond. “GEO
have known since January about the industrial action, the specificity of the
industrial action as well,” she said. “They had an opportunity to challenge
that industrial action that the nurses were proposing,so we have given them
over two months of notice. “They’ve had a long opportunity to put in place
alternative measures if they were concerned.” As well as increased pay and
leave allowances, the ANMF is also seeking a classification structure at the
prison, as many of the classifications that exist currently have no position
description attached to them. “We’re asking Fulham to get off their butts and
actually do some serious work in relation to the classifications of the staff
that they have at their prison, that reflects the expertise and experience of
different roles that they have,” Ms Fitzpatrick said. Nurses taking
industrial action will be compensated by the ANMF hardship fund, as formal
discussions between GEO and the ANMF draw closer. GEO had advised the union
it is not prepared to enter into further talks until Tuesday. “We’ve written
to GEO a number of times, we’ve got evidence of those letters, we don’t
believe we’re at an impasse because we have been contacted by them to say
that they will come back to the negotiating table,” Ms Fitzpatrick said. “We
don’t want a token return to the table — we want serious negotiations. “We
want a serious outcome, and we want an improved offer to the things that we
need.” GEO Group Australia reiterated comments issued to the Gippsland Times
last week, where it said it had been in negotiation since October 2017,
striving to reach agreement on a Nurses Enterprise Agreement for nurses at
Fulham Correctional Centre. “Unfortunately, negotiations are at an impasse,
with union members passing a ballot for protected action. “GEO is committed
to actively seeking a mutually agreed outcome for its nursing staff and
finalising an agreement as soon as possible. “It is inappropriate for GEO to
comment on this matter while negotiations are ongoing. “GEO has put in place
a number of strategies during this time to minimise disruption to prisoner
health services.”
Sep 5, 2016 abc.net.au
Indigenous inmate found dead at Fulham
Correctional Centre, Corrections Victoria confirms
An Indigenous inmate has been
found dead at a prison in Victoria's east. Corrections Victoria has confirmed
the man died at the Fulham Correctional Centre on Saturday morning. Victoria
Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious. The State Government
said it was aware of the death. "The death of any person, regardless of
whether they're in prison or in the community, is sad," a spokesman said
in a statement. As the matter is being investigated by the coroner, as is
standard practice, it would be inappropriate to comment further."
Apr 11, 2016 gippslandtimes.com.au
Bid for freedom derails
A BID for freedom by two Fulham Correctional Centre prisoners
was short-lived. Chris Lyons, aged 36, and Michael Jarmyn, 31, allegedly
escaped from Fulham Correctional Centre on Friday night. They were last seen
at the facility about 6.40pm. The men were spotted walking along railway
tracks in Traralgon just after 9am Saturday morning. Police were called and
chased the men on foot. One alleged escapee was arrested at 9.08am and the
other three minutes later. The two men reportedly escaped from the
correctional facility by climbing over a fence. The men have been transferred
to a Melbourne facility and will face charges. Operator of the facility, GEO
Group Australia, may be fined. A spokesperson for GEO Group Australia, the
company which operates the prison, refused to comment, saying it was a police
matter. Local police and Corrections Victoria are investigating the incident.
Apr 9, 2016 au.news.yahoo.com
GEO loses two inmates
Two Victorian prisoners have escaped from a medium security prison,
sparking a police manhunt. The escape of two inmates from a privately run
Victoria prison could result in the operator being fined $220,000 or the
government ripping up its contract. Police on Saturday recaptured the two
prisoners who escaped from Fulham Correctional Centre, which is operated by
GEO Group. Chris Lyons, 36, and 31-year-old Michael Jarmyn were last seen at
the medium-security prison about 6.30pm on Friday. The alarm of their escape
was not raised until about 8.30pm when a prison count fell short. A search of
the immediate area failed to find them, and police warned members of the
public not to approach them. The fugitives were spotted walking along train
tracks in Traralgon about 9am on Saturday and they were arrested after a
short police chase on foot. Acting Police Minister Robin Scott has promised a
full investigation into what happened. "This is clearly an unacceptable
security breach," he told reporters on Saturday. "We're taking this
matter very seriously." GEO Group is also conducting its own
investigation into what went wrong. Corrections Commissioner Jan Shuard said,
"The private operator will also provide me with a report into this
matter and how this occurred." The escape could potentially affect GEO's
contract with Corrections Victoria. "There are serious ramifications
within the contract for an escape," the commissioner said. That could
include a penalty of $110,000 per escapee, as well as the option of a default
on contract if GEO failed to remedy any breaches. "If that's what we
find - if the prison hasn't done as they should do in terms of maintaining
the security of the prison - then there's a range of options open," Ms
Shuard said. The escape was the first since the prison opened in 1997, she
added. Lyons and Jarmyn were on remand at the centre on charges of burglary,
armed robbery, and vehicle offences. It's unclear how they escaped, or if
they got help from outside. Prison authorities said they could not reveal
those details for security reasons.
Mar 27, 2015 abc.net.au
Colin
Johnson, bashed in Fulham Prison, might still be alive if not for staff
inaction: Victorian coroner Mr Johnson, 53, was serving a two-year sentence at the prison
when he was bashed. A man who died after he was viciously bashed in a
Victorian prison four years ago might still be alive if not for the inaction
of prison staff and the absence of CCTV cameras, a coroner has found. State
coroner Judge Ian Gray was scathing of staff from the company that operated
Fulham Prison, GEO Group, saying their behaviour on the night Colin Johnson
was bashed was "unacceptable". Judge Gray also criticised the
procedures at the prison which led to a six-hour delay before it was
discovered that Mr Johnson had suffered severe head injuries. The comments
were contained in a part-redacted finding handed down on Friday. Mr Johnson,
53, was serving a two-year sentence at the medium and minimum-security prison
when he was bashed with what was believed to have been a wooden rolling pin.
A notoriously violent prisoner then housed at Fulham is suspected of carrying
out the attack but has never been charged. Tragically, Mr Johnson had been
favourably considered for parole but was denied after he returned a positive
drug test. Do you know more about this story? Email investigations@abc.net.au
Described by his family after his death as a "loving son" who
should have been safe in jail, Mr Johnson battled heroin and alcohol
addiction since his late teens. He was discovered unconscious in his cell
just before midnight on April 23, 2011. He was naked and bent over on his
knees, the right side of his face was covered in blood, and he had extensive
head injuries. He was taken first to a hospital in Gippsland and then to the
Alfred Hospital in Melbourne where he was placed on life support. He died on
May 6 without regaining consciousness. Guards in nearby room did not see
attack Mr Johnson was housed in the Yeerung Unit of the prison, which
consists of two "pods" separated by the guard room. Each pod
comprises a number of cells, a laundry, kitchen and a day room. Judge Gray
found that Mr Johnson was assaulted in the pod 1 day room sometime between
5:06pm and 5:49pm. One prisoner gave evidence that he saw Mr Johnson in the
day room holding his head while another prisoner was "cleaning up".
However, none of this was captured on CCTV cameras because neither of the day
rooms had camera coverage. GEO Group gave evidence at the inquest that this
was because both rooms were clearly visible from the guard station. It is
unclear why the guards on duty at the time did not see the fatal assault. GEO
Group said in its submission that the guards were likely to have been
collecting their belongings prior to locking the prisoners in for the night,
and that three of them had been disciplined after Mr Johnson's death over
their actions that day. "It is unacceptable that the correctional
officers on duty did not observe the assault on Mr Johnson, the subsequent
cleaning up of the area by another prisoner, Mr Johnson walking, injured,
back through the common area to the cells, or his injuries at lockdown,"
Judge Gray said. Coroner recommends CCTV cameras be installed in day rooms
After he was bashed, Mr Johnson returned to his cell. At 6:00pm the prisoners
were locked down, but procedures at the time did not require Mr Johnson to be
"viewed physically, face on", in Judge Gray's words, so his
injuries were not noticed. "After considering the evidence, I am
satisfied that there was inadequate observation of Mr Johnson at the point of
lockdown. This was conceded by GEO Group and changes were subsequently made
to the lockdown procedure," Judge Gray said. Although GEO Group argued
it was "speculative" to say Mr Johnson might have survived if his
injuries had been noticed earlier, Mr Gray found that was the case. "In
my view, and on the balance of probabilities, earlier identification of the
injury, earlier medical intervention and earlier transportation to hospital
would have increased Mr Johnson's prospects of surviving the attack,"
Judge Gray said. In the findings, Judge Gray acknowledged GEO Group had made
changes to procedures in the wake of Mr Johnson's death, including
strengthening the lock-up muster procedure, improving patrols in the unit and
reminding guards of their supervisory duties when in the guard station. Judge
Gray also recommended CCTV cameras be installed in the day rooms of the
Yeerung Unit. A spokesperson for the GEO Group said the coroner's finding
highlighted that changes had already been
implemented by GEO to address problems in the centre's security procedures.
October
28, 2013 The Age Victoria
Pressure
is mounting on the Napthine government to give the Auditor-General ''follow
the dollar'' powers to scrutinise taxpayer-funded services and projects
delivered by the private sector. It comes after staff from the Audit Office
were unable to visit two private jails for a recent audit into drugs in
Victorian prisons because their mandate did not extend to private-sector
providers. Opposition corrections spokeswoman Jill Hennessy said the
Auditor-General's office did not have the authority to visit Port Phillip
Prison and Fulham Correctional Centre to audit drug prevention and detection
controls. ''Government is increasingly providing services through the private
sector. If the Auditor-General doesn't have these powers, we don't know what
rorts might be occurring.'' She said there was no independent scrutiny of
projects delivered through public-private partnerships, such as the $500
million Ravenhall Prison. New Victorian Auditor-General John Doyle has put
''follow the dollar'' powers high on his agenda, using his first annual
report to call for an urgent overhaul of the Audit Act. ''Activities by
third-party providers funded by government to achieve government objectives
are currently beyond my mandate. In effect, spending of significant funds,
including through public-private partnerships, are not subject to audit
scrutiny.'' The Napthine government said it was in talks with the
Auditor-General about reforming the Audit Act, which it has labelled a
priority for 2013-14. The state financial watchdog has been pushing for
''follow the dollar'' powers for four years, with calls becoming more urgent
as the government finances more projects through public-private partnerships
and outsources services to the private sector. A 2010 parliamentary inquiry
into the Audit Act recommended the watchdog be given ''explicit authority''
to access the systems and records of public-sector contractors and
subcontractors who are paid by the government to deliver services. Former
auditor Des Pearson warned in his final annual report that his ability to
scrutinise taxpayer-funded projects had ''diminished rapidly''. A spokesman
for Finance Minister Robert Clark said reforming the act was a priority for
2013-14. ''The government has already made clear … that it supports in
principle amending the Audit Act to authorise the Auditor-General to access
the systems and records of public sector contractors in appropriate
circumstances.'' He said the watchdog had access to extensive public and
private data, including random and targeted drug tests, positive result
rates, seizure statistics, and prison capacity as part of his latest audit on
drugs in prisons. The value of public-private partnerships in Victoria is
anticipated to rise from $3 billion in 2012 to $7.9 billion in 2013.
June 19,
2013 bordermail.com.au
Up to
eight prison guards have been taken to hospital after a brawl broke out at a
prison in the state's south-east on Wednesday morning. One officer aged in
his 40s received extensive injuries to his face, head, chest and back and was
taken by ambulance to Sale's Gippsland Base Hospital, where he is in a
serious but stable condition. Fairfax has been told the incident occurred
after two inmates, who are brothers, were told they would not be granted bereavement
leave to attend a relative's funeral. The inmates reportedly started to punch
several prison officers at about 10.30am. Up to eight other inmates joined
the brawl, which lasted about 20 minutes. Another seven security officers
were taken to hospital via private vehicles.Victoria Police Senior Constable
Adam West said "several" people involved were taken to hospital
with minor injuries. No inmates were injured during the violent clash, which
resulted in the prison going into lockdown for the rest of the day. Private
corrections company GEO Group, which manages the prison, was contacted for
comment. Victoria Police and the independent Office of Correctional Services
Review have launched investigations into the incident, which is the latest to
plague the trouble-prone correctional centre. In January 2012, a 12-hour riot
broke out in which inmates armed themselves with makeshift weapons, lit fires
and attack officers; seventeen inmates were later charged with various
offences including arson and criminal damage but all escapes extra jail time.
In May, a 20 year-old inmate was taken to hospital after he suffered stab
wounds to his abdomen. James Talia, spokesman for Minister for Corrections
Edward O'Donohue, said any report of staff being injured whilst performing
their job was concerning. "Any incidents in which prison staff are
injured is of deep concern. Prison are an inheritability difficult
environment but we respect the work done by our diligent and dedicated staff
and will undertake any measures recommended to protect them further," he
said. Community and Public Sector Union Victoria blasted the government and
operator on Twitter just hours after the incident, saying the prison is
"out of control" and that officers are left to "bear
brunt".
Jun
12, 2013 abc.net.au
The
union that represents corrections workers fears more violent attacks could
take place at a prison in eastern Victoria unless prison management improves
safety practices. Seven guards from Fulham Correctional Centre, near Sale,
were admitted to hospital on Wednesday following a brawl involving up to 30
inmates. Last year, 18 prison guards were injured when inmates rioted. Andrew
Capp from the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) says the privately-run
prison needs more staff and improved safety procedures. "You don't want
bad things to happen but it is a real concern that unless the way in which
Fulham is managed does change then there will be more serious
incidents," he said. "It's re-awakened the anxieties and concerns
that staff had as a result of the riot there last year, and they're also
concerned about their own welfare." Corrections Victoria says
maintaining a safe working environment at the prison is its number one
priority.
December
18 2012 By: AAP International News
A former prisoner is suing a Victorian jail for damages, alleging its staff
sexually assaulted him during unlawful strip searches. The man is suing GEO
Group Australia Pty Ltd, which operates the Fulham Correctional Centre near
Sale in eastern Victoria, claiming he suffered gross humiliation, loss of
self-esteem and psychological injury as a result of sexual abuse by their
staff. In a writ filed in the Victorian Supreme Court, the former prisoner
alleges he and other prisoners were subjected to hundreds of unlawful visual
cavity searches which constituted sexual assault. The man wants damages for
himself and other prisoners, based on the number of searches they were each
allegedly subjected to. A spokesman for GEO Group says the company will
investigate the claims and cooperate with any police investigation or court
hearing.
May 20, 2012 Sunday Herald Sun
A FEMALE prison officer has spoken of a terrifying plan by a gang of
violent inmates to abduct, rape and murder her. ..But she claims she
continued to work among the evil plotters because bosses refused to take the
threat seriously. Rose Forsyth, 32, alleges a note was discovered with
detailed plans of how the group of up to nine inmates - most convicted of
serious sexual offences - were going to carry out the horrifying abuse and
then chillingly kill her. But bosses at Fulham Correctional Centre did not
tell Ms Forsyth for three days and even allowed her to work among the alleged
gang - at times completely on her own - for at least 14 hours. A unit manager
told Ms Forsyth of the threat only when hours into her second shift at the
820-bed prison in West Sale, but was allegedly told GEO Group - a private
firm that operates the facility - was "not taking it seriously".
Shocked and horrified, she immediately walked off-site and says she will
consult the Community and Public Sector Union this week about her legal
options. The Sunday Herald Sun can also exclusively reveal that the alleged
gang was named by a fellow inmate and when their property was searched,
plastic binding similar to baling twine was discovered. "The note was
discovered on a Saturday yet I was allowed to work a 12-hour shift on the
Monday with those same prisoners without any knowledge of the threat against
my safety," said Ms Forsyth, who has worked at the centre for 2 1/2
years. "I then started a shift on Tuesday and still wasn't told for 2
1/2 hours. And then I was informed the prison bosses were 'not taking it
seriously'. "I was literally shaking with fear. There was a note saying
they were going to tie me up, rape me, then kill me and I wasn't even made
aware. They played Russian roulette with my life." Ms Forsyth has since
been transferred to another unit within the prison. The gang of up to nine
prisoners is housed in the Hotham Unit - a protected wing of the prison
commonly used to keep sex offenders safe from fellow inmates. Ms Forsyth said
GEO Group claimed it informed police about the threats, but was stunned when
she made inquiries and no investigation could be found. Victoria Police
confirmed to the Sunday Herald Sun that it was not alerted to the incident
from January last year. GEO Group refused to comment on the incident.
May
10, 2012 9 News
An hour-long strike planned by prison guards at Victoria's Fulham Prison has
instead lasted just one minute, with officers quickly calling off their
industrial action. The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) said the
privately-run prison's management, GEO group, had stymied officers'
industrial action by sending only two supervisors to staff Fulham at 2am
(AEST) on Thursday. The CPSU said GEO had received seven days' notice of the
planned walk-off and chosen to play "Russian roulette with prison
safety". The nine night-shift staff met with union delegates at the
planned stoppage time, but decided immediately to return to their posts, CPSU
spokesman Julian Kennelly said. "Officers were so concerned GEO would
put the two supervisors, as well as inmates, potentially in harm's way that
we re-entered the prison," he said.
May
9, 2012 The Age
Prison officers at Victoria's Fulham Prison will walk off the job on
tonight as part of an enterprise bargaining dispute. The Community and Public
Sector Union wants minimum staffing levels at the privately-run jail managed
by the GEO group. CPSU spokesman spokesman Julian Kennelly said officers had
concerns about their health and safety unless such minimums were recognised.
"Fulham officers just want a safe workplace and are dismayed that GEO
would put their profits above the well-being of their employees," he said.
Fulham general manager Troy Ittensohn said he was "extremely
disappointed" that prison staff would escalate the dispute by taking the
proposed action. "Management will run the prison for that period to
ensure that the prisoners remain safe and the facility secure," he said.
Mr Ittensohn said no date had been set by Fairwork Australia for further
negotiations with the union. Work bans are already in place at the Gippsland
jail near Sale, which houses about 800 inmates. In January, the jail was the
site of a riot involving prisoners armed with gym equipment and gardening
tools.
April
17, 2012 ABC
The operator of the Fulham Prison near Sale, in the state's east, denies it
is looking for strikebreakers, as an industrial dispute escalates. All
inmates were locked in their cells yesterday afternoon, after prison officers
stepped-up their industrial campaign. Officers are campaigning for a pay rise
and an increase in minimum staffing levels and began protected industrial
action last week. They say the riot at the prison in January exposed staffing
shortfalls. The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) says its members
were stood down yesterday. It has accused prison management of looking for
strikebreakers from interstate prisons. Union spokeswoman Karen Batt has
called on GEO to come to the negotiating table. "They have chosen to
stand then down a la Qantas, rather than negotiating," she said.
"We call on them to back off from this approach and not call in strike
breakers but to negotiate with their staff in the interests of that
prison." GEO Group staff have denied the officers have been locked out.
It says workers are being brought in from other prisons to maintain security
while the extent of the union bans is finalised, but denies they are strike
breakers.
April
13, 2012 ABC
Workers at the Fulham prison near Sale are planning to begin industrial
action today. They are campaigning for a wage rise and higher staffing levels
in the wake of January's riot at the prison. There will be a stop work
meeting and workers will then impose a series of work bans. They will refuse
to carry out inmate urine testing or provide statistics and will lock
prisoners in their cells if unit staffing falls below certain levels. Andy
Capp from the Community and Public Sector Union says January's riot exposed
flaws in the way the prison is managed. "There's absolutely no doubt
that serious incidents do happen in prisons, absolutely no doubt about that
at all," he said. "But in saying that and acknowledging that, a
prison needs to be adequately staffed to deal with those serious incidents.
"And we don't believe that the prison was properly staffed to deal with
the 18th of January riot." The GEO Group that manages the prison says
the union's demands are "totally unrealistic." It says the work
bans will mean there will be long periods in coming days when the inmates are
locked in their cells.
April
1, 2012 The Age
THOUSANDS of mental health workers will strike at major hospitals this month
in pursuit of better pay, warning Ted Baillieu they are struggling to cope
with the daily influx of patients. And in the private sector, officers at one
of the state's non-government prisons, where inmates rioted this year, are
threatening to strike over pay and staff numbers, which could result in
prisoners being locked in their cells for lengthy periods. In the latest
industrial headache for the government, mental health nurses and clinicians -
including psychologists, occupational therapists and social workers - will
begin twice-daily rolling stoppages after Easter. This follows bans on
non-clinical duties - such as bed making, filing or data collection - which
were imposed last December as the stoush escalated. Advertisement: Story
continues below But Health and Community Services Union state secretary Lloyd
Williams said that after six months of negotiations, including more than two
dozen meetings with the government, they were no closer to a settlement. The
union has asked for an 18 per cent pay rise - 6 per cent annually over three
years - in contrast to the government's public sector policy of 2.5 per cent
a year, with anything above that to be matched by productivity offsets. Mr
Williams warned that without better conditions, hospitals would struggle to
keep skilled clinicians or attract new staff, leading to a workforce crisis
in mental health. ''They [the government] know that staffing issues in our
acute units are a problem - the chief psychiatrist has told them that,'' he
said. Department figures suggest that demand for clinical mental health
services in Victoria is growing at a rate of 8 per cent to 10 per cent a
year. A spokeswoman for Community Services Minister Mary Wooldridge said the
negotiations were ''proceeding consistent with the government's wages
policy''. Teachers, paramedics, public sector workers, firefighters, park
rangers and a range of other unions are also preparing for drawn out
industrial battles as they negotiate new wage deals. Staff are threatening
24-hour strikes and other work bans at Fulham prison, near Sale, where in
January prisoners armed themselves with makeshift weapons and lit fires.
Fulham, a medium to minimum security prison, also has the second highest
level of ''contraband'' seized from prisoners, according to data provided to
the state opposition. Among the items retrieved during a four-month period
last year were 15 weapons, alcohol, tattooing equipment and a range of drugs
and drug paraphernalia. The jail also has the state's highest
prisoner-to-staff ratio, separate figures show. The Baillieu government could
be set to expand the state's private prison network, following the
announcement of 392 additional beds across the state. Former prison chaplain
and RMIT adjunct professor Peter Norden said private operators were trying to
boost profits by spending less on staff and services. He said staff expenses
made up as much as 90 per cent of operating costs in prisons. ''Private
prisons accentuate the difficulties because they're interested in making
profit,'' he said. ''They're more interested in doing well than doing good.''
Community and Public Sector Union state secretary Karen Batt said officers
were currently voting on the course of their industrial action. She said the
union was pushing private operator GEO Group to introduce minimum
prisoner-to-staff ratios. ''At one point before the riot there [were] four
prison officers for about 400 prisoners,'' she said. A GEO spokesman rejected
claims of under-staffing and said it was ''meeting its contractual
requirements with Corrections Victoria''.
February
20, 2012 ABC
The company that operates the Fulham Prison near Sale, in eastern Victoria,
has hit back at claims the prison is understaffed. The State Opposition says
Fulham Prison has the lowest staff-to-inmate ratio in Victoria. The prison
workers' union says understaffing contributed to last month's riot at the
Fulham Prison. But the managing director of the GEO group that runs the
prison, Pieter Bezuidenhout, disagrees. "Whether there were a thousand
staff on site or a hundred staff on site, [staffing] is not the issue,"
he said. "Bad things happen in the best prisons around the world. It's
the nature of the industry."
January
29, 2012 Sunday Herald Sun
TRAUMATISED prison guards who were almost burned alive during the Fulham
riots have been ordered by doctors to not return to work more than 10 days
after the siege. Eighteen guards were injured during the 11-hour siege at
Fulham Correctional Centre in Sale on January 17, says prison operator GEO
Group. One was beaten over the head with a piece of wood and four staff have
not returned to the prison on medical advice, including officers trapped in a
room set on fire by rioters. In the early hours of the siege, a group of 100
inmates armed with pitchforks, metal bars and wooden stakes trapped two
female and two male guards in an office that overlooked the main courtyard.
Unable to get into the room, the mob overturned a prison-owned buggy in front
of the window and set the petrol tank on fire in a bid to force the officers
out. Thick smoke filled the room and the guards lay on the ground covering
their faces from the flames that reached the ceiling, Community and Public
Sector Union Victoria industrial officer Andrew Capp said. "It was out
of control and pure luck they survived," he told the Sunday Herald Sun.
Other staff tried to reach the trapped officers, but were forced back by the
prisoners brandishing rocks and parts of furniture. Using a phone in the
room, the trapped guards asked the control room to have a nearby door
unlocked so they could flee. One woman was treated for severe smoke
inhalation. Mr Capp said all the guards reported they believed they would die
in the room. GEO Group spokesman Ken Davis confirmed four guards had not yet
returned to work and repairs would cost up to $50,000, with two rooms
remaining closed.
January
20, 2012 The Australian
THE Victorian Corrections Commissioner has been accused of
"spin" after blaming a prison riot on inmates angry at losing their
pay TV and being forced to use soft toothbrushes that cannot be turned into
weapons. Corrections chief Bob Hastings yesterday said the riot at Fulham
Prison on Wednesday night was caused by young men "who decided that they
would be disruptive and destructive" amid changes to their living
standards. "Some time ago we made a decision to introduce what's called
a flexible toothbrush," he said. "This is really a safety issue
because unfortunately some of the prisoners with the conventional
toothbrushes used those to become weapons. There's also been some issue where
they have had a contract with pay TV which is coming to an end." Former
prison chaplain and RMIT adjunct professor Peter Norden said the
commissioner's response was "government spin" to distract the
community from the issue of overcrowded and under-resourced prisons.
..."This is an absolute distraction, put out to tell people not to even
worry about it," he said. "The community needs to ask bigger
questions, beyond the bad behaviour of prisoners." The riot at Fulham,
near Sale, 215km east of Melbourne, broke out on Wednesday afternoon when
prisoners set fire to waste bins and about 30 of them ran to the roof of the
facility armed with makeshift weapons. A remaining group of 11 inmates was
forced from the roof with tear gas early yesterday. Prisoners involved in the
riot have been transferred to Barwon and Port Philip prisons and may face
criminal charges. Fulham is privately run for the Victorian government by GEO
Group.
January
18, 2012 The Herald Sun
UPDATE 8.30pm: PRISONERS - some armed - have scaled fences amid a
full-scale riot at a major Victorian jail. About 11 inmates are on a roof and
in a recreation area of the Fulham Correctional Centre, near Sale. The
prisoners, believed to be younger members of the jail population, appear to
be wielding iron bars, a pick, a cricket bat, a bin lid and gardening equipment.
Officers are using capsicum spray in a bid to control the situation. Police
wearing riot gear are patrolling the perimeter, and the dog squad has also
arrived at the prison. Inmates are reportedly protesting over new conditions
at the jail. Picture: Darren Tindale Just after 5.30pm, about a dozen other
prisoners were spotted by authorities scaling the southeast corner fence.
Prisoners have seriously damaged one of the control rooms, ripping out
electrical wires. The room also stores tear gas. CFA crews were called to the
scene after unconfirmed reports of at least two fires at the prison, which
has been locked down. Prison authorities were being held at bay as the
prisoners brandished bar bells and other gym equipment on the northwest side
of the prison. Officers from Ambulance Victoria and the CFA are on hand.
Paramedics have not yet been allowed into the jail, which was in September
voted the state's best employer. There are no reports of serious injuries. Up
to 50 prisoners were on an oval at the jail, near Sale, when they were asked
to go back inside. It was then that the inmates took a stand. A Corrections
Victoria spokesman said the riot started after several inmates refused
orders. "A group of prisoners failed to comply with officers' directions
to return to their cells,'' he said. It is believed the prisoners revolted
over new conditions at the correctional facility, which can accommodate 845
prisoners. A concerned partner of a prisoner inside the jail said a group of
prisoners took over the main block of the prison. "There’s been a lot of
stuff happening there and the prisoners are sick of it," she said.
"It’s really dangerous and disconcerting for those waiting for people to
come home." Last year, a prisoner due for release from the prison died
after being beaten with what was believed to be a rolling pin.
May
16, 2011 The Age
Homicide detectives will interview an inmate at Barwon Prison over the fatal
bashing of a prisoner at the Fulham Correctional Centre. A 53-year-old
prisoner from the Sale jail died today after life support was turned off the
The Alfred hospital last week. He had been in a coma since he was attacked
and severely beaten, posssibly with a blunt instrument, at the jail on April
23. Reports today suggested the weapon may have been a rolling pin. The
latest prison bashing death follows the killing of underworld figure and
Barwon inmate Carl Williams last year and raises further questions about
security within the state's correctional facilities. The man being questioned
over the latest death has been transferred to Barwon Prison on the outskirts
of Geelong. Local police had earlier co-ordinated a search through rubbish at
the Kilmany tip for evidence relating to the attack at the privately run
correction centre. Fulham Correctional Centre is a 777 bed medium to
minimum-security facility near Sale in eastern Victoria. Prisoners prepare
and cook their own meals and have access to kitchen equipment. They also
manage their own household budget at the jail, which is Victoria's second private
prison and the first privately operated men's prison. A report on the death
will be prepared for the state coroner. A spokeswoman for the correctional
facility said "at this point we are not at liberty to comment". A
spokesman for Victoria Police confirmed detectives were investigating.
May
10, 2011 ABC
Police searched a tip near Sale on the weekend as part of their investigation
into a vicious assault at the Fulham Prison. An inmate aged in his 50s is
still in a coma in hospital after being attacked at the prison on April 23.
Local detectives say they received information that important evidence could
have been disposed of through the prison's rubbish system and dumped at the
Kilmany Tip. Police officers and State Emergency Service crews searched the
tip on Saturday but did not find what they were looking for. Detectives have
not been able to speak to the victim and are waiting to question him when he
comes out of his coma. No-one has been arrested or charged over the assault.
December
28, 2010 The Age
FULHAM Prison at West Sale was in lockdown last night after an inmate was
stabbed in the neck. Corrections Victoria spokesman Nick Higginbottom said
prisoners were being kept in their cells and would not be allowed to go to
the dining room or the exercise yard until the prison had the situation under
control. ''It is a huge concern when these things happen.'' He said the man's
injuries were not life-threatening.
September
11, 2008 The Age
COMPLAINTS about Victoria's private prisons have risen up to fourfold in
the past two years, fuelling concerns by a public sector watchdog about the
state's growing reliance on business to provide government services. State
Ombudsman George Brouwer yesterday tabled his 2007-08 annual report, vowing
to shine a light on the more murky aspects of public-private partnerships and
outsourcing and noting the "high risk" that comes with the blurring
of the private and public sectors. In the report, Mr Brouwer highlights a
"growing interdependency" between government and business, which
brings "a high potential for conflict situations and confusion about the
ethical standards required". While issues of conflicts of interest, poor
customer service and failure to fulfil legal requirements remain his core
work, the Ombudsman says public-private contracts and public sector
compliance with the new human rights charter are two new areas of focus. The
2008 report also shows: ■Overall complaints were up 13% to 16,344 on
the previous year. ■Complaints about freedom of information rose by
16%. ■Whistleblower disclosures more than doubled. ■The largest
single source (29%) of complaints related to the Justice Department. ■Local
government made up 23% of complaints and the Department of Human Services
19%. Deputy Ombudsman John Taylor said his office was concerned that private
sector involvement in services traditionally supplied by government may lead
to the erosion of citizens' rights. He pointed to private prisons, noting
400% and 100% increases in complaints respectively about Port Phillip prison
(rising to 443) and Fulham prison (129) since the 2006 annual report. While
rising complaint figures are partly explained by the installation of phones
for inmates, Mr Taylor described the increases as "disproportionately
high". The emphasis on private contracting is a wake-up call for a state
increasingly reliant on PPPs for services ranging from jails to water and now
schools. Mr Taylor said the Ombudsman's office would make a point of
scrutinising deals with business. "Every time there is a major contract
or outsourcing of what traditionally has been a government function we have
an interest; we want to make sure that the normal rights of a citizen to
complain are retained and that the Government doesn't legislate away the
right of an individual to complain to the Ombudsman." Individual
agencies with the most complaints were VicRoads and Port Phillip Prison. ■The
Government is expected to table legislation tomorrow to toughen rules and
guidelines for councillors, including clarifying confusing laws on conflicts
of interest.
July
10, 2008 The Age
Prisoners sparked a fire during a "disturbance'' at a private jail
in south-east Victoria last night. It is understood the fire at the Fulham
Correctional Centre in West Sale was started when disgruntled inmates threw a
mattress over a fridge and set it alight. A Corrections Victoria spokeswoman
confirmed the incident at the Fulham Correctional Centre in West Sale. Nobody
was injured in the incident. "We can confirm there was a disturbance
involving a number of prisoners and we can confirm a fire was set alight,''
the spokeswoman said. "The staff moved quickly to contain the incident
and put out the fire.'' Fulham is a private prison housing up to 785 minimum
and medium security prisoners. It is owned by GEO Group Australia.
September
16, 2007 Sunday Herald
INMATES of Fulham Correctional Centre, near Sale, are receiving personal gym
training and specialised diet advice while in jail. Inmates of Fulham
Correctional Centre are bulking up in a state-of-the-art gym with guidance
from two sport and recreation officers. Prison sources said the officers were
effectively personal trainers, giving inmates a service that would cost a
member of the public up to $8000 a year. The prison has a record of providing
perks for inmates and used to employ a karate sensei to teach martial arts
skills. Prison sources said the $200,000 program saw officers set up training
regimes for prisoners and devise diets to help them achieve maximum bulk. The
source said inmates had access to a spacious cutting-edge gym which is
unusual in jails. "The gym is well equipped with a section for free
weights and weight training," the source said. "You see all these
crooks getting absolutely everything and they get it all for nothing."
The trainers are employed by the GEO Group Australia, which receives
taxpayers' money to run the prison. People Against Lenient Sentencing
president Steve Medcraft slammed the jail's personal trainers.
"Rehabilitation has taken on a new meaning. Life's better inside than
outside," he said. Crime Victims Support Association president Noel
McNamara said: "On the outside world you pay a small fortune to have
these sessions," he said. "To have them free for people who are
supposed to be paying their debt to society is an insult to victims of
crime." A Fulham Correctional Centre spokesman said: "Keeping
inmates healthy means they have fewer medical problems and are a lower cost
to taxpayers."
December
22, 2005 The Age
THE murder of a prisoner was "a travesty" that happened at a time of
inadequate supervision and searches at the Fulham Correctional Centre, a
coroner has found. Paul Anthony Shaw, 30, was stabbed to death on November
11, 1999, in the protection unit at Fulham with a home-made knife known as a
"shiv". Coroner Phillip Byrne found this week that two other
prisoners, Benjamin Kyriacou and Jason Los, were implicated in Shaw's death.
Both have already been tried and acquitted of Shaw's murder. He ruled that
there had been a failure of staff to appreciate impending trouble in the
unit, due to an inadequate level of supervision, surveillance and monitoring.
He said the prison's private operators, Australasian Correctional Management,
had inadequately audited implements such as the broom from which the
"shiv" had been made. "Incarceration obviously represents a
loss of liberty. It is a travesty when it results in a prisoner losing his
life," Mr Byrne said.
September 27, 2005 ABC
Unions and management at Fulham Prison near Sale, in south-east Victoria, are
still negotiating to end a dispute over pay and leave which has lead to work
bans. Prison guards are refusing to process new prisoners, escort inmates to
court, or conduct urine tests. They are also refusing to lock or unlock
prison cells unless a supervisor is present. The Industrial Relations
Commission (IRC) has deemed the work bans lawful and has ordered both parties
into conciliation. John Crane from the Community and Public Sector Union says
the 12 per cent pay offer for guards is inadequate. "There are two
private prisons in Victoria - the other private prison gets seven weeks leave
per year," he said. "The workers at Fulham certainly don't get
that, so we're hoping to at least bridge the gap with regard to leave.
"If we can't do it with leave, we'd like to address other components
which would address workers' concerns."
September 26, 2005 The
Australian
THE Australian Industrial Relations Commission will today decide if prison guards
at a privately-owned Victorian jail can continue work bans imposed in support
of an enterprise bargaining claim. The prison is operated by the GEO Group
Australia at Sale, 200 km east of Melbourne. The prison workers, members of
the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), have been pushing for better
wages and conditions in enterprise bargaining negotiations since March, union
organiser John Crane said. Their log of claims before the AIRC includes a
call for seven weeks of annual leave, up from five weeks, to match warders at
other private jails in Victoria, he said. Work bans have been in place for
some time but were escalated on Thursday last week to include bans on
overtime, paperwork and higher duties. Mr Crane said the company moved to
terminate the bargaining period when the new bans were introduced. The AIRC
will rule on that issue today, he said.
September 12, 2005 ABC
Gippsland
Prison guards at the Fulham Correctional Centre near Sale have stepped up
industrial action after failed negotiations last week. The US company running
Fulham, GEO, has offered guards the 12 per cent pay rise they want, but will
not pay them two weeks extra annual leave. Stage two work bans are now in
force that include bans on prison programs and some escorts and urine sample
collections. "I'm not really sure what the public sector is paying and
getting, we do have an annualised salary for our staff, it's been negotiated
with staff and finalised through the CPSU [Community and Public Sector Union]
over two previous EBA [enterprise bargaining agreement] processes and
negotiations so we'd like to look at Fulham as a stand-alone business in a
sense, we don't really compare ourselves with the public sector," he
said. The CPSU has taken a swipe at the State Government for letting private
companies run correctional facilities. The union's John Crane says guards get
paid up to 40 per cent less than those in the public system. Mr Crane also
says the Government has not honoured the promise of its last Corrections
Minister. "Andre Haermeyer, stood out the front of the Fulham
Correctional Centre and made a promise that the Labor Government would no
longer continue to support private prisons, and made a commitment that
prisons are the responsibility, for their operation, within government - now
the Government have sat on their hands," he said.
May 5, 2005 Herald
Sun
VICTORIA Police are hunting an escapee from a private prison in eastern
Victoria. Saim Yalniz, 44, was last seen at the privately run Fulham
Corrections Centre, west of Sale, between 6pm (AEST) and 9.10pm yesterday,
police said. He was discovered missing by prison officers when he failed to
attend the 9pm muster at the prison.
May 27, 2003
The operation of the Fulham prison in Sale will be investigated following
allegations of mismanagement levelled against its private operator,
Australasian Correctional Management. State Corrections Minister Andre
Haermeyer has asked the Justice Department for probity checks on the Fulham
Correctional Centre. The move follows allegations raised last week about
ACM's management of the now-closed Woomera asylum-seeker detention centre in
South Australia. Federal Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock has
instructed his department to investigate allegations made by former Woomera
staff that ACM defrauded the Government of millions of dollars by
misrepresenting staff levels and health and education programs provided to
detainees. ACM has denied the charges. (The Age)
May 15, 2001
Victorian prison managers have rejected claims that inmates are being
subjected to illegal daily body searches. The claims were made by
prisoners at the privately run Port Philip and Fulham jails. John
Myers, the general manager of Australasian Correctional Management, which
also runs the Fulham prison at Sale, says the allegation about cavity
searches is wrong. "Searching is an important aspect of any prison
operation." (ABC News)
Group 4 Securicor (formerly Global Solutions)
Companies
Use Immigration Crackdown to Turn a Profit: Expose on immigration
by Nina Bernstein at the New York Times, September 28, 2011
Duty
of Care: Expose by Clare Sambrook on G4S and the death of
Aboriginal elder Mr. Ward. June 8, 2011
May 10, 2014 greenleft.org.au
Iranian
asylum seeker and aspiring architect Reza Berati was beaten to death inside
the Manus Island detention camp more than two months ago, during what former
employees of the detention centre described as “inevitable bloodshed”. Now,
the five witnesses who say they can identify those who allegedly kicked,
punched and beat the 23-year-old until he succumbed to massive head injuries,
have been receiving death threats from local security guards. Their lawyers
have filed urgent requests to the High Court to have the witnesses placed in
protective custody in Australia, saying they are “gravely concerned” about
the men's safety. But the refugees remain in the Manus camp and are afraid to
speak to PNG police. All five were seriously injured during the violence as
well. One was shot in the buttock while running away and beaten again.
Another was held down and slashed across the throat. Yet this has not been
the first challenge PNG police have encountered while investigating the
alleged murder. Lawyer Ruth Hudson said previous attempts by police to get
access to the witnesses have been “routinely thwarted” by staff. G4S guards,
both Australians and locals, have refused to cooperate with local
investigations. Two Australians also emerged as suspects in the death, but
have since returned to Australia. Requests to have them extradited to PNG
have been ignored. The Australian Federal Police have been speaking to the
guards, but have also neglected to cooperate with the local investigations.
Of the five official inquiries into conditions in the Manus Island camp and
the human rights of the asylum seekers, two that were being headed up by
Justice David Cannings were stonewalled in PNG's domestic courts — with
Australian backing. Jay Williams, the barrister who obtained the original
affidavits detailing the brutal assault on Berati, was forcibly deported from
Manus Island in March. But more allegations keep coming. The Australian
Senate inquiry into the violence has received a submission from whistleblower
Liz Thompson, who was working as a migration agent for the immigration
department when the violence occurred. The submission included more witness
accounts that said Berati and others were beaten with a baseball bat, and
named a Salvation Army worker, “Joshua”, as its carrier. A postmortem
assessment of Berati's body in February suggested he had suffered injuries
caused by “a heavy [piece of] timber or wood or some such object”. Thompson
wrote in the submission that the violence was ultimately the design of the
Australian government: “It is my belief that DIBP [Department of Immigration
and Border Protection] manufactured an atmosphere of extreme hostility,
suspicion and tension through its actions in the weeks leading up to February
16th and displayed utter disregard for the welfare of injured and traumatised
asylum seekers and frontline staff such as interpreters in the immediate
aftermath.” Asylum seekers said in a petition to Prime Minister Tony Abbott
that they have been “under military attack that caused us to lose one of our
friends forever after more than seven months of suffering from continuous
pressure and humiliation in this prison”. The petition requests that they be
sent to Indonesia. The lawyers of the five murder witnesses have also
submitted a separate habeas corpus writ on behalf of more than 350 detainees
on Manus Island that alleges human rights violations and international crimes
against humanity by the Australian and Papua New Guinean governments, and
immigration minister Scott Morrison. Former employees of the Manus detention
camp told ABC's Four Corners they knew a violent outbreak was inevitable.
Steve Kilburn said: “I'd say that within a week of arriving on Manus Island I
formed the opinion … that there is only one possible outcome here, and that
is bloodshed … “We couldn't guarantee the safety of those people, and we
still can't.” Another witness told the program: “The reality is that if
somebody from outside wants to come in and do harm to those people, there's
not a lot we can do to stop it, especially if they're armed, or en masse.”
Four Corners reporter Geoff Thompson said there were three “pressure points”
in the centre: the different ethnicities of asylum seekers forced to live in
cramped, stressful conditions; the presence of PNG locals living near the
fences of the centre; and the uncertainty faced by the asylum seekers.
Indeed, the peaceful protests within the centre's compound began after a
meeting revealed to asylum seekers that PNG had no plan to resettle them as
refugees. They faced repatriation to their home countries, or a life sentence
in detention. If charges are ever laid against anyone for the terrifying
bloodshed that took place in the Australian-run detention centre, it will be
in spite of Australia's apparent wish to sweep it under the rug. Morrison's
admission to Four Corners that, despite his “aspiration”, the Australian
government cannot actually ensure the safety of asylum seekers sent to the
offshore detention centres shows that even the violent murder of someone who only
asked for a safer and better life is no impetus to reverse this appalling
regime. In fact, the Manus Island and Nauru detention centres are being
expanded as six onshore detention centres are being closed. The expected
closures of the Northern immigration detention centre, the Darwin Airport
Lodge, Inverbrackie in South Australia, Curtin detention centre in Western
Australia and two sites on Christmas Island would apparently save $280
million. Small change compared with the more than $1 billion contract
Transfield holds to run the offshore nightmare camps.
Mar 9, 2014 wsws.org
Further
testimony emerged this week from witnesses of the brutal violence inflicted
on refugees detained in an Australian-run camp on Papua New Guinea’s Manus
Island on the night of February 17–18. One refugee, 23-year-old Iranian Kurd
Reza Berati, was killed, and several others were seriously wounded in the
attack. An employee of G4S, the British-based security company contracted by
the Australian government to run the Manus camp, spoke anonymously with the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and said he was “badly traumatised
after witnessing a frenzy of out of control violence.” He explained that
during the refugee protests, senior G4S personnel decided to call in the Papua
New Guinea (PNG) mobile squad, an Australian-funded paramilitary unit that is
notorious for its violence and criminal activities. The G4S whistleblower
told the ABC that he heard a discussion between G4S managers, with one asking
about handing over responsibility to the PNG police, “Are you sure? Do you
know the consequences of that?” The reply was: “Yes, hand it over.” This
account underscores the responsibility of Australian authorities for the
violent rampage that followed. The obvious question is: who in Canberra was
involved in this decision? As Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has openly
acknowledged, his department knew that tensions were escalating in the camp,
fuelled by the terrible conditions endured by the 1,300 detainees and
continued uncertainty about resettlement. Australian authorities and the G4S
were also aware that hostility toward refugees had been whipped up among
sections of the local population. On Tuesday, the SBS network’s “Dateline”
program broadcast an interview with a Salvation Army worker in the camp who
said that late last year local residents attempted to storm the camp with
machetes. In his ABC interview, the G4S employee detailed what happened last
month. The PNG paramilitary forces fired a burst of warning shots, before standing
back as armed local residents, G4S security guards and other camp contractors
went in and attacked the refugees. “We saw them going in with machetes,” he
explained. “They had anything they could pick up: rocks, sticks, the poles
from the exercise weights. Once they knocked people to the ground, they were
stomping on their heads with their boots. A day later you could still see
guards and staff and cleaners walking around with blood on their boots.” The
G4S staffer confirmed previous reports from asylum seekers that their
assailants went through the centre, smashing down doors and attacking
everyone they could find. He explained that PNG police joined in the
violence: “The police went from room to room as well and held guns to
people’s heads and said, ‘If you don’t give me your cigarettes, we’re going
to shoot you’.” Numerous reports from those in contact with asylum seekers
have described the detainees’ fear of being attacked again. A Fairfax Media
article this week cited a “well-placed source employed at the Manus Island
detention centre” who said Reza Berati had been killed by a local employed by
the Salvation Army, which has a $75 million contract with the Australian
government to work at the camps on Manus and Nauru. “Everyone knows who
attacked him and is surprised no one has been taken into custody,” the source
said. Several refugees in the camp reported that Berati was in the computer
room when the violence began, then sought refuge in his room before being
attacked. He died, Fairfax Media reported, “after repeated blows to the head,
most likely by a piece of timber, a PNG autopsy found last week.” Media
reports indicate that the cleaning staff quickly scrubbed the camp clean,
mopping up blood, including in the area where Berati was killed, compromising
any investigation. Berati’s family held his funeral in Tehran late last
month, with 1,500 people from the Kurdish community attending. The young
man’s cousin angrily told reporters that Iraq’s former president, Saddam
Hussein, did not treat Iranian prisoners of war as badly as the Australian
government treated refugees from the country. Immigration Minister Morrison
initially lied about the incident, declaring that no violence took place
within the camp and blaming refugees for escaping. Amid overwhelming evidence
to the contrary, Morrison was forced to retract. Manus camp staff, speaking
anonymously, described seeing bullet casings and bullet holes in centre
walls. Photos taken inside the Manus camp and published on a Facebook page
appear to confirm these accounts, showing lockers, walls, and doors with
bullet holes. Other photographs showed refugees, who held up their identity
cards for the camera, with what appeared to be knife or machete wounds to
their heads and necks, and also bad bruises and cuts to their eyes and noses.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Morrison are proceeding with an abject
whitewash. The terms of the official inquiry are almost entirely focused on
strengthening “security” and “intelligence” measures in the camp to suppress
any more protests. Robert Cornall, who is conducting the inquiry, was tasked
by the previous Labor government to conduct an “independent” review into
revelations last year by former Manus Island camp manager, turned
whistleblower, Rod St George. St George said immigration department officials
knew that refugees were being raped in the detention centre, treated, and
then returned to the single male compound where they were raped again.
Cornall’s review flatly denied this happened, and endorsed the management of
the Manus camp. The Abbott government is also supporting the investigations
being carried out by PNG authorities. These will no doubt produce blatant
cover-ups. Prime Minister Peter O’Neil, a long-time lackey of the Australian
government, has publicly denied that Manus Island residents were involved in
any violence, and also made the ludicrous accusation that the detained
refugees had firearms. The Labor Party and the Greens have initiated a Senate
inquiry into the Manus Island violence. The two parties bear direct
responsibility for what happened, with the Manus camp reopened as part of the
revival of the “Pacific Solution” by the previous Greens-backed Labor
government. No one should have any confidence in the Senate investigation,
which will begin next month. In the aftermath of the SIEV X disaster in which
353 refugees drowned at sea in 2001, the Labor Party initiated a
parliamentary investigation. Once evidence emerged that Australian officials
knowingly allowed the drownings, Labor lined up with the Howard government
and shut down the investigation, preventing senior military and other
officials from testifying under oath. The Manus Island killing, like the SIEV
X disaster, is a product of the reactionary “border protection” regime that
the entire Australian political establishment defends. In denying refugees
their basic democratic and legal right to seek asylum in the country, the
ruling elite has deliberately ratcheted up the violence and misery inflicted
on detained asylum seekers, as a “deterrent” to others thinking about fleeing
to Australia.
Dec.
19, 2012 Daily Advertiser
The contractor running Australia’s mainland immigration detention centres has
lost a bid for an injunction stopping an ex-employee working for a rival on
Manus Island. Christopher Manning left Serco Australia in May 2012 as their
managing director of immigration detention centres. He was hired by G4S in
September, shortly before the company secured the contract to run the Manus
Island centre in Papua New Guinea. Mr Manning was tasked with managing the
project, and helped G4S in its bid for the job. But Serco took legal action
against him in the ACT Supreme Court, arguing he breached a contract banning
him from working for a rival in Australia for a year. Mr Manning’s legal team
argued their client honoured the terms of the agreement. In October the
contractor sought an interim injunction banning Mr Manning from working for
G4S until the court case was resolved. Lawyers for Serco told Master David
Harper their former employee had detailed knowledge of confidential
information and a tight relationship with the Department of Immigration and
Citizenship. They argued his work with Serco's rivals had the capacity to
damage its commercial operations and relationship with the department. But Master
Harper on Wednesday said the Supreme Court had since offered an expedited
hearing date, and granting the injunction would case “immediate negative
effect” to G4S. The master said while the rival contractor wasn’t a party to
the case there was an “irresistible inference” they were legally backing him.
“Nevertheless, there is no basis for a conclusion that G4S has enticed the
defendant away from the plaintiff, or that G4S has any intention of utilising
the defendant’s services to enhance its relationship with the [government or
DIAC],” he said. “There is no basis for a finding which goes any further than
that G4S sees the plaintiff [Mr Manning] as the best available candidate to
manage the Manus Island operation.” He refused the injunction, and ordered Serco
to pay Mr Manning’s legal costs for the application. The decision comes after
the first groups of asylum seekers arrived at the Papua New Guinean facility
integral to Australia’s off-shore processing policy.
July
6, 2011 WA Today
The family of Aboriginal elder Mr Ward, who died in custody, is calling for
any court fines due to be issued today against those responsible for the
death to be invested in a community Environmental Science Centre. Warburton
man Mr Ward, whose first name is not used for cultural reasons, died from
heat stroke in the back of a prison van, with no working cooling system,
after being driven 360 kilometres from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in 42-degree
heat in 2008. State Coroner Alastair Hope conducted an inquest into the death
in 2009, concluding the department, private prison security firm G4S and the
two drivers had contributed to Mr Ward's death. The state government and G4S
have since pleaded guilty to failing to prevent the death of Mr Ward, after
charges were sought by WorkSafe WA earlier this year. Both parties are due to
be sentenced in the Kalgoorlie Magistrate's Court today and are expected to
face heavy fines of up to $400,000 each. In anticipation of the decision,
Ward family spokesperson Daisy Ward has written to Attorney-General Christian
Porter asking for the fines to be reinvested in the development of a
beneficial science centre in the remote community of Patjarr in the Gibson
Desert rather than being put back into government revenue. Ms Ward wrote:
"I believe that when the magistrate brings down his sentence, the
penalty put on your government will come from consolidated revenue and then
be paid back into consolidated revenue. "This is both hurtful and
painful to us. This pain does not go away from us. Where is the penalty? ...
Any penalty that the company, G4S, has to pay will also go back to your
government. "... If the government is getting the money, could you think
about giving us the penalty monies because then it really is a penalty."
An environmental science centre would reflect the work carried out by Mr Ward
to educate environmental science students about indigenous land management,
according to his family. "We believe that this will give our families
and communities some justice for what happened, and will act as a living
legacy of his work," Ms Ward said. "If the fines imposed are paid
to the government, this will not bring any justice for what happened to my
cousin."
July
5, 2011 The Advertiser
A PRIVATE security firm responsible for prisoner transport has been fined
$50,000. This comes after a review into the March escape from custody of Drew
Claude Griffiths. The review found private security firm G4S had failed to
secure a controlled entry point and van door on March 22 in the prisoner hold
area of the Parole Board's Adelaide premises, allowing Griffiths to escape.
He was recaptured on March 25 by STAR Group officers. Correctional Services
Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the fine sent a strong message to G4S.
"This is a message for G4S that any escape is unacceptable," Mr
Koutsantonis said. "I am getting sick and tired of prisoners escaping
secure custody."
January
18, 2011 The Age
THE wife of an Aboriginal elder who died of heatstroke in the back of a
prison van says she is ''happy and relieved'' that Western Australia's work
safety watchdog will lay charges over his death. WorkSafe WA has laid four
charges under the Occupational Safety and Health Act against the state
government, the transport company and the two staff involved. Mr Ward, 46,
who cannot be fully named for cultural reasons, died of heatstroke in the
prison van in January 2008. He was being transported from Laverton to
Kalgoorlie on a drink-driving charge. WorkSafe charged the Department of
Corrective Services with failing to ensure non-employees were not exposed to
hazards. Transport contractor G4S was charged with failing to ensure the
safety and health of a non-employee for the transportation of people in
custody. Drivers Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell were charged with failing to
take reasonable care to avoid affecting the safety or health of the person in
custody. Mr Ward's wife said the charges had been ''a long time coming''.
July
29, 2010 WA Today
The family of an Aboriginal elder who roasted to death in searing heat in the
back of a prison van will receive a $3.2 million compensation payment from
the WA government, one of the largest such payouts in Australian history. It
is an ex-gratia settlement by the government to the family of Mr Ward, whose
full name cannot be used for cultural reasons, and includes a $200,000
interim payment already awarded. Attorney-General Christian Porter today
revealed $1.4 million of the money would go to Mr Ward's widow, Nancy
Donegan, with amounts of $400,000 to be placed in trust accounts for each of
her four children. Mr Ward, 46, of Warburton, died in January 2008 while
being transported 360 kilometres from Laverton to Kalgoorlie to face a
drink-driving charge. Temperatures in the van, operated by private security
company G4S, reached more than 50 degrees after it was revealed the
air-conditioning in the van was broken. The compensation - which Mr Porter
said was one of the largest ex-gratia payments by a government in Australian
history, as well as that of common law countries - came after negotiations
with the family's lawyers, the Aboriginal Legal Service, and on receipt of
legal advice detailing what action could be brought against the state, and
what that case might look like. It represented an "unequivocal
apology" by the government. "It's meant to show contrition... deep,
deep, remorse for what has occurred," Mr Porter said. It also took into
account the fact that no criminal charges would be laid. While it did not
come with an admission of liability, Ms Donegan could still take legal action
if she chose. An "initial view" was that legal action would be
likely, Mr Porter said. "I don't know if that position will change by
virtue of this payment," he said. "If this does not bring finality
to the family, (if civil action was to be launched), we don't want to stand
in the way of Ms Donegan embarking on that action." ALS chief executive
Dennis Eggington said that his organisation would consult with Mr Ward's
family about possible civil proceedings against both the government and G4S.
The ALS also requested further information to determine whether it would
apply to have a coronial inquest into the death reopened. He described the
culpability of G4S as "astronomical" and called on the company to
apologise. "That's the least G4S can do," he said. "They have
been very quiet in all of this. We've been very disappointed." ALS
director of legal services Peter Collins said the role of G4S in Mr Ward's
death was "absolutely diabolical". "It was their van, their
employees driving the van, at a bare minimum (G4S) should be offering
compensation to the family," he said.
July
28, 2010 Scoop
A private prison company that is bidding to run Mt Eden remand prison is
under scrutiny in Australia for failing to make recommended changes after a
high profile death in custody, said the Green Party today. An Australian
parliamentary inquiry this week has heard that G4S has not implemented all
the recommendations of an inquiry into the death of an Aboriginal elder in
2008. In particular, G4S has not been providing training to its workers in remote
areas, according to Ian Johnston, the Australian Department of Corrective
Services Commissioner. Green Party Corrections spokesperson David Clendon
said “All of the prison corporations bidding to run Mt Eden remand prison
have skeletons in their closets. It’s time for John Key’s Government to
review whether any of these companies are suitable to operate in New
Zealand,” said. “It is not good enough for the Minister to hide behind the
tender process. She needs to let the public know what the minimum standards
are for prison corporations who want to operate in New Zealand.” There had
been two damning reports of G4S UK operations in the last month and now their
Australian operations were coming under scrutiny, added Mr Clendon. “New
Zealand’s public prisons are a long way from perfect but the evidence shows
that privatisation is no magic bullet. It will not make our prisons safer,
better or cheaper. “The community and public sector have lots of good
innovative ideas about how the prison system can be improved. The Government
should listen to them rather than flogging off prison management to
corporations. “Private prisons have to make a profit, which means either cut
backs on staff levels and rehabilitation, or charging more per prisoner. The
perverse incentive to make a profit out of prisoners is at the heart of the
problem,” said Mr Clendon.
July
2, 2010 APP
Protesters over an Aboriginal elder's death from heat stroke in a prison van
have accused the West Australian Director of Public Prosecutions of racism
for not laying charges. More than 100 people rallied outside DPP Joe
McGrath's office in downtown Perth office on Friday chanting "Racist
Police" and "Racist DPP". Mr McGrath announced on Monday that
no charges would be laid against two security guards over the 46-year-old
elder's death because there was insufficient evidence of criminal negligence.
June
27, 2010 The Western Australian
The State's top prosecutor has told the family of an Aboriginal elder who
died of heatstroke in the back of a prison van that criminal charges will not
be laid over his shocking treatment. The West Australian understands that DPP
Joe McGrath flew to the remote community of Warburton over the weekend where
he broke the news to relatives of Mr Ward. The decision is expected to get an
angry reaction from family members who have long called for charges to be
laid over the matter. The West Australian was unable to contact Mr Ward's
relatives today. A spokeswoman for the DPP declined to comment. The latest
development comes a year after State Coroner Alastair Hope handed down a
damning report on the disgraceful treatment of Mr Ward, whose first name is
not used for cultural reasons. Mr Hope found two transport guards, Nina
Stokes and Graham Powell, the Department of Corrective Services and private
prison transport company G4S had contributed to Mr Ward's death. Mr Ward died
after being driven 360km in a prison van from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in 42C
without air-conditioning in January 2008. Mr Ward's cousin told The West
Australian earlier this month that that the matter had dragged on too long
and the family wanted both drivers charged as soon as possible over the
death. Daisy Ward said at the time that family members were getting
frustrated about the lack of action and wanted justice. "I still want
them to lay a charge," she said last month. "If it was an
Aboriginal person that did that, they would get thrown behind bars. My cousin
was like in a furnace…like he was cooked alive in the back of the van."
Deaths in Custody Watch Committee Marc Newhouse said this afternoon that he
was shocked and dismayed to learn that the DPP would not press charges
against the two guards who transported Mr Ward. He said the information on
how the DPP reached the decision needed to be released publicly. "There
has basically been a lack of transparency in this whole process," he
said. "It just highlights that there are some serious flaws in our
justice system that when something of this nature happens and no-one is
brought to account for negligence." Mr Newhouse said Mr Ward's family
and community of Warburton would be devastated by the decision. "It is a
complete kick in the guts," he said. "It is going to do nothing for
Aboriginal people's confidence in the criminal justice system and particularly
where Aboriginal people are the victims." "The community has been
very, very patient, including the family, and that patience has just
ended." Mr Newhouse said the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee would
seek legal advice to determine whether charges could be brought against the
Department of Corrective Services or private prisoner transport company, G4S.
Mr Hope referred his report to the DPP under a section of the legislation
which allows his findings to be sent to prosecutors on the basis that he
believed indictable offences may have been committed. But in his written
findings, Mr Hope recognised that legal issues relating to the involvement of
various individuals and organisations were "complicated". "I
do not wish to create unrealistic expectations on the part of the family or
in the hope that they will see 'justice' as a result of such a report (to the
DPP) being made," Mr Hope said.
November
6, 2009 West Australia Today
The ongoing contract with a private prison transport company responsible
for the death of an Aboriginal elder in January last year has sparked legal
retaliation. The Deaths in Custody Watch Committee has told radio 6PR that it
was seeking independent legal advice to appeal the decision to keep the
$25million a year contract between the State Government and contractor G4S.
The State Coroner found that the company was responsible for the death of
46-year-old Mr Ward, who had been arrested for drink driving and was being
transported 350kms to a Kalgoorlie Court when he suffered heat stroke from the
50C heat inside the unairconditioned truck. "It is outrageous and
unimaginable that they [G4S] could continue their contract. They have been
responsible for six deaths in Australia in less than nine years,"
committee spokesman Mark Newhouse said. He said the company, under its
current terms, could still be responsible for two more deaths in custody and
not have its contract terminated before it expired in 2011. "What is
even more concerning is that in one incident, if there are four to five
deaths, that is not considered a breach of contract, which is
outrageous," he said. The group is also planning on mounting a public
campaign to improve proper approvals for public contracts and improving the
monitoring of those being transported while in custody. Mr Newhouse said
there had been no evidence from the company that any improvements had been
made. G4S have refused to comment on the grounds that it was a confidential
contract. The Attorney General Christian Porter was also unavailable for
comment.
September
30, 2009 ABC
The West Australian Government has officially responded to the coroner's
findings in the case of Mr Ward, who died of heatstroke in a prisoner
transport vehicle. The coroner said the Aboriginal elder's death in searing
desert heat was a disgrace, as the van was "not fit for humans".
But the Government has decided not terminate the contract of the private
company which transported Mr Ward. The Government says it supports all of the
coroner's recommendations - some of which have already been acted on. But the
full response has come three months after the coroner handed down his
findings, and 20 months since the tragedy occurred. The Government agrees
there should be more training and monitoring of staff, and there should not
be transportation of prisoners over long distances. But the Attorney-General
Christian Porter says the contract with private operators G4S is likely to
continue. Mr Porter has suggested the company may have to pay a penalty.
"The penalties that you've spoken of, for a death for instance, I
understand are $100,000 which seems to me to be ridiculous in the scope of
what occurred here," he said. "But again, the question about
termination is very unfortunately a question about the legality of being able
to terminate under the terms of the present contract." The coroner
called for the prisoner transport fleet to be completely replaced. This will
not happen until the end of next year. Mr Porter says responsibility for
transporting prisoners could be brought back to the public sector. "The final
decision as to whether or not this service will be public or private has not
yet been made but I can say that if a determination is made to keep this
service in the private sector, the contract that governs the process will be
a completely different type of contract to the one that presently
exists," he said. The Deaths In Custody Watch Committee says Group 4 and
GSL staff have contributed to the deaths of six people in Australia. The
committee's Marc Newhouse says the contract should have been terminated.
"We're completely outraged that the contract with G4S - he hasn't
announced the termination of it, it has to be terminated," he said.
"They've been subject to critical reports by the Australian Human Rights
Commission. This company is not fit to operate in this country and they
should be terminated." Noongar elder Ben Taylor says he believes racism
in the system is causing Aboriginal people to suffer. "There's a lotta
racism there and the only ones who're gonna suffer are my people, Aboriginal
people," he said. "This is got to go wider, and I'm on the Watch
Committee with Marc and we're going to keep hanging on here because there's
more lives that are going to be taken, and that's going to be blackfellas,
Aboriginal people, my people, and that's the full stop." Mr Newhouse
says the committee had also called for a speedier response in the wake of a
death in custody. "That the Coroner's Act is amended in line with the
Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommendations, that a system
of mandatory reporting be put in place so that government and other relevant
bodies have to report within a certain time frame," he said. "The
point of it is to save lives and to prevent lives being lost." But Mr
Porter says the Labor state government should have ended the contract with
the company. But the Opposition Leader Eric Ripper says there were other
considerations. "You can't just terminate a contract without there being
financial consequences for taxpayers and the government does have a responsibility
to both protect prisoners and the interests of taxpayers," he said.
"That's why this matter needs careful examination rather than a kneejerk
reaction."
September
16, 2009 The West Australian
The prison watchdog’s powers will be expanded to allow him to audit
individual cases as part of the Government’s response to a coronial inquiry
into the death of an Aboriginal elder in the back of a transport van. A
legislative package to be announced by Attorney-General Christian Porter this
morning will strengthen the powers of the Inspector of Custodial Services in
line with recommendations of State Coroner Alastair Hope. The laws will
include giving him the power to issue "show cause" notices which
require a response from the department of Corrective Services. Mr Hope
delivered a damning report in June which found the Department of Corrective
Services, prisoner transport company G4S, formerly known as Global Solutions
Limited, and the two guards who drove the van had all contributed to Mr
Ward’s death. Mr Porter said the Government would not support the
Opposition’s proposed legislation on the recommendations, which is scheduled
to be debated in State Parliament this afternoon. He said the Labor Bill was
flawed and the Government’s legislative package would go further than the
Coroner’s recommendations, giving Inspector Neil Morgan the power to carry
out individual audits the treatment of up to about 40 prisoners each year. Mr
Porter said he would be seeking Cabinet approval for more money to provide
extra staff to conduct the audits. Today’s debate on the powers of the
inspector coincides with a "day of action" organised by the Deaths
in Custody Watch Committee, which is calling on the Government to respond to
the Coroner’s report on Mr Ward’s death.
July
2, 2009 WA Today
The Director of Public Prosecutions has begun his inquiries into the death of
an Aboriginal elder in the back of a prison van, giving his family and
supporters hope that charges could be laid. The victim was 46-year-old
Warburton man Mr Ward, who was effectively roasted in the van during a
four-hour journey between Laverton and Kalgoorlie in January last year. A
coronial inquest found Mr Ward's death was "wholly avoidable", and
State Coroner Alistair Hope recommended charges should be laid over the incident.
The inquest was told that Mr Ward - whose first name cannot be published
because of cultural reasons - had endured temperatures in excess of 50
degrees in the pod of the van. Mr Hope found "inhumane treatment'' led
to the elder's death and said the company involved, Global Solutions Ltd
(GSL), its two guards Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell, and the Department of
Corrective Services had all contributed to Mr Ward's "terrible death''.
Today, DPP Robert Cock QC met with two detective sergeants from the Major
Crime Squad about the "horrendous" incident and said he had asked
them to conduct further inquiries into the man's death. Mr Cock has also been
in touch with the Coroner's Court and asked for further information. His
spokeswoman said once he gathered all the information, he would then be in a
position to decide if charges should be laid. "I don't know how long the
garnering of all the information I require will take," Mr Cock said.
"But as soon as I have it all, I will make a decision about
charges."
June
23, 2009 The West
The West Australian government is reviewing the contract of a security
company involved in the death in custody of an Aboriginal elder, Premier
Colin Barnett says. Global Solutions, which was acquired by UK-based security
services giant G4S last year, provided security for government groups
including the Department of Immigration and the WA Department of Corrective
Services. GSL employed two guards to transport the elder, 46-year-old Mr
Ward, who died in the back of a prison van on a four-hour journey across the
WA goldfields in January 2008. Mr Ward, whose first name cannot be released
for cultural reasons, was being taken from Laverton to Kalgoorlie to face a
drink-driving charge. He died of heat stroke after suffering temperatures of 50C
in the rear pod of a van driven by the guards, Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell.
Earlier this month, WA coroner Alistair Hope apportioned blame for the
“wholly avoidable” death among the guards, GSL and the WA Department of
Corrective Services. The Director of Public Prosecutions is considering
whether charges should be laid over the matter. Mr Barnett said today that
G4S would be scrutinised before their government contract was renewed. “It is
an absolute tragedy that a prisoner in the care of the state could end up
dying in that condition,” Mr Barnett said. “The coroner’s reported, the
attorney-general is dealing with that issue, and we will certainly look at
the contract and the performance, and ensure that it is never repeated in
Western Australia again.” The transport tender for corrective services is due
to come up next year. Mr Barnett said G4S would be judged on their
performance. “I’m not involved directly in the administration of that
contract, but I assure you we will leave no stone unturned to ensure that
future prisoners are treated with respect and safely,“ he said. “It would be
quite inappropriate for me to comment on a tender process, but obviously
their performance will be one of the factors that will be taken into account
when that future tender is awarded.”
June
23, 2009 Brisbane Times
A sacked security guard has offered her apologies to the family of an
Aboriginal elder who died in custody, while the West Australian government
says it's reviewing her former employer's contract. Nina Stokoe, one of two
guards who had charge of the man when he died of heatstroke in the back of a
secure van during a 360km drive, accused authorities of providing inadequate
vehicles to transport prisoners. Security giant G4S last week sacked Ms
Stokoe and the other guard, Graham Powell, claiming the pair failed to follow
directions to check on prisoners every two hours during the fatal four-hour
journey. Mr Ward, whose first name cannot be released for cultural reasons,
died after suffering temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius in the rear of the
privately operated van which had no air-conditioning. He was being taken from
Laverton to Kalgoorlie on January 27 last year to face charges of
drink-driving. WA coroner Alastair Hope, who in his findings said Mr Ward had
suffered "inhumane treatment", has asked the director of public
prosecutions to consider laying charges over the incident. Mr Hope found that
Ms Stokoe, Mr Powell, Global Solutions Ltd (since acquired by G4S) and the
Department of Corrective Services had all contributed to Mr Ward's
"terrible death". Ms Stokoe on Tuesday broke her silence in an
interview with the Nine Network, saying she is distraught over Mr Ward's
death. In excerpts aired on Fairfax Radio on Tuesday, Ms Stokoe broke down
while offering an apology to Mr Ward's family. "I am very sorry that
it's happened and I can understand how they feel," she said. "I
only wish that it never happened and that he was still around. "I am so
sorry that it happened. "Mr Ward will always be on my mind, always, he
will never go away." Mr Stokoe said guards endured terrible conditions
in the vans supplied by authorities but were afraid of complaining lest they
lose their shifts. She accepted her part in Mr Ward's death but said the
prison vans were "untrustworthy". "(We've) probably been
scapegoats, but at the end of the day we were the ones that were driving the
vehicle," she said. "We had no choice what vehicle to drive.
"At the end of the day, every day in Kalgoorlie when we drove out to
pick up prisoners it's pot luck. "There's many times we have been sat by
the side of the road broken down. "Sometimes 15, 20-odd hours those
vehicles have been stuck out in the middle of nowhere, broken down, with
prisoners on board and without prisoners on board. "Those vehicles were
untrustworthy." WA Premier Colin Barnett said the government was
reviewing G4S' contract. "It is an absolute tragedy that a prisoner in
the care of the state could end up dying in that condition," Mr Barnett
said on Tuesday. "The coroner's reported, the attorney-general is
dealing with that issue, and we will certainly look at the contract and the
performance, and ensure that it is never repeated in Western Australia
again." The transport tender for corrective services is due to come up
next year.
June
19, 2009 Brisbane Times
Two security guards who had charge of a prison van in which an Aboriginal
elder died of heat stroke have been sacked, their employer says. UK-based
security services giant G4S said on Friday it had terminated the employment
of the two guards, Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell, following the completion of
a coroner's hearing into the man's death. West Australian Coroner Alastair
Hope last Friday delivered a finding that the man, known only as Mr Ward for
cultural reasons, had died of heat stroke. He said he had suffered through
temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius in the un-airconditioned pod of a van
during a 360km journey between Laverton and Kalgoorlie on January 27 last
year. Mr Hope apportioned blame for Mr Ward's death between Ms Stokoe and Mr
Powell, the private company Global Solutions Ltd (GSL), which has since been
acquired by G4S, and the WA Department of Corrective Services. G4S Public
affairs director Tim Hall said Ms Stokoe and Mr Powell had disregarded orders
to check on prisoners at least once every two hours. But he said their
dismissal was a result of the Department of Corrective Services withdrawing
their work permits on Monday. "The withdrawal of their work permits
effectively made any other considerations unnecessary," Mr Hall told AAP
on Friday. Mr Hope has asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider
whether charges should be laid over the incident.
June
15, 2009 Four Corners
The company linked to the death of Mr Ward was the subject of a damning
report in 2005. An investigation by the ABC's Four Corners program found GSL
(now G4S) was the subject of a damning report, published in 2005, by
Queensland officials regarding the transportation of immigration detainees in
2004. In that incident, none of the detainees was given food during a
seven-hour leg of a lengthy trip from Melbourne to South Australia, and only
two were given water. The man who wrote the report, the former head of
Queensland's corrective services, Keith Hamburger, says he is concerned about
the issues raised by the subsequent death of Mr Ward in Western Australia.
The Human Rights Commission later found that one of the detainees was so
thirsty that he was forced to drink his own urine. Last week the state's
coroner found Mr Ward had died of heat stroke after being carted through the
desert in 40 degree-plus heat in a prisoner transport van that had faulty air
conditioning. The Aboriginal elder, who had been arrested for drink driving,
was found with a third-degree burn on his stomach where his body had come
into contact with the van's floor. The coroner found the private security
guards who drove the van, the company which employed them, GSL, and the WA
Department of Corrective Services all contributed to his death. "The
criticism of the company related to our procedures and processes," GSL
spokesman Tim Hall has told ABC radio. "We accept that there was some
ground for criticism." However it is not the first time GSL's procedures
have been criticised. Mr Hamburger's findings were equally damning. He found
GSL was "responsible for placing the safety of detainees at risk",
"humiliating" them, and "disregarding appeals for assistance
from detainees in obvious distress". The guards had driven the first leg
of the journey to South Australia non-stop for seven hours. None of the
detainees was given food, and only two were given water. "I felt quite
appalled actually," Mr Hamburger told Four Corners. "I sat in the
van. I talked to the staff that did the escort. I saw the CCTV footage. I was
very shocked by the whole thing." One of the asylum seekers, now settled
in Australia, describes for the first time the journey he endured.
"People was in the back shouting and crying and I was banging as well
because I needed to go to the toilet," he said. "And they didn't
stop for anything. And I have to do it in the car." 'Great concern' --
One year after the Hamburger report was released, the WA government gave the
contract for prisoner transport in the state to GSL. "If these issues
are being repeated that's a matter of great concern, because this is not
rocket science," Mr Hamburger said. "We're dealing here with, as
I've said, duty of care. "We've had many years of experience across the
board in corrections and detention and police in dealing with these situations.
"There's a whole body of evidence around I guess on how to do these
things, and so it is concerning. "They should know better."
June
13, 2009 Perth Now
ONE of two guards suspended over the death of an Aboriginal elder in a
prisoner transport van, says she has been ''gagged'' from talking about the
tragedy. On Friday, State Coroner Alastair Hope recommended Director of
Public Prosecutions Robert Cock consider criminal charges over the
"unnecessary and wholly avoidable death'' of Mr Ward, 46, who died on
January 27 last year. Officers Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell drove the
Warbuton elder, whose first name cannot be released for cultural reasons, for
the 352km Outback journey between the Goldfields towns of Laverton to
Kalgoorlie. In his stinging finding, Mr Hope said Mr Ward died when
temperatures rose to 50C in the pod of the commercially owned van which had
no air-conditioning and little-to-no air flow. Contracted transport company,
G4S, formally known as Global Solutions Ltd, stood down Ms Stokoe and Mr
Powell on Friday. "The two employees have been suspended and the
findings of the coroner, the coroner's report and recommendations will be
considered carefully and it will then be decided what the next step should
be,'' G4S spokesman Tim Hall told ABC radio yesterday. Ms Stokoe declined to
comment on her suspension, saying: "I can't talk about anything, I would
like to, but I can't''. Mr Ward's family is planning to sue G4S, which runs
other custodial services including court security, over the tragedy. Prison Officer's
Union secretary John Welch said the inquest had raised questions about the
privatisation of custodial services in WA. Mr Welch said he feared G4S would
be allowed to be apply for the contract to run the recently announced Eastern
Goldfields prison which was scheduled for completion by the end of 2013.
"You wonder why, in the light apparent failures of privatisation, you
would want to even consider looking at having at private provider in the
Goldfields,'' Mr Welch said. A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Christian
Porter said no decision had been made on whether the prison would be public
or private, and any discussion on the potential awarding of a private
contract was speculative. Deaths in Custody Watch Committee chair Marc
Newhouse said another public protest was planned for the city on Saturday to
lobby the State Government for improvements.
June
12, 2009 WA Today
A man died a "terrible death" in the back of a prison van where
temperatures reached 50 degrees celsius, the West Australian coroner has
found. Coroner Alistair Hope, in his findings handed down on Friday, said the
46-year-old Aboriginal man's death had been "wholly unnecessary and
avoidable". Mr Ward, whose first name cannot be released for cultural
reasons, died while being transferred 350km from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in a
transit van on January 27, after being picked up for drink-driving on
Australia Day. The air-conditioning unit inside the prisoner's compartment of
the commercially operated van was not working and the coroner was told Mr
Ward would have suffered through temperatures of 50 degrees before his death.
He received third-degree burns where his body came into contact with the
metal floor in the back of the Global Solutions Ltd (GSL) vehicle. Mr Hope
found Mr Ward, of the Goldfields town of Warburton, died of heat stroke. He
said his death was the result of a "litany of errors" and accused
the prison van drivers of collusion and giving false evidence. He said the
fact the prison van did not have a spare tyre was an indication of GSL's
"reckless approach". It was a disgrace that a prisoner yet to be
convicted was transported such a distance in the oven-hot conditions, Mr Hope
said. The prisoner's compartment had little light, no restraints to protect
the person inside if the van was involved in an accident, had little air flow
and the fan did not work when tested, Mr Hope added. There was no proper
method for a prisoner to communicate with the drivers, he said. About 40
protesters demonstrated outside Perth's Central Law Courts, where the coroner
delivered his findings. Amnesty International called it "a disgrace that
a prisoner should be transported in this way in the 21st century".
May
16, 2009 The West
He literally cooked to death. Trapped in a prison van for four hours,
suffocated by temperatures that climbed to more than 50C, the Aboriginal
elder had no way to communicate with security officers sitting just a metre
away, in the airconditioned cab. His only sustenance was a small bottle of
water and a meat pie. When he finally collapsed on the van floor, the metal
was so hot it seared his skin. Yesterday, Corrective Services Commissioner
Ian Johnson travelled to Kalgoorlie to publicly apologise to Mr Ward’s family,
accepting responsibility for the 46-year-old’s death in January last year. It
was a dramatic end to a coronial inquest that has revealed a litany of
failures in the justice and custodial systems in WA’s outback. Widow Nancy
Ward and her children will return to Laverton next week after sitting quietly
and with dignity throughout the case, which has attracted the attention of
the United Nations and the Australian Human Rights Commission. Mr Ward, a
conservation worker, a supporter and interpreter for local police and an
advocate and educator for children of the Gibson Desert, was an international
ambassador for the Ngaanyatjarra people. His family say he was treated like
an animal. Mr Ward had been drinking on Australia Day last year in the remote
Goldfields town of Laverton when he was arrested for driving with more than
four times the legal alcohol limit. Conducting a quasi-court hearing for Mr
Ward at his cell door at the local police station, justice of the peace
Barrye Thompson remanded him in custody to face court in Kalgoorlie the
following day. Mr Thompson told the inquest he had no formal training when
appointed as a JP and could not even remember whether he had read the Bail
Act. The Aboriginal Legal Service was not contacted. Guards and police officers
testified the prison vans used by Global Solutions Limited and maintained by
the State were notoriously unreliable, sub-standard and the air-conditioning
was often faulty. GSL’s supervisor in Kalgoorlie, Leanne Jenkins, had warned
her management an incident would occur unless the vehicles were replaced. At
11.20am, the GSL prison van pulled into a secure area at Laverton police
station where the guards were told they would have a trouble-free passenger.
Mr Ward made a comment about the warm day and a guard told him “the quicker
he got into the van, the quicker the air-conditioning would kick in”. But the
air-conditioning did not work: it had been reported faulty in the GSL
maintenance log more than a month earlier. Before making the continuous 360km
journey to Kalgoorlie, the guards did not tell Mr Ward there was a duress
alarm in the back of the van in case he needed help. Towards the end of the
trip, they heard a loud thump. Pulling over on to the side of the road and
opening the outer door of the van, the guards felt the heat radiating from
the rear pod and they saw Mr Ward face-down on the van floor — unconscious
and unresponsive. Reaching into the back of the van felt like a “blast from a
furnace”, according to Dr Lucien LaGrange, who assisted in removing Mr Ward’s
lifeless body at Kalgoorlie Hospital. Doctors found full-thickness contact
burns on his stomach and tried for 20 minutes to resuscitate Mr Ward, whose
skin felt like a “hot cup of coffee”. They managed to get a brief return of a
heartbeat, but after putting him in an ice bath, his body temperature was
still 41.7C. Coroner Alastair Hope is due to deliver his findings on June 12.
For now, the Ward family will have to return to a community missing a leader.
It is little comfort to them that money was allocated in this week’s State
Budget to replace the fleet of transport vans — four years after the
Department for Corrective Services undertook to do so. “I am sorry,” Mr
Johnson told Mrs Ward yesterday. “I have a deep regret but no matter what I
say, it’s not going to change what happened.”
May
14, 2009 The West
More than 30 family members and supporters of Mr Ward, an Aboriginal
elder who had a fatal heatstroke in the back of a prison van, gathered
outside the Kalgoorlie Courthouse yesterday to call for those responsible for
his death to face tribal punishment. Mr Ward’s widow Nancy and his four sons
were among those who wailed in grief as they demanded justice and answers to
why the Warburton elder died in such horrific circumstances. The family’s
interpreter and relative, Gail Jamieson, said that under traditional law,
anyone found culpable of the death should be speared. “The family is just
devastated,” she said. “He was treated with no respect and he was a
well-respected, outstanding elder. If they were in an Aboriginal culture,
they would be speared because us Aboriginal people are also going through two
cultures.” The inquest was told no disciplinary action was taken against the
two GSL officers responsible for transporting Mr Ward on the day he died. Mr
Ward died after a four-hour journey in a GSL prison van from Laverton to
Kalgoorlie on January 27 last year when temperatures reached 42C. Global
Solutions Limited general manager John Hughes said security officers Nina
Stokoe and Graham Powell were stood down on full pay and were reinstated when
an internal investigation found they had not violated company policies or
procedures. Questioned by the family’s barrister Michael Rynne, Mr Hughes
said any reinvestigation would depend on Coroner Alastair Hope’s findings.
GSL’s multi-million-dollar contract could require it to pay a penalty of 4.5
per cent of its value if found to have failed in its duty of care. Mr Hughes
said he understood GSL’s obligations included ensuring officers minimised hardship
to detainees, conducting regular checks to ensure their safety, security and
health and preventing injury. The inquest concludes today.
March
21, 2009 The West
The security guard who drove the van in which an Aboriginal elder died of
heat stroke has admitted he should take responsibility for the death.
Testifying for a second day at the inquest into the death of 46-year-old Mr
Ward, Global Solutions Limited driver Graham Powell said yesterday he
regretted how Mr Ward died. “In hindsight, if I had to do that journey again,
I would certainly be doing it a lot differently,” he said. He agreed with
lawyer assisting the coroner, Felicity Zempilas, it was inhumane to transport
prisoners in the rear pod of the van over long distances and that the vans
were “certainly not designed for that”. Coroner Alastair Hope told Mr Powell
he was “troubled” over his evidence about phone calls made after Mr Ward
collapsed. Mr Hope said a delay of two minutes between calls was a long time
in an emergency. To questions from his counsel Linda Black, Mr Powell said he
should have checked the airconditioning, made comfort stops and told Mr Ward
explicitly how to communicate with the officers if he was in distress. The
inquest has heard Mr Powell and colleague Nina Stokoe did not stop during the
four hours they had Mr Ward in the van in mid-40C heat while driving from
Laverton to Kalgoorlie in January last year. Mr Ward suffered a
full-thickness hand-size burn on his stomach from a hot metal surface inside
the van. Senior chemist David Tranthim-Fryer said the prison van temperature
would have been above 50C. Evidence from a police re-enactment he helped with
revealed the van floor reached 56C and the air temperature at least 50C on a
slightly cooler day. The temperature would have been hotter with a person
inside because there would have been another heat source. “We opened the back
doors and could feel the heat coming out of the pods. The hot air affects you
more than anything else,” Mr Tranthim-Fryer said. Mr Ward’s body temperature
was 41.7C after 20 minutes of resuscitation in an ice bath while being
fanned. The van’s rear-pod airconditioning was not working, a fault noted in
the GSL maintenance log more than a month before Mr Ward’s death. Mr Powell
said he did not check the airconditioning in the pod despite knowing it had a
history of faults. He had assumed Ms Stokoe checked it. Mr Hope has heard
evidence from witnesses, including GSL’s Kalgoorlie supervisor Leanne
Jenkins, who spoke of substandard “unreliable” prison vans which were not
suitable for long distance travel. The inquest did not finish within the
two-week timeframe and Mr Hope adjourned it until May 11. Outside, Mr Ward’s
cousin Bernard Newberry said his family wanted those responsible charged. The
family has asked that Mr Ward’s first name not be used.
March
20, 2009 The West Australian
The guard responsible for transporting an Aboriginal elder who died in
custody was previously demoted for breaching procedures and compromising
prisoner safety. Giving evidence at a coronial inquest into the death of
46-yearold Mr Ward, Global Solutions Limited security officer Graham Powell
said he had been stood down as a supervisor because he breached the company’s
policies and procedures. The inquest in Kalgoorlie was told Mr Powell was
stood down from GSL for six months in January 2007 because he compromised
prisoner security when he failed to ensure prisoners were loaded into a
prison van in a secure area. He also breached procedure by smoking in prison
vans and allowing staff and prisoners to smoke in cells. Mr Ward’s relatives
travelled from around the State to attend the inquest yesterday. Mr Ward’s
widow Nancy cried when Mr Powell told how he and fellow security officer Nina
Stokoe heard a “loud thud” when Mr Ward collapsed in the back of a prison
van. Mr Ward died of heatstroke after collapsing in the back of the GSL
prison van during a fourhour, non-stop journey from Laverton to
Kalgoorlie-Boulder on January 27 last year. Mr Powell said when he arrived at
the hospital he checked the airconditioning in the rear pod of the prison
van. “I put my arm inside the prisoner compartment and it appeared to me
there was no air coming out the vents,” he told State Coroner Alastair Hope.
Mr Powell said he had not checked the prison van’s air-conditioning before
leaving for Laverton because it had not been included on a vehicle inspection
check sheet. He agreed with Mr Hope that it was highly dangerous not to check
the air-conditioning before transporting prisoners.
March
18, 2009 Perth Now
TWO guards responsible for transporting an Aboriginal elder 352km across the
West Australian outback joked about how he must have been "freezing his
balls off" hours before he died of heatstroke in the back of a
corrective services van, an inquest has been told. Giving evidence via video
link yesterday, Global Solutions Ltd officer Nina Stokoe said she did not
check that the air-conditioning in the back of the corrective services van in
which the prisoner died was working - even though it had been faulty and the
outside temperature had soared to 42C - because it was not part of procedure.
Ms Stokoe said she assumed the air-conditioning was working in the rear
because there was no problem with the air-conditioning in the front cab and
Ward, whose family does not want his last name published for cultural
reasons, would have banged on the side of the van if there was a problem.
According to Ms Stokoe, during previous trips, other prisoners often
complained that the air-conditioning was too cold, and she and fellow officer
Graham Powell joked that, while they were too hot, Ward would be the
opposite. "I had a joke with Graham," she told the inquest into
Ward's death. "(I said) I bet he's freezing his balls off while we're
sitting here stinking hot." Coroner Alastair Hope asked whether it would
have been prudent to check the air-conditioning on such a hot day when it had
been known to break down and Ward was in a section of the van with only metal
seats. "It (the air-conditioning) wasn't on the check list ... I wouldn't
know how to check it," Ms Stokoe replied. Ward died on January 27 last
year after attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. He was being transferred
from Laverton to prison in Kalgoorlie after being arrested for drink driving
on Australia Day. Mr Hope was yesterday also told how the Kalgoorlie-based
supervisor for GSL, Leanne Jenkins, warned her superiors just four months
before Ward's death that someone would "eventually die" if the
company's outdated and poorly maintained vans were not replaced. Ms Jenkins
said the only response she received was that any vehicles in need of repairs
should not be driven. She said the two vans based at Kalgoorlie always had
problems and were not suitable for long trips. Ms Stokoe and Mr Powell made
no stops on the 3 1/2-hour journey until they heard a thud in the back of the
van when they were just outside Kalgoorlie. When they pulled over to check on
Ward, Ms Stokoe said, they did not open the van's back doors completely
because it was not procedure and Ward might have been trying to escape.
"If he was mucking around and it was an escape attempt, we would look
like idiots," she said. After realising he only had a faint pulse, the
officers rushed Ward to hospital. The inquest continues today.
March
17, 2009 Perth Now
AN Aboriginal elder who died in the back of a prison van arrived at hospital,
unconscious and with third-degree burns, an inquest has heard. Lucien
LaGrange, who was working in the emergency department of Kalgoorlie Regional
Hospital when Ward arrived in the non-airconditioned van, said a blast of hot
air hit him when he opened the back of the vehicle. Respected elder Ward -
whose family does not want his first name mentioned for cultural reasons -
did not appear to be breathing. "It was like a blast from a furnace - it
was extremely hot," Dr LaGrange told Coroner Alastair Hope. "I was
struck by how wet and slippery he was. It was almost like he had been coated
in soap - he just slid." Dr LaGrange said that despite medical staff
placing ice over Ward's body, his body temperature was 41.7C. That day,
January 27 last year, the outside temperature climbed to 42C. After many
resuscitation attempts, Ward was declared dead about 90 minutes after
arriving at the hospital. Ward was being transported 352km from Laverton to
Goldfields Regional Prison in Kalgoorlie after being charged with
drink-driving on Australia Day. The inquest was told that the company
responsible for transporting Ward, Global Solutions Ltd, raised concerns with
the West Australian Government about the poor state of its vans before Ward's
death, but was told no new vehicles were available. Under a
multi-million-dollar contract, GSL is responsible for transporting prisoners,
while the Department of Corrective Services is responsible for maintaining the
fleet of vehicles. Former GSL employee Thomas Akatsa told the hearing that
after the company failed to secure new vans from the Government, he raised
concerns with the company's supervisors, including airconditioning faults and
overheating, but was told not to talk about it. Mr Akatsa said the vans used
to transport prisoners were sub-standard, did not contain toilets and were
not suitable for travelling long distances. Despite regular problems with
airconditioning in the back of the vans, Mr Akatsa said there was no
requirement for staff to check the airconditioning was working. He said that
while he always did check, not all officers did, including one of the
officers who transported Ward on that day, Graham Powell. The inquest heard
that Mr Powell, who is to give evidence today, had been demoted from a
supervisor to a driver before the death. One of his colleagues at the time,
Lynette Corcoran-Sugars, testified that she requested not to work with Mr
Powell, accusing him of breaching procedures and inappropriately using
constraints on prisoners. Ms Corcoran-Sugars and Mr Akatsa said that when
they transported prisoners from Laverton to Kalgoorlie, they made at least
one stop and offered prisoners water, food and a toilet break. The inquest
has heard that no stops were made during Ward's journey and that he was given
only a 600ml bottle of water and a pie before leaving Laverton. Questions
were raised about whether Ward should even have been in custody, with
barrister Lachlan Carter for the Aboriginal Legal Service claiming a proper
bail hearing, as defined by the act, did not take place. The inquest heard
that GSL's motto was "safety first". Mr Hope questioned how this
could be the case when the company allowed staff to transport prisoners in
vehicles that did not have a usable spare tyre. The inquest continues today.
March
12, 2009 ABC
A coronial inquest into the death in custody of an Aboriginal elder from
the Central Desert will resume today in Kalgoorlie, in south-eastern Western
Australia . Mr Ward died in Kalgoorlie hospital in January last year after
being transferred in the back of a prison van from Laverton. Temperatures on
the day were mid-40 degrees Celsius and the journey lasted for four hours. In
Warburton earlier this week, the inquest heard the airconditioning in the
back of the van was not working and that Mr Ward died of heatstroke. Mr
Ward's family testified he was a hard working and respected elder. The
inquiry will today hear from police officers who arrested Mr Ward for drink
driving and officers from the private transport company Global Solutions
Limited which transported him to Kalgoorlie.
March
13, 2008 The Age
A NIGERIAN man who twice resorted to drinking his urine during a nightmarish
seven-hour transfer to Baxter detention centre without food or water will be
given $20,000 compensation. Four others who endured the trip in the back of
the van with him will also be compensated after the Human Rights and Equal
Opportunity Commission found they had been subjected to "degrading treatment".
The five detainees, whose plight was revealed in The Age, were taken from
Maribyrnong in Melbourne to Baxter on September 17, 2004 by guards from GSL,
the company that runs Australia's detention centres. A report by commission
president John von Doussa found the van did not stop for any breaks in the
seven hours from Melbourne to Mildura, breaching the detainees' human rights.
The report said the drivers ignored signs that the detainees needed toilet
stops, having watched them urinate on closed-circuit camera, and disregarded
their banging on the walls. Nigerian man Austin Okoye, 26, suffered the
"additional indignity" of twice drinking his urine to relieve his
"excessive thirst", the report said. GSL guards were also accused
of using excessive force in removing 53-year-old Vietnamese detainee Huong
Hai Nguyen from his dormitory at Maribyrnong for the trip. The Immigration
Department initially denied Mr Nguyen's allegations. But the department
referred the case to the commission after receiving a second complaint from
Mr Okoye. In July 2005, Immigration Department secretary Andrew Metcalfe said
GSL would be fined $500,000 after the independent report substantiated most
of the allegations. Yesterday Mr Metcalfe said GSL would also pay the
compensation. "These people were mistreated and they deserve to be
compensated," he said. The report said Mr Okoye and Mr Nguyen should get
$20,000 each, and the others $15,000. GSL spokesman Tim Hall said the company
did not accept the claims about Mr Okoye being forced to drink his urine. But
he said GSL endorsed the rest of the report and the Commonwealth would be
fully indemnified. The report urged the Government to locate the victims as
soon as possible (three of them, including Mr Nguyen and Mr Okoye, have been
deported) to provide them with their compensation and a formal apology.
February
22, 2008 The Green Left
A February 22 meeting between Western Australian prisons minister Margaret Quirk,
Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Dennis Eggington and WA Deaths in
Custody Watch Committee chairperson Marc Newhouse resulted in some
ministerial promises of reforms following the the death in custody of an
Aboriginal elder on January 27. The elder, from the desert town of Warburton,
died after collapsing in the back of a prison van while being transported for
four hours in 43oC heat to a jail in the outback city of Kalgoorlie. He had
been arrested on January 26 for alleged drink-driving while visiting
relatives in the remote town of Laverton, 352 kilometres north of Kalgoorie.
The van was driven and staffed by employees of Global Solutions Ltd, an
Anglo-French prison management company, which the WA government has
contracted to transport prisoners. Professor Richard Harding, the WA
government’s inspector of custodial services, told the news media on January
29 that he was not surprised at the Warburton elder’s death, given the state
of the prisoner transport fleet. He said that the “government-owned vans are
continually breaking down, leaving prisoners stranded in searingly hot
conditions in remote areas”. Among other things, Quirk has agreed to overhaul
procedures followed when a prisoner is transported. New procedures, to be in
place by March 14, will include a health assessment and provision of water
and food.
February
4, 2008 News.com.AU
THE contractor that transported an Aboriginal leader who died in custody
last weekend has previously been criticised for the treatment of detainees.
Government contractor Global Solutions Limited has been accused of the
humiliation and sensory deprivation of detainees, who were forced to urinate
in their cramped compartments, inadequate provision of food and fluids and
the prank strip search of a prisoner. The death of Ian Ward in the sealed
compartment of a "bloody hot" van last Sunday as the outside
temperature climbed to 43C has prompted an unprecedented attack on the
Carpenter Government by the Inspector of Custodial Services, who said the state's
chronically deficient prisoner transport system would probably not be
tolerated if 95 per cent of prisoners were white, instead of up to 95 per
cent of them being Aboriginal. Anger is growing in the desert community of
Warburton in WA's Ngaanyatjarra lands over the death of Mr Ward, who
collapsed in what may have been an unairconditioned or inadequately
airconditioned rear compartment while being transported 352km by GSL. The van
transporting Mr Ward left the town of Laverton about midday for Eastern
Goldfields Regional Prison to be remanded in custody on a drink-driving
charge when he vomited on himself and fell unconscious. His body was wheeled
into Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital at 4.30pm on Sunday after the two GSL
guards in the van found he had collapsed in the back. Witness Jodie Aurisch
said a female GSL guard told an emergency department doctor: "It is
bloody hot in the back of the van". GSL and its $70 million prison
transport contract with the Carpenter Government are likely to be examined as
part of a coronial inquest into Mr Ward's death in custody. It will not be
the first time the company faces scrutiny. In 2005, GSL was fined almost
$500,000 over mistreatment of immigration detainees. In 2006, GSL was fined a
reported $200,000 after guards at Port Phillip Prison in Victoria jokingly
strip searched a prisoner as part of a prank called "Sausagegate".
A federal government report into GSL's transfer of five detainees from
Maribyrnong Detention Centre in Melbourne to Baxter Immigration Facility in South
Australia over two days in 2004 found the officers involved had not been
adequately trained and treated the detainees inhumanely. In his report into
the incident for the Howard government, investigator Keith Hamburger found
the van used was unsafe and inhumane and that the detainees had been denied
access to toilet facilities, forcing them to urinate in their compartments.
The officers were also found to have ignored appeals for assistance from
detainees in distress. Melbourne legal advocate Chandarev Singh said GSL had
shown "a pattern of lethal indifference". GSL's director of public
affairs, Tim Hall, said Mr Singh's "inaccurate and unpleasant personal
views" did not warrant comment.
February
1, 2008 The Western Australian
Police yesterday refused to reveal the results of a post-mortem
examination on the body of an Aboriginal elder who died after he collapsed in
custody while being taken to Kalgoorlie in the back of a van. It is
understood police received the results yesterday. Warburton Aboriginal elder
Ian Ward collapsed in the back of a Global Solutions Limited van on Sunday
after a four-hour trip from Laverton to Kalgoorlie and died a short time
later at Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital. The 46-year-old, who was being
transferred to face a charge of drinkdriving, was found unconscious in the
back of the van in the middle of the afternoon when temperatures outside
exceeded 40 degrees. It is understood the van’s air-conditioning broke down
the previous week and had to be replaced. The van is part of a fleet owned by
the State Government but managed by the private prison management company.
The State Government’s controversial deal with Global Solutions Limited, the
group responsible for prisoner transport, could be tested, depending on the
outcome of the investigation into Mr Ward’s death. Opposition Leader Troy
Buswell said the death in custody raised serious concerns over the State
Government’s “gifting” of the contract to GSL. GSL was controversially
awarded the $70 million prisoner transport, court custody and security
services contract last year when the company bought out the previous
contractor Australian Integrated Management Service. Letters obtained under
Freedom of Information laws revealed the Inspector for Custodial Services,
Richard Harding, told Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk in April
that the plan for GSL to take over the contract was unwise and risky. Despite
his advice, Cabinet not only approved the takeover of the AIMS contract by
GSL last July, but days later it extended the deal by three years without any
public tender process. “Depending on the outcome of the investigation by
police and the coroner, the State Government needs to be examining every
aspect of the contract and take action against GSL if and when it is
appropriate,” Mr Buswell said. Ms Quirk said issues surrounding Mr Ward’s
death, including the contract with GSL, was a matter for the police
investigation and the coronial inquest and it was not appropriate to
speculate.
January
31, 2008 News.Com.AU
PRISONER transport contractors for the WA government were warned about
the "parlous state" of their fleet well before an Aboriginal elder
died in a prison van. Ian Ward, 46, of Warburton in the Goldfields, died
during a Global Solutions Ltd transfer from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in hot
conditions on January 27. It is unclear if the airconditioning was off, or
faulty. Drivers of the van took Mr Ward, who had been picked up for drink
driving on Australia Day, to Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital after they found
him collapsed. He died a short time later. WA Custodial Services Inspector
Richard Harding wrote to GSL last year outlining six concerns, including
'GSL's capacity to cope with the logistical challenge of running a transport
service across such huge distances as are involved with Western Australia''.
"The parlous state'' of the government-owned fleet upon which GSL would
have to rely was among Mr Harding's concerns. GSL is contracted by the WA
government to provide prisoner transport services and by the federal
government to run immigration detention camps and transport immigration
detainees and prisoners. Project SafeCom spokesman Jack Smit said there had
been other transportation issues under the watch of GSL, formerly US-owned
but bought last month by European security consortium Group 4 Securitas.
"This is an ongoing issue partly because it's an out-of-Australia
company ... you no longer have people employed who are directly responsible,
by contract, to the minister,'' Mr Smit said. A 2005 federal government
inquiry found GSL failed to provide medical assessments and treatments for
injured detainees who were being transferred to the Baxter detention centre
in South Australia from Maribyrnong in 2004. The probe found the van used to
transport detainees was "unsafe and inhumane'' with airconditioning
design faults. The five were sent an apology and compensated by the
immigration department. WA major crime squad detectives are investigating the
latest death amid calls from human rights groups for an independent
investigation. WA Deaths in Custody watch committee spokesman Marc Newhouse
said Mr Ward's death should not have happened. "Clearly the government
has already been warned about the state of that fleet, which is
government-owned,'' Mr Newhouse said.
January
29, 2008 News.Com.AU
THE West Australian desert town of Warburton was in mourning yesterday
over the death in custody of its former Aboriginal community chairman, who
was arrested on Australia Day for allegedly drink-driving. Ian Ward, a
46-year-old father of five and one of the last nomads born in the Gibson
Desert, died the following day after collapsing in the back of a security van
during a 915km journey to jail in the goldfields city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
Major Crime Squad detectives are investigating. Mr Ward was being driven by
contractors for the Department of Corrective Services, who noticed he had
collapsed as they neared their destination. Mr Ward's nephew Andrew Johns
said his large family was gathering in Warburton to remember a man who
lobbied for his people's native title rights. "We are very sad
today," Mr Johns said. The family understands Mr Ward died of a heart
attack in hot conditions in the back of the van. "It is a long way to go
and very hot," he said. Police had stopped Mr Ward last Saturday at
9.30pm in his remote home town of Warburton, about 1500km northwest of Perth
in the traditional Ngaanyatjarra lands between the Gibson and Victoria
deserts. He was charged with one count of drink-driving and taken to the
lockup in Warburton. Mr Ward was driven 570km to the courthouse in Laverton,
where he appeared on Sunday morning and was remanded in custody. Police say
he was being transported to the nearest jail - the Eastern Goldfields
Regional Prison 352km away - when he collapsed. Mr Ward was being transported
by Global Solutions Ltd, having been picked up in Laverton at 11.40am, police
say. He was being taken in the rear of the GSL security van. As the van
neared Kalgoorlie, he was found to have collapsed. He was conveyed to
Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital, where he died a short time later.
March
16, 2006 The Age
WHEN Devandar Naidu was at work his boss would kick his chair from
beneath him. The security guard was subjected over four years to names such
as "coconut head" and "monkey face". He would start work
at 7am and not be allowed to go home until 10pm. He had to ask his boss's
permission to go to the toilet. Yesterday, the NSW Supreme Court awarded the
former guard $1.9 million in compensation for the relentless bullying that
left him incapable of working again. Outside the court, Mr Naidu's lawyer,
Shaun McCarthy, described the award as a "rare victory for the little
man against a giant … conglomerate". "He had a nervous breakdown,
he will never work again," Mr McCarthy said. The abuse of Mr Naidu at
the hands of News Ltd's security and fire manager, Lance Chaloner, was
described as "extraordinary" by Justice Michael Adams. The abuse
started in 1992, when Mr Chaloner threw tantrums, would kick chairs from
under Mr Naidu, and call him names such as "black c---". Although
his hours were 7am to 4pm, Mr Chaloner made him work unpaid until after 10pm.
When Mr Naidu went on a rare holiday to Fiji with his family, Mr Chaloner
insisted that he telephone work every day, which involved a 15-kilometre trip
to a phone, and he had to pay for the calls. When he returned, he was told to
do manual work at Mr Chaloner's home, and threatened with the sack if he
didn't. Mr Chaloner was dismissed by News Ltd in January 1997. The judge said
that although Mr Naidu remained at work until mid-1997, he could not operate
effectively. He had major depression and post traumatic stress disorder. News
Ltd will share the damages with Group 4 Securitas Pty Ltd, the bulk to be
paid by Group 4, which employed Mr Naidu.
Junee Correctional Centre
Junee, New South Wales
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
Feb 22, 2021 nit.com.au
Inquest
begins into 2015 Junee death in custody
An inquest into the
2015 death in custody of Aboriginal man Danny Whitton began on Monday, with
both the family and Aboriginal Legal Service demanding justice for the young
man. The inquest will investigate the death of the 25-year-old Wonnarua man,
who died in custody on November 9, 2015 after an accidental drug overdose at
Junee Correctional Centre. The inquest is set to investigate the
circumstances in which Whitton accessed a quantity of paracetamol or
buprenorphine at the prison, currently privately operated by GEO Group
Australia. “Danny relied on methadone while living in the community, but he
was denied access to appropriate medication in prison,” said Whitton’s
parents, Kylie Knight and Darren Whitton. “The people in charge at Junee
Correctional Centre should have known this would deteriorate his physical and
mental health and lead him to source relief wherever he could. “Wouldn’t they
have known drugs were moving through the prison?” On November 5, 2015 Whitton
was taken to Junee Correctional Centre’s medical unit. Two days later
correctional staff found him with limited consciousness and unable to control
his movements. Five hours after being found Whitton was taken to Wagga Wagga
Base Hospital via ambulance and was diagnosed with liver failure. Whitton was
airlifted to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPA) in Sydney where he later
passed away. Whitton’s parents note there is evidence that Whitton was
severely ill previous to being taken to hospital. “We have evidence from
other men in the prison that as early as 5 November 2015, Danny’s skin was
yellow and he was ‘pissing blood’, vomiting and in pain. Why did correctional
staff wait another two days before taking him to hospital? Would he still be
alive if he’d been taken sooner?” they said. The inquest will also hear
concerns relating to the treatment of Whitton’s family during his last few
days by both correctional and hospital staff. “I didn’t even know my son was
sick until Wagga Wagga Base Hospital contacted me. By that stage, Danny’s
airlift to Sydney was already being arranged. I never got a phone call from
Corrective Services NSW or Junee Correctional Centre,” Knight said. Staff at
RPA did not provide Whitton a private room and correctional staff guarding
Whitton at night were allegedly hostile to his family. Knight recalls one
particularly hostile moment the day before her son died. “I didn’t have any
ID on me. I was very distressed. I told them I’m his mother, and one of them
said, ‘You could be anyone saying you’re his mother,’” she said. On the day
of his death, Knight tried to comfort her son. “As I went to get on the bed,
the officer told me I couldn’t touch Danny. He said because Danny would need
an autopsy, touching him would be ‘tampering with evidence’. He said, ‘He is
still Corrective Services property’,” she said. “It broke my heart.” “The
system needs to change. It needs to treat people as human beings, not as
addicts or state property.” Knight is being represented by the Aboriginal
Legal Service NSW/ACT who is pushing for accountability and justice for the
family. “Prisons have a duty of care to the people inside. The circumstances
behind Danny Whitton’s death required urgent investigation and action to
prevent further loss of life, yet it’s taken five years to get to an
inquest,” said Karly Warner, CEO of the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT.
“What does this say about the value placed on Aboriginal lives and the lives
of those recovering from addiction?” Over 440 Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people have died in prisons and police custody since the Royal
Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. “The majority of
recommendations from that inquiry have still not been implemented,” Warner
said. “Kind, loving people like Danny Whitton’s family continue to be left
with unimaginable and avoidable grief. We stand with them in their long quest
for accountability and justice.” Despite the circumstances around his death,
Whitton is remembered as a kind man, doting father and talented athlete. The
inquest is scheduled to take place from February 22 to February 26.
Apr 3, 2018 areanews.com.au
Matt Hogan wants answers over son Jonathon's death in Junee jail
Distraught father Matt Hogan is seeking answers over the death of his son
at Junee prison in February, saying he has met with a wall of silence from
authorities. Mr Hogan is devastated and haunted by questions about the death
of his son Jonathon Hogan, 23, a young Aboriginal man from Canberra. The last
time he saw Jonathon was in July last year, before he was arrested that month
on property offences. Jonathon harmed himself in police custody almost
immediately after his arrest, and was taken to the mental health unit at
Canberra Hospital where he absconded. He was caught in NSW a few days later
and taken to Junee where he was held on remand for more than six months, due
to face court on February 5. On February 3, he was found dead by hanging in
his cell. Mr Hogan said his son died about 6pm and he was told after 2am the
next morning when the police came to his door. He said his son, the fifth of
10 children, ran into trouble in his teens when he starting taking drugs and
committing burglaries. He ended up at the Bimberi youth detention centre at
17 and later at the adult jail. Last year was not the first time Jonathon had
absconded. His father said he had self-harmed in the Canberra jail on a
previous occasion and been taken to Canberra Hospital where he had escaped,
the same pattern as last year. Mr Hogan is in tears when he expresses over
and again his disbelief that Jonathon, who he said had been diagnosed with
major mental health issues, could have been held in a cell where hanging was
even possible. He doesn't believe his son was getting drug and alcohol help
at Junee because he was still on remand when he died and not eligible to
enter a program until after his sentencing. "Why was there something in
the jail he could hang himself from? He's got mental health issues," Mr
Hogan asks, having asked the same question of NSW authorities to no avail. Mr
Hogan doesn't understand why security is so inadequate when prisoners are
taken to Canberra Hospital's mental health unit that they can escape – in
Jonathon's case twice. He doesn't understand why authorities cited privacy
when he tried to ask about his son when he was at Junee. Mr Hogan remembers
his son, who has five children of his own, the youngest just three months, as
"a fun loving kid" who loved loved his family. "He would have
pulled through," Jonathon's dad says, having decided to speak out to try
to change the treatment of Aboriginal people in custody. "It's been
going on and on for years and years," he says. "It's got to
stop." The Junee Correctional Centre is privately run by the GEO Group,
a multi-national company that operates prisons in Australia, South Africa and
the United States. At least three separate inquests as far back as 2007 have
made recommendations related to the removal of hanging points in prisons run
by the GEO Group in Queensland and NSW. The removal of prison cell hanging
points was one of the key recommendations made by the historic Royal
Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991. The GEO Group referred
all questions about Jonathon Hogan's death at Junee prison to Corrective
Services NSW. "One of our major strategies to reduce deaths from
unnatural causes includes the audit and removal of obvious hanging points in
correctional centres and court cells that accommodate inmates who are at risk
of self-harm or suicide," a corrections spokeswoman said. Asked whether
Jonathon had received mental health treatment at Junee prison, whether Junee
prison had sought his medical files from ACT authorities, and whether they were
aware of his history of self-harm, NSW authorities said, "Justice Health
and Forensic Mental Network extends its sincere condolences to Mr Hogan's
family, however it would be inappropriate to comment on the specifics of this
case while it is the subject of investigation by the NSW Coroner's
Court." The NSW police force is investigating Jonathon's death and will
prepare a report for the NSW Coroner ahead of a public inquest.
Apr 23, 2017 juneesoutherncross.com.au
Death of a paedophile at Junee jail sparks a debate of morals
Human rights advocates are enraged following the “callous” treatment of a
dying paedophile at Junee jail. Keith Howlett was serving a two-year sentence
for child-sex offences when he collapsed and died after just five weeks at
the privately-run Junee Correctional Centre. The Riverina facility has been
criticised by the coroner following the “unnecessary” and “painful” death but
online communities say his suffering was “deserved”. Deputy State Coroner magistrate Harriet
Grahame found the “disappointing” medical neglect of 49-year-old Keith
Howlett contributed to his torturous final weeks - “full of despair”. The
inquest found Mr Howlett had been experiencing vomiting, insomnia and
diarrhea and he was coughing blood. Mr Howlett had previously been diagnosed
with lung cancer, HIV, peripheral vascular disease, chronic nausea,
depression, anxiety, insomnia, gastro-oesophageal disease and
hypercholesteromia. While in jail, Mr Howlett was weaned off his pain
medication, his cancer treatment was not continued and he was never seen by a
psychiatrist. Despite his pain, a wave of controversial comments flooding
social media have deemed the inmate’s suffering to be a form of justice for
the young “victims he hurt”. One Facebook comment read: “He was a filthy
dirty paedophile. One can only hope his suffering was long and slow.” “Is
this a joke,” another post read. “All pedophiles rapists and murderers should
be made suffer greatly. The coroner should be encouraging more of it.”
However Justice Action coordinator Brett Collins said a society was only as
good as the way it treated its prisoners. Mr Collins said many people would
focus on an offender’s crime or the fact they violated norms but it “didn’t
remove the democratic entitlements of all human beings”. “If we allow people
who are dying to be treated callously, we are degrading our own community,”
Mr Collins said. “There is a clear, legal and moral obligation to look after
all members of the community.” Mr Collins said even the deputy state coroner
had been shocked by “the careless disregard for a dying man”. “’He was going
to die anyway’, was not the way he should have been treated,” Mr Collins
said. “What we have here is the GEO Group abdicating responsibility.” Mr
Collins said he feared the coroner’s recommendations for improved palliative
care and health services in the centre would not be adopted. “No one took
responsibility in was an appalling case,” he said. “The government think they
can do whatever they want to people in prison and their legal entitlements
are being ignored.” Mr Collins said GEO was “caught callously treating the
lives of prisoners” and could not be trusted to supply health care. He
appealed to legislators to replace the centre’s health care services. “It is
essential we defend human, moral and legal rights,” he said. “And it’s
definitely essential for government and private companies like GEO to abide
by their obligations.” GEO Group have said they are reviewing
recommendations.
Apr 13, 2017 colliemail.com.au
Death of a paedophile at Junee jail sparks a debate of morals Steff Wills
Steff Wills
Human rights advocates are enraged following the “callous” treatment of a
dying paedophile at Junee jail. Keith Howlett was serving a two-year sentence
for child-sex offences when he collapsed and died after just five weeks at
the privately-run Junee Correctional Centre. The Riverina facility has been
criticised by the coroner following the “unnecessary” and “painful” death but
online communities say his suffering was “deserved”. Deputy State Coroner magistrate Harriet
Grahame found the “disappointing” medical neglect of 49-year-old Keith
Howlett contributed to his torturous final weeks - “full of despair”. The
inquest found Mr Howlett had been experiencing vomiting, insomnia and
diarrhea and he was coughing blood. Mr Howlett had previously been diagnosed
with lung cancer, HIV, peripheral vascular disease, chronic nausea,
depression, anxiety, insomnia, gastro-oesophageal disease and
hypercholesteromia. While in jail, Mr Howlett was weaned off his pain
medication, his cancer treatment was not continued and he was never seen by a
psychiatrist. Despite his pain, a wave of controversial comments flooding
social media have deemed the inmate’s suffering to be a form of justice for
the young “victims he hurt”. One Facebook comment read: “He was a filthy
dirty paedophile. One can only hope his suffering was long and slow.” “Is
this a joke,” another post read. “All pedophiles rapists and murderers should
be made suffer greatly. The coroner should be encouraging more of it.”
However Justice Action coordinator Brett Collins said a society was only as
good as the way it treated its prisoners. Mr Collins said many people would
focus on an offender’s crime or the fact they violated norms but it “didn’t
remove the democratic entitlements of all human beings”. “If we allow people
who are dying to be treated callously, we are degrading our own community,”
Mr Collins said. “There is a clear, legal and moral obligation to look after
all members of the community.” Mr Collins said even the deputy state coroner
had been shocked by “the careless disregard for a dying man”. “’He was going
to die anyway’, was not the way he should have been treated,” Mr Collins
said. “What we have here is the GEO Group abdicating responsibility.” Mr
Collins said he feared the coroner’s recommendations for improved palliative
care and health services in the centre would not be adopted. “No one took
responsibility in was an appalling case,” he said. “The government think they
can do whatever they want to people in prison and their legal entitlements
are being ignored.” Mr Collins said GEO was “caught callously treating the
lives of prisoners” and could not be trusted to supply health care. He
appealed to legislators to replace the centre’s health care services. “It is
essential we defend human, moral and legal rights,” he said. “And it’s
definitely essential for government and private companies like GEO to abide
by their obligations.” GEO Group have said they are reviewing
recommendations.
July 17,
2013 The Daily Telegraph
HEROIN and other
illegal drugs were readily available in one of the state's privately-operated
prisons where inmates were able to spend virtually every day
"stoned" on illicit substances, a coroner has said. Deputy State
Coroner Sharon Freund this morning delivered her findings after an inquest
into the death of an inmate, Anthony Van Rysewyk, who overdosed on heroin
while housed at the Junee Correctional Centre in May 2011. The 28-year-old
had been serving a nearly 10-year sentence for robbery and was being held in
the prison's minimum-security wing when he was discovered unconscious in his
cell during the morning head count. The inquest heard "compelling and
frighteningly frank" evidence from several other prisoners from the
country NSW facility who revealed how drugs had been freely available in the
centre with the bulk smuggled in during weekend visits. "Heroin,
marijuana and the illegally obtained prescription medication bupamorphine
were easily accessible to inmates," Ms Freund said. One prisoner, who
can't be named for legal reasons, gave evidence he witnessed a "Lebanese
bloke" get handed a golf-ball-sized package during a weekend visit the
day before Van Rysewyk was found dead. "The inmate then put the parcel
up his bum ... just as the inmate had his hands up his pants (a corrections
officer) went over to him and told him and his missus to be off the
grass," the prisoner said. Lawyers for Corrective Services NSW argued
the inmates' testimony about the amount of drugs available in the prison
shouldn't be believed, but Ms Freund rejected the suggestion - adding the
prisoners had "no conceivable reason to lie" as many had given
evidence against their own self-interest. Jay Bishop, who investigated the
death for corrective services, told the inquest that the number of officers
supervising visitors was inadequate and at least five times the staff should
be employed for the task. He also said drug dogs and CCTV cameras should
routinely be used to police the visitors' area. Russell McAuliffe, who was
responsible for the centre's daily management for private operator the GEO
Group, admitted there were times when visitors were left unsupervised and the
drugs which killed Van Rysewyk had probably been smuggled into the centre the
day before the death. But despite the fatal overdose, only one corrective
officer had since been added to watch over visitors and no steps had been
taken to otherwise upgrade security. Ms Freund said the evidence
"overwhelmingly" led her to the conclusion drugs were routinely
being smuggled into the centre by visitors and security was "clearly
inadequate". "Unfortunately, any improvements made to date have
been nominal," she said. The coroner recommended screening measures at
the prison's visitor centre be upgraded and CCTV options be reviewed. Ms
Freund said Van Rysewyk was "very much loved" by his mother Sharon
and other family despite his "difficult final years", and he had
indicated a strong desire to end his time in prison and be reunited with his
relatives. "Quite simply, his mum was looking forward to getting to know
her son but never got the chance," she said. In a statement, Corrective
Services Commissioner Peter Severin said the death was taken "very
seriously" and the coroner’s recommendations would be looked at.
"CSNSW has instructed GEO to develop strong actions plans for our
approval and we will monitor the implementation of all responses identified
to improve security," he said. "In addition, should any system-wide
issues be identified as a result of analysis, we will implement a broad
response to ensure best practice security and training is being delivered by
Corrective Services NSW for the benefit of the community." The GEO Group
said it had already taken steps to address failings identified in the
coroner’s recommendations, including reviewing its staff training, visitor
security and screening systems.
June
15, 2011 ABC
It is uncertain whether the sacking of five guards at the Junee Jail will
result in changes to inmate monitoring policies. The officers were dismissed
yesterday for using surveillance cameras to watch a female inmate undress to
shower. The guards were stood down after the incident in late May and faced a
three hour disciplinary hearing last week. The GEO Group which run the Junee
Jail will not comment on whether the incident has resulted in changes to
staff protocols. Only four women prisoners can be housed at the Junee
Correctional Centre which has a small remand unit. A spokesman for GEO says
the Department of Corrective Services will be notified of the dismissals.
June
1, 2011 Daily Advertiser
NSW Corrective Services last night announced it will launch a full review of
Junee Correctional Centre's (JCC) housing of female inmates. The move comes
after private prison operator GEO Group stood down five JCC staff over
allegations they spied on a female inmate as she undressed. "The
commissioner has ordered a review of protocol surrounding management of women
at Junee Correctional Centre," a NSW Corrective Services spokeswoman
said. A senior female officer will travel to Junee in the coming days to
conduct the review. JCC has long had facilities to hold up to four female
inmates, who are kept in a separate section attached to the medical centre. A
source close to JCC said only women in remand or awaiting court appearances
were kept on site. "They're normally in transit somewhere," he
said. He asserted it was unlikely NSW Corrective Services would attempt to
stop the practice as department officials "are the ones that asked us to
house them there". Prisoner rights group Justice Action has launched a
broadside attack on GEO Group over its private operation of the centre.
Justice Action spokesman Brett Collins, a former inmate himself, yesterday
said the internal investigation by the company would be unlikely to result in
justice for the inmate. "(The inmate) has rights; there are civil rights
... but what's the proof going to be?" Mr Collins said. "Do you
think the guards are going to give evidence? I don't think so." He said
when private operators are able to hold scrutinising authorities "at
arm's length" it put operational transparency in doubt. However, a
spokesman for GEO Group said the recent incident "wasn't a strong
argument against private prisons". "This could happen at a private
or public prison," he said. It is expected the findings of GEO Group's
investigation will be released later this week.
April
19, 2011 Daily Advertiser
THE company that manages Junee jail has denied claims that an assault on a
wheelchair-bound inmate was covered up after a complaint was filed with the
NSW Minister for Justice, Greg Smith, and the Ombudsman. The Daily Advertiser
was last week sent an explosive account of an alleged assault on an inmate
who, as a wheelchair-bound amputee, is unable to defend himself. The
allegations, which are being made by the inmate's wife, are extremely
detailed, and include claims the inmate who attacked her husband has
"some influence over certain officers in the unit", which is why,
she claims, a report of the assault, which supposedly took place on February
22, was not filed at the time. The allegations name several officers who work
at Junee Jail, claiming that one noted the assault when it happened and
another took down a formal complaint from the victim on the day it happened.
"(Name blanked out) was assaulted by a fellow inmate," the
allegations state. "This was an unprovoked attack, witnessed by several
other inmates. "He was punched in the face, resulting in a black eye;
there may have been other injuries, but this was the particular injury that
was noted by an officer, (name blanked out)." Junee jail is privately
owned and managed, and according to the company that manages it, GEO Group,
the alleged assault was not reported until five weeks after it allegedly occurred.
"GEO immediately conducted an investigation but found no evidence to
corroborate the allegation of an assault," a statement released by a GEO
spokesman says. "The alleged assault has been reported to the Ombudsman
and the Minister's office and GEO is preparing a response."
May
14, 2010 Daily Advertiser
A JUNEE jail inmate who accidentally swallowed condoms containing amphetamine
smuggled into the prison thought he was going to die, Wagga Local Court has
heard. The revelation came when the prisoner, 27-year-old Ashley Sloan, was
sentenced this week after pleading guilty to one count of possessing a
prohibited drug. Bob Stapleton from the Department of Corrective Services
said the incident had been reported to the department, but investigations
into it were a matter for the private company that runs prison, GEO Group.
Ken Davis for GEO said the jail had a very strict regime on drug detection
enforced by drug detection dogs, urine sampling and other measures, but
despite these efforts a small amount of drugs did enter the prison via
visitors. He described the incident as isolated and said drug detection
statistics at Junee were well below the national benchmark. Sloan was quizzed
about how he got the drugs, but stayed mum. If not for Sloan falling ill
after swallowing the drugs and making a plea for help the smuggling may have
gone undetected. The court heard Sloan told jail officers on November 23 he
had been on the prison oval the previous day and had accidentally swallowed
amphetamine - known as speed - after concealing it in his mouth. Sloan was
taken to Wagga Base Hospital where he was given medication to counteract the
amphetamine. There were concerns for Sloan's health when his heart beat
became irregular, and he spent some time in the intensive care unit. The
prisoner's bowel movements were monitored, eventually resulting in the
recovery of a small perforated piece of rubber that appeared to be a condom.
According to police, Sloan later said to a jail officer guarding him
"Chief, I've got something for you". Police facts tendered to the
court said Sloan handed over a condom tied at one end. It contained a
substance that tests later revealed was 2.87 grams of speed. Sloan later told
police he had swallowed two balloons, but declined to give any other information.
It is understood the prisoner has also refused to say a word GEO about how he
obtained the drugs, but there are suspicions the speed might have been
smuggled in to the prison by a prison visitor the previous day.
March
9, 2009 Sidney Morning Herald
AS A state open to the peddling of political influence from those who
have donated to government election coffers, NSW takes some beating. Starting
with Sydney's foundation 221 years ago, bending the rules of governance - and
worse - to help mates who have helped you has been part of the political
culture. Fortunately there is far more transparency now than in the bad old
days about who makes financial donations to whom. But three recent cases in
Sydney show how the culture still lives in the state Labor Party in a
worrying way. The first involves Nick Lalich, the Mayor of Fairfield and
state MP for Cabramatta. He presided over a meeting of Fairfield City Council
last week that considered a $1 million application from Fred Pisciuneri, a
developer. Coincidentally, Mr Pisciuneri had made a $2000 donation to Labor
at a fund-raising dinner for Mr Lalich in October, when he won the seat in a
byelection. Mr Lalich declared a "non-significant, non-pecuniary
conflict of interest" at the council meeting. He now says he "probably"
could have been more cautious and abstained from voting. Then there is
Virginia Judge, the Minister for Fair Trading, who organised a campaign
against a Coles supermarket being built near Strathfield Plaza, a shopping
centre in her electorate. She also successfully lobbied her colleague Tony
Kelly, the Minister for Police, to have a police station shopfront set up in
the plaza. Outwardly, there seems little to question. But then we learn
Strathfield Plaza is owned by Memo Corporation, a company that has donated
more than $50,000 to Ms Judge's political campaigns over six years. Finally
Paul McLeay, the MP for Heathcote, was vice-chairman of a parliamentary
committee reviewing a $26 million government contract with GEO Group to run
the state's only private prison at Junee. The same company had donated $2000
to Mr McLeay's political campaign. It later gave more than $45,000 to Labor,
before the 2007 election. While all three MPs protest their innocence at
charges of inappropriate behaviour, the cases nonetheless suggest a distinct
trend for a party that seems bereft of fresh initiatives after 14 years in
power. Instead of its traditional pursuit of social justice, Labor seems to
have succumbed to what the state Opposition rightly calls a "donations-for-decisions
culture". Its most brazen, and extreme, manifestation was on display in
the scandal that engulfed Wollongong City Council last year. Equally, the
Sydney deals show the need for tougher rules against what has become in
effect the recycling of political money to do favours for donors.
March
5, 2009 Sidney Morning Herald
THE LABOR MP Paul McLeay is under pressure to stand down as chairman of a
parliamentary committee after it emerged that he accepted a donation from the
company that runs the state's only private prison. When he accepted the
donation from the GEO Group the committee was reviewing the company's $26
million contract. GEO donated $2000 to Mr McLeay's personal campaign on
August 28, 2005 when the member for Heathcote was vice-chairman of the Public
Accounts Committee that was looking into whether the private Junee prison was
providing value for money compared to public jails. A month later a report
from the committee concluded that the Government should keep the prison
operating. GEO donated more than $45,000 to the Labor Party in the lead-up to
the last state election but the donation to Mr McLeay was the only one from
the company that went to an individual MP. Mr McLeay, who is now committee
chairman and receives an extra $17,440, said he doubted there was any
"overlap". "From my recollection the report was well and truly
over and I had a fund-raising dinner or luncheon sometime after that, and
there were about 12 people there, one of which was GEO," he said
yesterday. "Maybe the committee had finished the work and it took a
while for the report to be tabled because I wouldn't have accepted a donation
if we were still looking at it because that would have not been
appropriate." The committee's report concluded that Junee provided good
value for money because it was able to house prisoners for $73.59 a day
compared to the state-run Kempsey jail which costs $91.75 a day. GEO is the
second biggest operator of private prisons in the US. It is favoured to take
over Parklea and Cessnock jails when they are privatised. A spokesman for GEO
said there was no discussion of the committee's report at Mr McLeay's dinner
and the company had understood that the report had been written long before
the fund-raiser was held. The Greens MP Sylvia Hale said Mr McLeay should be
stood down as committee chairman. "It was completely inappropriate for
Mr McLeay to accept a personal campaign donation from GEO while he was
vice-chairman of the public accounts committee that was examining the GEO
private prison contract," Ms Hale said. "It is fundamentally wrong
for a company that is receiving public funds from a government contract to be
donating some of those funds back to the party that granted them the
contract. All of this is even more concerning when the donations are from a
company with the international reputation of the GEO group." Ms Hale
will today introduce a private member's bill into the upper house to prevent
the privatisation of the state's prisons unless any sale has the support of
both houses of Parliament.
January
28, 2009 Daily Advertiser
TWO Junee jail inmates yesterday spent hours on a roof of the prison in
baking heat after what is believed to be an escape attempt was foiled by
guards. Guards late last night were trying to talk the men down from their
rooftop perch. The drama began about 3.30pm when the prisoners reportedly
made a dash for a maintenance vehicle apparently with the intention of making
a jail break. The men were prevented from getting into the vehicle by guards
so they apparently scaled a protective fence and climbed onto the metal roof.
From a road outside the prison about three hours into the stand-off, armed
officers wearing safety vests and helmets could be seen several metres away
from the two shirt-less prisoners. The prisoners were well within the
perimeter of the jail and there was no chance of them escaping. An ambulance
was on stand-by at the prison, built for minimum and medium security inmates.
The company that runs the privately operated 750-bed prison for the State
Government, the GEO Group, last night was not commenting on the incident, and
it was not known if the facility was in general lockdown. Negotiations were
still ongoing last night.
October
24, 2008 Daily Advertiser
TOILET paper became the new currency in the Junee jail when a shortage of the
product hit the prison, the NSW Ombudsman has said in his latest report. The
issue was one of a number of case studies in the Ombudsman’s just-released
2007-08 annual report. “When an inmate called from Junee to complain that
their toilet roll ration had been reduced, we made immediate inquiries with
the centre,” the case study said. “Reducing or removing basic necessities, such
as toilet paper, can spark an easily preventable incident in a correctional
centre. “We were told that each inmate usually received two rolls per week,
but if they ran out they could get more from the sweepers (inmate domestic
workers) in their pod. “The sweepers, however, no longer had a supply and –
in the absence of sufficient toilet rolls – they had become jail currency and
were being stolen from the cells. “When we called the centre they were not
aware of any change to the ration of toilet paper and undertook to
investigate and rectify the situation immediately.” The annual report said
that in recent years the number of complaints against the jail was
significantly higher than from other similar sized correctional centres.
There was a slight decrease this year in the number of complaints, down from
360 in 2006-07 to 341, of which there were 83 formal complaints and 258
informal complaints. Only the Metropolitan Special Programs Centre, with 344
complaints, had more complaints than Junee. Junee has one of the largest
prison populations in the state and is the only privately-operated jail in
NSW. It is run for the government by the GEO Group. A spokesman for the
company, Ken Davis, said it had noted the Ombudsman’s remarks and looked
forward to working with him to address any issues.
October
23, 2008 ABC News
Junee Correctional Centre has been trialling new staffing arrangements in
a bid to address ongoing high complaint rates. The State Ombudsman's annual
report, which was released yesterday, says the number of complaints from the
Junee Jail in recent years is significantly higher than from other similar
sized centres. It says that may be due to physical separation of inmates and
staff. The report says the centre's management is trialling placing staff in
inmates' accommodation for fixed times each day to handle requests and
questions which has resulted in a slight reduction in calls to the
Ombudsman's office. Junee Correctional Centre received 341 complaints over
the year. The report also includes details of an inmate reporting a reduction
in toilet roll rations and says at the time of the complaint the toilet rolls
became jail currency and were stolen from cells. It says when management was
contacted they acted immediately to investigate and fix the situation. In a
statement, the GEO Group, which runs the jail, says it acknowledges the
remarks and looks forward to working with the Ombudsman to address any
issues.
January
18, 2006 ABC
Junee Jail has restructured its senior management in response to an inmate's
escape last year. Three senior staff were suspended when Lon Thomas McAlister
walked out of the prison in October, but they have now returned to work. The
Geo group's Colin Kelaher says the managers have retained their roles, but
some duties have been delegated to other positions. He says management is
still implementing the findings from the security review. "One of the
recommendations that did come out of it and we've recognised that is ... the
importance of restructuring in the staff at the facility to, I guess, more
importantly oversee some of the roles of security there and ... we're doing
that at the moment," he said.
November
1, 2005 ABC
A prisoner who escaped from Junee jail in south-western New South Wales last
week is believed to have walked out the jail's front gate. Forty-six-year-old
Lon Thomas McAllister was serving an eight-year term for armed robbery and is
considered dangerous. The manager of Junee jail, Derek Bullock, says it
appears McAllister was very well organised and left town quickly on Friday,
possibly via the jail's main entrance. "Because our perimeter fence was
not breached, the anecdotal information is that this prisoner actually
managed to get through our front gate," he said. Corrective Services
officials travelled to Junee at the weekend to assess security at the jail
and its operator, the GEO group, plans another security review tomorrow.
January 14, 2005 Sidney
Morning Herald
Longer sentences, tougher bail laws and higher police numbers have
boosted NSW's prison population to 9000 for the first time, the Premier, Bob
Carr, boasted yesterday. In another development yesterday, the head of a
parliamentary committee launched an inquiry into the cost-effectiveness of
the state's only private prison, run by the US company GEO Group Australia.
Labor MP Matt Brown, the chairman of the NSW Parliament's public accounts
committee, said he wanted to inquire into whether the Junee prison really was
value for money. Mr Brown said the committee would look into explanations
from the Department of Corrective Services that maximum-security jails had
higher costs than the medium-security Junee and that housing female prisoners
involved special needs and higher costs. As well, publicly owned jails were
older and not as cost-efficient to run as Junee, which was built under the
Greiner government in the early 1990s. Mr Brown said Labor policy opposed the
building of private jails. The review would examine the performance of
privately run prisons in other states.
September 13, 2004 ABC
Prison officers are back on duty at Junee jail in southern New South
Wales after a seven-day strike. The action by 120 officers ended on Friday
night when members of the Miscellaneous Workers Union voted to return to
work.Union spokesman Geoff Lawler says he will be seeking a commitment to
full staffing levels at talks with GEO Australia on Wednesday.
September 9, 2004 ABC
Striking prison officers at Junee Jail in southern New South Wales are
threatening to obstruct entry to the prison unless management responds to
their demands soon. About 120 officers walked off the job nearly a week ago,
complaining about staffing levels and pay. The private prison operator, GEO
Australia, has brought in outside workers to run the medium security facility
and says the matter is in the Industrial Relations Commission. Union
organiser Geoff Lawler says the striking guards may use force to stop people
crossing the picket line.
April 16, 2004 ABC
The operator of Junee private prison has dismissed concerns about the jail's
security, after the escape of an inmate yesterday. Police are still
searching for Christopher Pritchard, who they say has a history of violence
and should not be approached. It is believed the Gosford man was
serving out the end of a sentence, which had been re-instated after he
breached parole. Police say the 23-year-old escaped on a prison
motorbike while working outside the prison grounds and then used a
screwdriver to hijack a car. Police suspect he then headed towards
Sydney after stealing a second car. Junee prison director Dom Karauria
says a review of security will be conducted, but denies the security breach
is cause for alarm. "I don't think the community needs to be too
concerned about the degree of security in the prison itself," he said.
"I mean, when you put things in perspective this inmate has been working
out in the community for the last six months and working out in the prison
farm. There's been no breach of the prison security itself."
May 24, 2001
A snap strike at the privately run Junee Jail has ended, with the 600
prisoners now free to leave their cells, but the parties remain far from
agreement. The jail's managers have told the Industrial Relations
Commission they are losing money on a new contract to manage the jail.
In a dispute over the introduction of 12 hour shifts, officers picketed the
entrance to Junee Jail today, forcing managers to cut a hole in one fence and
call in the police to gain alternative access. At a hearing in Wagga
Wagga, Commissioner Tabbaa says she was very disappointed Australasian
Correctional Management did not adhere to her recommendations on roster
changes, sparking the walkout. ACM's representative told the hearing
the company is losing money on the current shift arrangements. (ABC
News)
Maribyrnoug Detention Centre
Serco (Global Solutions, formerly run by GEO Group, formerly known as
Wackenhut Corrections)
Feb 14, 2015
theage.com.au
Shirtless and barefoot, Mustafa Bektas sits on a low bench with his back
against the wall. Five guards and a senior operations manager surround him in
the cell. Two of them restrain his arms. Security footage from the detention
centre in Melbourne's west shows the burly Turkish detainee being overpowered
and pinned to the floor. He said Serco officers tied him up with three sets
of handcuffs behind his back and he was forced down on his stomach, gasping
for air. "[My] breathing was getting slower … they just kept pushing
down and down. One was pushing my head down towards the ground," he
said, speaking through a translator. "One of the handcuffs were too
tight ... I was in pain. All I want is water. I kept saying that. All I want
is water. One of the six of them went to get water, but the manager turned
around and said 'no, don't give him water'." Bektas said he had been
acting out that day, agitated because of a painful skin condition. He had
repeatedly punched the cell wall and screamed to the guards outside. But
officers' heavy-handed response was excessive, he said. The detainee's
claims, which Serco officers have also recounted, are now being probed by the
Commonwealth Ombudsman. Detention centre violence usually evokes images of
riots and chaos on offshore camps such as Manus Island, but the hostility
appears to have reached Melbourne too. Just weeks after Bektas was allegedly
subjected to excessive force at the western suburbs detention centre, another
detainee reported being kicked in the stomach by a guard. The Chinese woman,
who is believed to have a mental illness, became upset and angry because she
could not leave a secure area. According to internal documents, she threw a
computer monitor on the floor and smashed a microwave when told by a guard
she had to stay in Zone B one night in late January. Witnesses interviewed by
Serco said the woman kicked and punched the officer. One said she then saw
the officer raise his leg and kick the woman hard in the stomach. The report
also said problems with the camera system prevented CCTV footage from the
room and corridor from being reviewed. "[The detainee] said that the
officer was standing by the door and was backing her," the report said.
"She said she touched the officer very softly on the back, to which the
officer allegedly raised his back foot and kicked her very hard on the
stomach area." Photographs obtained by Fairfax Media show the woman
lifting her T-shirt emblazoned with the Australian flag and the word
"Melbourne" to reveal severe bruising on the right side of her
abdomen. The woman was offered pain medication after complaining of
discomfort when she swallowed following the alleged attack. In a letter to
the woman last month, Serco said the matter warranted further investigation
and would be referred to human resources. Serco said it took the allegations
"very seriously" but told her not to expect to hear anything
further about the complaint "due to Fair Work and Privacy Act
requirements". A third case involving a detainee who was attacked led to
two guards being sacked. The detainee, a Sri Lankan man, reported he was
pushed and punched in the face by the officer. Serco apologised to the
detainee last month, saying it does not condone staff acting inappropriately
or illegally.
January
20, 2012 The Herald Sun
THE Melbourne immigration detention centre, which holds killers, drug dealers
and failed asylum seekers, has had 25 escapees in three years. Seventeen
fugitives, including drug dealers, are still on the run. Most were on
overstayed or cancelled visas, and are awaiting deportation. The revolving
door at Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre has forced three internal
security reviews that recommended significant changes. Now, red-faced
services provider Serco is scrambling to extend electric fences and add what
immigration department officials describe as "additional anti-climb
measures". One source said changes to "soften" the centre's
image after 2005, which eventually led to an electric fence replacing razor
wire, meant easier escape routes. The source said the centre was not a prison
but Serco had not given staff what was needed to manage trouble-makers or
felons.
July
8, 2011 Herald Sun
In a major security breach, three men awaiting deportation effortlessly
opened doors and internal gates on their way to scaling the centre's
perimeter fence. One was armed with a 45cm double-sided blade believed to have
been smuggled inside. The breakout, in the early hours of Monday, has enraged
departmental chiefs and left red-faced security provider Serco facing an
estimated $1 million fine. The Immigration Department said the three were
Vietnamese nationals detained for overstaying visas. One failed to climb the
fence, injuring his hand. His accomplices succeeded, only to be recaptured 30
minutes later by police dogs after the alarm was raised. All three are back
in detention. The Herald Sun believes the escapees told authorities a
security officer gave them swipe cards and impressions of padlock keys.
Sources said the incident highlighted a growing "prison culture" in
the centre, which is also home to detainees with convictions including murder
and drug crimes. The department would not confirm or deny that keys and
swipes were used, citing "operational reasons". But it has ordered
an investigation and demanded an explanation from Serco. The foreign-owned
company is paid about $1 billion to run the nation's detention centres. Serco
recently brought in dozens of foreign staff, mostly from the UK, to staff its
centres amid the rising numbers of boat arrivals.
January
9, 2011 Sunday Herald Sun
A SECURITY firm may be fined over the escape of an Italian national from the
Maribyrnong Detention Centre. A source told the Sunday Herald Sun the
detainee scaled a high wall on New Year's Eve using a rope made of bedsheets.
A spokesman from the Immigration Department said an investigation had begun
to see if the escape was a result of "lax standards" by the centre
operator, Serco. "We're awaiting an urgent report from Serco explaining
the details of the guarding and security at the time," the spokesman
said. "There are clauses in our contract, which so far we haven't used,
that fines can be imposed for lax standards and we'll be looking closely at
that. It shouldn't be happening." Thirty-five detainees have escaped
from Serco-operated facilities in the past 12 months. Twenty-three have been
recaptured. "We have a contract in place to ensure that Serco provides
the service we require," he said. "They are required to provide
secure detention services. Any escape is unacceptable and the contract has
provisions for fines. "We're waiting on the details of what they say happened
to work out what we can do to improve standards."
October
6, 2010 The Age
An Indonesian man who overstayed his visa has sparked a police hunt by
escaping from the Maribyrnong Detention Centre in Melbourne's west last
night, says the immigration department. The man, believed to be in his 30s,
fled the facility about 8.45pm last night after being taken into custody on
September 21 during an operation to find people who had overstayed their
visas. A spokeswoman said for the immigration department said an
investigation would be launched into how the man fled the facility, which is
managed by private company SERCO. "Victorian police have been notified
and the detention service provider has commenced a full investigation into
the incident," said the spokeswoman. "The department will work
actively with the detention services provider to investigate systems,
procedures and infrastructure that are currently in place." SERCO is
required to prepare a report for the department explaining the circumstances
of the disappearance. The man is the second person to escape from the centre
in recent months, with a Cambodian national fleeing while on a recreational
visit to a nearby ten-pin bowling centre in early August. He managed to evade
two security officers who accompanied him on the excursion.
August
3, 2010 The Age
A Cambodian national locked up for overstaying his visa is on the run after
escaping from security officers during a trip to a bowling alley in
Melbourne's west. The man, who was being held at the Maribyrnong Immigration
Detention Centre, was taken to the Highpoint AMF Bowling centre in
Maribyrnong on Saturday with another inmate and two security officers as part
of an organised excursion. After bowling a few frames and eating some fast
food, the man fled from the centre about 11.15am and hailed a taxi, a caller
to Radio 3AW's Rumour File said today. He remains on the run despite a
large-scale search involving Victoria Police. A Department of Immigration and
Citizenship spokesman this morning confirmed the man's escape, and said an
investigation had been launched into his disappearance. "The man
originally from Cambodia and another client were being escorted by two
detention service private officers when the man ran off," he said.
"Extra ... staff were immediately called to the scene but the man was
unable to be relocated. Victoria Police were notified and the department has
called for a full report into the incident from (the private security
contractor) Serco." The caller to 3AW said the man was captured on CCTV
camera hailing a cab outside the bowling alley. "No resource was spared
looking for the light-footed escapee, last seen wearing a pair of two-toned,
talcum powder-filled, non-marking soled shoes with the number six on the back
of them," he said. "Going back over the CCTV footage the client had
hailed a cab, changed a few lanes and was last seen heading in an easterly
direction." The Department of Immigration and Citizenship spokesman said
he could not release the man's identity or age for privacy reasons. He said
clients at immigration detention centres were regularly taken on excursions.
"Detention centres are not prisons so its important to provide clients
with recreational opportunities for their welfare," he said. "The
department continues to look for him. Vic Police have been notified."
June
3, 2010 9 News
Two managers have been sacked and two others have been transferred following
the escape of six people from Sydney's Villawood Immigration Detention
Centre. Nine people initially escaped from the complex in Sydney's southwest
in the early hours of Tuesday, May 25. Three were detained by police as they
escaped, but six others, all Chinese nationals, remain at large. Serco, the
UK-based security company that manages the centre, undertook a
"comprehensive investigation" following the escape, Serco
spokeswoman Emma Needham said in a statement. "Serco has dismissed two
employees today and redeployed two others following an internal investigation
into last week's escapes from Villawood," she said. "In order to
take the management of the centre forward and deliver the transformation
required, changes to a number of positions were necessary." The company
faces fines and sanctions imposed by the federal government following the
escape. Immigration Minister Chris Evans has ordered an investigation into
the breakout, the latest in a series of escapes from Villawood. Serco also
manages security at the Maribyrnong Detention Centre in Melbourne's western
suburbs. It came under fire after a Chinese national slipped away from two
Serco security staff while on a visit to the Melbourne Aquarium in March.
April
2, 2010 The Age
A CHINESE man has embarrassed his private security minders by escaping from
immigration detention while on an excursion at the Aquarium in central
Melbourne. The man, who was waiting to be sent back to China, escaped while
in the supervised care of officers from SERCO, a private firm that receives
$70 million a year to manage Australia's detention facilities. Immigration
Minister Chris Evans yesterday called for a detailed explanation of the
circumstances surrounding the incident that comes on the heels of
controversial escapes from Sydney's Villawood detention centre. It is
believed the man slipped away on March 24 during a routine group excursion
from the Maribyrnong Detention Centre, where he was being held. Melbourne
police were immediately alerted. The man is the fourth Chinese national to
escape from SERCO's custody in the past week. Only days ago three Chinese
scaled a high-security fence at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre. They
have not been seen since. A spokeswoman for the minister said escapes were
not acceptable and that SERCO was contractually obliged to guarantee the
detention of unlawful non-citizens. SERCO faces heavy fines under its
contract with the federal government if it fails to present a plausible
explanation for the lapses. Although the man was not considered dangerous, he
was due for removal to China for breaches of visa conditions. It is believed
several officers were at the Aquarium, but they failed to notice the man slip
into a large crowd at the tourist attraction. He was with other detainees
from the Maribyrnong centre. It is believed he had been detained several
times by immigration compliance officers for breaching his visa conditions before
being taken into custody. An Immigration Department spokesman said detainees
were held under administrative law and were not subject to criminal
punishment. Detainees were provided with regular excursions under
duty-of-care requirements. Senator Evans has already ordered an inquiry into
security at Villawood where SERCO has sacked 10 staff over security breaches.
December
16, 2008 The Age
THREE detainees at Maribyrnong Detention Centre pulled off brazen escapes
at the weekend, raising questions about immigration security. The latest
escapes come less than two months after a Vietnamese detainee posed as a
visitor and walked straight past security guards. Opposition immigration
spokeswoman Sharman Stone called on detention centre operator GSL to review security,
after two Vietnamese men scaled a five-metre fence at the rear of the
detention centre at lunchtime on Saturday and disappeared. The following
night, Turkish man Mustafa Bectis managed to shrug off his two escorts at the
emergency department of the Western General Hospital in Footscray, where he
was being treated for a cut arm. "If someone has just climbed over the
back fence, GSL does need to very urgently review its security," Ms
Stone said. "If another person is being escorted to hospital and managed
to escape then certainly they've got to take a lot more care." Mr
Bectis, who was not handcuffed or shackled, raced through a door and
vanished. The two escapes are believed to have been assisted by people from
the outside, with detainees able to communicate using email and mobile
phones. Police were immediately called in both instances by GSL, but have
been unable to trace the absconders. Ms Stone also criticised the decision
not to make the escapes public, saying that residents who lived near the detention
centre could have helped the police. "Australia is such a multicultural
place, it is very easy for anyone to blend into the background — we don't
require a showing of papers at borders between states," she said. She
also said GSL may need to review its mobile phone policy where a detainee had
a high flight risk. In the past three years, 20 detainees have escaped while
at Maribyrnong, Villawood and Perth detention centres, mostly while being
escorted to court or on social outings. Four escapes have been from
Maribyrnong this year, compared with just two from Villawood and one from
Perth. The weekend shemozzle has come at a sensitive time for GSL, which
hopes its contract will be renewed after the former government re-tendered
all detention services. A decision is expected to be announced in the first
half of next year. The Government is already under pressure over its border
protection policy, with the Opposition claiming the scrapping of temporary
protection visas has made Australia a "soft target" for people
smugglers. An Immigration Department spokesman said GSL would review security
arrangements at Maribyrnong. "It is the responsibility of the detention
services provider to ensure appropriate security is maintained at all
times," he said. But he said email and mobile phone access were a
"fundamental right" for people in immigration detention, and their
use would not form part of the review. GSL's director of public affairs, Tim
Hall, said escapes were a matter of great concern. "We constantly strive
to balance the needs of clients who are being held in administrative
detention, not imprisonment, against our obligation to ensure that they are
securely detained," he said.
December
22, 2005 The Age
THE family of a Tongan man who died in controversial circumstances at the
Maribyrnong detention centre five years ago has launched a damages action
against the Immigration Department and the centre's former operators. In what
is believed to be the first such legal action, the department and
Australasian Correctional Management are being sued over the death of
53-year-old Viliami Tanginoa five years ago today. Law firm Slater &
Gordon has launched the claim on behalf of Mr Tanginoa's widow , Tongi; his
sons Viliami jnr and Antonia; daughter Polsapina; and four half brothers.
Lawyer Dina Tutungi said Mr Tanginoa's life was treated with "reckless
indifference reflecting a culture of contempt towards people held in
detention in Australia". The father of seven climbed to the top of a
basketball pole to protest at his intended deportation that day. He had come
to Australia for work 17 years earlier, overstaying his original visa. He was
arrested at Swan Hill in August 2000 and applied for a bridging visa but was
refused. He had been on top of the basketball ring for eight hours when he
plunged to his death. Detainees claimed he was taunted by guards just before
he fell. Ms Tutungi said a video shows staff placing mattresses underneath
the pole and then removing them, offering Mr Tanginoa cigarettes to come down
while one officer bounced a ball in his vicinity. A coronial inquiry blasted
ACM, saying while the immediate cause of Mr Tanginoa's death was his decision
to jump "another cause was the inaction of the detention centre's
management; a failure to manage". Coroner Phil Byrne said ACM had failed
to call in specialist police negotiators: "If expert negotiators had
been involved, I am satisfied the tragic event would have been
prevented." Slater & Gordon said Mr Tanginoa's family was not
initially informed of his death and were distressed at discovering autopsy
marks on his body when it was returned to Tonga. There was also a failure to
advise the family of the original inquest on January 20 to 24 and they
attended a partly reheard inquest six months later.
Lack
of resources under a "tight" Federal Government contract influenced
the handling of events surrounding the death of a detention centre inmate, a
psychiatry expert told an inquest yesterday. Forensic psychiatry
professor Paul Mullen also questioned the approach of Maribyrnong Detention
Centre staff during a stand-off in 2000. Coroner Phil Byrne is
investigating the death of Viliami Tanginoa, 53, who either fell or jumped to
his death after spending eight hours on top of a basketball pole on the day
he was to be deported to Tonga. Mr Tanginoa, who had been in detention
for four months, had overstayed his three-month tourist visa by 17 years. His
application for a refugee visa in 1994 was refused and subsequent appeals
rejected. Professor Mullen, clinical director of the Victorian
Institute of Forensic Mental Health, criticised the Immigration Department
for not providing adequate resources to the centre's operators, Australasian
Correctional Management, under a "tight contract". "Where was
the plan, where was the structure, where were the people who had the training
and the ability to carry out that structured plan?" Professor
Mullen also said the self-described "wait and see approach" of
staff was bordering on contempt of Mr Tanginoa. (The Age)
Melbourne Custody Centre
Melbourne, Australia
Group 4 (formerly run by GEO Group formerly known as Wackenhut)
February 25,
2010 AAP
CONDITIONS in Melbourne's custody centre breach the Victorian
government's own human rights charter, the independent watchdog says. In a
wide-ranging report, Ombudsman George Brouwer says holding people at the
Melbourne Custody Centre without access to daylight or fresh air is in breach
of the charter of human rights. Victoria became the first state to have a
human rights charter, which was passed by parliament in July 2006. People
arrested by police are being held at the centre for an average of three to
four days, despite Mr Brouwer recommending three years ago holding times be
limited to overnight or over a weekend. "I remain concerned that persons
can still be held at the Melbourne Custody Centre for longer than overnight
or over a weekend," Mr Brouwer said in his report tabled to state
parliament today. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. .End of sidebar.
Return to start of sidebar. "Detaining people underground, without
access to daylight or fresh air, is in my view inappropriate, inhumane and
contrary to the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities."
The centre is run by private operators GEO Group Australia, contracted by Victoria
Police, and receives more than 11,000 people every year. It has a holding
capacity of up to 100 people during the day and 67 at night. Corrections
Minister Bob Cameron said people should expect their rights to be
substantially curtailed in prison. When asked if it was appropriate people
were denied access to fresh air and daylight for days he replied: "You
know cells are not nice places, let's be very clear about that."
Nationals corrections spokesman Peter Ryan said it was unacceptable for
anyone to be held in the centre for more than 24 hours. "The conditions
are archaic, they are in many senses inhumane," he said. Mr Brouwer has
also raised concerns poor infection control in jails is putting the public at
risk. "Infection control in prisons is an important public health issue
and I am concerned by the time taken to fully implement the Communicable
Diseases Policy," he said. "With the large number of prisoners
serving short terms of imprisonment, coupled with high levels of re-offending
and returns to the prison system, the risks to the health and wellbeing of
prisoners and to the wider community are significantly increased." Mr
Brouwer noted the department had taken some steps to reduce the transmission
of blood-borne viruses and sexually transmitted infections among prisoners.
Mr Brouwer's report tracks the progress of implementation of recommendations
he made between July 2006 and June 2008. About one quarter of recommendations
remain unimplemented.
February
7, 2010 The Sunday Age
THE state government is poised to award a multimillion-dollar prison contract
to a private company whose human rights record has been called into question.
The Sunday Age can reveal that private prison contractor G4S Australia &
New Zealand is the preferred tenderer to take over the Melbourne Custody
Centre, a city-based facility that each year processes 11,000 people through
cells under the Magistrates Court. The private security firm was last year
named in a damning West Australian Coroner's report, which found it had contributed
to the ''wholly unnecessary and avoidable death'' of a 46-year-old Aboriginal
man in its custody in January 2008. The company's record in Victoria is also
marked by a coroner's finding last year that it contributed to the 2005 death
of Ian Westcott, who died of an asthma attack in the G4S-run Port Phillip
prison. A note found near his body read: ''Asthma attack. buzzed for help. no
response.'' In 2000, a coroner found the company had failed to provide a safe
environment at Port Phillip when four men hanged themselves in 1997. A 2006
report by the Victorian Ombudsman and the Office of Police Integrity found
inadequacies in the way prisoners were transported, with insufficient
attention paid to their conditions, including ''basic amenities for long trips''.
Charandev Singh, a spokesman for the Centre for the Human Rights of
Imprisoned People, said the decision to give G4S preferred tenderer status
was shocking. ''The company's lethal record, combined with the circumstances
of the horrific death of [the Aboriginal elder], appears to have been totally
negated by the Brumby government and Victoria Police in their intention to
award a further lucrative contract to this company.'' The Melbourne Custody
Centre tender is a sensitive issue for the state government, which was last
year criticised by prisoner advocates for renewing G4S's prisoner transport
contract despite the WA Coroner's finding. The two companies shortlisted for
the Melbourne Custody Centre - G4S and GEO Group Australia - both have
blemished records in the eyes of human rights advocates. GEO Group Australia
is the existing contractor and has been criticised by the Ombudsman several
times for using excessive force on prisoners - most recently in August 2008.
GEO, which has run the 30-cell facility for almost 11 years, was recently
dropped from the shortlist when the government named G4S as preferred
tenderer. Both firms are subsidiaries of multinational outfits specialising
in security systems and correctional and detention facilities. The contract
for management of the custody centre - which serves the court system but also
operates as a holding facility for drug and alcohol-affected people - is yet
to be signed with G4S, but is believed to be with Corrections Minister Bob
Cameron. A G4s spokesman said he could not comment while the tender was still
going. A spokesman for Mr Cameron said he was also unable to comment.
September
27, 2009 The Age
A PRISONER was assaulted and marched naked through the controversial
Melbourne Custody Centre in an incident that breached his human rights, the
Ombudsman has found. The August 2008 incident, revealed in the Ombudsman's
recent annual report, led to the punishment of several officers from the
prison's operator, the private company GEO Group Australia. Ombudsman George
Brouwer found officers had used excessive force on the prisoner. The inmate,
who had soiled himself, was moved naked through the centre to the showers.
''I considered this treatment not to be in accordance with the values
enshrined in the Charter [of Human Rights and Responsibilities],'' Mr Brouwer
said in his report. The incident is the second use of excessive force against
a prisoner in as many years at the custody centre. Victoria Police said GEO
had reviewed its operating policies after the incident and implemented new
measures to ensure there were no further breaches. The police would not say
how the GEO officers were disciplined or if the company was fined, as when
officers failed to protect an inmate bashed in 2005. The Sunday Age was unable
to contact GEO Group Australia for comment.
December
13, 2007 Herald Sun
MORE than 20 prison guards have been sacked for sleeping on the job,
getting too close to inmates and other protocol breaches over the past two
years. The firm that runs the troubled Melbourne Custody Centre -- GEO Group
Australia -- has sacked or let go 20 guards from its 14 Australian jails
since January last year. GEO Group managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout told
the Herald Sun that four of those were from Victoria. The company said that
two guards had been dismissed for having inappropriate relationships with
inmates; two for physically abusing inmates; one for sleeping on the job; one
for misusing a prison vending machine; and one for accepting gift vouchers
from a supplier. Mr Bezuidenhout said that another five guards had been
sacked or resigned after launching vicious physical attacks on inmates in the
Melbourne Custody Centre in 2005. One of those was David Eastham, 25, jailed
last month for kicking an inmate as he lay handcuffed on the floor. The State
Ombudsman found a culture of aggression in the centre, mostly instigated by a
thuggish network called "The Family". After the Ombudsman's
findings were made public last month, Mr Bezuidenhout told the centre's staff
one violent incident was "one too many". Only one guard from
Victoria's public prison system was sacked in the same period.
November
24, 2007 The Herald Sun
TORTURING prisoners at the Melbourne Custody Centre was commonplace, former
staff claim. Three former MCC prison officers told the Herald Sun yesterday a
clique of staff known as "The Family" regularly terrorised inmates.
Their claims come as the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights
Commission warned the State Government of its responsibility to ensure all
prisoners were treated humanely. Chief executive Helen Szoke said the Charter
of Human Rights and Responsibilities comes into effect in January. Dr Szoke
said the charter protected all Victorians. "The Government is
accountable for the treatment of prisoners, whether they are in state-run
institutions or privately run, like the MCC," she said. State Ombudsman
George Brouwer this week accused the MCC group known as "The
Family" of thriving on aggression and use of excessive force. He made
public graphic CCTV footage of an alleged attack on a prisoner that may lead
to three MCC staff being sacked and charged. Premier John Brumby yesterday
described the footage as disturbing and unacceptable and vowed his Government
would move to ensure nothing like it happened again. The MCC is run by
private contractors, the GEO Group Australia, on behalf of Victoria Police
and is housed in the basement below the Melbourne Magistrates' Court. Dr
Szoke said she agreed with Mr Brouwer that the MCC needed a radical overhaul.
"It is absolutely unacceptable to mistreat people in this way," she
said. "We are appalled at the beating shown on CCTV. "I'd remind
everyone that in relation to criminal conduct, detention is the punishment,
not being beaten while detained." Former MCC employees Ros Atkinson and
Bruna Moressi were among five female prison officers who first complained
around 2002 about brutality and bullying at the custody centre. "We told
the company, we told the Ombudsman, we told Victoria Police, we told members
of Parliament, and others, but the situation didn't improve," Ms
Atkinson said. "The Ombudsman ... revealed the torture and brutality we
were warning about is still rampant. "It pains me to think of all the
people who have been mistreated there in the years since we first raised the
issue. "If the authorities had listened to us, then all that suffering
could have been avoided." Ms Moressi called the MCC "a hellhole
where blood is shed most days". The shocking alleged incidents outlined
to the Herald Sun by Ms Atkinson, Ms Moressi and an anonymous third former
employee included: THE near death of a prisoner who tried to hang himself
after being beaten by staff. They put wet toilet paper over the camera in his
cell so their brutality couldn't be seen. A MENTALLY ill prisoner who was
refused medical help despite eating and drinking his own faeces and urine for
three days. A DEEPLY religious inmate who begged staff not to remove his
crucifix saw it ripped from his neck and crushed in front of him before his
head was slammed into a desk so hard the walls around him were sprayed with
blood. A spokesman for GEO yesterday said in a statement to the Herald Sun
that the allegations raised by the former employees were false. He said the
women had been dismissed over the past two years for improper conduct and
claimed they were raising the allegations as a means of getting back at GEO.
November
24, 2007 The Age
THE State Government has made it more difficult for independent observers to
monitor what goes on in jails, lawyers claim. "It's getting harder to
get information about the way the prison system operates," said Hugh de
Kretser, executive officer of the Federation of Community Legal Centres.
"The Government, instead of increasing scrutiny, is going the other way,"
he said. This week, Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre was told it could
not set up a legal clinic at Port Phillip Prison to give advice on issues
such as prisoners' treatment in jail, according to the centre's principal
lawyer, Philip Cottier. In the past three months, the Government had moved to
restrict prisoners' rights to make freedom of information requests and given
jail governors overly wide discretion to restrict prisoners' mail, Mr de
Kretser said. The laws about mail were badly drafted and could potentially
capture even innocent mail exchanges, he said. Corrections Victoria had
recently made secret key operational procedures about how guards should deal
with force and firearms, Mr de Kretser said. These procedures were previously
open to public scrutiny. "If we cannot access the rules Victoria's
prisons operate under, how can we hold our prisons accountable to complying
with them?" he said. The criticisms follow the release of a report this
week by the State Ombudsman, George Brouwer, into a violent incident at the
Melbourne Custody Centre earlier this year. Mr Brouwer found that guards used
excessive force against a prisoner and called for a review of the centre,
which is run by a private company, the GEO Group, under the supervision of
Victoria Police. Deputy Ombudsman John Taylor told The Age that the custody
centre was "a closed shop" with limited public scrutiny: "It's
a place that no one can go. It's a de facto jail, but it's a police jail, and
it's very hard to go there unless you are a lawyer or are from the
Ombudsman's office." Mr de Kretser said Government monitoring of
assaults by prison officers in privately run prisons was weak. "The
private prison contractor and the Government have a common interest in
burying the issues," he said.
November
22, 2007 The Age
A GROUP of aggressive guards known as "The Family" dominates the
Melbourne Custody Centre and often uses excessive force against prisoners, an
investigation by the State Ombudsman has been told. In a damning report
tabled in Parliament yesterday, Ombudsman George Brouwer concluded that
guards had seriously mistreated a remand prisoner being strip-searched on
June 13. CCTV footage released yesterday shows the prisoner being grabbed by
the throat and pushed to the ground, with several guards then piling on top
of him. He received a cut to the head. Following a complaint from the
prisoner, Mr Brouwer summonsed guards from the centre, an underground
facility in Lonsdale Street below the Melbourne Magistrates Court. Mr Brouwer
wrote: "It is of concern that witnesses spoke of a culture that involves
staff favouritism; the centre being dominated by a few staff; tolerance of
abuse of prisoners; and an environment where speaking out means job
loss." The report quotes guards claiming that a clique nicknamed
"The Family" instigated violence with prisoners and struck
prisoners unnecessarily. "They thrive on aggression," one guard
reported. Another claimed that prisoners were "badgered" verbally
by guards with "degrading" remarks such as: "'You're a f---ing
scumbucket. You deserve to be in here." A third guard said:
"There's staff members that want to get at the prisoner that's on the
floor simply because the prisoner wouldn't listen in the first
instance." Mr Brouwer concluded that some of the staff had inappropriate
attitudes, lacked proper training and failed to follow procedure. The centre
is supervised by Victoria Police but is privately run by the GEO Group
Australia, part of an $830 million international company with 59,000 beds in
68 jails and psychiatric hospitals in countries including the US, Canada and
South Africa. The GEO Group runs four correctional facilities in Australia,
including Fulham prison in Sale. Managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout said
yesterday that the company disagreed with the Ombudsman's report. He said
CCTV images showed the prisoner being aggressive towards a guard before he
was restrained. The officers involved would face disciplinary action where
necessary, he said. "GEO has a policy of zero tolerance for any failure
to treat any person in custody appropriately." Victoria Police said it
was investigating an alleged assault at the custody centre. Mr Brouwer wrote
that oversight of the centre by GEO and Victoria Police was inadequate. The
person in charge of reviewing incidents was three months behind in his
viewing of CCTV footage, Mr Brouwer wrote. He recommended that: ■GEO
comprehensively review the centre and the suitability of the officers
involved in the June incident. ■Prisoners be allowed access to phones. ■Victoria
Police review its supervision. ■The centre, which lacks fresh air and
daylight, should only be used to hold prisoners for short stays (some
prisoners are held for up to 28 days). A spokeswoman for Victoria Police said
the centre's operations would be reviewed but it was impractical to limit it
to being a daytime holding facility. Installing a phone system for prisoners
would be almost impossible but the problem would be examined further. Deputy
Ombudsman John Taylor told The Age that some previous complaints of violence
at the centre could not be investigated properly because CCTV footage had not
been available due to "alleged system failure".
November
22, 2007 The Age
Victoria's government watchdog has recommended sweeping changes to conditions
at the Melbourne Custody Centre following publication of a report that found
excessive force was used against a prisoner earlier this year. Victorian
Ombudsman George Brouwer tabled his report on the incident in Parliament
today and has made CCTV footage of the incident available on his website. The
video shows the prisoner, identified by the ombudsman as Mr A, being
subjected to an apparently unprovoked attack by custody officers in the MCC's
strip-search room on June 13. The prisoner removes his shoes and shirt before
one of two officers appears to suddenly grab him by the throat. Both officers
then throw Mr A to the ground before four other officers enter the room. The
prisoner, who had not been charged with an offence at the time of the attack,
lodged a complaint with the ombudsman about one week after the incident. Mr
Brouwer found one officer had "over-reacted" and another, a female
officer, had cut the prisoner by striking him to the head. The company that
is contracted to run the MCC by the State Government, GEO Group Australia,
has agreed to discipline two officers following a recommendation from the
ombudsman that their employment be reviewed. A third officer criticised by
the ombudsman was overseas when the report was being written. Victoria Police
are also investigating whether charges should be laid against any of the
officers. GEO Australia has told the ombudsman it will review training
programs for all its staff in conjunction with Victoria Police. Mr Brouwer's
report is also scathing about MCC prisoners' lack of access to telephones.
The custody centre, located beneath the Melbourne Magistrates Court, is used
to detain people who have been arrested and are due to appear in court. Mr
Brouwer's report says those in custody are unable to contact legal representatives
or his office - an anomaly in Victoria's prison system. "The MCC appears
to operate with only limited oversight by both GEO and Victoria Police and in
my opinion the system in place to monitor incidents is unsatisfactory,"
Mr Brouwer's report says. In the ombudsman's annual report published in
September, Mr Brouwer's office raised concerns about conditions at the MCC
and about a lack of video footage of alleged assaults occurring there. The
September report said the MCC was holding detainees in unsuitable conditions
for periods of up to four weeks. "I have received complaints from
prisoners about their treatment by custodial staff, particularly allegations
of assault," the report said.
August
15, 2007 The Age
GUARDS did not step in as a prisoner bashed another inmate — at one stage
wiping blood from his boots with a towel before continuing to kick his victim
in the head as he lay on the ground — in a brutal 14- minute attack at the
Melbourne Custody Centre on September 9, 2005. A video recording of the
incident was tendered to the County Court yesterday as Jim Giannakoulis, 33,
formerly of Altona North, pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally
causing serious injury. Prosecutor Paul D'Arcy said the graphic footage
showed Giannakoulis punching and kicking the victim, Boak Nguyen, in the head
and body, slamming his head on the ground and jumping on it as he lay in the
centre's exercise yard. Nguyen, who did not lodge a complaint about the
incident, suffered cracked ribs, fractured cheekbones, bruises and cuts.
Outside court, a spokeswoman for the GEO Group, which runs the Melbourne
Custody Centre, said the company was fined under its contract "as a
result of the time it took to respond". She said a figure of $75,000
quoted in court was "way over" the correct amount, which she would
not disclose. "The delay was due to the fact that on the day they were
installing a new closed-circuit TV system," she said. "The attack
happened where they couldn't see, the other prisoners didn't react and there
was nothing to suggest there was anything going on. The GEO staff intervened
as soon as the incident was detected."
May
28, 2007 The Age
A car-theft suspect who went on the run after a prison mix-up led to her
being released in place of another woman has appeared in court. Caroline
Musadeq, 31, of Niddrie, this morning faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on a
charge of escaping a police jail after being recaptured yesterday. Magistrate
William O'Day remanded Musadeq in custody and ordered her to reappear on June
2. She did not apply for bail. Musadeq allegedly escaped from the Melbourne
Custody Centre on May 18. Officers arrested and charged her about 3pm
yesterday after spotting her in a car in Brighton Road in St Kilda. She and a
25-year-old woman charged with armed robbery were in the cells at the
Lonsdale Street centre when the Musadeq was released on bail instead of the
other woman. It is believed that the younger woman pretended to be asleep
while Musadeq assumed her identity and was released. Police said in a statement
last week that the younger woman could be charged with aiding and abetting an
escape, and that Musadeq was not considered a risk. "The Melbourne
Custody Centre is staffed by private contractors to Victoria Police,"
the statement said. "An internal inquiry is under way into operational
procedures at the centre to avoid similar occurrences in the future."
The GEO Group Australia administers the custody centre. Under its previous
name of Australasian Correctional Management, it managed the Woomera Detention
Centre and was subjected to federal inquiries.
May
22, 2007 Herald Sun
A PRISONER has walked out of the Melbourne Custody Centre after assuming
another remanded woman's identity. The escapee tricked staff by swapping
clothes with another inmate due to be released on bail, and changing her
hairstyle to match hers. Custody centre sources said the woman, who was still
free last night, had gone to some effort to escape. She also used the other
woman's documents and learned personal details about her. The escapee, whose
identity has not been revealed, walked to freedom about 4.30pm last Friday.
Police said they would not reveal her details because the escaped woman,
facing car-theft charges, was not considered dangerous. The Herald Sun has
been told she is a 31-year-old Pacific Islander. "The woman has not been
located and is not considered a risk to the community," a police
spokeswoman said. Investigators have interviewed the other woman, 25, for
allegedly aiding and abetting an escape. It is believed custody centre staff
followed correct procedure but were still duped by the escapee, who was said
to look similar to the woman whose identity she assumed. "Staff did
everything by the book but these two (prisoners) cohorted to do this," a
custody centre source alleged. The centre is staffed by private contractors.
"An internal inquiry is under way into operational procedures at the
centre to avoid similar occurrence in the future," the police
spokeswoman said. The custody centre, which is under Melbourne Magistrates'
Court in Lonsdale St, is run by the GEO Group Australia, formerly
Australasian Correctional Management. GEO operations manager Peter Earnshaw
confirmed the group was carrying out its own investigation and changes to
procedures would be made if necessary. It is not the first time a person has
been let free by mistake from the privately run centre. In July 2001, a man
with convictions for aggravated burglary and drug matters was freed, despite
having time to serve for breaching parole on a separate crime. Two months
earlier, a convicted sex offender was mistakenly released despite having
breached parole for a previous crime.
November 18, 2004 Herald
Sun
A MELBOURNE police jail has been described as a hellhole and "the Bronx
of prisons". The privately-run Melbourne Custody Centre is overcrowded,
poorly managed and occasionally dangerous, according to disgruntled staff.
Five women custody officers are on long-term stress leave because of what
they claim are intolerable working conditions. Their complaints include
sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying, victimisation, intimidation and
poor treatment of inmates. They say the centre is understaffed and custody
officers deal with inmates who are often drunk, violent, drugged or mentally
disturbed. The centre, which is beneath Melbourne Magistrates' Court in
Lonsdale St, is run by the GEO Group Australia, formerly Australasian
Correctional Management. ACM, an offshoot of an American corrections giant,
has a troubled history in Australia. There were federal government inquiries
and penalties over the way it ran Woomera Detention Centre. The company also
runs Fulham Correctional Centre. In May last year, Corrections Minister Andre
Haermeyer began a probe into the company's operations. Bruna Moressi, one of
the corrections officers on stress leave, said working at the centre became a
nightmare. "Melbourne Custody Centre is mismanaged through and
through," Ms Moressi said. "None of the staff have training with
psych patients and the centre is not properly equipped to deal with these
people," Ms Moressi said. Seriously disturbed inmates are often kept in
cells with their wrists and ankles in handcuffs because staff have no other
way of controlling them. Anne Chiang said she cracked under the pressure of
working in the centre. She witnessed the inhumane treatment of a
psychiatrically disturbed woman. "I complained. I sent a report up to
head office and to the police monitor. I asked for an investigation, but
nothing happened," she said.
May 29, 2002
Charges
against Victoria's top prison official were dropped yesterday over an
incident in which he allegedly threatened to discipline a custody officer.
The Victorian WorkCover Authority withdrew a charge of failing to take
reasonable care of an employee's health and safety against John Ralph Myers,
the state's senior Australasian Correctional Management official. Mr Myers,
who pleaded not guilty, was alleged to have threatened custody officer Wayne
Rowe when he complained to WorkCover and the Community and Public Sector Union
about staff shortages at the Melbourne Custody Centre. A WorkCover
spokeswoman said the charges were withdrawn because Mr Myers had been charged
as an employee putting another employee at risk, while evidence in court
pointed to an employer-employee relationship. Mr Rowe, 47, told the Melbourne
Magistrates Court he suffered insomnia and anxiety long after the alleged
incident. Mr Myers, 42, of Sale, said that Mr Rowe should have raised his
concerns with centre management before contacting outside organisations for
advice. (The Age)
May 31, 2001
A man left with permanent brain damage after being bashed in a prison cell
has issued a Supreme Court writ seeking damages from the company running the
Melbourne Custody centre. Michael Tully, aged 45, was bashed and
stomped on by another prisoner, Ali Ali, who was consequently jailed for at
least 13 years. The writ's been issued by Mr. Tully's brother Rod, on
his behalf and seeks unspecified damages from the prison operator,
Australasian Correctional Management. (ABC News)
December 11, 2000
Michael Tully was told by his brother Rod that the man who viciously bashed
him while they shared a small cell under the Melbourne Magistrates Court was
yesterday sentenced to 16 years in jail. The former prison guard confirmed he
would take legal action against Australian Correctional Management, the
private managers of the Melbourne Custody Centre. He will allege the managers
were negligent in not appropriately classifying his brother, who has
schizophrenia, so as to ensure he was separated from the mainstream
population. The court told Ali was returned to Cell 28, where he directed a
prisoner to place a sticky label from a lunch box over the surveillance
camera. He then knocked Mr. Tully to the ground, so that his head rested on a
cement bench and stomped on it about five times. Judge Anderson described the
incident, which took place last April, as a "cowardly attack on a
defenseless man". He also said the overcrowded conditions in the cells
were "entirely inappropriate". Judge Anderson said Ali had counted
on the prison culture of silence, but the attack was so brutal it had sicken
other prisoners although they did not intervene in the assault. (The Age
Company Ltd., Dec. 6, 2000)
Melbourne Immigration Transit
Accomodation Facility
Broadmeadows, Ausltralia
Secro
May 28, 2017 theage.com.au
Guard jailed for kissing asylum seeker
at detention centre
A former security guard is serving a
one-month jail sentence for kissing an asylum seeker at a Melbourne
immigration detention centre. Theivigan Panchalingham, 37, was previously a
Serco guard at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation Centre in
Broadmeadows. Panchalingham, a refugee, is understood to have called the
asylum seeker into his office at the detention centre between July and
August, 2015. The woman complied and closed the door as she entered. He
offered her some food and tapped his thigh, in what she believed to be a
gesture to sit on his lap. She asked if she could leave the room. He helped
her to open the door and kissed her on the cheek as she left. Magistrate
Meaghan Keogh earlier this month found the man guilty of one count of sexual
assault for the kiss. Ms Keogh said that while the assault was not the
"most extreme", the woman was not free to leave detention or
complain, making her "the most vulnerable type of victim".
"Because those people rely on you to ensure their safety it does make
this offending behaviour a breach of trust of the most serious type,"
she said. She also questioned Serco's failure to intervene after the guard
sexually assaulted a fellow guard a year earlier, which she said could have
prevented the more recent assault. The asylum seeker told the court in a
victim impact statement that she became afraid of most of the guards after
the assault. She stayed in her room most of the time, sleeping only two to
three hours each night. "It has made me feel very unsafe and that rules
and laws in Australia can't protect me. I feel I have no power, I have
nothing to support myself, no one can make me feel safer," she said. The
woman, who has been living in the community since December, said she still
had nightmares and was afraid of anyone who resembled Panchalingham. Ms Keogh
also said that Serco guards sent a clear message to detainees about what was
acceptable in Australia through their actions, and he had undermined the
woman's respect for the law. She told Panchalingham that detainees were
"fleeing all sorts of situations in their home countries and they're
coming to another country where they hope they'll be allowed to live freely
and with the protection of the law and that is something that you yourself
have experienced," she said. In the earlier 2014 incident, he kissed a
colleague who was his junior on the mouth when they were en route to a Melbourne
hospital for work, the Broadmeadows Magistrates Court heard. His colleague
yelled at him and later told her manager what happened but asked him not to
make an official report, thinking that her yelling at the guard would prevent
future attacks. Ms Keogh said that Serco may have lost an opportunity to deal
with the man's behaviour early on. He pleaded guilty to one count of indecent
assault in relation to this incident, for which Ms Keogh sentenced him to an
18-month community corrections order. The order, which is to be served after
his prison term, includes 200 hours' community service and participation in a
sex offender program. Defence counsel Shaun Pascoe told the court that the
Tamil man was previously a journalist for a number of Tamil newspapers in Sri
Lanka during the country's civil war, where he witnessed a bombing and other
violence. He said he came to Australia to study business administration at La
Trobe University and later obtained a humanitarian visa to stay in Australia
because he feared that his anti-government stance would put his safety at
risk if he returned to Sri Lanka. Mr Pascoe said his client had already lost
his job at Serco and significant standing in the local Tamil community as a
result of the allegations. He unsuccessfully argued that he should receive a
community corrections order without conviction for both his crimes.
Sep 24, 2016 abc.net.au
Former guard at Melbourne immigration centre faces court over sexual
assault allegations
A former Serco guard at a Melbourne immigration centre has faced court
over multiple charges of sexual assault against an Iranian detainee and
fellow guards. Theivigan 'Dave' Panchalingham is accused of three counts of
intentionally touching a detainee in a sexual manner without her consent, and
three of indecently assaulting two female co-workers. Mr Panchalingham was
employed by Serco as a guard at the Melbourne Immigration Transit
Accommodation (MITA). He was sacked by Serco in December after the
allegations of sexual assault were made against him. He is accused of kissing
the female detainee on the cheek and stroking her thigh and face in a sexual
manner and without her consent. Mr Panchalingham is also accused of asking a
co-worker if he could massage her breasts and of pulling another colleague down
onto him so that her breasts were in his face. In February, the ABC revealed
that one of the alleged victims had disclosed the sexual assaults to a mental
health nurse at the immigration centre and two days later Victoria Police
took a statement from her. The alleged offences took place between 2014 and
2015. When the allegations against Mr Panchalingham were first revealed, a
spokesperson for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection said
that a security officer had been immediately stood down from duty and the
alleged victim had been provided with medical support. The case will be heard
over five days at the Broadmeadows Magistrates' Court in February.
November 15,
2010 ABC
Overcrowding has been blamed for a violent brawl involving about 50 children
at a Melbourne detention facility. The Immigration Department does not call
it a detention centre, but the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation
facility in Broadmeadows is one of the sites the department uses to hold
hundreds of unaccompanied children who are seeking asylum in Australia. Last
week there were 43 boys there, but another 98 were flown in from Christmas
Island on the weekend. On Sunday night tensions flared up and police were
called in to stop what the department says was a series of scuffles involving
50 mostly Afghan detainees. Seven people suffered minor injuries in the brawl
and one is still in hospital. The department says police and the detention
contractor, Serco, are investigating the fight and charges may be laid against
those involved. Refugee advocate Nicole Mousley, who visited the centre a
week ago, says the brawl was probably the result of overcrowding. "From
what I saw, I don't think that centre is equipped to deal with that many
boys," she said. "The common room is not designed to hold that many
people. "The boys were telling me they were a bit concerned about the
new people coming and weren't sure what was going to happen once everybody
got there. "The boys actually told me they thought they would be kept
separate from the new arrivals for a while. "So if the new arrivals have
been put in straight away and expected to share the common area, I think then
maybe some of the boys who have been there previously have been a bit
surprised by that." The Broadmeadows centre is one of several which the
Federal Government recently expanded. 'Pressure cooker' -- Opposition
immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says the violence is a sign the
Government's asylum seeker policies are failing. "We have now more than
5,000 people in detention across the country. We have more than 75 per cent
of those people having been in detention now for more than three
months," he said. "When you have an all-time record of people
arriving illegally by boat, all piling into detention centres and creating
the pressure-cooker environment we are seeing, then it is inevitable these
violent incidents and many more will follow, regrettably." Immigration
Department spokesman Sandi Logan says he is concerned by the situation.
"We are concerned about ensuring the centre remains in order, remains
calm and that we are in control, which we are," he said. "These are
all young men, all minors under the age of 18 who were involved in the
disturbance. It was a series of scuffles. We believe focusing around access
to computers, but we've still really to get to the bottom of that." Mr
Logan says the capacity of the centre is 150 and he is confident it can
comfortably house that many. He denies there are inadequate facilities for
the 136 boys now there. "We are confident Serco, the detention services
provider, is able to manage the accommodation and the good order of the
centre," he said.
May
15, 2010 Sidney Morning Herald
Three people have been taken to hospital after up to 30 teenage asylum
seekers brawled at a Melbourne accommodation centre. The fight broke out at
the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation facility in Broadmeadows at
9.30pm (AEST) on Friday after an argument between two groups got out of
control. A Department of Immigration spokesperson said staff had the brawl
under control before police arrived. Two teenagers who suffered cuts to their
upper bodies have been released from hospital. Another is waiting to be
treated. The facility houses family groups and unaccompanied minors. Police
are investigating the incident while the private contractor which runs the
centre, Serco, is also investigating. The immigration department says the
facility, which holds 50 people, remains calm. The spokesperson would not
reveal the nationalities of the teenagers in the brawl.
Melbourne Remand Center
Melbourne, Australia
GEO Group
July 23, 2013
au.news.yahoo
Victorian prison nurses are holding two-hour stop work meetings this week in
their campaign for better pay and conditions. The nurses have voted to
escalate protected industrial action as negotiations for a new pay agreement
with prison operator GEO Care Australia reach their 19th month. They will
stage two-hour stop work meetings at Melbourne Assessment Prison on Tuesday
and Friday. Four-hour stop work meetings will be held at the Hopkins
Correctional Centre in Ararat on Thursday and next Tuesday. The nurses,
employed in medical clinics in 11 Victorian jails, have been taking protected
industrial action, including bans on manual filing and overtime, since last
Thursday. They are seeking better penalty rates, annual leave and long
service leave conditions.
Jun
19, 2013 ncah.com.au
Victorian
prison nurses are taking protected industrial action in their fight for
better wages and conditions. About 60 nurses held two-hour stop work rallies
today outside four prisons across the state after talks broke down between
the Australian Nursing Federation Victorian Branch and prison health care
provider GEO Care Australia. Nurses rallied at Lara’s Barwon Prison, the Dame
Phyllis Frost Centre in Ravenhall, which included nurses from the Melbourne
Remand Centre, the Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat and Loddon Prison in
Castlemaine. Nurses have also enforced nine-hour administrative bans at the
five prisons, with the bans also stretching to the Melbourne Assessment
Prison in West Melbourne, Beechworth Correctional Centre, Dhurringile Prison
in Murchison, Langi Kal Kal Prison in Trawalla, the Marngoneet Correctional
Centre in Lara and Maldon’s Tarrengower Prison. The ANF Vic Branch has called
on GEO Care Australia to return to the negotiating table, after a stalemate
was reached following 18 months of negotiations. Nurses are rallying for a
2.5 per cent pay rise, backdated to July 2012 – the date the current
agreement expired. The nurses also want GEO Care Australia to provide
standard health industry entitlements. The union states the company does not
pay nurses standard penalty rates for working on public holidays. And the ANF
says the non-payment of annual leave loading and long service leave
entitlements of eight weeks at 10 years means the nurses’ entitlements are
significantly lower than nurses in the public or private health system.
“Nurses only ever take industrial action as a last resort and nurses employed
by GEO Care Australia believe that they've exhausted all other avenues to
negotiate reasonable wages and conditions that reflect health industry
standards,” ANF Vic Branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said.
Melaleuca women's jail
Canning
Vale, Western Australia
May 12, 2017 skynews.com.au
Australia: Sodexo put on notice
Private prison operator Sodexo has been put on notice over poor
management and repeated contract breaches. Corrective Services Minister Fran
Logan says he has put private prison operator Sodexo on notice over repeated
contract breaches and claims the Melaleuca women's jail is so poorly run that
lawyers visiting inmates feel unsafe there. Legal Aid WA has stopped its
lawyers from visiting the prison less than five months after it was opened
because of safety fears. The $24 million prison was opened by the previous
Liberal National government last December, with French company Sodexo offered
$15,000 bonuses for every inmate who stays out of jail for two years after
being released. Legal Aid's issues relate to what it sees as poor standards
and discipline at the 254-bed Melaleuca Women's Remand and Reintegration
Facility. It claims its lawyers were not being given duress alarms and put in
dangerous situations, with other inmates standing around and guards not
present when they have been meeting with prisoners and they have also had
trouble contacting clients to prepare legal defences. AAP has been told of
serious problems with violence and drugs at the prison but Legal Aid is yet
to comment. Sodexo denies the 'unsubstantiated allegations in relation to
security practices'. Corrective Services Minister Fran Logan, Criminal
Lawyers Association of WA president Genevieve Cleary and Community and Public
Sector Union WA secretary Toni Walkington came out to strongly criticise
Sodexo and the way it is running the prison. Mr Logan said Sodexo had already
been fined $25,000 three times for contract breaches, he had put the company
'on notice' and ordered that it's generous contract be examined. 'There are
KPIs within the contract that they have to comply with ... in exchange for a
generous payment from the taxpayers of Western Australia and I am going to
make sure they comply with that contract,' he said. Sodexo said in a
statement that it met with Legal Aid on Thursday and it would continue to
work with stakeholders to assess performance and implement any improvements
at Melaleuca. 'The meeting was extremely positive and it is anticipated that
the visits will resume shortly,' it said.
Metropolitan Remand Center
Ravenhall, Australia
GEO Group
Jun 13, 2013 bordermail.com.au
Nurses
in 10 Victorian prisons will take limited strike action from Tuesday, in a
pay dispute with the private operator that employs them. Prison nurses have
been negotiating with prisons outsourcing company the GEO Group for 18
months, after their workplace agreement expired last June. About 60 of these
nurses have now threatened to take strike action. Among planned industrial
actions are a two-hour stop-work meeting on Tuesday; bans on all filing
duties and collection of statistical data; no working in higher duties; no
overtime; a ban on receiving some phone calls; and the wearing of campaign
T-shirts, badges and stickers. The bans will apply at 10 prisons, including
the Melbourne Assessment Prison in West Melbourne; the Metropolitan Remand
Centre and the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Ravenhall; Beechworth
Correctional Centre; and the Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat. The last
wage increase nurses in the GEO Group's prisons received was in January 2011.
The union that represents nurses argues that the company is offering a pay
increase of just 2.5 per cent a year. But GEO Group spokesman Ken Davis said
the company was offering a rise of 15.4 per cent over four years. This
amounts to a packaged increase of 3.85 per cent a year. He said the company
valued its nursing staff and their work in Victoria's prison system, and
hoped to avert industrial action. Nursing staff at the prisons have already
voted down one offer GEO has made to them. The strike threat follows what the
nurses' union last year termed an "industrial marathon" run by
Victoria's nurses, ending last March after nine months of strikes and work
bans. The Australian Nursing Federation argues the GEO Group will be unable
to maintain a stable nursing workforce if its current conditions continue, as
staff will go to workplaces that have better conditions and are less
stressful. The union's Victorian secretary, Lisa Fitzpatrick, said
negotiations had broken down over back pay and the introduction of some
entitlements she said were standard for all other Victorian nurses.
"[The entitlements] are way below health industry standard and this is
impacting on recruitment and retention," Ms Fitzpatrick said.
"Nurses working in our prison system have very low morale ... Working in
a prison medical clinic is an extremely challenging job." She said the
GEO Group did not pay health industry standard penalty rates to nurses
working on public holidays, as well as not paying some annual leave loading
and long-service leave entitlements other nurses received.
Metropolitan
Women's Correctional Center
Deer Park, Australia
CCA
September 10, 2002
A Melbourne coroner yesterday cleared the former private operators of Deer
Park women's prison of wrongdoing over the death of a 23-year-old Aboriginal
inmate four years ago. Coroner Jacinta Heffey found that the
Corrections Corporation of Australia did not contribute to the death of Paula
Rebecca Richardson, who died as a result of a "simulated suicide that
went wrong" on September 11, 1998. The inquest heard that Ms.
Richardson, who was in jail for breaching parole, hanged herself at the
Metropolitan Women's Correctional Centre a day after the State Government
launched a review of prison safety. In July, 1998, two male and two
female prison officers strip-searched Ms. Richardson and cut her clothes with
a knife after she concealed a drink can believed to be used as a water pipe
for smoking marijuana. Outside court, Ms. Richardson's father, Barry,
said the coroner's decision was "contemptible". "It's
beyond my dignity to really get angry about it," he said. "My
faith in the system of justice... is just destroyed." Lawyers for
Ms. Richardson's family earlier told the inquest that the strip search was
inappropriate and insensitive, as Ms. Richardson had been raped five times in
the past- the last instance while working as a prostitute shortly before her
incarceration in April, 1998. Ms. Richardson's mother, Ruth, said it
was "very sad for Victoria" that Ms. Heffey had not recommended
changes to strip-search procedures, but said she hoped conditions had
improved since the State Government took over the running of the prison in
October, 2000. The inquest was told that despite Ms. Richardson buzzing
an intercom to prison officers 27 times in 20 minutes before she died, nobody
came to her aid. (The Age)
October 3, 2000
The Victorian Government took control of the facility after sacking the
jail's private operators. The dramatic action follows a damning report that
found prison operators CCA had breached their contract with the government in
relation to security and drug protection. Corrections Minister Andre
Haermeyer said drug abuse a Deer Park was the worst in the state, with one in
four prisoners using illegal drugs. CPSU spokesman Julian Kennelly said staff
were "stressed to the max" dealing with 30 inmates to one officer
on a daily basis and prisoners were being denied access to basic prison
programs as well. Amanda George, of the Federation of Community Legal
Centers, said almost 25 percent were in protection units, compared with about
2 percent in prisons in other states. Victorian Uniting Church social justice
leader, the Reverend David Pargeter, said the private operators had been
"nothing short of disastrous."
Mount Eden Prison, Mount Eden, New Zealand
May 27, 2017
radionz.co.nz
Prison safety concerns after
Serco's latest loss
Serco New Zealand lost $10.5
million last year as the consequences of losing its Mt Eden Prison contract
continued to bite. Accounts filed with the Companies Office show the winding
up of the contract that it lost in 2015 cost it a further $3.2m in 2016.
Serco's finances were also hit by lower revenues, higher staff costs and its
first income tax bill in three years. Revenue for the 12 months to the end of
December fell 18 percent to $52.1m, while staff costs increased 9 percent to
$43.8m. It also had to pay $4.3m in income tax after receiving tax credits in
2015 and 2014. An "onerous contract provision" of $3.2m was also
provided for to account for the costs incurred in the concluding period of
the Mt Eden contract. A $30m loan from its British parent Serco Group, by way
of two separate equity raisings during 2016, "strengthened" the
company's finances, Serco New Zealand said in a statement. This saw 30m new
shares in Serco New Zealand being bought by Serco Group for $1 each. Serco
Group also guaranteed financial support for its New Zealand arm until at
least the end of 2017. Serco lost $10.9m in 2015 after it was penalised and
stripped from its contract to run Mt Eden Correctional Facility. It lost
$2.6m in 2014. Three years of losses were worrying, Labour Corrections
spokesperson Kelvin Davis said. "It means they're probably going to cut
costs and corners when it comes to running the prison ... I've concerns then
for staff safety, I've concerns for prisoner safety and the safety of the
community." Serco New Zealand was two years into a 25-year contract to
run the Kohuroa Auckland South Corrections Facility in Wiri, which was
jointly owned by InfraRed Capital Partners, John Laing Investments and ACC.
Serco Asia Pacific chief executive Mark Irwin said Serco continued to support
the government's goals to reduce reoffending and create better outcomes for
Māori. "Our focus across the prison is to achieve the outcomes that
we are contracted to deliver on behalf of New Zealanders. Our contract sets
clear performance standards, expects us to achieve significant savings for
government and holds us accountable if we don't deliver. Our people are part
of the communities we serve, and our aim is to make those communities safer,
better places." The prison officers' union says it will be seeking
assurance from Serco no jobs will be lost, in light of the financial loss.
The president of the Corrections Association, Alan Whitley, said his concern
now was that the company may look at recovering costs by laying off staff.
Dec 17, 2016 tvnz.co.nz
Corrections has been forced to pay about $2 million to put up extra Mt
Eden jail staff in an Auckland hotel.
Up to 40 guards at a time have been staying in the four-and-a-half star
Adina Apartment Hotel over 18 months, but Corrections says it's getting a
good deal. A discounted rate had been negotiated, which hasn't been revealed,
and the department wasn't paying the $400 a night other hotels would have
charged, northern regional commissioner Jeanette Burns told RNZ today.
"I think it is a good use of taxpayers' money to look after your staff
decently to run a safe and secure prison." More staff were needed
because of higher prisoner numbers at Mt Eden. Some of the cost was coming
out of the $8m settlement paid when Corrections took back the running of the
remand facility from private contractor Serco, she said. Corrections was
recruiting new staff and the hotel arrangement would not be needed when they
started work.
Dec
9, 2015 telegraphvoice.com
New Zealand to end Serco's management of Auckland prison
UPDATED 4.07PM: Private prison operator Serco's contract to run Mt Eden
Corrections Facility will not be renewed. "The contract allowed for
non-renewal after six years and I have been briefed on the reasons behind
this decision", Mr Lotu-Iiga says. "In July this year I invoked the
step-in clause in the contract, effectively giving management of the prison
to Corrections". However, I fully support the decision he has made.
"Since then, Corrections has been working to remedy issues staff have
identified". We agree, and would be delighted if you could provide the
facts contained within the two Inspectors reports into MECF; part one was due
on October 30th and part two on November 30th. The resulting report is now
subject to a judicial review, which Serco sought on the basis that it didn't
have sufficient opportunity to comment on and respond to it. "Ministers
will receive advice from Corrections on options for the future management of
MECF early next year", said Lotu-Iiga, who will have relinquished a
portfolio where he was seen to have floundered to Judith Collins, who is
returning to Cabinet in a reshuffle announced this week. Mrs Collins declined
to speak to NBR about the move on the basis that she's not yet corrections
minister - although yesterday she was happy address Serco bosses via The Paul
Henry Show, telling them to "Front up, come and meet me, we'll go
through things - I'll probably go and meet you before you get a chance to
come and meet me". Mr Smith said they'd been in charge of Mt Eden for
around five months and they'd expect to be there for longer. That sparked a
raft of other allegations about poor management and bad behaviour at the
prison, and Serco's been under pressure ever since. Serco representatives
have met with Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga to discuss their running of
the prison. Labour's Kelvin Davis says the decision is a
"humiliation" for the Government and proof privatisation doesn't
work. Smith spoke to Serco's Asia Pacific chief executive last night, and the
focus on both sides is to manage the transition carefully. He believes
Serco's contract to run the Wiri prison should be cancelled as well.
"Its population, movements and security profile are all markedly different
from those set out in the documents provided to tenderers six years ago, and
in the contract itself", he said. The department said the allegations of
organised fights had been classified as a significant disorder event, which
led to the performance downgrade.
Dec 7, 2015 stuff.co.nz
Private prison operator Serco has been the Corrections Minister's worst
nightmare
Private prison operator Serco has hit the headlines for all the wrong
reasons this year and the Corrections Minister is now a casualty. Rising from
the ashes (or more specifically, the back bench) is former Corrections
Minister Judith Collins, who is picking up the problem-plagued portfolio,
while also taking Police off her over-loaded colleague, Michael Woodhouse. It
was Collins, who in 2010, reintroduced private operators to New Zealand's
prisons, which began with Mt Eden Correctional Facility. Mt Eden is now being
run by the Corrections Department following serious allegations of prisoner
mistreatment, including fight clubs and claims prisoners were being dropped
off balconies, at the then Serco-run facility. It was Labour's corrections
spokesman Kelvin Davis who brought much of the controversy at Mt Eden to
light and consequently he was rewarded with a boost up his party's rankings
and additional responsibilities. Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga denied
the move to put Corrections in charge was one of "no-confidence" in
Serco, which has continued to run the Wiri prison in south Auckland. But the
blows continued for Lotu-Iiga and just last month it was revealed Serco had
gone to the High Court claiming it hadn't been given enough time to comment
or respond to the findings of a report into alleged fight clubs. The report
was due to have already been released but the high number of complaints from
prisoners and their families meant it was given an extension and High Court
action will only further stall its release. As a result of failings at Mt
Eden, which also include issues around contraband and a staff member being
suspended after being caught on camera sparring with an inmate, Serco is
facing more than $1 million in fines. Cancelling the contract with Serco was
still an option according to both Lotu-Iiga and Prime Minister John Key but
that decision wouldn't be made until the review at Mt Eden was completed.
Lotu-Iiga, a former Auckland councillor, will take on the Local Government
portfolio, currently held by Paula Bennett, which signals he didn't do a good
enough job with Corrections but didn't perform badly enough to be pushed out
of Cabinet.
Dec 2, 2015 stuff.co.nz
Serco-run Mt Eden prison falls to bottom of Corrections rankings
Private operator Serco, which runs Auckland's Mt Eden prison, says it
disagrees with the latest prison rankings placing it at the bottom.
Privately-run Mt Eden prison has fallen to the bottom of New Zealand's prison
rankings after months of scandal over "fight clubs" and alleged
mistreatment of prisoners. In the Department of Corrections' most recent
prison performance tables, for the 12 months to June 2015, the Serco-run Mt
Eden corrections facility is at the bottom of the rankings - in the
"needs improvement" category. The performance tables are meant to
monitor and evaluate prisons' performances every three months, based on their
security, internal procedures, and rehabilitation rates. Mt Eden's fall comes
after it was rated "exceptional" in five previous performance
tables stretching back to March 2014. Allegations of organised fight clubs
and contraband issues emerged after recordings of incidents at Mt Eden were
posted online, while a number of inmates have also made accusations of
mistreatment The Department of Corrections took over control of the prison in
July after the allegations were revealed. Labour corrections spokesman Kelvin
Davis said Mt Eden's "nose-dive" in the latest rankings put a
question mark of previous plaudits for its performance. "I don't accept
that between March and June of this year, that everything just went
pear-shaped - I'd say that it's been pear-shaped for a long time, they just
weren't on top of the situation." Davis said Corrections Minister Sam
Lotu-Iiga and his department had been guilty of "wilful blindness"
regarding problems at the prison. "You know, hear no evil, see no evil,
just pretending that things were going fine when they obviously
weren't." In a statement, Serco operations director Scott McNairn said
the company did not accept its latest rating, and claimed Corrections did not
give it a chance to review the latest tables before they were published. In
September, 3 News revealed the private prison operator was facing more than
$1 million in fines for shortcomings at Mt Eden, such as failing to keep
serious assaults down and unlawful detention. Last month, Serco announced it
was challenging a report into the alleged fight clubs in the High Court,
claiming it had not been given enough time to comment or respond to its
findings.
Nov 25, 2015
odt.co.nz
Prison going to court over fight
club claims
Private prison operator Serco is
going to the High Court to challenge ongoing allegations of having organised
fight clubs among inmates in Auckland's troubled Mount Eden prison. The
prison operator was fighting the accusations made in a draft report completed
by Prison Inspectorate last month, Radio New Zealand reported today. It was
revealed Serco did not think they "had enough opportunity to comment and
respond", a High Court document obtained by the broadcaster stated. The
draft was completed in two parts by Radio New Zealand. The first looked at
the brawl itself and whether a fight club was operating at the prison. The
second part wanted to look into Serco's protocol of violent inmates and how
the prisoners were getting cellphones.
Nov 1,
2015 New Zealand
Serco 'harangued' beaten prisoner
Serco's operation of Mt Eden
Prison in Auckland is again being called into question. It comes after a
French prisoner was assaulted and then returned to the mainstream prison,
where he was assaulted a second time. Labour's corrections spokesman Kelvin
Davis says the private prison operator then turned the blame on the man.
"What makes this particularly distasteful is the way the Serco
management went in there while the guy was still in ICU and basically
harangued him. I just find that totally unacceptable." He said they
should have left the man to recover. "It just shows their corporate
nous. It's just totally wrong, on all levels."
Sep 10, 2015 stuff.co.nz
Documents released to 3 News
show Mt Eden Corrections Facility operator Serco is facing more than $1m in
fines.
FAIRFAX NZ Prime Minister John
Key hasn't ruled out cancelling private prison operator Serco's contract once
investigations are complete. Key said the good thing about private operators
was the Government had the "capacity to fine them". "And they
have a whole host of reasons why they can be fined." Serco is facing
more than $1 million in fines for its failings at Mt Eden Corrections
Facility. Documents released to 3 News under the Official Information Act
show Serco has been charged a range of fines during the past 12 months for
not doing its job properly and the costs could continue to mount. Key said
while the fines looked "quite big" Serco earn "quite a lot off
the contract and there is lots of moving parts to that". Corrections
stepped in to take over management at the corrections facility after reports
of "fight clubs" and contraband at the prison. While investigations
continue into Serco's running of Mt Eden Key said "all the options are
on the table". "That includes increasing fines, them going back and
cancellation of the the contract - they're all still on the table".
Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga said public opinion was something taken
into account in who ran prisons, but the Government was contractually bound
to Serco. "We've got a contract with Serco at Mt Eden, and Wiri, and we're
bound by that." Cancelling the contract with Serco was still an option,
with Lotu-Iiga adding "all options are on the table". Decisions
could not be made until the review at the troubled Mt Eden prison had been
completed, Lotu-Iiga said. "I think it's prudent for us as a government
to wait for those reviews to be completed and make those decisions then.
"Cancellation is always on the table in terms of the options that are
available to us." Serco is paid about $31.5m a year to run the prison. About
$3m of that is made up of performance bonuses and fines can only be deducted
from that, 3 News reported. Failing to control prisoners to ensure a safe
jail cost Serco $50,000, unlawfully mixing inmates cost $100,000, not meeting
incident reporting targets and other contractual requirements cost $150,000,
according to the news agency. The biggest fine Serco has received was more
than $315,000 for failing to keep serious assaults down. The first set of
fines total $615,000, but the list keeps going. Since the videos of
fight-club style brawls involving Mt Eden prisoners surfaced in July, Serco
has received almost $500,000 more in penalty notices. The recent fines
include unlawful detention, $25,000; failing to meet education targets,
$50,000; failing to ensure prisoner safety and welfare, $200,000; breach of
contract for serious assault rates, $50,000; and a death in custody,
$150,000, 3 News reported. During the past year Serco has been hit with
$1,090,000 in fines but the prison is yet to be fined over allegations of
fight clubs and contraband. Key said he had confidence in Corrections
Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga to do the job and establish exactly what went wrong at
Mt Eden.
Aug 25, 2015 radionz.co.nz
Guard helped
inmates with fighting technique
Corrections Minister Sam
Lotu-Iiga has revealed that a prison guard helped inmates with their fighting
techniques in Mt Eden prison. Labour said the situation at Mt Eden was
getting beyond a joke and is further proof that a fully independent inquiry
is needed. At the weekend, private prison company Serco confirmed a staff
member was suspended after being caught on security footage fighting with an
inmate. Neither the company nor the Corrections Department would comment
further while the Chief Inspectorate of Prisons was investigating the running
of Mount Eden. Mr Lotu-Liga said the staff member was not fighting with an
inmate. "[The footage] shows a prison guard on CCTV footage approaching
a group of prisoners who were sparring, he then gives them some coaching on
their technique. "Sparring is a banned activity and Serco was shown the
footage on the sixth of August. Serco have suspended the staff member while
the investigation proceeds." Labour corrections spokesperson Kelvin
Davis said the situation with Serco has gone from the sublime to the
ridiculous. "The Minister's statement today that a guard was coaching
sparring techniques to inmates is completely shambolic. "An independent
inquiry is the only way forward as I have no confidence whatsoever in the
findings of any inquiry conducted by Corrections or Serco." Mr Davis
said he was continuing to get letters about allegations of abuse and
mistreatment in prisons some of which he had passed on to the police.
Mt Eden prison officer suspended after fighting
with inmate
Fighting in prison is no new
phenomenon, but filming them on mobile phones and uploading to social media
has lead to an investigation by Corrections. A staff member at the troubled
Mt Eden private prison has been suspended after being caught on camera
sparring with an inmate. The CCTV footage that led to the officer's downfall
shows the staff member being "knocked out", a prison source said.
Staff fighting with inmates is just the latest controversy to hit the prison,
operated by British company Serco. The Department of Corrections has seized
control of Mt Eden following a string of revelations including concerns over
prisoner safety and inmates taking part in organised "fight clubs",
then posting the footage to the internet via contraband cellphones. It is understood
the footage was not a cellphone recording, but was discovered as part of the
review into Mt Eden being carried out by the Prison Inspectorate and the
Ombudsman. A Serco spokeswoman confirmed the officer had been suspended after
being caught on security camera footage fighting with a prisoner. The staff
member would be subjected to a disciplinary hearing. "The safety and
security of staff, prisoners and visitors in Mt Eden Corrections Facility is
paramount and we have zero tolerance for violence." Serco refused to
answer questions about when the footage was from and if it had informed
Corrections about the incident appropriately. Similarly, Corrections Northern
Regional Commissioner Jeanette Burns refused to say when the department had
been informed of the footage. No comment would be made until the review was
completed, she said. Labour Party justice spokesman Kelvin Davis, who has
been a vocal critic of Serco since the allegations of fight clubs and
prisoner safety surfaced, said the stories coming out of Mt Eden were
"beyond belief". He had heard several staff had turned a blind eye
to prisoner assaults and one source had told him of an incident where a
segregated inmate was being led through the mainstream prison section by
guards, but ended up being beaten anyway. "It just proves what I've been
saying, Serco has lost control of the prison and the guards are obviously
part of the whole mess and it's time for Serco to be sent packing." A
spokeswoman for Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Liga said he was aware of a number
of allegations involving Mt Eden Prison. "The Minister has previously
expressed his concern about the allegations and awaits the outcome of the
chief inspectorate's review."
Jul 27, 2015 nbr.co.nz
Multinational firm Serco
faces a financial penalty of $500,000 after widespread allegations of
prisoner mistreatment at Mt Eden Prison in Auckland, which it runs.
Corrections boss Ray Smith told Radio New Zealand this morning he was likely
to sign off $500,000 worth of penalties, with more to come. Last week
Corrections announced it would be take over the management of the Mt Eden
Prison from Serco. The announcement came shortly after Serco managing
director Paul Mahoney met Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-liga to discuss a string
of recent controversies over prison violence and organised boxing fights.
"There are also other options potentially available to me under the
contract. These include a final warning and early termination of the
contract," Mr Smith said. He added financial charges “may be imposed”
because of the events that have surfaced in the past week. “These are likely
to be substantial," he said. On Saturday, Prime Minister John Key left
open the possibility of cancelling Serco’s contract but said the failures did
not give him cause to reconsider the government’s push to use more private
providers in health, state housing, education and welfare. Labour’s
corrections spokesman Kelvin Davis has been critical of SERCO’s management of
Mt Eden Prison, as well as the government’s reaction to the saga. He told NBR
Radio last week that the private prison experiment has been an “utter failure
in New Zealand.” He says the government should have known better, as Serco
has a “dodgy reputation” overseas. “[The government] should have read the tea
leaves and never even gone there with Serco,” he says. Last week, Mr Davis
Tweeted that Serco is entitled to $1.2 million in performance-related
bonuses. “I say give it to the people who have been abused in Serco’s care,”
Mr Davis tweeted.
Jul 25, 2015 odt.co.nz
Private prison company Serco has
admitted it received reports of organised "fight clubs" in its
prisons two months ago, but will only investigate now, after fight footage
was shot and shared online. The fight clubs were a "disgrace" and
showed private companies should not run prisons, the Public Service
Association said. Serco said today it would work with the Department of
Corrections, the Ombudsman and Serco staff from outside Mt Eden Corrections
Facility (MECF) to investigate the fight clubs. A report is due on August 28.
"I am currently at the prison, overseeing and supporting management
myself," Serco director of operations Scott McNairn said today.
"...We have tough new measures in place to further enhance our regime.
This is on top of the existing security activity, which has included a full
lockdown search of the prison. There will be more to come." Mr McNairn
said Serco had received relevant parts of Corrections' report on allegations
of organised fights in prisons. "We noted that the allegations were not
substantiated, and confirmed that recommended steps were already in place at
MECF." Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon said earlier today
he had raised concerns about the prison 18 months ago. Two people were appointed
to investigate, but the association "never heard any results", and
only recently saw the report, he told Radio New Zealand this morning. But Mr
McNairn said Serco took its obligations to its staff, Corrections and
taxpayers seriously. "We do not underestimate the challenge of operating
this prison. We hold 976 of the country's most difficult and challenging
individuals. As an inner city remand prison, we manage tens of thousands of
prisoner movements every year. "Preventing violence, attempts to smuggle
contraband and other criminal activity inside the prison walls is a daily
reality. Our managers and staff work incredibly hard to manage these
challenges." The PSA, which said it represented 3000 Corrections staff
and 100 Serco prison staff, called the prison fights
"inexcusable"."Private prisons are focussed on profit, not on
ensuring safety for staff or rehabilitation for prisoners," said
national secretary Erin Polaczuk. "Private companies like Serco are not
subject to the same public service ethos as those directly employed by
Government." Ms Polaczuk said staffing levels at Serco facilities were
too low to ensure staff safety and proper monitoring of prisoners. "The
prison fights are inexcusable and the whole situation must be independently
investigated, and the Government must commit to bringing prisons back under
public control."
Jul 24, 2015 Jul 24, 2015 sharechat.co.nz
Private prison operator Serco relieved of control at Mt Eden prison
Multi-national private prison
operator Serco has been forced to hand back control of Auckland's Mt Eden
remand prison to the Department of Corrections, which has used a 'step-in'
clause in its contract with Serco following a string of increasingly serious
allegations about contraband, prisoner injuries and a death. Corrections
Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga and Corrections Department chief executive Ray Smith
hosted a hastily arranged press conference at Parliament this afternoon to
announce the decision, which was Smith's, cauterising what had developed over
the course of the last week to be a major political issue and included calls
for Lotu-Iiga's resignation. Serco will continue to earn fees under its
10-year contract to run Mt Eden and remains responsible for meeting staff
wages and the operational costs of the prison, as well as becoming liable
without compensation for all the additional costs of inserting what Smith
called a "crack team" of as many as 20 state prison managers to
"sort out" the problems at Mt Eden. The allegations about Serco's
management include prisoners being 'dropped' from balconies in initiation
ceremonies at the prison, resulting in injury and one alleged death, the
transfer of prisoners injured at Mt Eden to state-run prisons to get them off
the remand prison's books, along with forced participation in 'fight clubs'
and the presence in the prison of illicit drugs, home-brewed alcohol and
mobile phones. "Following a new allegation yesterday, I am pleased that
Ray Smith has made the decision that Corrections will take over the running
of the prison for the immediate future," said Lotu-Iiga. Similar
takeovers of prison management had occurred at state-run prisons that had
experienced problems, the minister said, citing the replacement of management
at the Spring Hill state prison after a riot in June 2013. The Mt Eden furore
has erupted just as Serco enters a period in which it renegotiates the terms
of the second half of its contract for Mt Eden, with the government able to
terminate the contract at any time between now and a "break date"
in 2016. Asked what the chances were of Serco still running the prison past
that break date, Lotu-Iiga said: "I don't know." The inquiry now
under way into the prison's management was important to help determine the
way forward. Under the contract terms, it could be broken immediately but the
right course of action was an inquiry, he said. Serco's contract to run the
recently opened prison at Wiri is unaffected. Wiri was developed as a
public-private partnership and houses prisoners who have been sentenced,
unlike Mt Eden, where prisoners are either awaiting trial or are being held
prior to transfer after sentencing to more permanent incarceration. Mt Eden
has a high turnover of around 4,000 prisoners a year and is acknowledged as a
"difficult" prison to manage, said Lotu-Iiga. Smith said he had
been in contact with Serco's senior executive for the Asia-Pacific region and
had spoken to the global chief executive, Rupert Soames, in London, about the
issues. It was inevitable that Serco would face penalty charges relating to
the incidents that had been uncovered so far. The second phase of a complete
search of Mt Eden was now under way. Hampshire-based Serco runs outsourced
public services around the world in numerous sectors, employing 122,000
people in 30 countries, including Australia's mainland and Christmas Island
immigration detention centres to house asylum-seekers and illegal migrants
arriving by boat and air. It reported 1.5 billion British pounds in
writedowns on the value of its contracts last November and was forced to go
to shareholders for an emergency 550 million pound recapitalisation through a
rights issue. It announced profit downgrades at the same time.Soames
announced at the time the company would narrow the focus of its outsourced
contracting to defence, transport, health, justice and immigration services
for the UK, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. The New Zealand unit
reported an annual loss of $2.6 million, including $1.5 million impairment
charge on mobilisation and bid costs, in calendar 2014.
Jul 23, 2015 3news.co.nz
Minister puts Serco on notice over prison UPDATED
The operator of Mt Eden
Corrections Facility, Serco, has been fined $300,000 over its private prison
operation in New Zealand. Serco has been officially put on notice by the
Corrections Minister over concerns about safety and security at the remand
prison. And it's not guaranteed to have its contract renewed either. Under
questioning in the House by Green MP David Clendon this afternoon, the
minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga said in the 2014/2015 financial year, the
company had been fined a $300,000 performance-related fee. "Some of the
incidents include insufficient staff levels, mixing accused prisoners with
other prisoners, minimum entitlements and incident notification," Mr
Lotu-Iiga said. Earlier today, Serco bosses Scott McNairn and Paul Mahoney
met with Mr Lotu-Iiga in his Beehive office. Mr Lotu-Iiga said in the House
nothing was brought up in the meeting which would have required the company
be fined. He denied there was a "dysfunctional relationship"
between him and the Corrections Department given a report into fight clubs in
prison was done a year ago, but never given to him. The minister has said the
meeting had previously been scheduled, but intended to express his disappointment
in how the prison is run given allegations of inappropriate behaviour behind
its walls. "I have made my concerns clear to both Serco and the
Department of Corrections, and have laid out my expectations going
forward," Mr Lotu-Iiga says. "Serco has been left in no doubt that
their performance across the board needs to improve and that they are on
notice." While Mt Eden was a "challenging environment" because
it is a remand prison and with a transient prison population, Mr Lotu-Iiga
says it doesn't excuse Serco from providing adequate safety and security. Mr
Clendon questioned why the company had only been on notice and facing their
contract being cancelled, given revelations of fight clubs, drinking,
drug-taking and rumours of serious assaults. "Do they need actually to
burn Mt Eden prison down before the minister will act decisively?" he
said. "Unlike that party, we believe there is a process to follow, due
process. There needs to be a review, we need to get to the bottom of the
facts around some of the incidents we've seen in recent days and they you
make the appropriate decisions," Mr Lotu-Iiga replied. The prison
operator is in the period where it can renegotiate the terms of its 10-year
$300 million contract with the Crown, including whether to extend the deal
beyond 2016. When asked whether he would renew the contract, Mr Lotu-Iiga
said: "I can't guarantee that that will happen. "We will get the
findings of the review in terms of the incidents that were reported and we
will make decisions, going forward, that will be based on their
performance." Serco was tracking well in the nine months through to
March 31, meeting 31 out of 37 performance measures, and hitting 13 of 14 key
performance indicator targets that grant it access to performance bonuses.
The company says it will cooperate fully with the chief inspectorate review
into the behaviour in the prison including fight clubs, drinking and
drug-taking which begins on Monday. It will look into contraband and
incidents of violence in Serco-run prisons and those managed by the
Department of Corrections.
Jul 20, 2015 odt.co.nz/new
Jail company 'knew about fight
clubs'
Private prison company Serco has
admitted it received reports of organised "fight clubs" in its
prisons two months ago, but will only investigate now, after fight footage
was shot and shared online. The fight clubs were a "disgrace" and
showed private companies should not run prisons, the Public Service
Association said. Serco said today it would work with the Department of
Corrections, the Ombudsman and Serco staff from outside Mt Eden Corrections
Facility (MECF) to investigate the fight clubs. A report is due on August 28.
"I am currently at the prison, overseeing and supporting management
myself," Serco director of operations Scott McNairn said today.
"...We have tough new measures in place to further enhance our regime.
This is on top of the existing security activity, which has included a full
lockdown search of the prison. There will be more to come." Mr McNairn
said Serco had received relevant parts of Corrections' report on allegations
of organised fights in prisons. "We noted that the allegations were not
substantiated, and confirmed that recommended steps were already in place at
MECF." Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon said earlier today
he had raised concerns about the prison 18 months ago. Two people were
appointed to investigate, but the association "never heard any
results", and only recently saw the report, he told Radio New Zealand
this morning. But Mr McNairn said Serco took its obligations to its staff,
Corrections and taxpayers seriously. "We do not underestimate the
challenge of operating this prison. We hold 976 of the country's most
difficult and challenging individuals. As an inner city remand prison, we manage
tens of thousands of prisoner movements every year. "Preventing
violence, attempts to smuggle contraband and other criminal activity inside
the prison walls is a daily reality. Our managers and staff work incredibly
hard to manage these challenges." The PSA, which said it represented
3000 Corrections staff and 100 Serco prison staff, called the prison fights
"inexcusable". "Private prisons are focussed on profit, not on
ensuring safety for staff or rehabilitation for prisoners," said national
secretary Erin Polaczuk. "Private companies like Serco are not subject
to the same public service ethos as those directly employed by
Government." Ms Polaczuk said staffing levels at Serco facilities were
too low to ensure staff safety and proper monitoring of prisoners. "The
prison fights are inexcusable and the whole situation must be independently
investigated, and the Government must commit to bringing prisons back under
public control."
Jul 19, 2015 stuff.co.nz/national/politics
New Zealand: Serco fight club investigation widens
Fighting in prison is no new
phenomenon, but filming them on mobile phones and uploading to social media
has lead to an investigation by Corrections. The government-ordered review
into leaked 'fight club' footage at an Auckland prison will investigate
whether staff knew about or helped run the organised fighting ring. The Chief
Inspector of Corrections will also be investigating whether similar violence
was happening at other prisons. Details of the investigation have come after
Corrections confirmed it was examining its "contractual options"
with Serco, the company which manages Mt Eden prison where the fights were
recorded. The investigation would also cover violence allegations and the use
of cell phones in other prisons. The investigation would also cover violence
allegations and the use of cell phones in other prisons. Video footage of
prisoners fighting each other in cells and exercise yards was posted online,
and has drawn condemnation from both the Government and opposition. On Sunday
Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga announced the terms of reference for an
investigation, widening the scope to include allegations related to violence
and the use of cell phones in other prisons. "This behaviour of
prisoners is unacceptable and I have asked Corrections to carry out a robust
and thorough review of the incidents," he said. Serco was also
conducting its own investigation, and the police could undertake their own
investigation. Phase one of Corrections chief inspector Andy Fitzharris' investigation
would look at the circumstances surrounding the incidents posted to social
media and whether there were organised prisoner fights at Mt Eden Prison.
"The investigation will pay particular attention to the last three
months to determine whether this type of activity is widespread across the
site or limited to specific units, whether management or staff knew of it,
what they did about it and what measures have been taken to restrict
contraband," Lotu-Iiga said. It would also look at "whether staff
and management had knowledge of the existence of a 'fight club' operating,
and any involvement by staff in its operation" and the "levels of
supervision and security operating that would allow this activity to occur
without staff intervention. "I also expect recommendations to come out
of it to strengthen controls, standards and operating procedures if
warranted," Lotu-Iiga said. The second phase would review the adequacy
of controls designed to address prisoner violence and access to cell phones
in other New Zealand prisons. "To ensure an independent view of this
process the Office of the Ombudsman has been invited to monitor and review
the investigation. Full cooperation will be afforded to the Ombudsman's
investigator, who may also independently report on any matter concerning the
incidents or its subsequent investigation. "I have already put Serco on
notice over the incidents at [Mount Eden]. I will be meeting with Serco
senior management this week and I am expecting a positive and strong response
from the company in resolving these issues."
Jul 17, 2015
3news.co.nz
Prison fights sometimes 'simply entertainment'
Private prison operator SERCO is
coming under increasing pressure following claims guards in Mt Eden Prison
are encouraging organised fight clubs. It has now been revealed both the
Corrections Department and SERCO knew about the clubs 18 months ago. The
fights happen in one-minute rounds. Sometimes it is gang prospects trying to
get patched, other times it is a way to earn a reputation. 3 News met one former
inmate who says guards turn a blind eye to fights, which on the inside are
called "contender battles". "Some of it is one gang versus
another, other times it's internal gangs sorting out differences… or just
simply entertainment," he says. SERCO has been plagued by allegations
that its attempts at cost cutting could put lives at risk. The prison is
struggling to find and keep staff, and topped a list for the number of
prisoner assaults in the three years to 2014. Several inmates have told 3
News the guards not only allow the fights, but actively encourage them by
putting rival gangs in the same block and sometimes placing bets. In a
statement, SERCO says it is working with Corrections in its investigation,
but goes on to say that for many prisoners violence is the norm. Corrections
denies guards are involved, but admits it knew about the fight clubs 18
months ago. It says back then it could not find enough evidence to warrant a
full scale investigation. Community advocate Richie Hardcore says this should
be a wakeup call for lawmakers. "Eighty percent of people in prison were
under the influence of alcohol or other drugs at the time of their
offending," he says. "You have to look at the environment and the
context." SERCO's contract is up for renewal in 2017, but Corrections is
hinting that it is reviewing its contractual obligations.
May 18, 2015 adionz.co.nz
The Corrections Minister is
rejecting criticisms of the New Zealand prison system made in a United
Nations report. In a report on how New Zealand is implementing UN initiatives
against inhuman treatment, the Committee Against Torture has identified 13
areas of concern. They include domestic violence, the Independent Police
Conduct Authority, over-representation of Maori in prisons, use of tasers and
people-trafficking. The UN paper claimed prisons were overcrowded, had
inadequate health services, and too much power to strip-search inmates. The
Minister, Sam Lotu-Iiga, said New Zealand had one of the best corrections
systems in the world. "I don't know whether I agree with the assertions
that they make based on the evidence that I've seen. "I accept their
right to make the points, but I don't accept that they are major problems in
our prison system." Mr Lotu-Iiga said he would consider the recommendations,
but he was comfortable with the state of New Zealand prisons. Concerns about
private prisons: A United Nations committee said the Government needed to
keep a closer eye on privately run prisons, which it said were more violent
than comparable public prisons. On private prisons, the report says the rate
of violence between prisoners and assaults on guards at the Serco-managed Mt
Eden prison is higher than in public prisons. The committee says the
Government needs to ensure private prisons are upholding the same standards
as those in the public system. This is the sixth such report on New Zealand's
implementation of the Convention against Torture, Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Almost every report has drawn attention to
the over-representation of Maori and across every aspect of the justice
system. While Maori make up about 15 percent of the general population they
account for about half of the prison population - and that jumps to 60
percent for women.
Jan 14, 2014
stuff.co.nz
Private prison operator Serco
has apologised to Kim Dotcom for his treatment at Mt Eden after his arrest
two years ago. The firm, which has a well- documented history of blunders in
its British, Australian and New Zealand operations, has also apologised to
Fairfax NZ for providing incorrect information when questioned about the
German internet mogul's time in custody. Dotcom was arrested on copyright
charges after a high-profile raid on his mansion at Coatesville, north of
Auckland, in January 2012, which was requested by the FBI and carried out by
the New Zealand police special tactics group. The raid has since been deemed
illegal by the High Court. He complained at the time about not receiving the
toiletry pack supposed to be given to all prisoners when they arrive in
custody. The "new-arrival packs" contain bedding, a towel, toilet
paper, soap, shampoo, toothpaste and a toothbrush. Dotcom said he received
none of those items, and was unable to wash himself after going to the
toilet. In November he threatened to sue Serco over his treatment. When
Fairfax then contacted Serco, it initially dismissed his allegations about
the arrival pack. It said it had no record that any complaint was made by
Dotcom or his lawyers over his treatment at Mt Eden. However, communications
manager Jane Palmer has now said that statement was incorrect. Serco had
since retrieved an "archived record" which showed a complaint was
raised, she said. "We apologise for the error. We have also written to
the individual [Kim Dotcom] to apologise to him." Dotcom said the
apology, which he received yesterday, was the first he had received from
Serco, but it did not go far enough. "They only apologise for the
arrival treatment. Not for all the worst experiences that came after that.
"I was fearing for my health and my life because they did not look after
my well-documented health issues to a point that I was unable to see my
lawyers because I was paralysed from back pain. "A flashlight was
flashed in my face at least every two hours, sometimes more frequently while
I was sleeping. "In my one month in remand I was constantly tired and
did not have a single night of uninterrupted sleep. "They should
apologise for those much more serious injustices." He said he also
suspected prison authorities may have knowingly allowed a phone call to be
placed to him while he was on remand that was designed to entrap him. Serco
has run the Mt Eden Corrections Facility on behalf of the Corrections
Department since the prison opened in 2011. Ad Feedback: Labour corrections
spokeswoman Jacinda Ardern said it should lose its contract to run Mt Eden.
"Because this is a privately operated prison, we rely on accurate
record-keeping of what is happening in the prison. "We have always been
very concerned Serco is incentivised not to keep accurate records because of
the arrangement they have with the Corrections Department. "I do think
it is concerning we have now seen an example of them keeping inaccurate
records and, on top of that, not doing what they are required to do under
their contract." Dotcom is awaiting a hearing on his possible
extradition to the United States, set for April. Next Monday, which will be
the second anniversary of the raid on his mansion, he intends to launch a
political party, to be called the Party Party, at Shed 10 in Auckland. The
launch will coincide with the release of his album, Good Times, the recording
of which was interrupted by the raid on his mansion. It is billed as "an
optimistic LP full of pop-dance music perfect to party to".
Nov 27, 2013
stuff.co.nz
Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom
says he will sue private-prison operator Serco over what he describes as his
"inhumane treatment" at Mt Eden Prison. Serco said it had no record
of his complaints on file, even though Dotcom said he filled in more than a
dozen forms while on remand, complaining about his treatment at the prison.
He also had his lawyers write to Serco on his behalf. Dotcom alleged in a
book published on Monday that he had been denied food, blankets, a towel,
soap and toilet paper during his first evening in the Serco-managed Mt Eden
Prison, following his arrest on US-based copyright charges last year. That
meant he had nothing to clean himself with after going to the toilet. He and
his co-accused were told the basic hygiene needs could wait until the next
day, he said. Dotcom also accused Serco of neglecting his health care and
said he believed prison authorities had been complicit in an attempt to
entrap him. A guard allowed a fraudulent call, which was supposedly from his
lawyer, to be placed to him outside normal business hours by a person who
then claimed to be a prosecutor working on his case and who requested a
bribe, he said. "At some point in the future I am definitely going to
take [Serco] to court," he said. A Serco spokeswoman told Fairfax in a
written statement this week that none of the allegations had been raised with
the company previously, and it had received no complaints corresponding to
the allegations. Dotcom said that was "plainly false". "I wrote
while I was in Mt Eden a dozen reports and complaints and made everything
that was wrong there official," he said. "They have these forms you
have to fill out. While I was there I filled out more than a dozen forms.
"My lawyers wrote several letters to Serco while I was in prison
pointing those things out." His lawyer, Paul Davidson QC, had written to
Serco asking it to find out the source of the fraudulent call, he said.
Serco's spokeswoman said she had made inquiries of people at Mt Eden Prison
before issuing her statement to Fairfax Media on Tuesday. "We pulled out
Mr Dotcom's file, we reviewed his allegations versus what was in that file,
and there were no comments of that nature in his file," she said. The
Corrections Department has described Dotcom's allegations about his treatment
at Mt Eden as an "operational matter" best addressed by Serco.
Labour's corrections spokeswoman Jacinda Ardern said that was "not good
enough" and the department should be accountable. She said the
allegation regarding the fraudulent phone call in particular was "quite
significant".
Nov 27, 2013
stuff.co.nz
Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom
says he will sue private-prison operator Serco over what he describes as his
"inhumane treatment" at Mt Eden Prison. Serco said it had no record
of his complaints on file, even though Dotcom said he filled in more than a
dozen forms while on remand, complaining about his treatment at the prison.
He also had his lawyers write to Serco on his behalf. Dotcom alleged in a
book published on Monday that he had been denied food, blankets, a towel,
soap and toilet paper during his first evening in the Serco-managed Mt Eden
Prison, following his arrest on US-based copyright charges last year. That
meant he had nothing to clean himself with after going to the toilet. He and
his co-accused were told the basic hygiene needs could wait until the next
day, he said. Dotcom also accused Serco of neglecting his health care and
said he believed prison authorities had been complicit in an attempt to
entrap him. A guard allowed a fraudulent call, which was supposedly from his
lawyer, to be placed to him outside normal business hours by a person who
then claimed to be a prosecutor working on his case and who requested a
bribe, he said. "At some point in the future I am definitely going to
take [Serco] to court," he said. A Serco spokeswoman told Fairfax in a
written statement this week that none of the allegations had been raised with
the company previously, and it had received no complaints corresponding to
the allegations. Dotcom said that was "plainly false". "I
wrote while I was in Mt Eden a dozen reports and complaints and made
everything that was wrong there official," he said. "They have
these forms you have to fill out. While I was there I filled out more than a
dozen forms. "My lawyers wrote several letters to Serco while I was in
prison pointing those things out." His lawyer, Paul Davidson QC, had
written to Serco asking it to find out the source of the fraudulent call, he
said. Serco's spokeswoman said she had made inquiries of people at Mt Eden
Prison before issuing her statement to Fairfax Media on Tuesday. "We
pulled out Mr Dotcom's file, we reviewed his allegations versus what was in
that file, and there were no comments of that nature in his file," she
said. The Corrections Department has described Dotcom's allegations about his
treatment at Mt Eden as an "operational matter" best addressed by
Serco. Labour's corrections spokeswoman Jacinda Ardern said that was
"not good enough" and the department should be accountable. She
said the allegation regarding the fraudulent phone call in particular was
"quite significant".
Oct 25, 2013 radionz.co.nz
The chief executive of British
prison operator Serco has quit as part of a major reorganisation following a
series of scandals. Serco has more than 120,000 staff in more than 30
countries, including New Zealand where it runs the private Mount Eden remand
prison. Chris Hyman has resigned from Serco. AFP It will also run a new $840
million jail in Wiri, south of Auckland, when it opens in 2015. The British
Government, which accounts for about 25% of Serco's revenue, announced three
months ago it would not award the company any new contracts pending a review
of existing ones. An audit found Serco and a rival company had both charged
for tagging criminals who were dead, in prison or not being monitored. Serco
says British chief executive Chris Hyman has resigned and has been replaced
by the group's chief operating officer, Reuters reports. As part of a
company-wide overhaul, Serco says it will strengthen its board by adding
three new non-executive directors. In New Zealand, Serco has twice been fined
$150,000 for letting inmates escape. The company was ordered to make
operational changes as a result.
4 Jun 5, 2013 nzherald.co.nz
Prisoners
in privately run Mt Eden Corrections Facility were able to access the
internet through faulty computer kiosks a security review of public sector
computer systems has found. The security breach was one of 12 "weak
points" identified in Government Chief Information Officer Colin
McDonald's review of the security of 215 publicly accessible state sector
agency IT systems released this morning. Serco, the company which operates Mt
Eden said that on November 26 last year, "an administrative error made it
possible to open a web browser session" on kiosks provided to prisoners
to allow them to "take responsibility for organising their day-to-day
lives and helps to develop literacy and numeracy skills". Serco's
Director of Operations Scott McNairn said the error "allowed for limited
access to the internet, policed by a web filter which blocked access to
inappropriate sites". "No email, social media or adult sites were
accessed." The internet access was "limited" and "at no
time was it possible to access any other systems or information". Serco
has not said how long prisoners were able to access the internet for. Mr
McNairn said the company had improved security for the kiosks and was
"confident" that the likelihood of further problems was "extremely
low". The other issues identified in Mr McDonald's review were at:
Careers NZ, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Ministry of Education, EQC,
Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income, Ministry of Justice,
Maritime NZ, MidCentral DHB, Trade and Enterprise, Ministry of Social
Development, Tertiary Education Commission. "Action has been taken and
the systems are now secure", Mr McDonald said. "There is no
evidence any of these weak points lead to a breach of privacy or information
security." Mr McDonald's review was initiated in October last year in
response to revelations that private data could be obtained via the Ministry
of Social Development's public computer kiosks. State Services Commissioner
Iain Rennie this morning confirmed the report was completed late last year
but departments had been working on their response since then. The issue of
public trust in Government agencies' ability to handle private information
appropriately was an increasingly important one, Mr Rennie said. The public
was now much more aware of the issue and much less tolerant of misuse of
their information. "We need to raise our game considerably around how we
handle people's information." Mr McDonald said there "will always
be a level of risk in this area that must be managed" but the review's
key finding was that the management of privacy and information security
"is not always meeting best practice and needs to improve". There
was currently too much reliance on work done by IT staff and contractors and
not sufficient oversight by senior managers or independent assurance that
security standards were being met. Mr Rennie said "a plan of
action" was no underway to address issues identified by the review. That
include the immediate action taken to strengthen security begun when the
review was completed in December. Agencies also had to show by April this
year that they had conducted a "detailed risk assessment of their
publicly accessible systems". Agencies will also have to provide
security assessments to Mr McDonald by the end of next month and again by the
end of March next year, "along with reports about the steps they have
taken address privacy and security issues". "This is an issue about
moving the whole system up in terms of the level of performance", Mr
Rennie said. State Services Minister Jonathan Coleman said New Zealanders
expected government agencies "will be doing everything they can to
ensure the integrity of public sector ICT systems". "We expect
every public service department and agency to comply fully with the agreed
plan of action."
August 17, 2012 Radio New
Zealand
New Zealand's only private prison operator, Serco, has been hit with another
$150,000 fine for letting a second inmate escape. Graham Hay, an inmate at
Auckland's Mt Eden Prison, spent 30 minutes on the run after undergoing an
eye procedure at the Greenlane Clinical Centre in early June. An official
report has found a non-standard pair of handcuffs was used to lock Hay to one
of two guards escorting him to the appointment. The larger-than-usual cuffs slipped
off Hay's wrist, allowing him to escape before he was caught by a police dog.
The report says the incorrect handcuffs were used because prison officers had
not properly checked the equipment beforehand. None of Serco's staff have
been sacked as a result, although managing director Paul Mahoney says it has
issued written warnings to some staff. The company has been ordered to make
operational changes. Last year, Serco was fined $150,000 following the escape
of inmate Aaron Forden. The Corrections Department is in charge of overseeing
Serco's $300 million contract with the New Zealand Government. Deputy chief
executive Christine Stevenson says Hay's escape was avoidable and the fine is
warranted.
July 5, 2012 Stuff
Private prison operator Serco has failed to meet half of its performance
targets since taking over Auckland's Mt Eden Prison. A report card on Serco's
performance released today reveals three inmates were wrongly released, one
escaped and there were three wrongful detentions. The percentage of sentenced
prisoners with an appropriate plan in place within required timeframes was
only 28 per cent - two thirds lower than the 90 per cent target. Of 37
targets Serco was to meet in the nine months to April half weren't met.
Corrections said Serco had accepted responsibility for one wrongful release.
To date the final decision on whether they'd be fined on a second wrongful
release had not been made, and discussions between both parties about whether
they'd followed correct operational processes were ongoing. Corrections are
to issue a performance notice for a third wrongful release that occurred in
March. During its first quarter running the prison Serco was fined $150,000
after prisoner Aaron Forden escaped in February. Forden, dubbed "Houdini"
escaped along with another inmate who was caught almost immediately. The firm
was also fined $25,000 for releasing one inmate early and $50,000 for failing
to file progress reports. Escapes and wrongful releases are listed as zero
targets.
June 6, 2012 Auckland Now
Private prison operator Serco could be slapped with its second $150,000 fine
this year after a prisoner escaped after getting his eyes checked on Sunday.
A Mt Eden prisoner spent 30 minutes on the run after escaping while being
escorted from the Greenlane Clinical Centre. The police dog unit and prison
duty staff found him hiding in a garden shed at a property in Claude Rd,
about 600 metres from the clinic. Auckland District Health Board spokesman
Mark Fenwick said the prisoner escaped while being escorted back to the
vehicle after receiving his treatment. The man is back in prison and faces
charges of escaping custody. Serco, who are contracted by Corrections to
manage the prison, would not comment on how the prisoner escaped. An internal
inquiry is underway. Under Serco's contract with Corrections they can be
fined $150,000 every time a prisoner escapes. They were fined in February
after serial escaper Aaron Forden fled the prison after breaking into a
service way in October, 2011.
April 27, 2012 New Zealand
Herald
Private prison operators Serco have failed to meet several key performance
measures since taking over running the Mt Eden Corrections Facility, a
Corrections Department report shows. The report, released under the Official
Information Act, shows two wrongful releases and one wrongful imprisonment in
the eight months since the Mt Eden facility was handed to the British-based
company. It was fined $150,000 when Aaron Stephen Forden, a prisoner dubbed
"Houdini", escaped earlier this year. All of the incidents are
listed as zero tolerance areas under Corrections Departments standards.
Corrections chief executive Ray Smith told Radio New Zealand Serco's failure
to meet several performance measures was "less than we expect".
"We have been actively working with Serco to ensure that improvements
are achieved." Other results showed an 82 per cent completion rate on
random drug tests at the facility - 17 per cent short of the standard
required. Targets for prisoner management plans and telephone call monitoring
were not reached. However, random drug testing showed only a three per cent
return of positive samples. The Public Service Association said the results
showed the failure of privatising prisons. National Secretary Richard
Wagstaff said Serco had jeopardised public safety by allowing wrongful
releases and escapes. "The department may be trying to write these off
as 'teething problems' but they are no such thing - these are core procedures
that should be right from the start. "This report shows Serco is failing
in its number one priority - to keep the public safe." Mr Wagstaff said
the report showed the "folly" of opening another private prison at
Wiri.
April 27, 2012 Scoop
National’s prison privatisation plan needs serious rethinking after failing
to meet basic performance requirements at Mt Eden prison, Labour says.
Labour’s Justice Sector Spokesperson Charles Chauvel says that the
Government’s plans to privatise up to a quarter of New Zealand’s prison
capacity will worsen the already dangerous failure to meet requirements.
“Figures out today reveal worrying trends in Serco’s management of the Mt
Eden Corrections Facility over the last eight months “Of particular concern
are failures to meet drug testing and offender management plan targets,
wrongful releases, and an escape from custody. “Coincidentally I visited Mt
Eden yesterday, as well as the state-run Paremoremo and Auckland Women’s
prisons. “While there is much positive work being done by the staff at each
of them, one of the obvious realities is that a level playing field does not
operate between the public and private sectors. Many of the state-run
institutions have to cope with legacy facilities and procedures, which Serco
is unburdened by. “In light of that – and especially since, under National Serco’s
slice of the corrections pie will double once the new Wiri Prison is built
next year, and up to a quarter of all inmates in the system will be under
their control – the public has a right to expect Serco’s performance targets
to be met.
February 21, 2012 Northern
Advocate
Private prison operator Serco has been fined $150,000 after a prison dubbed
"Houdini" escaped from the new Mt Eden Corrections facility. Aaron
Stephen Forden, originally from Whangarei, broke into a service way and fled
the prison complex last October, having famously escaped from the old Mt Eden
Prison in 2008. Forden was recaptured a week later and is being dealt with by
the courts. The Department of Corrections said in a statement that
improvements had been made to the security of the facility since the escape
following a joint review into the escape.
October 19, 2011 3 News
Two staff at Mt Eden Prison have been suspended after notorious escapee Aaron
Forden broke out of the jail on October 10. Forden, dubbed
"Houdini" for his serial escapes from custody, was recaptured in
Auckland on Monday after a week on the run. Forden was the first inmate to
break out of the new Mt Eden Corrections Facility, working with another
prisoner to flee through a service way. The second inmate was recaptured but
Forden got away, in a suspected waiting vehicle. The privately-managed prison
is run by British-based company Serco, which could face a hefty fine over the
escape. Serco Asia Pacific spokesman Paul Shaw confirmed to NZ Newswire that
two prison staff had been suspended "pending the outcome of
investigations". He said he was unable to comment further on the
suspensions while the investigations were ongoing.
October 18, 2011 Stuff
''Houdini'' jail-breaker Aaron Forden spent seven days ''laying low'' with
the help of associates, after escaping from Auckland's Mt Eden prison last
week, police say. The 30-year-old was arrested just before 7pm last night at
a residential address in Silverdale. Police also arrested a 24-year-old
female living at the property and charged her with being an accessory after
the fact. Auckland Police Detective Sergeant Iain Chapman says the week-long
hunt for Forden included visits to various members of his family and friends.
Known for dying his hair and changing his looks while on the run, Forden's
appearance was unchanged this time.
October 12, 2011 Northern
Advocate
A man with the ability to change his appearance like a chameleon to evade
capture could be headed for familiar territory - Northland. Police are
warning members of the public they should not approach 30-year-old Aaron
Forden, who is considered unpredictable and dangerous, after he escaped from
the new Mount Eden Corrections Facility on Monday. The notorious escape
artist is the first person to escape from the new $218 million private
prison. Whangarei Detective Steve Chamberlain said Forden had family and
criminal links in Northland and that anyone who spotted him in the region
should contact police immediately.
October 10, 2011 3 News
Private prison operator SERCO faces a $150,000 fine after the man nicknamed
“Houdini” escaped from its custody. Aaron Forden scaled the perimeter fence
of Mt Eden Corrections Facility early this morning. He was pursued by a
police dog, but got away in a waiting car. Forden used knotted bed sheets to
escape from Mt Eden Prison in 2008. “I would consider him to be unpredictable
and therefore dangerous and that members of the public should not approach
him,” says Detective Sergeant Iain Chapman. “But it’s only with assistance
from the public and his associates that we will catch him.” Forden is known
to change his appearance to avoid capture.
August 10, 2011 Stuff
Auckland's Mt Eden prison operator Serco has been accused of bribing inmates
with bigger helpings of food and televisions in their cells to encourage them
to behave. The prison officers' union, the Corrections Association, said that
in addition to larger meals, Serco served dessert every night, unheard of in
the State prison system, Radio New Zealand reported. Association president
Beven Hanlon said the "luxuries" allowed the private prison
operator to get by with a skeleton crew but guards were feeling vulnerable
and leaving on a daily basis. Serco said in a statement the televisions must
be paid for by the inmates and the quantities of food served and the number
of officers employed were both appropriate.
June 1, 2011 Radio NZ
New Zealand's only private prison will begin housing inmates from Wednesday
but concern has already been expressed about staffing levels. British company
Serco is running the new Mount Eden jail for at least the next six years. The
company's contract with the Government doesn't stipulate minimum staffing and
the main prison guards union is worried the staff-to-inmate ratio won't be
right. Corrections Association president Bevan Hanlon says the approximately
960 inmates were handled by 427 prison guards under public management but
that number has dropped to 200 under private management. Serco rejects the
figures, though is refusing to say exactly how many staff it has for reasons
of security and commercial sensitivity.
Mount Gambier Prison
South Australia
Group 4
Nov 30, 2021
borderwatch.com
Correctional
officers walk out on the job
THE
first industrial action carried out in a private prison within the state's
history occurred recently as correctional officers at the Mount Gambier
Prison walked out of the job. Approximately 100 correctional officers left
their shift early on Friday in protest of what has been labelled difficult
working conditions. Staff marched from Kieselbach Road to the entrance of the
prison as many more staff left their shift hours early, leaving
"skeleton staff" numbers for the evening. United Workers Union
representative and organiser of the event, Darren Roberts said the union had
been in constant negotiations with prison owners G4S. Mr Roberts said there
were five fundamental issues being discussed including short staffing, wage
increases, medication dispensary, food preparation and for supervisors to be
recognised within the agreement at their current rate. "Prison officers
should be in safe numbers during rosters and this has not been the case at
the prison for some time," Mr Roberts said. "Prison staff and
correctional officers have also been told to dispense medication to prisoners
and we feel this is a role which should be carried out by nurses. "There
has been ongoing instruction that officers should do this, however we feel it
should only happen in an emergency situation." He said since
negotiations, G4S had recognised the issue surrounding the issue and has
since made an amendment within the negotiation. Another thing is that we
don't think it is appropriate for prisoners to be preparing the meals for
correctional officers nor is it reasonable that correctional officers don't
have the ability to have a mental break away from their workstation to go and
have a meal," Mr Roberts said. "We feel like that should be
recognised or the officers should be compensated in some form." He said
those who participated in the industrial action exhibited how united the
working group was and the support they had for each other. "The overall
action was an outstanding result and there were a number of officers who were
on protected industrial action and then there was also another group late on
who did not go to their shift," Mr Roberts said. "The prison had
contingency plans in place and there were enough staff to ensure the safety
of the prisoners - the prison was essentially running on reduced staff which
also meant it locked down early." He said the union had previously
requested 15 new staff for the Mount Gambier facility, yet had only received
seven, labelling the career pathway as "undesirable". A G4S
spokesperson said the organisation respected the right of the United Workers
Union to take protected industrial action. "We are disappointed that
this step has been taken, given the highly beneficial package that has been
presented," the spokesperson said. "At this stage, the offer
remains on the table and the parties agreed to meet again on December 8."
August 9, 2004
The South Australian coroner has handed down his findings into the hanging
death of a prisoner at Mount Gambier Prison, in the state's south-east,
almost three years ago. Troy Phillip Turner was found hanging from the
front of the shower stall in his cell on the morning of September 2,
2001. State coroner Wayne Chivell says the 36-year-old's death was
"yet another case" where an "easy hanging point" had been
available to a prisoner. He criticised the South Australian prison
system for its "piecemeal" approach to safe cell design, rather
than adopting a comprehensive approach like Victoria. The coroner also
described the decision not to cut down Mr Turner and attempt resuscitation as
"inappropriate", saying the matter calls for the urgent attention
of Group 4. (ABC)
Northern Immigration Detention
Facility
Darwin, Australia
Serco
May 12, 2013 au.news.yahoo.com
The Immigration
Department says 18 Vietnamese asylum seekers who escaped from a Darwin
detention centre overnight have been recaptured. The department says the men, who are all
rated as a low security risk, escaped from the Northern Immigration Detention
Centre in Berrimah. The department says the men came from three separate
boats, intercepted between Feburary and April. It has sought an "urgent
explanation from its service provider Serco about how this incident has
occurred". The department says it is commissioning an independent review
into the escapes. "We want to know how this occurred, and importantly
what steps need to be taken to avoid a repeat," a spokesman said. The
men are not considered dangerous. The Department has praised Northern Territory
police for the efforts in apprehending the men, and returning them to the
detention centre. Father John Kelliher, of the St Mary's Star of the Sea
Cathedral, says two of the men were found on the steps of the church earlier
this morning. He said they asked for assistance and wanted to make a phone
call or get a phone card to ring family in Sydney. "As the police
arrived, the two fellas tried to scale the fence and ran off," he said.
"One ran up Smith Street. I think he was eventually apprehended by the
police. "But the other gentleman had actually backtracked and gone and
hid in the church and the police came and asked him to leave and they took
him from the church."
Jan.
10, 2013 Cootamundra Herald
'Conditions are appalling and fuelling rising client tensions.' A TOP
immigration official repeatedly warned of ''filthy'' and ''squalid'' living
conditions for asylum seekers months before a riot engulfed a Darwin
detention centre, new documents reveal. A damning internal assessment of the
Northern Immigration Detention Centre (NIDC) warns of a string of maintenance
problems and substandard care at the facility housing almost 500 asylum
seekers. ''Conditions are appalling and fuelling rising client tensions,''
the report notes, with boredom seen as a significant problem. The
confidential report by the Immigration Department's regional manager for
detention operations in the Northern Territory and Queensland, Julie Furby,
paints a disturbing picture of conditions inside one of Australia's largest
detention centres. ''A substandard activity program which in no way keeps
clients engaged/interested/busy. It does not keep their minds off the
negatives or length of stay/miserable day-to-day conditions, and certainly
does not tire them out enough to sleep well at night,'' she wrote. The
report, obtained under freedom-of-information laws, provides what she
describes as a ''frank update on detention operations in the NT''. It was
written in August 2010, a week before riots erupted at the Darwin detention
centre, resulting in a fire that caused thousands of dollars in damage and
injured a guard. Other documents claim haphazard efforts to give asylum
seekers games to play - including a beach volleyball court ''too hot to play
except at night now we are in the build-up to the monsoons''. ''It is clear
that this centre was only ever built for fishers who stay for a few weeks and
then move on,'' Ms Furby wrote in an earlier message. The problems inside
Australia's detention network remain, with Christmas Island criticised last
month as chronically overcrowded by human rights commissioner Gillian Triggs.
Ms Furby's full report, contained in an email to the department's Canberra
headquarters, remains heavily censored and was released only in part almost
10 months after an application by the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and
Advocacy Network. But the publicly disclosed portions illustrate tensions
between the department and contracted company Serco. Listing the reasons for
growing tension, Ms Furby warns: ■''Filthy environment at the NIDC -
squalid living conditions - despite this being raised with local Serco
management repeatedly over the past months.'' ■''Lack of ongoing
repairs and maintenance - Serco have simply not been managing.'' ■''Despite
repeat requests … Serco have failed to implement an internet booking system
for clients to ensure equity of access, saying they don't have the staff to
monitor/enforce it - despite this being the cause of many of the incidents
and fights in the compounds.'' ■''In summary, Serco is not managing to
keep up standards in either [of] the detention centres … since the spill of
clients from CI [Christmas Island]. Despite our best efforts to get these
addressed over past months and weeks redacted.'' A spokesman for the
department said significant improvements had been made at the centre since
2010, including a library, soccer pitch and outdoor barbecues. Toilets had
also been replaced, with 332 people now detained at the centre.
November 18, 2011 AAP
SECURITY company Serco has been asked to explain why a refugee was locked in
isolation after he suffered an electric shock while scaling a fence at a
Darwin detention centre. The Joint Select Committee on Australia's
Immigration Detention Network is conducting an extensive inquiry into the
effect of detention on detainees, in the wake of a series of detention centre
riots. Serco, which has a contract with the federal government to run the
centres, was questioned today over a refugee being locked in a room by guards
for more than an hour, after he suffered an electric shock while climbing a
fence at Darwin's Northern Immigration Detention Centre on November 15. The
man, who was declared a refugee a year ago and was awaiting security
clearance, was reportedly attempting to see friends in another compound,
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young told the inquiry in Melbourne. Ms
Hanson-Young said he was only taken to hospital after he collapsed, then was
again locked up in isolation after he returned. "In this scenario, which
is a real scenario, who made the decision that this man was to be locked up
on his own?" Senator Hanson-Young asked Serco managing director Chris
Manning. Mr Manning told her he would look into the incident and report back
to the committee on his findings. Senator Hanson-Young also asked him about
concerns raised in a recent report by health and safety authority Comcare
over underqualified staff working at immigration detention centres. "You
don't have a client to staff ratio," she said of the contract the
security firm has with the government. Mr Manning told her staffing levels
were reviewed regularly. "They are based on a number of factors ... if
there are safety issues then we would take a view on whether more staff were
required," he said.
August
31, 2011 The Age
Asylum seekers are not to blame for two fires at Darwin's immigration
detention centre, the immigration department says. A spokesman said most of
those involved in today's fires were Indonesian boat crew also being held at
the Northern Immigration Detention Centre. Refugee Action Coalition spokesman
Ian Rintoul said the Indonesians were protesting against the refusal to let
them celebrate the end of Ramadan. "There were issues about how they
were going to celebrate Eid with the end of Ramadan and that was apparently
rejected by Serco (the centre's manager) or Immigration and that's been the
straw that broke the camel's back," he said. "There's a lot of
tensions with the Indonesians anyway because they're waiting months and
sometimes a year and longer before they're actually charged." He said
the fires were not started by asylum seekers.
July
26, 2011 Herald Sun
ABOUT 20 asylum seekers are staging a peaceful protest and hunger strike on
the roof of a detention centre in Darwin, immigration officials have
confirmed. About 10 men climbed on to the roof of the Northern Immigration
Detention Centre on the Stuart Highway on Sunday but the number increased to
21 by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Department of Immigration
told AAP. That number had dropped to 20 by 5.30pm (CST) and the situation was
described as "fluid in nature". He said Serco, the security company
that manages the centre, had engaged detainees individually and as a group
since the weekend, negotiating with them to come down. He confirmed the
detainees were "engaged in voluntary starvation" and said Serco
would continue to monitor the situation and the welfare of the detainees.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. .End of sidebar. Return to start of
sidebar. Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition, claimed managers at
the centre on Sunday threatened to forcibly remove the rooftop protesters and
take them to jail, before more people joined the protest. Mr Rintoul told AAP
a further 60 Afghan asylum seekers were participating in a hunger strike
inside the centre, but the immigration spokesman said the number of asylum
seekers inside engaged in voluntary starvation was closer to 15 or 20.
July
19, 2011 AAP
A ROOF-TOP protest at the Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin has
gone into its fifth day, with asylum seekers refusing to come down. A
Department of Immigration spokesman said three men climbed onto the roof of
the centre late Friday. He said five men were on the roof yesterday morning.
This morning, the spokesman confirmed, a small group of men of Iranian and
Iraqi origin were still on the roof at 9am (CST). "The situation is
fluid," he said.
July
17, 2011 ABC
A group of asylum seekers have spent days on the roof of Darwin's immigration
detention centre protesting over the length of times their claims are taking
to process. Three Iranian asylum seekers have been on the roof of the
Northern Immigration Detention Centre since Friday night. Their fellow
detainees say the protestors have been in detention for up to 17 months
waiting for their asylum applications to be assessed. They are holding a sign
written on a sheet appealing for their release, saying that "keeping
them in a cage" for so long is more cruel than the way cattle are
treated in the live export trade to Indonesia. The Immigration Department
says the centre manager, Serco, is talking with the protesters to try to get
them to come down.
February
4, 2011 The Age
INTERPRETERS for asylum seekers on Christmas Island have been working without
accreditation or translating experience. A Melbourne interpreter said
unqualified staff were ill-equipped to deal with asylum seekers' issues
dispassionately. ''Some of the interpreters are not competent because they
are not actually interpreters,'' the source, who had worked on Christmas
Island, said. ''It's not up to Immigration. They are desperate. The number of
clients has gone up and demand is shocking.'' For certain dialects, the
interpreter said, it was impossible to meet demand from the pool of trained
professionals within Australia. The comments follow a report by the
Commonwealth Ombudsman, Allan Asher, which found asylum seekers had been
assigned interpreters who did not speak their language and were recording
incorrect information on their asylum claims. Amnesty International Australia
said the problems were common to detention centres in Darwin and at Curtin in
Western Australia.
October
20, 2010 International Business Times
Federal authorities confirmed on Thursday that an investigation is
underway on alleged security loopholes in Darwin's immigration facilities
following the lapses that occurred last month, which was punctuated by a
peaceful protest of detained immigrants who sprung out from the centre. An
Immigration Department spokesman admitted that the Northern Territory
Licensing Commission is conducting an inquiry on Serco, which was tasked by
the department to provide for security on the detention facilities. The same
official told AAP that Serco is delegating some of its responsibilities to
MSS Security though he stressed that the Immigration Department has ensured
that the security firm was duly reminded to only employ trained and licensed
personnel and comply with all relevant laws. The spokesman also revealed that
some former MSS Security employees were facing compliance actions and Serco
has been cooperative so far with the ongoing investigation, which came
following series of incidents in the past few months where asylum seekers
rioted in the facilities, vandalised the centre and staged a protest action
after breaking out of detention. Meanwhile, federal opposition immigration
spokesman Scott Morrison warned that the government would be made responsible
if allegations of unlicensed workers were made to man the immigration centre
were proven true. Mr Morrison told ABC that the government cannot put the
entire blame on security contractors since it has the ultimate responsibility
as he stressed that "the government must ensure that that licensed
operators are only ever used in the care and supervision of people who are
being detained by the state."
September
1, 2010 ABC
The asylum seekers pushed through two electric fences to break out of the
facility. The Department of Immigration has not said how the men were able to
get out of the centre, which has two electric fences. But a refugee advocate
says a member of staff may have helped the asylum seekers escape from the
centre early this morning. Pamela Kerr from the Asylum Centre Resource Centre
in Melbourne, who came to Darwin to visit the asylum seekers on Tuesday, says
she thinks a detention staffer let them out. "It's my understanding that
the men didn't break out of the centre, that somebody with a heart opened the
door and let them out," she said. "There are very mixed feelings
amongst the people staffing our detention centres." The stand-off lasted
seven-and-a-half hours before dozens of police officers broke up the peaceful
protest. The asylum seekers did not resist when they were searched and led
into police vans, to be taken to the watch-house in the CBD. Before the
protest ended one of the asylum seekers threw journalists a message in a
bottle pleading for protection. It was ripped as police tried to take the
note from journalists. "Help me please. I came here for protection, not
detention," the note read. "Even the foreign forces are helpless
and not safe in Afghanistan. Have mercy please, Australian people."
Break-out -- The asylum seekers escaped the facility about 6:30am (ACST). The
group gathered outside the centre's perimeter fence next to the busy Stuart
Highway. Five men involved in the protest were taken to hospital. One man is
suffering chest pains, three are being treated for heat exhaustion, while the
other man is being treated for an existing foot injury. It does not appear
any of the injuries were sustained during the breakout. Ms Kerr says the men
are Shiah Muslims, a minority group often targeted on account of their
religion. She says the men fear they will be killed if they are sent back to
Afghanistan. During the protest the asylum seekers held signs that read:
"Please help us", "Show us mercy", and "We are
homeless, defenceless and we seek protection". Two of the asylum seekers
told the ABC they were from Afghanistan and had been waiting up to nine
months in detention. They said they arrived by boat and had since been
refused refugee status in Australia. "Nine months we [are] here because
that's why I want to go out to talk with you, all of the population of
Australia. I need your help," one said. "My children aren't safe in
this place. We don't know where is our family." Company may face fine --
Immigration Minister Chris Evans says the private company that runs the
Darwin centre, Serco, may be fined for breach of contract after this
morning's breakout. He says it appears the asylum seekers may have taken
advantage of a change to procedures after Indonesian men charged with people
smuggling rioted on the weekend. "Under the contract we can fine them
for failure to perform to acceptable standards. I would say though that they
are under a lot of pressure given the numbers in detention currently,"
he said. Senator Evans says asylum seekers could also face criminal charges
relating to the incident. Serco is refusing to say how detainees managed to
break out this morning and says it will not be making any public statements.
'Pressure-cooker situation' -- Opposition immigration spokesman Scott
Morrison says the Government's policies have created overcrowded detention
centres. "What we are seeing up in Darwin is of great concern," he
said. "This is a pressure-cooker situation." He says the Opposition
has sought a briefing on the incident, but the Government has refused the
request. "What all this is symptomatic of is a detention network which
has been pushed to complete breaking point," he said. "There are
more than 4,100 people who are now being detained by the Department of
Immigration and Citizenship as a result of Labor's failed policies.
"This is the highest number of people being detained by the department
in our history." A riot, also involving up to 100 people, broke out at the
Darwin centre over the weekend. The immigration department says the weekend
protest began when two men climbed a tree and refused to come down and
escalated to involve the majority of the Indonesian crew members being
detained in the centre for alleged people smuggling.
August
30, 2010 The Age
DOZENS of Indonesian detainees rioted at Darwin's immigration detention
centre early yesterday to protest against their treatment, which includes mandatory
jail sentences of up to 20 years. Almost all of the detainees are poor
fishermen duped by ruthless people smugglers to steer asylum seeker boats
into Australian waters. Their anger and frustration erupted into violence
after two men climbed a tree inside a compound at the centre where 97
Indonesians are being held. When they refused to climb down, other detainees
joined the protest which grew worse at about 8am (Darwin time) when rioters
set fire to rubbish and mattresses they had piled in the grounds. For several
hours 12 detainees refused to leave the roofs of demountable buildings, from
where they yelled abuse. Some were brandishing two-metre long poles, which
they used to stop security guards climbing up. At one point a metal chair was
thrown from a roof. Screaming and banging could be heard from behind two high
wire fences that surround the centre, which is in the grounds of the
Coonawarra Naval Base, on Darwin's outskirts. Police eventually talked the
detainees down and the situation was brought under control by mid-morning. At
the height of the disturbance, Afghan asylum seekers were evacuated from an
adjoining compound. An Immigration official said no one was seriously hurt.
Investigators will view security footage before considering whether to lay
charges. An official confirmed that the Indonesians were protesting about
their legal treatment. Lawyers and several Northern Territory judges have
described as an injustice the way the crews of asylum seeker boats are
treated as people smugglers. Most of the real smugglers who paid the
Indonesian crewmen a few hundred dollars to steer the boats remain in
Indonesia where people smuggling laws do not exist. In most cases, the crew
were told they would be quickly sent back to Indonesia after arriving in
Australia and were shocked to learn they instead face long periods in an
Australian jail.
August
13, 2010 Northern Territory News
SEVERAL asylum seekers and security staff were rushed to hospital after a
fight broke out over internet usage in a Darwin detention centre. The 10
detainees and two security guards suffered cuts and bruises in the brawl.
Earlier media reports said one of the guards had a broken arm. But
Immigration Department spokesman Bill Power said: "That's not true. He
said a guard has suffered a bruised arm. Police were called for back-up when
an argument between an Afghan man and an Indonesian man escalated at the
Northern Immigration Detention Facility in Berrimah about 1.40am on
Wednesday. Two small groups started fighting while at least 100 people from
the compounds southern blocks looked on. Up to four police officers and St
John Ambulance attended the centre. But police said the disturbance calmed
down when the officers arrived. Immigration confirmed on Friday the argument
started over the use of the internet. "It was basically a small argument
that got out of control," Mr Power said. Security company Serco has the
$45 million department contract to look after more than 450 people in the
detention centre and the detainees in alternative accommodations in Darwin.
The fight comes two weeks after a Burmese detainee of the centre, in his 30s,
claimed a security guard had assaulted him when he refused to take headache
tablets. Immigration rejected the version of the incident, describing it as
an "altercation". Mr Bill said the department asked Serco to
investigate the latest fight. "We are always concerned when people take
violent actions and we will look at it in our own way," he said.
"The Department asked Serco to conduct an investigation into this
matter."
New South Wales Government
March 27, 2009 The Australian
THE research director of a British-based group that is expected to bid for
contracts to operate two jails in NSW has backed privatised facilities in
which inmates have keys to their cells and are on a first-name basis with
their jailers. Gary Sturgess, research director of the Serco Group, will tell
a NSW parliamentary inquiry today that decency, not efficiency, is the main
reason to privatise jails. He says overseas experience shows that prisoners
enjoy more privileges -- including being given the keys to their own cells --
in correctional systems where private and public providers compete. Prisoners
in these systems spend more time out of their cells and have far greater
interaction with their jailers -- with whom they are frequently on first-name
terms -- than in systems where public providers face no competition, Mr
Sturgess says. The results are safer jails and lower rates of reoffending.
Serco is expected to bid for the contracts to operate Cessnock prison, in the
Hunter Valley, and Parklea prison, in western Sydney, when the jails are
privatised this year. The company already operates one jail in Victoria and
one in Western Australia. The decision by NSW Premier Nathan Rees to privatise
the two prisons has aroused heated opposition from public sector unions and
the Greens, and is opposed by a minority of MPs in the Labor caucus. The
privatisation of the jails is being driven by Prisons Minister John
Robertson, who led the campaign against power privatisation as a union
leader. Mr Sturgess's submission to the upper house inquiry links private
jail services in Britain to the "decency agenda" pursued by former
British prime minister Tony Blair. "Contract prisons in the UK are more
humane, partly because government demanded a higher standard when writing the
original contracts, partly because price was not allowed to dominate the
procurement process, and partly because the political and policy environment
at the time when the market was first established was focused on the quality
of prison life," the submission from Serco argues. As NSW cabinet chief
under former Liberal premier Nick Greiner between 1988 and 1992, Mr Sturgess
drove a reform agenda that included the corporatisation of government
enterprises such as the railways and electricity transmission. He told The
Australian yesterday the British experience showed governments could use
competition in prison services as a way to set higher standards, not just to
get better value for money. "It gives a government an opportunity to
say, 'What kind of prisons do we want here?'," Mr Sturgess said. He said
the inmates in low- and medium-security prisons in Britain had been allowed
to hold duplicate keys to their own cells, which improved both efficiency and
decency. "If (the warder) is the only one with a key, then every time a
prisoner wants to go in and out of their cell you've got to send somebody to
look at it," he said. "This way, the inmate has the dignity of
having private space and a greater sense of security." The higher
proportion of women officers in private jails had changed the atmosphere.
"The difference is that if you've got a prison full of males, with all
the testosterone pumping around, people will attempt to man up," he said.
"You're not going to get any credit for assaulting a woman." While
such arguments will confound critics of prison privatisation on the Left, Mr
Sturgess, as a stalwart of NSW politics, knows another obstacle will be the
tough-on-crime stand of the major parties. "The objective has got to be
to reduce the cycle of reoffending," Mr Sturgess said. "If the
consequence of failing to address quality issues is that we do not break the
cycle of reoffending, we're actually increasing the crime problem."
January 5, 2004
A security firm shut down by the NSW Government continued to provide armed
patrols to the Department of Community Services months after being removed
from the industry register. The case of Lismore-based Magnum Armed
Escorts & Security raises important questions about the way in which the
burgeoning industry is regulated, particularly when some companies appear to
have been targeted by gun thieves. Industry sources say private
security has ballooned so much that the Government's Security Industry Registry
is struggling to keep a grip on those entering the field and those it has
already weeded out. Latest figures show that in NSW alone there are
45,000 people employed as guards, 7863 of them armed. And despite the
fact that police are already outnumbered three to one by security officers,
in the past six months alone 650 applications have been received for master
security licences and a further 7500 for individual class 1 and 2
licences. While the NSW Government has announced a raft of changes to weed
out the rogues, restrict access to firearms and remove high-powered weapons
from use, only 62 security company permits have been revoked by the
authorities in the past five years. (Smh.com)
January 5, 2004
A security guard for the NSW Premier Bob Carr threatened to put three bullets
in the head of a NSW police officer, a court heard yesterday. Hussam
Hussein, 21, of Blakehurst, appeared at Parramatta Bail Court charged with
intimidating a police officer and using telecommunications network equipment to
commit an offence. The court was told Hussein was employed by Chubb
Security as a security guard at the Premier's home. Police alleged acting
Inspector Peter Benic, an officer attached to the Premier's Department, spoke
to Hussein about sleeping on the job. (Smh.com)
Parklea Correctional
Centre
Parklea, Australia
GEO Group
Jul 13, 2021 miragenews.com
Privately-run Parklea prison riot inevitable after years of warnings
ignored
Parklea Correctional Centre's most recent riot is proof NSW's
privately-run prison experiment is failing, as the union warns lives of
prison officers and inmates are at risk as prison management continues to
ignore serious safety concerns. As recently as Saturday the Community Public
Sector Union of NSW sought an urgent meeting with Governor Paul Baker and
Parklea's management, amid a spate of officer assaults. In a July 6 meeting
with the Governor the union formally raised concerns of no consistency around
welfare calls, money not going into inmates accounts, lack of handcuffs, and
the need for more officer training. "For more than two years the CPSU
NSW has been ringing the alarm bell about safety in Parklea," said Troy
Wright, assistant branch secretary of CPSU NSW. "These warnings,
particularly about unsafe conditions for prison officers, have been
recklessly ignored." The union first raised the issue of safety with
operators MTC-Broadspectrum in 2019, when the US-based prison operator took
over from GEO. Consistent efforts to improve safety and secure better
conditions for prison officer have been consistently ignored since.
"MTC-Broadspectrum is one of America's largest private prison operators
and has a history of violent, dangerous prisons. In NSW we have no
transparency about why they were selected to run Parklea - the Berejiklian
government simply handed over the keys and washed their hands of the lives of
those who live and work inside Parklea's walls. "Since MTC-Broadspectrum
took over operations in Parklea it has become more dangerous for workers and
inmates alike. This is a direct result of cost cutting decisions to squeeze
every last cent out of the prison. "Our justice system should be run by
the state in the public interest. It should not be operated by private
providers whose sole motivation is making money. When you run a prison for
profit your inclination will always be to cut corners. It means jails are
understaffed and have fewer programs, which makes them more dangerous and
violent."
Jan 28, 2020 mondaq.com
Australia:
Parklea private prison operator found negligent over inmate bashing
At
around 1.40 pm on 23 May 2012, three inmates entered the cell of Caleb
O'Connor at the privately-run Parklea Correctional Centre and bashed him with
a sandwich press, causing severe head injuries. As the attack took place, the
doors to adjacent cells had been left open, which blocked CCTV vision of the
perpetrators, as they entered and exited the inmate's cell. Parklea Nursing
Unit manager Davina Bidart had been warned by a trusted inmate on 17 May that
he'd heard others in the prison yard discussing how they were going to bash
another detainee in the industries section of the prison that day. The
prisoner further told the nursing manager that the unidentified inmates said
they were going to attack this unnamed detainee, because they'd only just
learnt that he was being incarcerated over a charge of rape, and not the
other offences they'd previously been lead to believe he was in for. Ms
Bidart told Parklea operations manager Glenn Halliwell about the tipoff. And
on checking the records, he came to the conclusion that it was Mr O'Connor
the other inmates were referring to. After being remanded for 16 months,
O'Connor had just been convicted of rape three days prior. Mr Halliwell and
intelligence manager Jeff Deal spoke to O'Connor about the assertions that he
could be bashed on 17 May. And the inmate looked genuinely "surprised
and bemused" by the suggestions, as he said he got on well with the
other inmates and there weren't any issues. Halliwell then spoke to the
informant. And based on what he found, the operations manager submitted a
report to Parklea general manager Peter Ma'a on the same day, stating there
was "no other information or intelligence available to support the
information provided". The report
stated that O'Connor's offences did increase his risk of being targeted. But,
no further action was taken at that stage. And no one highlighted the fact
that they'd failed to tell O'Connor that the alleged threat was due to other
inmates just having learnt of his real crimes. Mr O'Connor sued the private
company that ran Parklea at the time for damages on 5 March last year,
claiming it was negligent in connection to the injuries he'd suffered at the
hands of other inmates. And the NSW Supreme Court determined GEO Group
Australia was liable over the incident. The initial civil proceedings were
only to ascertain whether the Florida-based company was negligent in its duty
of care in regard to the bashing. And the issue of damages was to be dealt
with during a separate hearing. Justice Julia Lonergan found that Ma'a had
failed to act on the report's assertion regarding O'Connor's conviction
increasing his risk of being a target, and that Halliwell and Deal had
proceeded on the assumption that the attack would only take place on the day
the threats were made. The trial judge relied upon expert evidence of former
Corrective Services NSW employee Lee Downes oulting the proper procedure
would have been to move O'Connor into segregated custody and then transfer
him, which would have been in accordance with GEO operating procedures.
According to her Honour, O'Connor should have been "swiftly"
separated "on the day the information was given" and then
transferred. "If those steps were taken, he would have avoided the bashing
at Parklea the following week at the hands of the three assailants." GEO
was not satisfied with the case outcome, so the corrections company appealed
the decision to the NSW Court of Appeal (NSWCA) on 27 August last year. It
did so based on nine grounds, all of which were promptly dismissed by a three
justice panel. The first four grounds related to GEO's assertion that under
relevant laws, Mr Ma'a didn't have the authority to segregate and transfer Mr
O'Connor, as this power is reserved for the NSW Corrective Services commissioner.
And therefore, the company didn't neglect its duty of care. However, NSWCA
Justice Richard White set out that based on expert testimony the transfer
powers contained under section 23 of the Crimes (Administration of Sentences)
Act 1999 (NSW) are not just reserved for the commissioner in practice and are
regularly exercised by general managers. The next ground was the claim that
the trial judge didn't give reasons as to why GEO had been obliged to
segregate and transfer O'Connor and had failed in its duty of care. But,
Justice White pointed out that her Honour actually provided two valid reasons
in relation to this. The first involved O'Connor's resistance to transfer not
being based upon the full story, as he was never told the other inmates had
just learned the true nature of his crimes. And the second was, regardless of
the prisoner's position, correctional authorities should have ensured he was
protected. Justice White made clear that the sixth and seventh grounds were
"misconceived", as they revolved around the unchallenged assumption
that the other inmates were previously unaware of O'Connor's real crimes. His
Honour explained that this was irrelevant, as the authorities should have
been protecting him from the threat that had been overheard, irrespective of
when the other inmates were made aware of his being detained over rape
charges. The next ground argued was as to why Ma'a's failure to transfer the
inmate wasn't addressed under cross-examination. And it was found the manager
gave evidence as to why he didn't place O'Connor in protective custody, not
segregation, so he couldn't be cross-examined on evidence not given. The
final ground entailed GEO's assertion that the scope of its duty of care
didn't rest solely on the case of O'Connor, but it should be considered
"against the background" of a "whole multitude of risks"
that prison authorities hear about on a daily basis "that might or might
not crystallise". However, the NSW Supreme Court dismissed this final
ground also, as in accordance with Parklea standard operating manuals, what
should have occurred on the day is that O'Connor be segregated and then
transferred for his own safety. So, on the 24 December last year, Justice
White dismissed the appeal and ordered GEO Group to pay court costs. And
NSWCA Justices Fabian Gleeson and Paul Brereton both agreed with these
orders. Justice Brereton added to the final findings that prison authorities
had been acting on the false assumption that "the threat was diminished
once the day to which it related had passed". And his Honour concluded
that this "overlooked the obvious". Namely, that if the threat
wasn't acted upon during the day it came to light, and the inmate wasn't
subsequently segregated, then "it was likely to re-present at the next
available opportunity".
Oct 14, 2019 smh.com
'Please
help me': Eric Whittaker made 20 emergency calls before he died in custody
An
Aboriginal man who died in custody made 20 emergency calls for help over the
intercom in his Sydney prison cell on the morning he was taken to hospital,
an inquest has heard. However, officers waited for a change of shift to
attend to him. Kamilaroi man and father of four Eric Whittaker, 36, lay
unconscious and shackled in leg cuffs in the hours before he died from a
ruptured brain aneurysm at Westmead Hospital on July 4, 2017. A coronial
inquest into Mr Whittaker's death, which began on Monday, heard he made 20
emergency calls begging for help and complaining of claustrophobia between
4.52am and 7.51am on July 2 using an intercom in his cell at Parklea
Correctional Centre in Sydney's north-west, then privately owned by the GEO
Group. When staff attended to Mr Whittaker at 8.08am, after an 8am
changeover, he was found crouched in the rear of his cell shouting
"please help me" and appeared to have urinated, vomited and
defecated on himself. He was then taken to the prison's medical clinic while
unsteady on his feet, slurring his words and unable to sit still. Notes made
about 9am on July 2 say Mr Whittaker was disoriented and complaining he couldn't
breathe. Corrective Services NSW investigator Kenneth Johnston said it
"should have been clear [to officers that Mr Whittaker] was clearly
delirious and unaware of his surroundings". He said the tone of the
officers who answered Mr Whittaker's calls for help early in the morning
suggested "a level of apathy towards the inmate". "A phone
call to an ambulance or medical professional could have easily been dealt
with during the night," Mr Johnston said. "One might consider it
was too much trouble to do anything in the night and it would [be easier to
wait] until the day shift [at 8am] ... The fact it wasn’t dealt with until
later in the morning … my thought is it was just too much effort." Mr
Johnston said Mr Whittaker was "clearly suffering from a health
issue" and that whether his problems were drug induced or mental health
related "is not the issue; some medical intervention should have
occurred". Later tests showed Mr Whittaker screened positive for
stimulants and likely died from a subarachnoid haemorrhage precipitated by
amphetamines. The week-long inquest will investigate the cause of Mr
Whittaker's haemorrhage, whether Correctional Officers could have done more
that morning, and whether different or earlier treatment could have improved
his chance of survival. It will also question whether the use of restraints
on Mr Whittaker during his ambulance transfer and time in hospital was
appropriate. Counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer, said "a
significant issue for Eric's family in this inquest is whether authorities
were justified in using restraints". Mr Whittaker was still being held
in ankle restraints at midday on July 3, despite showing signs of imminent
brain death. He had been taken into custody on remand in June 2017 after
being refused bail for failing to appear in court and possessing a knife in
public. He was reported to have been "calm and compliant" during
his dealings with police and corrections officers. The inquest continues.
Feb 14, 2019 au.news.yahoo.com
Female prison officer sacked after 'sending Valentine's
Day letter to inmate'
A Valentine’s Day letter from a female prison officer
allegedly sent to an inmate has led to her immediate dismissal from Sydney’s
Parklea Correctional Centre. Tara Brooks doubles as a part-time model and it
is understood she allegedly sent the note under a false name, but slipped up
and gave away their budding romance behind bars. She was accused of an
inappropriate relationship with an inmate. “I’m horrified that anybody would
still use this sort of behaviour as something that they think is acceptable,”
NSW Corrective Services Minister David Elliott said. Brooks allegedly came
undone when a Valentine’s Day card arrived at the jail on Wednesday. It was
sent under a fake name to Hassan Zreika, a minimum security inmate, but
investigators traced it back to a PO Box registered to Brooks. She was
arrested at her home before becoming the first officer charged under tough
new laws. “It’s proof positive that the NSW government’s decision to
implement this new offence for inappropriate relations between officers and
inmates was justified,” Mr Elliott said. Parklea Correctional Centre is
privately managed by GEO Group Australia. Sydney prison officer sacked after
'Valentine's Day letter to inmate'View photos Brooks was arrested at her home
before becoming the first prison officer charged under tough new laws. GEO
Group says Brooks made admissions about an inappropriate relationship during
its investigation, but denies reports photographs of the model were found in the
inmate’s cell. The inmate has been placed in isolation and will be moved to
another jail, while the former guard could find herself back in jail as a
prisoner if convicted.
December 20, 2018 dailymail.co.uk
Parklea prison operators failed: report
The private operator of a scandal-plagued Sydney prison failed to address
problems including drugs and weapon smuggling as well as assaults, a
parliamentary report has found. GEO Group has operated Parklea Correctional
Centre in Sydney's west since it was privatised in 2009 but the NSW
parliamentary report, released on Friday, found the company didn't run the
prison effectively leading to inmate revolts in mid-2017. "The problems
of security and contraband that erupted into crisis at the Parklea Correctional
Centre in 2017 were symptomatic of more longstanding fundamental failures of
leadership and culture in the private prison," the upper house committee
report states. It backs claims by the prison guards union that there were
unsafe work practices, high staff turnover of about 80 per cent and poor
management. More than 100 staff were disciplined for serious misconduct
during 2017. "That all these cultural and management problems existed in
the high-risk prison environment - where the potential for violence and unrest
as well as for mistreatment of inmates are all significant - is extremely
troubling," the report states. The committee also pointed the finger at
Corrective Services NSW, finding it didn't intervene early enough to avoid
the crisis. "There were readily identifiable and escalating problems
with contraband, excessive use of force and assaults at least from 2016.
"If it was true that during this time CSNSW had strict oversight of the
operations at Parklea, then it is difficult to understand why more immediate
interventions were not made then." The parliamentary committee was set
up in 2017 following media reports of inmates smuggling drugs, weapons and
mobile phones behind bars. A video uploaded to YouTube in mid-2017 showed an
inmate wielding a knife and boasting about his stash of drugs. The inmate
described the security arrangements at the prison as "a dead-set
joke" and alleged guards were involved in the mobile phone smuggling. An
inmate was stabbed at the prison in December 2017 while another inmate set
fire to a blanket in his cell in January 2018. The report makes 13
recommendations including that the government publish contracts for all
privately-operated prisons in full. GEO Group in September was dumped as the
prison's operator in favour of Australian company Broadspectrum and
Management and Training Corporation from the United States. The joint
Australian-US venture will take charge from April 2019. Corrections Minister
David Elliott on Friday blamed the former Labor government for privatising the
prison and striking a "flawed contract" with GEO. He said the
coalition had "learned a lot" and it would "hold the next
operator much more accountable". Corrective Services NSW was forced to
intervene throughout GEO Group's contract period to ensure improvements to
safety and security, Mr Elliott added.
Mar 23, 2018 4bc.com.au
Handcuff key missing for three days in notorious jail
An investigation is underway after a handcuff key went missing from
Queensland’s Arthur Gorrie jail. Ray Hadley received a tip on Thursday that
the key had been lost on March 15 and wasn’t found until three days later.
It’s the second time in a week the prison’s operator GEO Group has come under
fire. An extendable baton was stolen from guards at Parklea Correctional
Centre last week and still hasn’t been found. Queensland Corrective Services
has released a statement following the incident: “At about 5pm on March 15, a
custodial officer at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre reported a handcuff
key missing. A range of searches were conducted throughout the facility
before the key was located on March 18. An investigation is underway, and, as
it is considered a major security incident, GEO is required to provide a
report into the incident to Queensland Correctional Services.” GEO Group has
a history of dismal administration at the Parklea facility and their contract
has now been terminated.
Dec 18, 2017 kaplanherald.com
Parklea jail is changing into Australia’s most infamous jail
‘This place is a dead set joke’: The shocking truth inside
Parklea prison – the privately-run maximum security facility becoming
Australia’s most notorious jail thanks to stabbings, drugs and contraband
goods. Parklea
prison in Sydney’s north-western suburbs is fast becoming Australia’s most
notorious jail after a spate of violent and bizarre incidents involving
inmates and officers. In one week alone a female officer was allegedly caught
smuggling tobacco behind bars, an inmate was stabbed, and another was caught
with smuggled illustrations of a building being constructed on the site. It
has even been reported a sack of wooden toys destined for a children’s
charity went missing from a staff area last Wednesday. This year there have
been stabbings, assaults and drug seizures – even news that a set of keys had
been taken by a prisoner as he was being released. Most infamously of all, a
video emerged of a prisoner brandishing makeshift blades and what is believed
to have been the drug ice, while making claims officers were responsible for
bringing drugs inside. Parklea Correctional Centre, a privately-run maximum
security prison, has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons since
the start of the year. It is even the subject of a New South Wales Police
Strike Force. The Corrective Services Investigation Unit established Strike
Force Iraga to identify potentially corrupt behaviour of employees at
Parklea. In January it was reported an inmate had stolen a set of keys as he
was being released from the facility, leading to locks having to be changed.
The inmate was alleged to have taken the keys from a staff area while being
processed for release on December 22 last year. A Corrective Services
spokeswoman said then the department and operator GEO Group Australia were
‘investigating security measures including key control and management
processes within the centre’. ‘None of the keys provide access to the prison
or to inmate areas inside such as cells or yards,’ the spokeswoman said. But
a number of affected locks elsewhere in the centre did have to be replaced or
secured with padlocks. On February 21 police were called to Parklea after a
27-year-old inmate was stabbed in the neck while in a common area of the
prison. In May, prison officers intercepted contraband which outsiders had
tried to smuggle into the facility. Four mobile phones stuffed inside a one
litre carton of milk, tobacco, white powder and flick knives were among the
items seized in the area between the centre’s perimeter fence and the prison
walls. Problems within Parklea became national news in July when Daily Mail
Australia revealed a video of inmate Carl Walton filming himself brandishing
weapons and drugs inside his prison cell. In the video, recorded in August
last year, Walton claimed he was filming himself on a mobile phone given to
him by a prison officer. ‘Recording inside of Parklea Correctional Centre,’
he said. ‘On a day-to-day basis this place is a dead set joke. ‘Right now I’m
in my cell, I’ve got a mobile phone. Why have I got a mobile phone? It’s
because screws are bringing mobile phones into the jail.’ He continued: ‘Why
am I carrying around a knife? Why does that need to be in my hand at this
point in time? ‘Why have I got a slasher? Why do I need to slash people?’
Walton then held up a number of other items to the camera, including a metal
strip which he says came off a television. ‘That there alone will rip skin,
damage ya,’ he said. He then displayed a small plastic bag which he said
contained the drug ice. ‘Why have I got it?’ he asked. ‘Because I can.’
Following publication of the video, Corrective Services Commissioner Peter
Severin announced he was sending a public sector governor to oversee the
prison. ‘This is a very serious matter,’ Mr Severin said. Walton said at the
time he ‘messed up the system in there’ for some inmates, but claimed he
shared the video to highlight what he claimed to be rampant drug use in
prison. ‘The young ones inside might thank me for it but the ones on long
sentences won’t,’ he told us. In raids following publication of the video
officers found nine illegal mobile phones hidden in toilet systems, food
packages and television sets. Three phone charges were also found as well as
60 green and white capsules, 11 heart-shaped tablets, one strip of
buprenorphine and 50 grams of tobacco. Seven inmates were placed in
segregation. Announcing a Corrective Services team had been sent to Parklea
to review its operations, Minister David Elliott said he was ‘appalled’ by
the contents of the video. ‘Our experienced team will be shadowing staff at
the centre and monitoring all major decisions, as well as undertaking a
complete review of security and safety,’ Mr Elliott said. ‘We are confident
that operations can be turned around. Alternatively, we will consider our
options under the contract with the GEO Group.’ Two months later, on
September 28, a prison officer was allegedly stabbed twice by a 29-year-old
Parklea inmate. He escaped more serious injury only because the prison-made
weapon struck his name tag. The first blow hit the officer’s identification
card while the second punctured his arm. He was taken to Blacktown Hospital.
Parklea’s security team deployed tear gas and locked down common areas after
the alleged offender reportedly incited other inmates, who refused to return
to their cells. Last month a former Parklea inmate phoned Ray Hadley’s 2GB
radio program claiming prison officers were responsible for smuggling
contraband into Parklea. ‘For example, a mobile phone will cost you anything
from $1,500 to $3,000, which is paid by whoever outside,’ the man said. ‘That’s
deposited into a particular bank account at the direction of the guard.
‘Parklea has got to be the dirtiest jail you can possibly go to.’ There have
been four incidents involving Parklea inmates and officers reported just this
week. On Sunday a 40-year-old female prison officer was allegedly caught
smuggling tobacco to an inmate for cash. She was sacked and will appear in
Blacktown Local Court on January 29. Strike Force Iraga officers arrested the
female officer after they allegedly found tobacco on the inmate when they
pounced about 11am. She was charged with two counts of introducing contraband
to a correctional centre and being an agent corruptly receiving a benefit. On
Monday officers seized smuggled documents containing information about building
work at Parklea when they searched an inmate’s property at the Metropolitan
Remand and Reception Centre (MRRC) at Silverwater. The inmate
was transferred from Bathurst Correctional Centre to the MRRC on 5 December.
He had been previously housed at Parklea. Corrective Services said they had
found illustrations of a demountable building which had no detail that would
create a risk to security. Mr Severin said staff would be reminded to manage
their documents appropriately. Also on Wednesday a 23-year-old inmate was
stabbed when he was allegedly assaulted by two other prisoners at Parklea.
The same day a sack of wooden gifts destined for a children’s charity
reportedly went missing from an area of the prison only accessed by staff.
The toys were later located. GEO’s contract to run Parklea is set to expire
in March 2019. Expressions of interest for a new seven-year contract have
recently closed. A parliamentary inquiry was launched last month to
investigate the operation of Parklea. A spokesman for GEO told Daily Mail
Australia: ‘Under GEO’s agreement with the NSW government any media queries
should directed to Corrective Services media unit.’ A Corrective Services
spokeswoman said: ‘Corrective Services NSW in July this year began a review
of operations at Parklea Correctional Centre following the discovery of an
inmate video on YouTube.’ ‘The CSNSW intervention team spent five weeks at
the centre overseeing all major decisions made by GEO management and also
reviewing practices. ‘The review resulted in CSNSW making 34 recommendations
to GEO on ways to improve and strengthen operational procedures and
practices. ‘GEO accepted all 34 recommendations and have developed a
remediation plan, which is currently being analysed by CSNSW to ensure it
decisively addresses all the findings of the report.’
Dec 11, 2017
news.com.au
NSW prison guard caught smuggling tobacco
A prison guard allegedly caught smuggling tobacco to an inmate at Parklea
prison is the latest scandal to plague the privately run jail, prompting
calls for the facility to come back under state government control. The
40-year-old female guard was nabbed at the prison on Sunday after allegedly
supplying the drug to an inmate in exchange for cash, NSW Police said on
Monday. The woman was sacked and will appear in Blacktown Local Court on
January 29 to face corruption charges. Opposition spokesman Guy Zangari on
Monday said it was clear Parklea, which is run by independent operator GEO
Group Australia, should no longer be privately run. With the contract to run
the prison set to expire, Mr Zangari said it was an "opportune"
time for Corrections Minister David Elliot to "save face" and for
the government to take control of the prison. Expressions of interest for a
seven-year contract with a new operator have recently closed with GEO's
contract set to expire in March 2019. "Over the past year, Parklea
prison has been mired in controversy ... lost keys, assaults, inmates on
social media, contraband finds and deaths in custody," he said in a
statement. A parliamentary inquiry was launched last month into Parklea jail
following the widespread allegations of corruption and drug trafficking. The
inquiry comes after a video was published online in July showing an inmate at
Parklea jail boasting about having a blade, the drug ice and a mobile phone.
The inmate, Carl Walton, at the time described the security arrangements at
the privately run facility as "a dead-set joke" and alleged guards
were involved in the mobile phone smuggling. The video prompted a series of
contraband stings in Parklea and other NSW prisons in recent months. More
than 620 people were busted trying to smuggle contraband into the state's
prisons in the first nine months of this year with an 11-week contraband
sting launched by the state government in August.
Dec 3, 2017 stuff.co.nz
The final indignity: Australian man lay on his deathbed bound by shackles
Jamie Whittaker likes to remember his son Eric at his best – the
"funny bloke" making his aunties cackle, dancing like Michael
Jackson and doting on his children. Then, when he shuts his eyes, he sees his
son on a hospital bed, machines pumping oxygen to keep him alive. His eyes
are closed. If it weren't for the tubes and monitors, he could be sleeping.
But it is the sight of Eric Whittaker's feet that haunts his father. They lie
limp on white bed linen, chained together with shackles. "There was no
dignity," he said. "It's like he's an animal ... It's not as if he
could get up and run away." Twenty-six years after the 1991 Australian
Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommended restraints be
used as "a last resort", prison guards in a Sydney hospital
shackled a dying, unconscious Indigenous man. This is the scene that
confronted distraught family members, captured in a photograph they now want
people to see. It has been almost five months since life support was turned
off and the 36-year-old Whittaker died in custody at Westmead Hospital in
Sydney following an aneurysm. Corrective Services say Whittaker was treated
in line with protocol. They are not treating his death as suspicious. But the
family say they are still in the dark about many of the basic facts
surrounding his death. "The family should get a very straight
story," said Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin, who agreed
to speak about the case. Eric Whittaker was arrested on Tuesday, June 27. No
stranger to police, he was a drug abuser and homeless when officers charged
him with offences including possession of stolen goods, carrying a knife in a
public place and failure to appear before court. "Bail was refused, most
probably because of his inability to have a place of residence," Severin
said. On the evening of Friday, June 30, he was transferred from Surry Hills
to Parklea jail in Sydney's northwest. On arrival, he was automatically
classified as a maximum-security inmate because Parklea does not conduct
security assessments on weekends. About 8am on Sunday, July 2, corrections
officers realised something was wrong, they said. Doctors were later told
Whittaker had been in an isolation cell, incontinent, agitated and
handcuffed, it is understood. "He had trashed his cell," Severin,
said. "He was incoherent, he was quite uncontrollable, so that's when
medical intervention immediately commences." But the family say they were
given different versions of events by hospital staff, police and Corrective
Services. Some were told he had collapsed in an exercise yard, others that he
fell in his cell. Severin said if the family received different information,
"that is very regrettable". In the infirmary at Parklea jail on the
Sunday morning, Whittaker's condition was worsening. He was rushed in an
ambulance to Blacktown Hospital at 10.47am, bound hand and foot, under the
supervision of two guards. Combative on arrival, his condition then
deteriorated further, it is understood. Doctors put a breathing tube down his
throat, after which he went into cardiac arrest. A brain scan revealed the
aneurysm and bleeding. Corrective Services have declined to say when
Whittaker had fallen unconscious, directing medical inquiries to Justice
Health. Justice Health referred questions to the Western Sydney Local Health
District, which declined to comment, citing privacy laws and the upcoming
coronial inquest. On the Sunday evening, the hospital called Whittaker's next
of kin, his aunt Natasha Whittaker. "They told me that he is there and
it doesn't look good," she said. She immediately began calling family
members including Whittaker's father, Jamie. "I just slumped down on the
couch, in disbelief," he said. Just before midnight, Whittaker was
transferred to the intensive care unit at Westmead. When he arrived he was
unresponsive. His handcuffs were taken off, but, after briefly being removed,
his ankle cuffs were left on, the commissioner said. The next day, the first
visitors to arrive were three family members, including his aunt, Daisy
Fernando, who said she could not feel a pulse. "I'll tell you the God's
honest truth, when I walked in, my nephew was dead," Fernando said. He
was only being kept alive by machines. One of the family went to check
whether he was comfortable. "When I lifted the blanket up I noticed the
shackles around his ankles," said the relative, who did not wish to be
named. A "big fight" followed. The relative said they "freaked
out" and took a photograph of the restraints straight away, before
asking the two Corrective Services guards to remove them. "They said
this was our orders, we have to do it," the relative said. About 40
minutes or so later the guards called their supervisor and then removed the
cuffs. It had been 15 hours since Whittaker arrived unresponsive at Westmead
and 28 hours since he first left Parklea. "Bloody appalling, the way
they can have a man on his deathbed and still have shackles on him like that,"
Jamie Whittaker said. "There is no dignity shown towards Aboriginal
people when they pass away." Fernando said he was treated "like a
mongrel dog". Under security protocols, it's up to the escorting
officers to make an assessment regarding the use of restraints in hospitals.
In addition to the royal commission's recommendation, a 2012 South Australian
Ombudsman review found shackles should only be used as a precaution against
escape, harm to self or harm to others. Under New South Wales law, the
unjustified use of a restraint is treated as an assault. "I feel so
ashamed that this could happen," said Thalia Anthony, an associate
professor at University of Technology, Sydney who specialises in Indigenous
justice. Anthony said the image of Whittaker on his hospital bed reminded her
of 19th century photographs of Aboriginal men in chains. "There needs to
be systemic change," Dr Anthony said. "But there also needs to be a
message sent that this kind of conduct, this way of treating Aboriginal
people as less than human beings is wrongful and criminal." The family's
lawyer, Stewart Levitt, who is exploring potential human rights violations
and discrimination, said "we need to appoint interstate Special
Prosecutors to deal with deaths in custody throughout Australia."
Whittaker died in Westmead Hospital at 12.55pm on July 4. The family said
they were given 10 minutes with him after they decided to turn the machines
off. "It was a lifetime," Jamie Whittaker said. "It was just
silence. Everyone was just standing around rubbing his head." Severin
said Whittaker's release order "clearly stipulated that he had to be
restrained at all times". But he also acknowledged staff had the
discretion to remove the cuffs with the approval of supervisors, who are
available round the clock. "Unfortunately we have had more incidents of
restraints being removed and prisoners doing the wrong thing than we have
incidents of situations where – again, only with hindsight – one can say, OK,
maybe we should have removed the restraints earlier," Severin said. Whittaker's
former partner, Jessica Holman, was living in Queensland when she heard he
was ill. Without money for flights, she was trying to find a way to reach
Sydney with their children. The pair had separated two years earlier as
Whittaker struggled with drugs and alcohol. Holman, at one point, had taken
out an apprehended violence order against him. "He was my first ever
love," she said. "He's the father of my children – the bond was
there. It's just that he had his own personal issues." He died before
she could reach Sydney. "I couldn't imagine getting there, if I was able
to get there before he did pass, with the children, and seeing their father
like that ... It's not OK." Holman and Whittaker's father and mother say
they have not been given an account of the events leading up to his death.
"It's a horrible thing, the feeling that people are just trying to
forget about it," Holman said. The commissioner, Severin, said "I
would like to think" all of the information provided for this story had
also been provided to the family. Parklea, a privately run prison operated by
the US-owned GEO Group, has been criticised heavily for a series of security
breaches this year, including one incident in which an inmate posted a
YouTube video of himself with drugs and a weapon. The NSW government renewed
GEO Group's contract in October, following a review that led to 35
recommendations for improvement. The company declined to answer questions,
citing the upcoming inquest, but extended sympathies to the family. Severin
extended his own and said Corrective Services had helped to contribute to the
cost of the burial. Meanwhile, the family are still saving up for a headstone
for Whittaker's grave in Walgett cemetery, in northern New South Wales.
"It's killing me, I thought he would have buried me first," his
mother, Margaret Hall, said. He was her first-born, the cheeky boy who
"made my grey hairs go grey". "To see that photo, now I can't
sleep," she said. "I want this out."
Nov 21, 2017 dailymail.co.uk
Prisoners had 'mobile phones smuggled to them in their meal trays by
GUARDS' at scandal-hit private jail in Sydney
Guards at a privately operated Sydney prison have been accused of
smuggling contraband to inmates via food trays. Former prisoner 'John' made
the shocking allegations about the mobile phones and other 'stuff' being
snuck in while speaking on 2GB's Ray Hadley Tuesday. In his claims, he stated
that convicts at Parklea Correctional Centre were smuggled the prohibited
items in covered dishes during nightly meals. 'Stuff is smuggled in through
the meals... Every evening you get a hot meal. It's a tray with a lid on it,'
he said. 'For example a mobile phone while cost you anything from $1500 to
$3000, which is paid by whoever outside.' John, who spent time at the prison
in January and called it the 'dirtiest jail you can possibly go to', alleged
that the money was deposited into a bank account 'at the direction of the
guard'. He also revealed he personally had access to illegal items during his
time inside, making several calls from a contraband phone. New South Wales
State opposition leader Luke Foley said he urged an external investigation
into the prison. 'A parliamentary inquiry with the capacity to compel
witnesses and haul them in and answer some questions about what's going on,'
Mr Foley told The Daily Telegraph. 'When I hear about assaults on female
prison officers at Parklea, when I hear about the amount of contraband
flowing in, when I hear about gates being left open for 12 hours, I'm
alarmed.' The Sydney facility has been plagued by scandals, with video
uncovered by Daily Mail Australia in June showing a prisoner holding ice,
knives and a 'slasher' razor. Carl Walton, 32, uploaded the footage a few
weeks after he was released from the facility, claiming the contraband
involved was given to him by prison guards. 'Recording inside of Parklea
Correctional Centre. On a day-to-day basis this place is a dead set joke,' he
can be heard saying in the video. 'Right now I'm in my cell, I've got a
mobile phone. Why have I got a mobile phone? It's because screws are bringing
mobile phones into the jail.' In the video he continued to question why he
has been allowed to walk around his cell while showing off other contraband
on camera. 'Why am I carrying around a knife? Why does that need to be in my
hand at this point in time?' he said.In October new managers were set to take
over the administration of the jail and its 973 occupants from GEO Group
Australia.
Oct 15, 2017 dailymail.co.uk
Private firm running scandal-hit Parklea Prison to get the boot after
Daily Mail Australia revealed prisoners had ice, knives and 'slasher' razors
behind bars
The private firm running scandal-hit Parklea Prison is set to get the
boot after it was revealed prisoners were hiding ice, knives and razors as
contraband. GEO Group Australia currently manage the jail and its 973
occupants but that is set to change after Daily Mail Australia uncovered
footage of inmate Carl Walton with violent weapons and drugs in July this
year. The new owners will have to deliver on 'value for money' and 'increase
accountability in the delivery of services,' documents seen by the Daily
Telegraph read. Minister for Corrections David Elliot said the jail’s new
private operators will be held accountable for prison accommodation,
health-related services and hospital visits. They will also be working
towards reducing prisoner's reoffending rates. While it is standard practice
to look for new operators before the current contract expires, the GEO Group
Australia still had occupancy until March 2019. The news comes just months
after criminal Carl Walton brandished a knife and apparently the drug ice in
a video from inside Parklea Correctional Centre. Filming himself on a mobile
phone, Walton claims the contraband was given to him by prison guards.
'Recording inside of Parklea Correctional Centre. On a day-to-day basis this
place is a dead set joke,' the 32-year-old can be heard saying in the video.
'Right now I'm in my cell, I've got a mobile phone. Why have I got a mobile phone?
It's because screws are bringing mobile phones into the jail.' He continues
to question why he has been allowed to walk around his cell while showing off
the contraband on camera. 'Why am I carrying around a knife? Why does that
need to be in my hand at this point in time?' he asks. 'Why have I got a
slasher? Why do I need to slash people?' The prisoner continues to hold up a
number of other items to the camera, including a metal bar which he says came
off a television. 'That there alone will rip skin, damage ya [sic],' he said.
He then displays a small plastic bag which he says contains the drug
'ice'. 'Why have I got it, because I
can,' the prisoner said. In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, Corrective
Services NSW said they viewed the incident as a very serious breach of
security and have immediately launched a multi-team investigation. 'Searches
for illegal and banned items are conducted by centre staff on a day-to-day
basis on prisoners, visitors, cells and all common areas, in addition to searches
by the specialist Security Operations Group, including the K9 unit. 'Inmates
go to extraordinary lengths to introduce contraband. Methods include internal
secretion, visitor smuggling and lobbing of packages over perimeter fences.
Any suggestions that contraband is introduced by staff are immediately
investigated.' In May, prison officers intercepted contraband which outsiders
had tried to smuggle into the facility. And the maximum security centre was
embroiled in a staff attack at the beginning of 2016 when 40 prisoners
attacked guards (Parklea Correctional Services pictured) Four mobile phones
stuffed inside a one lite carton of milk, tobacco, white powder and flick
knives were among the items seized in the area between the centre's perimeter
fence and the prison walls. Three months earlier, a 27-year-old inmate at the
Parklea Correctional Centre was rushed to hospital after he was stabbed in
the neck by another prisoner. The facility was also forced to change numerous
locks throughout the complex after a prisoner allegedly stole a set of keys
in December last year. And the maximum security centre was embroiled in a
staff attack at the beginning of 2016 when 40 prisoners attacked guards.
Officers had to barricade themselves inside a safe room while special ops
detained the inmates.
Oct 8, 2017 dailymail.co.uk
'It's being run like the Stallone movie "Lock
Up"': Police intelligence unit refuses to set foot inside Sydney's
notorious Parklea Jail because of 'corrupt guards and dangerous inmates'
Corrupt guards and uncontrollable inmates have seen a
Sydney prison become so farcical it has been compared to a Sylvester Stallone
movie. Parklea Correctional Centre in north-western Sydney is in such a bad
state an elite New South Wales police unit will not step foot inside it. The
conditions are so bad at the privately-run jail an anonymous law enforcement
official said it was 'being run like the Stallone movie Lock Up'. 'It's a
disgrace,' the officer said. The movie starring Stallone tells the story of
an inmate who is tortured by prison guards. The series of bungles this year
led to Corrective Services NSW reviewing the prison. GEO Group Australia, the
operators of the jail, said there were no issues with their relationship with
the police unit. The jail was the site of dramatic raids in July when several
cells were searched. Drugs, mobile phones and other contraband were found
when maximum security cells were raided at the notorious prison in July. A
spokeswoman for Corrective Services NSW told Daily Mail Australia no formal
complaints have been received. 'Corrective Services NSW has not received any
formal complaints from NSW Police regarding Parklea Correctional Centre,'
they said. 'This will be discussed with NSW Police and any issues raised will
be investigated by CSNSW.'
Jul 20, 2017
dailymail.co.uk
Hidden inside
televisions, toilet bowls and SANDWICHES: Dramatic footage shows the
extraordinary lengths prisoners go to as they conceal their drugs and phones
in jail
Drugs and mobile
phones have been found inside televisions, toilet systems and even sandwiches
at a notorious Sydney jail. The New South Wales prison system was sent into
crisis mode earlier this month when Parklea inmate Carl Walton shared a
now-infamous video from inside his cell. The shocking footage prompted
Corrective Services NSW to send its own team into the privately run prison,
which has now seen its second raid in as many weeks. Dramatic footage shows
officers storming into a cell and gang-tackling an inmate to his bed before
conducting a search. In another
cell, authorities are seen retrieving two mobile phones from a toilet bowl,
while drugs were found inside another inmate's tuna and baked bean sandwich.
Nine phones, three charges, 60 green and white capsules, 11 heart-shaped
capsules, a strip of buprenorphine and 50g of tobacco were uncovered in
Monday's raid. Seven inmates were placed in segregation and are expected to
face charges relating to the contraband. Minister for Corrections David
Elliott warned it was 'only the beginning' of a swift response to Walton's
video, which showed him flaunting weapons and bragging about his stash of
drugs. Contraband was found inside another inmate's tuna and baked bean
sandwich. 'I was appalled when I saw the inmate's video and we immediately
advised the operator, GEO Group, that we would be sending in our own team,'
Mr Elliott said. 'We conducted an intelligence-based sweep of the centre,
seizing mobile phones and tobacco from a number of cells – and this is only
the beginning.' Walton's video, which quickly went viral, showed him holding
a knife, a 'slasher' razor and the drug ice inside his Parklea prison
cell. He claimed he was filming
himself on a mobile phone given to him by a prison guard. Walton said he had
'messed up the system' for some inmates by sharing the video, but revealed he
did it to highlight what he claimed to be rampant drug use in prison. 'Jail
messes people up. I never used to touch drugs until jail, when I went in I
got on this and I got on that. I couldn't escape it,' he told The Daily
Telegraph last week. Walton, a former Bandido bikie, said he had no idea the
video would cause such a stir. 'I turned on my email account and everyone
was messaging me about it... The young ones inside might thank me for it but
the ones on long sentences won't,' he said. Walton's video showed him holding
a knife, a 'slasher' razor and the drug ice inside his Parklea prison
cell. When the footage emerged,
Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin spoke with GEO Group
officials to discuss security and safety concerns. 'I have just met
with GEO, and told them I am sending in a public sector Governor to lead a
review of the centre. 'The Governor will lead a team that will oversee all
major decisions made by GEO management and also review practices there.'
Commissioner Severin said at the time the review was expected to take a
minimum of four weeks.
Jul 10, 2017 dailytelegraph.com.au
Gang-run fight clubs in private prison where inmates were encouraged to
‘fight to the death’
An “appalled” prisons commissioner is sending in an elite team to take
over the privately-run Parklea Correctional Centre if necessary in the wake
of the Youtube security scandal. Commissioner Peter Severin said this was the
first time this action had been taken at any jail in NSW. A governor from the
public section will lead the team and have the power to veto decisions. He
said that when he met with bosses of the GEO Group, which runs the jail, this
morning they were very apologetic. He revealed that the video made on a
mobile phone was probably recorded in August last year when the two inmates
were in the same maximum security cell. One has since been parolled but the
other, who is now in a different jail, also had his new cell searched over
the weekend after the video was uploaded to Youtube. “This is a very serious
matter,” Commissioner Severin said. “I have just met with GEO and told them I
am sending in a public sector governor to lead a review of the centre. “The
governor will lead a team that will oversee all major decisions made by GEO
management and also review practices there.” He said he was appalled when the
video was brought to his attention late on Friday. WEEKLY prison fight clubs
and self-filmed vision of a prisoner showing off a knife and ice were proof
private-run prisons were ‘breeding crime,’ a union claimed today. The prison
service went into meltdown today after the shocking footage emerged - with
prisons boss Peter Severin ordering crisis talks to try and work out how the
maximum security prisoner managed to get hold of such deadly weapons inside
Parklea jail. To make matters worse, it is believed Corrective Services
Minister David Elliott is away on holiday, leaving the government floundering
as it tries to grapple with the scandal. Private prison operators have a
history of security problems around the world including in New Zealand where
prisoners held weekly fight clubs. Serco, which is part of the consortium
which has won the bid to run the new prison to be built outside Grafton, lost
its contract to run a Mt Eden jail in Auckland after footage emerged of the
gang-run clubs which encouraged some people to fight to the death. As well as
the weekend’s debacle where a maximum security inmate at Parklea Correctional
Centre filmed himself with drugs and weapons on a mobile phone inside his
cell, it shows that private companies should not be running the state’s
jails, Public Service Association general secretary Stewart Little said
today. “The only way we find out about these issues is by inmates filming
themselves - what sort of system is that?” Mr Little said. “There is no
transparency or accountability in private prisons. “No private company should
be profiting from crime. “These poorly managed, under resourced prisons are
just incubators for worse problems that are later unleashed back into
society. “Society can’t afford to privatise prisons.” He said that successful
correctional facilities in Nowra, Cessnock, Kempsey and Wellington proved
that if governments invested the money, they will get results. Serco is one
of the companies behind the Northern Pathways Consortium, which has been
chosen by the Berejikilan Government to run a new privately operated Grafton
prison. Serco tried to block the release of the official report into the Mt
Eden fiasco but was overruled by the New Zealand High Court. It led to the
government taking control of Mt Eden again. Sydney’s Parklea jail is run by
another private operator, GEO Group, which has still not commented. The
company is so secretive it will not reveal who its media spokesperson is but
said they would “call back”. The Daily Telegraph online is still waiting.
“We’re falling behind New Zealand here,” Mr Little said. The GEO Group
Australia as manager of Parklea Correctional Centre takes any security breach
extremely seriously. We welcome the support of the Commissioner and
Corrective Services NSW as we review our operations to ensure that the centre
operates safely and securely. Opposition Leader Luke Foley is demanding a
massive increase in prison guards, accusing the state government of allowing
our prisons to become “awash with dangerous weapons, hard drugs and mobile
phones”. “This morning we see confirmation of that – prisoners are now
flaunting it, making home movies, making their own YouTube clips showing off
their weaponary and their stash of drugs,” he added. “What’s the response of
the government? No-one’s available to talk. The prisons minister is away,
who’s the acting prisons minister? Where’s the premier?”
Jul 9, 2017 dailymail.co.uk
EXCLUSIVE: Prisoner films himself with ice, a knife and a 'slasher' razor
blade inside Parklea jail – and claims he was given the contraband by a GUARD
Shocking footage has emerged of a prisoner holding a knife and 'slasher'
razor while inside his jail cell. In a video obtained by Daily Mail
Australia, the inmate also says he has the drug 'ice' in his possession. The
vision was captured at the Parklea Correctional Centre, in Sydney's west,
which is privately operated by GEO Group Australia Pty Ltd. Filming himself
on a mobile phone, the man claims the contraband was given to him by prison
guards. 'Recording inside of Parklea Correctional Centre. On a day-to-day
basis this place is a dead set joke,' the prisoner can be heard saying in the
video. 'Right know I'm in my cell, I've got a mobile phone. Why have I got a
mobile phone? It's because screws are bringing mobile phones into the jail.'
Man, 22, charged with murder after father-of-two was stabbed... He continues
to question why he has been allowed to walk around his cell while showing off
the contraband on camera. 'Why am I carrying around a knife? Why does that
need to be in my hand at this point in time?' he asks. 'Why have I got a
slasher? Why do I need to slash people?' The prisoner continues to hold up a number
of other items to the camera, including a metal bar which he says came off a
television. 'That there alone will rip skin, damage ya [sic],' he said. He
then displays a small plastic bag which he says contains the drug 'ice'. 'Why
have I got it, because I can,' the prisoner said. In a statement to Daily
Mail Australia, Corrective Services NSW said they viewed the incident as a
very serious breach of security and have immediately launched a multi-team
investigation. 'CSNSW is meeting with the operator of Parklea Correctional
Centre, GEO Group, [on Monday] to discuss security and safety concerns,' the
statement said. 'The Security Operations Group [on Saturday] conducted a
targeted search operation, with 40 staff and nine detection-K9s at Parklea
Correctional Centre, focusing on a number of cells in the maximum-security
section on the prison.' The statement added the search found four mobile
phones and chargers, steroid tablets and a number of other contraband items,
with investigations continuing. 'CSNSW takes a zero-tolerance approach and
uses a range of methods to track down and confiscate contraband,' the
statement said. 'Searches for illegal and banned items are conducted by
centre staff on a day-to-day basis on prisoners, visitors, cells and all common
areas, in addition to searches by the specialist Security Operations Group,
including the K9 unit. 'Inmates go to extraordinary lengths to introduce
contraband. Methods include internal secretion, visitor smuggling and lobbing
of packages over perimeter fences. Any suggestions that contraband is
introduced by staff are immediately investigated.' NSW Corrective Services
Minister David Elliott vowed no stone will be left unturned as the incident
is investigated. 'I was horrified when I saw the YouTube video and
immediately called for an investigation,' Mr Elliott said. 'I have asked
CSNSW to review the contract to see what penalties could be imposed if there
has been a failure by the operator. In May, prison officers intercepted
contraband which outsiders had tried to smuggle into the facility. Four
mobile phones stuffed inside a one lite carton of milk, tobacco, white powder
and flick knives were among the items seized in the area between the centre's
perimeter fence and the prison walls. Three months earlier, a 27-year-old
inmate at the Parklea Correctional Centre was rushed to hospital after he was
stabbed in the neck by another prisoner. The facility was also forced to
change numerous locks throughout the complex after a prisoner allegedly stole
a set of keys in December last year. And the maximum security centre was
embroiled in a staff attack at the beginning of 2016 when 40 prisoners
attacked guards. Officers had to barricade themselves inside a safe room
while special ops detained the inmates.
Jul 16, 2016 dailytelegraph.com.au
Parklea Jail inmate Mahmoud Allam’s family want answers after staph
infection death
THE family of a young prisoner who died from a golden staph infection
are demanding answers, claiming he begged authorities to take him to a
hospital for at least five days. Mahmoud Allam’s sister Amal said the
“healthy 28-year-old” had contracted the infection at Parklea Correctional
Centre before his death on June 18. He was kept at the privately-run
facility for five days despite complaining he was ill. He was eventually
taken to Blacktown Hospital after he “collapsed” in his cell. Allam was then
transferred to the intensive care unit at Westmead, where he died. His
mother, who visited him the night before he died, said he had been pleading
for help for five days while in jail “but no one listened”. Mahmoud Allam
died after contracting a staph infection in prison. Amal Allam said her
brother was taken to Parklea for breaking parole and had previously served
three years for a robbery offence. “I understand that prisoners, they’ve done
wrong ... but you can’t give up on them and he didn’t deserve to die that
young,” she said. “We can’t sleep at night. We’re angry, we’re puzzled — it
is heartbreaking.” Ms Allam said they wanted answers and were pursuing legal
action. All deaths in custody are subject to a mandatory inquest. “I think
he caught it (golden staph) in prison,” she said. “They said it had started
off with a pimple and it has spread to his brain — and then it spread to his
body.” Nada Allam and Youssef Allam, the parents of Mahmoud Allam, along with
his sister Amal Allam, Uncle Mohammad Yassine and brother Mohammad Allam all
wants answers about Mahmoud’s death. Picture Craig Greenhill Allam’s death
comes after The Daily Telegraph this month revealed there were fears of a
disease outbreak in the state’s bulging prisons because of overcrowding. In
response to the disease threat, the Baird government created new powers so
the chief health officer could intervene in the case of jail outbreaks.
Western Sydney Health refused to comment about Allam’s death. Parklea
Correctional Centre, which is run by GEO Group Australia, said the death was
“with the coroner”. GEO is a subsidiary of American company The GEO Group. It
runs five jails in Australia and 104 facilities worldwide. In November last
year an inmate died in mysterious circumstances at Junee Correctional Centre,
which the company also operates.
Oct
15, 2015 tenplay.com.au
Inmate
moved to Supermax after using mobile phone in Parklea prison
Specialist
officers from Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) have conducted a dawn raid at
Parklea Correctional Centre in relation to the use of a mobile phone to
access Instagram. Wesam Hamze, who has links to Brothers 4 Life, has been
using the phone to post images and brag about alleged drug drops throughout
the prison, the Daily Telegraph reports. Hamze used the phone to take
pictures of guards, and tell his followers that the jail operators were clueless
to operations within the prison. “I was getting a bottle of xans a week to
the boys in kitchen and a shitloadof 80ml oxys when I was doing weekends
there" one Instagram comment reads, the Daily Telegraph reports. Hamze
is the first cousin of Brothers 4 Life founder Bassam Hamzy. "Mobile
phones are a challenge for prison systems across the world," said
Assistant Commissioner forSecurity & Intelligence Mark Wilson. "Corrective Services NSW takes a zero
tolerance approach to any inmate found with a phone." "CSNSW is
investigating some of the claims made on Instagram including allegations
about the smuggling of contraband into the prison, which is operated by the
GEO Group," a CSNSW statement reads. CSNSW has also confirmed "a
security crackdown on mobile phones in all prisons, with increased searches
and the recent announcement that full body scanners will be introduced into
all maximum and medium security prisons by the end of this year." Hazme
has now been moved to a Supermax facility.
April
11, 2011 Blacktown Sun
Police have revealed that two inmates who escaped from Parklea prison last
month are still on the run. The escapees broke free from the prison’s drug
and alcohol rehabilitation wing on March 20, just two months after three
inmates escaped from the jail’s minimum security wing in January. Police said
three inmates cut a hole in mesh fencing before climbing onto a roof and
scaling a large fence to escape the institution. One of the inmate was
arrested at an address at Windsor the next day but two are still on the run.
Union representatives said the privately-run prison is under staffed and
resources have been cut to increase profits. Following the recapture of three
escapees in February, Corrective Services commissioner Ron Woodham ordered
that all 73 minimum security prisoners be moved to other NSW jails while the
security was upgraded. Problems at the jail still persist and the latest
escapes will again bring the operator GEO Group’s ability to run the jail in
to question. The company referred all questions to the commissioner, who
could not be contacted yesterday.
February
22, 2011 Blacktown Sun
THE third and final escapee from Parklea prison has been captured and now
faces a stay in Goulburn's Supermax jail. The convicted armed robber, Dion Dugal,
18, was found by police at a house in Rymill Road, Tregear, on Thursday.
Police alleged he was found with a wallet that was not his and have charged
him with possession of goods suspected of being stolen as well as with
escaping from custody. Dugal escaped from Parklea jail's minimum security
wing during the night of January 18 and 19, with Raymond Fletcher, 25, and
Ronny Vinaisi, 30, who have also been recaptured. The escapes raised
questions about how the jail was being run by contractor GEO Group. Latu
Sailosi from the Public Services Association told the Sun the jail was
understaffed and that union officials had been blocked from accessing
information about staff assaults. "Some of the things that have come to
us since the jail has been privatised is that staff (to prisoner) ratios have
been cut in half," Mr Sailosi said. "With private companies,
obviously the goal is to make money from the venture, so things have to be
cut." GEO Group diverted all media inquiries to Correctional Services
NSW, which still owns the jail's buildings and infrastructure.
January
24, 2011 Rouse Hill Times
PARKLEA Correctional Centre’s minimum security wing could be vacant for up to
six months as it undergoes a major upgrade after three prisoners escaped last
week. NSW Corrective Services commissioner Ron Woodham has ordered the 73
minimum security inmates be moved out, and internal reviews of the escapes
and the classification of all prisoners from the unit. The inmates were moved
to three other Sydney jails on Thursday night. The first stage of the upgrade
will include new perimeter fencing. Internal security upgrades will also
occur. The evacuation come as the Public Service Association, the union
representing prison officers, calls for a full review of the jail. Parklea is
privately run by the GEO Group Australia, which took over from the state
government in 2009. The association’s spokesman Stewart Little said there
were obvious staffing issues. “A spate of escapes ... should be ringing alarm
bells loud and clear that privatisation isn’t working at Parklea,” he said.
“Yet all Ron Woodham is suggesting is a review of the classification of every
minimum security prisoner - what about a review of GEO’s contract?”
January
19, 2011 Sydney Morning Herald
THE Corrective Services Commissioner, Ron Woodham, has relocated 73
minimum-security prisoners from the privately operated Parklea prison to
government-run jails as questions mount over who is responsible for the
embarrassing escape of three inmates this week. The 73 prisoners, who were
moved to Parramatta, Windsor and Silverwater jails late on Thursday, will
remain in the prisons until internal structures and perimeter fencing at
Parklea's minimum-security wing have been upgraded. Parklea prison holds up
to 800 sentenced and remand inmates, and those with a maximum-security
classification remain. Raymond Vance Fletcher, Dion Dugal, and Ronny Vinaisi,
who had been working in the grounds with limited supervision on Tuesday,
waited until night to ''break through the ceiling, climb down a pipe and then
over the chainwire fence'', Mr Woodham said yesterday. Mr Woodham told 2GB he
was ''embarrassed'' by the escape and had told the private operator, GEO
Group, he was ''not happy''. ''No doubt there's going to be some financial
consequences for them,'' he said, indicating the company would not be paid
for the 73 prisoners. However, sources say that with no expense for food and
staff to guard the inmates, the company does not face significant loss. GEO
Group is understood to be responsible only for the management of the
facility, not the buildings and structures. Mr Woodham said the government
would conduct the upgrade. The current facilities had housed minimum-security
inmates for about three years before GEO Group took over its management in
November 2009, said Matt Bindley, the chairman of the Prison Officers'
Vocational Branch of the Public Service Association. ''There weren't the kind
of escapes [back then] … It's a problem with the levels of supervision,'' Mr
Bindley said.
Perth Immigration Centre
Perth, Australia
Group 4
February 19, 2004
A GROUP of 17 detainees at Perth's immigration detention
centre have started a hunger strike to protest about the withdrawal of a work
program. The Refugee Rights Action Network (RRAN) said the detainees
were told by centre manager Group 4 yesterday that jobs normally performed by
detainees in exchange for redeemable points would be outsourced.
RRAN spokesman Peter Wilkie said Group 4 had wanted to
cut the number of points awarded for certain tasks, and when detainees
protested, the jobs were withdrawn. (The Australian)
Pontville Immigration Detention
Center
Pontville, Tasmania
Serco
November 7, 2011 ABC News
A Tasmanian Liberal Senator has slammed the sacking of security guards at an
immigration detention centre in southern Tasmania. Eric Abetz says 36 people
have been dismissed from the Pontville facility, north of Hobart, which is
currently housing about 200 male detainees. He says the Federal Government
promised the centre would create much needed jobs in the area and it is yet
another broken promise. "Tasmanians were promised lots of jobs and that
it would be of real benefit to the Tasmanian community." "Today we
have witnessed 36 people losing their employment and the Tasmanian people
have a right to feel betrayed," he said. Serco, the centre's managers,
insist staffing levels are adequate. A spokesman says the security guards
were contractors employed on a temporary basis, while surveillance systems
were brought online.
Port Hedland
Kimberley, Australia
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut)
December 11, 2003
A Port Hedland detainee has vowed to take legal action after being placed in
isolation and allegedly bashed as punishment for a riot in which he was
cleared of involvement. Asylum seeker Babar Iqbal Choudry, 40, said
Australasian Correctional Management guards had handcuffed, punched and
kicked him and refused him medical treatment in the Port Hedland detention
centre's Juliet isolation block. Speaking from the centre yesterday, Mr
Choudry said he had been released on Monday after management reviewed a video
of the disturbance last Thursday. "They told me I did nothing
wrong," he said. He said he would take legal action after
"being treated like a criminal and like a terrorist". He called for
an inquiry into the treatment of the detainees. ALP president Carmen
Lawrence has called for an independent inquiry into the handling of the
disturbance, sparked when a schoolgirls' visit was cancelled on the grounds
they could be at risk of being raped. Mr Choudry said 24 detainees
still in the isolation block had gone on a hunger strike over their
treatment. (The Age)
October 17, 2003
A 16-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker has slashed his arms and chest and staged a
roof-top protest at the Port Hedland detention centre, saying his brother was
tricked into signing papers to return home. Abdullah Kadem and his
family gained media attention this year when they attempted to leave
Australia but were rejected by Thailand and Vietnam. Abdullah and his
father, Abdul, this week began a roof-top protest with five other asylum
seekers after older brother, Mohammed, 18, signed an agreement to return
home. Adbullah said immigration department officials told Mohammed the
papers were for a bridging visa. Mohammed was flown to the Perth detention
centre on Wednesday without his family's knowledge. When he arrived, he was
told he had signed deportation papers instead, Abdullah said. (The Age)
January 15, 2003
The Federal Government has flagged the closure of the Port Hedland detention
centre in the country's remote north-west as numbers in the centre and boats
failed to reach Australia. The spokesman said that for Woomera and Port
Hedland detention centres to be closed, the residential housing project that
accommodates children and women from Woomera would have to be replaced by
another residential project. "If we can get a residential housing
project at one of the other centres, and possibly Baxter is most likely, or
the preferred, that would pave the way for Woomera to be mothballed," he
said. (The Age)
January 8, 2003
The
recent spate of fires in Australia's detention centres and the government's
rejection of calls for an inquiry are symptoms of a fundamental malaise in
Australian public policy. The Howard
Government, with little political opposition, has been able to build on the
policy initiated by its Labor predecessor of mandatory detention combined
with remote detention centres in such places as Port Hedland and
Woomera. Against this background it
should be noted that while European Australia began as a penal colony and
advanced to a federation, in many respects it never completely
de-colonised. The policy of indefinite
mandatory detention, often in remote locations, was inevitably going to lead
to serious problems for the inmates and staff. The central problems with privatised
prisons is that they lack the accountability of a government-run
organisation. Indeed, one of the
driving political motives for such privatisations is to distance the
government from problems. They can say it is a matter for the
contractor. This is to be contrasted
with problems in public prisons, where a fire such as the one started by
inmates in Jika Jika in 1987 led to the closure of the facility,
immediately. Jim Kennan was the attorney-general
and minister for corrections who ordered the closure of the Jika Jika maximum
security section of Pentridge Prison immediately after the 1987 riot and
fatal fire. (The Age)
January 7, 2003
A
workplace safety investigation at the Port Hedland detention centre has
raised concerns about fire safety, the presence of asbestos in
buildings and the security of staff. Fire extinguishers were missing from
accommodation blocks, fire hoses were used to water gardens and staff
training was inadequate, the report said.
Their investigation was conducted in October, two months before the
series of fires that caused millions of dollars damage at Port Hedland and
other detention centres in the days after Christmas. It was ordered by the Australian Industrial
Relations Commission's senior deputy president, Brian Lacy, when
he was dealing with an industrial dispute over the safety concerns of
officers at Port Hedland. The
officers, employed by detention centre operator Australasian Correctional
Management, went on strike for 12 days last September. (The Age)
January 3, 2003
It was meant to be the new, friendlier face of Australia's asylum seeker
policy. Although an electrified fence runs around the outside, and security
cameras are everywhere except in private areas, the rooms are modern. There
is more grass and play area for children than in other centres. But today
part of Baxter lies in ruins, and along with it any hope of an easy
resolution to the fate of Australia's asylum seekers. Just after midnight on
Friday last week a fire broke out in an empty room in Red 1, a men's compound
at Baxter. Although detainees cannot possess matches or lighters, arsonists
may have made a lighter from electric wiring or a toaster. They had
mattresses and newspapers - plenty of fuel. Two nights later, a bigger fire
was lit in Red 1. Staff tried to put it out but did not have enough water.
Fire crews arrived, people were banging on doors to wake those still asleep.
Many detainees were collapsing from smoke inhalation. At about 3pm that day
more fires were lit. Desperate to get out but told not to, detainees broke
down the gate and tried to break out of the compound. Guards in riot gear
confronted them. When some detainees were asked why they had started the fire
they replied: "We were trying to get away. The centre is making us
crazy." By Sunday night the fires were spreading, first to Port Hedland
detention centre, later to Woomera, Christmas Island and Villawood. The
"ferocity" of the actions took guards by surprise, an ACM employee
said. On December 17, newspapers in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne
published the same article. Carrying headlines such as "Five Star
Asylums" and "It's not all mriots at our Club Fed", it
reported that detainees enjoyed luxuries such as gyms, Foxtel, DVDs and yoga
classes. The article, and a similar one in a Port Hedland newspaper, made
some people in the Port Hedland detention centre "very angry," says
the town's Uniting Church minister, Bev Fabb. She says most of the article's information
was wrong for Port Hedland. The article also troubled Harry Minas of the
Federal Government's Independent Detention Advisory Group. Neither Professor
Minas nor Ms Fabb suggest a direct link between the article and the arson but
many asylum seeker advocates feel the article helped to exacerbate what one
advocate describes as a "huge deterioration" in the mood of
detainees in the past month. A shift is under way in the centres. Numbers are
dwindling. No boat has reached Australia for 14 months. Baxter, Woomera and
Port Hedland are way below capacity. On New Year's Eve the Immigration
Department handed a letter to 488 detainees in Baxter, Port Hedland and
Woomera. The letter said most of them had been rejected as refugees and had
"no right to remain in this country . . . You can choose to bring your
detention to an end at any time by leaving Australia". According to what
an Iranian detainee told asylum seeker advocate Ian Knowles, a group of men,
infuriated by the letter, marched to the immigration office and demanded to
be deported straight away. Guards in riot gear pushed them back to a
compound. ACM confirmed that tear gas was used. Mr Minas adds: "People
are saying, 'It's their (the detainees') own bloody fault', and in a way it
is. "But people have to ask what makes this group prefer be in a
detention centre environment rather than to go go home. "They are not
choosing a soft life in Australia." (The Age)
December 29, 2002
A
deliberately lit fire has forced the evacuation of a residential block at
Port Hedland Detention Centre in Western Australia. Fire broke out in the India residential
block at Port Hedland some time before 1.45am (AEDT) today, a spokesman
for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs
(DIMIA) said today. The blaze follows
deliberately lit fires which destroyed large parts of the Baxter Detention
Centre at Port Augusta in South Australia over the weekend. Some Australasian Correctional Management
(ACM) staff were treated for minor smoke inhalation but there were no other
reports of injuries, he said.
Meanwhile, police were today questioning asylum seekers suspected of
starting up to five separate fires which caused $2.25 million damage at the
Baxter Detention Centre, opened only in September. (The Age)
December 10, 2002
The international group Human Rights Watch issued a damning report into
Australia's treatment of boat people yesterday. The report was released
on the same day as Australia's Human Rights and Equal Ppportunity Commission
released four critical reports into complaints of mistreatment by asylum
seekers. In one report, the commission said a Lebanese citizen, Hassan
Ghomwari, who overstayed his visa and was held in Villawood detention centre,
had been denied medical treatment which met minimum international
standards. Another report, which concerned complaints by five asylum
seekers who had been held in the notorious "J block" at the Port
Hedland detention centre, said their rights to be treated with "humanity
and respect for their inherent dignity" had been breached. (Sidney
Morning Herald)
October 1, 2002
The Industrial Relations Commission has backed union claims that alleged
weapon stockpiling by inmates at some of Australia's detention centres could
endanger staff. The commission, which also sought to inspect the Port
Hedland centre in Western Australia, found there was a workplace dispute over
the issue. The commission's senior deputy president Brian Lacy
yesterday acknowledged claims by the Australian Workers Union that inmates at
Port Hedland were "manufacturing and stockpiling weapons", which
could threaten the safety of detention officers. Mr Lacy also noted union
claims that the company that controls detention centres nationwide,
Australasian Correctional Management, was "not taking any or adequate
steps to protect its employees from detainee threats and
assaults"." The finding comes as Port Hedland staff enter
their seventh day of industrial action. Up to 50 officers at Woomera
detention centre also stopped work yesterday over similar safety fears.
Counsel for ACM, Ian Douglas, QC, told the commission the company did not
believe safety was an industrial issue. Mr Lacy wanted to inspect the
Port Hedland centre to determine whether staff safety was in jeopardy.
However, ACM has said it will appeal against Mr Lacy's finding of a dispute
and has refused to take part in the inspection process. Last Tuesday
more than 50 Port Hedland officers and staff at the Christmas Island centre
stopped work over safety issues, including understaffing and claims that
detainees were stockpiling weapons. In his decision, Mr Lacy criticised
ACM's attitude to the commission. "If its conduct throughout the course
of the matter proves to be as it appears from the record, it might reasonably
be regarded that ACM has acted appallingly... It appears from the record that
ACM saw the commission as a way to secure a return of its employees to work
without any consideration of the merits of their claims about fears for their
safety," he said. AWU national president Bill Shorten said it was
"outrageous" that ACM had chosen to effectively block the
commission's desire to inspect the Port Hedland centre. "They are a law
unto themselves. A law within a law." (The Age)
September 25, 2002
A
strike by detention centre guards at Port Hedland has widened, with officers
walking off the job at the Christmas Island immigration facility. Australian
Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten said 14 of a total of 26 guards
at the offshore camp walked out over the same safety issues as their
colleagues at Port Hedland. Sixty Port Hedland officers began industrial
action last night, demanding that the camp's managers, Australasian
Correctional Management (ACM), conduct a weapons search. Guards claim
detainees have been fashioning weapons from chairs, beds, sticks and other
objects, and have been stashing them away inside the compound. The union also
wants minimum agreed staffing levels per shift and an assurance that
detainees will in future be escorted on any trips out of the centre by more
than one officer. He said AWU detention centre officers at Perth, Villawood,
Maribyrnong and at the immigration detention centre in Auckland had sent
messages of support to staff at Port Hedland and Christmas Island. Mr Shorten
said the officers would not return to their duties unless their demands were
met. "There is a culture of denial within ACM." The AWU today said
the centre manager and operations manager at the newly-opened Baxter had both
resigned in the past month. (The Age)
September
24, 2002
Fears that detainees are stockpiling home-made weapons have sparked a walkout
by guards at Western Australia's Port Hedland detention centre. Australian
Workers Union WA official Paul Asplin said detainees had fashioned weapons
from broken-up steel and wooden beds, bookshelves and "anything (they)
can get their hands on". He said the 50 workers walked off the job today
and would not return until a weapons inspection was carried out by the
centre's managers, Australasian Correctional Management (ACM). A skeleton
staff of five was left watching the detainees, Mr Asplin said. Mr Asplin said
the centre's chief executive officer had denied knowledge of the arms,
despite detention centre officers video taping evidence over the past two
weeks and passing it to management. "ACM has got to lift its game and
acknowledge the Health and Safety Act," Mr Asplin said. "They can't
ensure the guards' safety and for budget constraints they don't want
to." Mr Asplin said workers also wanted ACM to employ two guards, rather
than one, when escorting high-risk detainees outside the centre. The request
follows the escape of a detainee on a visit to the dentist last month, when
accompanied by a single guard. (Smh.com.au)
August 23, 2002
The Port
Hedland immigration detention centre was "a ship that has several holes
in the hull and is sinking fast", a report has found. Lives were being
risked, with blocked escape routes, combustible material lying in corridors
and broken smoke detectors and hydrants posing a fire risk The fire detection
system was so bad that "smoke from a fire may not be detected and raise
an alarm", according to the report, carried out last year by consultant
Steve Broadbelt and obtained by the Herald. Other faults singled out included
fire hydrants that were "leaking badly", fire hose reels locked in
cabinets to which guards had no keys, no fire extinguishers in the mess
kitchen, and emergency lighting systems in disrepair. "It is considered
that if the referred deficiencies in the refurbishment are not implemented,
and all the other fire safety systems are not immediately reinstated to 100
per cent operational status, the scenario at the [centre] would suggest a
real potential for loss of life," it said. There are 138 asylum seekers
at the Port Hedland centre. The Broadbelt report classified problems at the
centre on a rating of urgency, with P1 - matters that were "a serious
direct threat to the occupants" and should be "rectified
immediately" - the most urgent. P1 ratings were given to five problems,
including a wall that had been built at the top of a stairway preventing
escape along a path leading to an emergency exit, and missing or inoperable
fire detectors that had been covered in plastic food wrap or filled with
toothpaste. "The apparent acceptance of this situation by the staff
would suggest that this has continued for some time," the report said.
It noted that emergency alarm sounders were out of commission, foam
mattresses were stored in corridors and internal stairways, and, according to
staff, that there had been no evacuation exercises for "at least the
last two years". (Sidney Morning Herald)
August
5, 2002
A detainee from the Port Hedland immigration centre in Western Australia is
still at large after escaping on Friday while visiting a dentist in the
town. Despite three days of searching, police say they have no idea of
the whereabouts of the detainee, a 37-year-old man of Middle Eastern origin
who escaped from a security guard assigned to him for the dental trip.
"All we know is he had one guard with him and whilst there he took
off. As soon as we were advised we dispatched a vehicle to look for
him," Sergeant Hush said. "We liaised with ACM (Australian
Correctional Management) trying to get a bit of intelligence as to where he
could be, who might help him, and came up with a negative result. An
immigration department spokeswoman said the department was investigating the
circumstances of the escape. (Smh.com.au)
May 15, 2001
Friday's riot at the Port Hedland detention centre was triggered by fears for
the safety of handcuffed Iranian asylum-seeker who resisted being taken into
isolation. Claims that the man had been beaten by Australasian
Correctional Management guards were denied yesterday by the Federal
Government. A spokesperson said a misunderstanding by detainees led to
the riot. The incident happened when five men were removed from the
Port Hedland centre, a converted mining camp in the Kimberley about 220
kilometers from Broome, and taken to police lock-up in Port Hedland.
Asem Judeh, chairman of the Palestinian Refugees and Exile Awareness
Association in Melbourne, said he was rung twice from the Port Hedland camp
by a source who told him one of the men was beaten. In response the
riot had broken out, he said. Mr. Judeh said he was told the person was
aged 15 or younger and this contributed to the situation. During the
riot asylum-seekers threw stones and damaged buildings. The group was
brought under control when ACM staff sprayed tear gas. Immigration
Minister Philip Ruddock said yesterday there was no need for an inquiry into
the riot. (The Age)
Port Phillip Prison
Port Phillip, Australia
Group 4/Global Solutions (formerly run by Group 4 formerly known as
Wackenhut Corrections)
Nov 18, 2017 heraldsun.com
Prison officer resigns after police probe into firearm offences
A PRISON officer who is being investigated by police over firearms
offences has quit his job at the maximum-security Port Phillip jail. The
36-year-old Point Cook man had worked as a firearms instructor at the prison
but resigned on November 9 after police seized a big cache of rifles and
pistols in a raid at his home. It is understood up to 100 weapons were
seized. Victoria Police spokesman Alistair Parsons said detectives from the
Wyndham crime investigation unit executed the warrant on November 8. “The
warrant was in relation to an ongoing investigation into firearms offences,”
he said. A source told the Herald Sun police began investigating the man
after he was caught illegally importing a silencer from the US. “Police
followed the imported silencer lead to his house where they found an arsenal
of pistols and rifles,” the source said. “All of the firearms were taken as
well as his firearms licence, including his instructor’s licence.” Brett
McMerrin, a spokesman for British-based private security company G4S, which
operates Port Phillip prison, confirmed that police made the company aware of
the investigation a day before the officer resigned. “On November 8,
Victoria Police advised G4S that a member of staff from Port Phillip Prison
was subject to a police investigation,” he said. “G4S can confirm that the
staff member resigned from their position on November 9, effective
immediately,” Mr McMerrin added. Former colleagues claimed that the man was a
“gun nut” and that he often bragged about possessing more than 100 firearms.
A number of the firearms seized by police were legally owned and registered.
However, imitation firearms and a substance believed to be steroids were
among the items seized by police. Police interviewed the man and he was
released pending further inquiries. The investigation continues.
Feb 22, 2017 heraldsun.com.au
Port Phillip Prison inmate dies in suspected drug overdose
A MAXIMUM security prisoner has died from after a suspected drug overdose of
prescription medication. Sources said the prisoner was known to hoard
prescription drugs. It is understood he was on various medication, but was
not taking it which enabled him to stockpile the drugs. The sources believe
that may have played a part in the inmate’s death. The prison insider said
the inmate was found about 7.30am last week when he was not present for roll
call. Corrections Victoria spokesman Michael Gleeson confirmed that the
inmate was discovered last week. “A 40-year-old prisoner was found dead in
his cell at Port Phillip Prison on 14 February,” he said. But Corrections
Victoria declined to confirm if the death was due to an overdose. Brett
McMerrin, spokesman for G4S which runs the jail, said: “As with any death in
custody, the matter will be investigated by Victoria Police on behalf of the
State Coroner, who will formally determine the cause of death”. Controversies
have rocked Port Phillip prison over the last year including prisoner deaths
and guards being stood down. It was revealed last year that balls with large
quantities of the drug ice, small mobile phones and tobacco were being thrown
over fence at Port Phillip prison during daylight hours. It was claimed up to
15 balls a day were thrown. In another case a prison officer was stood down
after allegedly lacing an inmate’s milk with industrial grade disinfectant.
Prison staff were alerted after several prisoners complained about the taste
of the milk. Port Phillip, in Truganina, is Victoria’s largest maximum
security prison housing more than 1000 inmates.
Jan 8, 2017 heraldsun.com.au
Prisoner stabbed in neck at Port Phillip Prison for allegedly sleeping
with another inmate’s girlfriend
A PRISONER has been stabbed inside Victoria’s most secure jail after
alleging sleeping with another inmate’s girlfriend.
The Herald Sun can reveal Michael Cole was stabbed in
the neck with a makeshift shiv inside Port Phillip prison last Thursday afternoon.
Mr Cole was rushed to St Vincent’s Hospital and remains in a serious but
stable condition. Sources say that Mr Cole was returning to his unit when he
was confronted by the angry prisoner, wielding the improvised knife. Police
were alerted at 2.45pm and detectives from Wyndham criminal investigations
unit are currently reviewing evidence. Port Phillip prison is operated by
G4S, a British-based private security contractor. G4S spokesman Brett
McMerrin confirmed the attack and said police were investigating the matter.
“G4S can confirm that a 26-year-old prisoner was assaulted and suffered stab
wounds at Port Phillip Prison on the 5th of January,” Mr McMerrin said.
“Victoria Police has been notified and are investigating the incident.”
Opposition corrections spokesman Edward O’Donohue condemned the attack and
said that Victoria’s prison system was getting out of hand. “The chaos
continues in the prison system,” Mr O’Donohue said. “With four corrections
ministers in just four months, managing the prison system has been an
afterthought for the Andrews Government.” Mr Cole is currently in custody for
drug offences, dangerous driving, resisting arrest and reckless conduct
endangering life. The alleged drug dealer is due to reappear in court in
January. The incident follows a similar stabbing at the prison in November
that saw another inmate in his 20s rushed to hospital.
Dec 31, 2016 dailymail.co.uk
Australia: G4S inmate dies from drugs
-- Prisoner, 21, died after he swallowed a balloon filled with the deadly
drug ice and it burst in his bowel - after his girlfriend smuggled it into jail for him.
-- A 21-year-old prisoner swallowed a balloon filled with the deadly drug ice
-- Cain Hutchinson was on remand at Port Philip Prison in Victoria
-- The father died after the balloon burst in his bowel as the drug leaked
into his gut
-- The inquest heard he called his girlfriend to bring drugs into the prison
for him
-- The following day, he was found vomiting and shaking on his bed in his
cell
-- Hours later, he went into a cardiac arrest before he died in an ambulance
-- A 21-year-old prisoner died after a balloon filled with the deadly drug
ice he had swallowed burst in his bowel, an inquest has heard.
Cain Hutchinson, who was on remand at Port Philip Prison in Victoria, was
found shaking and vomiting just hours before he was found unconscious after
the drugs leaked into his gut. The Coroners Court of Victoria launched an
inquest into his death to determine how he died after his girlfriend managed
to smuggle the drugs into the prison. The young father had called his
girlfriend to arrange for her to bring drugs into the prison for him the next
day. His girlfriend visited the prison with their baby daughter and the
balloon filled with methylamphetamine on June 6, 2015. She purchased a bag of
pretzels and a drink from the vending machine to share with Hutchinson before
she took their baby to the bathroom to change her nappy. She then placed the
balloon in her hand while she was in the bathroom before she returned to her
seat in the visiting area. When she took some pretzels from the bag, she
dropped the balloon. Hutchinson then reached into the bag and placed the
balloon into his mouth before he swallowed it down with orange juice. His
girlfriend was stunned to see the mouth of juice he drank as she believed he
was going to keep the balloon at the back of his throat so it would be easy
to take it out once he returned to his cell. After his family left, he
grabbed dinner and returned to cell to eat his food. On the morning of June
7, 2015, his cellmate found Hutchinson shivering on his bed. His cellmate
decided to get him breakfast to make him feel better. When he returned with
porridge, Hutchinson had locked himself in the cell and said he was on the
toilet. Concerned for his welfare, other inmates gathered around his cell as
they urged Hutchinson to open up the door. Hutchinson was initially suspected
of having food poisoning because he had not mentioned anything about drugs to
his fellow inmates. Far from getting better, Hutchinson was rushed to the
prison's health unit to wait for an ambulance while other inmates were placed
in lockdown. The coroner's report found Hutchinson went into a cardiac arrest
as he was being carried into the ambulance - but attempts to revive him were
unsuccessful. Following day, the autopsy found an orange balloon containing a
small clear plastic bag had spilled into the gut. Methylamphetamine was
detected in his urine and amphetamines were found in his blood and also
urine. A pathologist found the 'knot came partly undone causing the drugs
that were contained in a small ziplock bag to leak out into the gut'. The
coroner's report found that large doses of amphetamines could lead to
agitation, hyperthermia, hallucination, convulsions, unconsciousness,
respiratory or cardiac failure. Two days after his death, his girlfriend
called the Wyndham Criminal Investigation Unit where she tearfully confessed
she had supplied the balloon filled with drugs. During an interview with the
coroner's investigator and a police officer the next day, she explained how
she smuggled the drugs into the prison. In her taped interview with police,
his girlfriend said Hutchinson had told her that he would be 'knocked' or
would have to 'knock' others if she did not bring drugs into the prison. She
pleaded guilty to charges of possessing methylamphetamine and introducing
contraband to a prison. She was fined without conviction. After an internal
management review, visitors who use the bathroom or change their baby's nappy
will proceed as a non-contact visit.
Jul 26, 2014
dailymail.co.uk
Inmates
at a Victorian prison have threatened to not go into lock-down for the night,
after a plumbing issue left them with over-flowing toilets and no fresh
water. It is understood a planned water outage for maintenance at Port
Phillip Prison on Saturday morning has become an extended supply outage. Some
parts of the prison were still without running water well into Saturday
night, and a union says this has created an unhygienic and potentially
dangerous environment for inmates and staff. "Water supply remains
disrupted at Port Phillip Prison," the Community and Public Sector Union
(CPSU) said in a statement to AAP late on Saturday. "Prisoners have
threatened to not lock down because they are unable to flush their toilets or
have access to clean drinking water." The union said staff had concerns
about relying solely on fire extinguishers in the event of a fire, that there
was no water for inmates to take medications and there were also concerns
basic hygiene problems would get worse overnight. "Toilets are quite
high after several uses," according to the statement. The prison is
privately run by contractor G4S, and the union said it appeared the company
did not have a contingency plan should the planned water maintenance issue
run over-time. "It appears that there has been a lack of proper
planning, and raises serious questions about why this private company
continues to run this prison and enjoy the confidence of the state government,"
the CPSU says. A spokesperson for Victorian Corrections Minister Edward
O'Donohue denied that some parts of the prison remained without running
water. "Port Phillip Prison experienced a standard plumbing problem. It
has now been repaired," the spokesperson said. Comment was not
immediately available from G4S.
Jul 9, 2016
theage.com.au
Port Phillip prisoner may have died after ingesting smuggled drugs
A young prisoner died in hospital this week after allegedly smuggling
drugs into the Port Phillip Prison and then ingesting the substance. A
Corrections Victoria spokesman confirmed on Saturday that a 21-year-old Port
Phillip Prison inmate died on July 6. He said that as the Coroner was
investigating, Corrections Victoria was not in a position to confirm the cause
of death. But a prison source told Fairfax Media the prisoner, who was housed
in the high-security unit at Port Phillip, had appeared "under the
influence", and before being taken to medical he was strip-searched by
guards. The source said drugs fell out of his bottom as he was being
searched, and the prisoner then allegedly ingested the drugs. The prisoner
stopped breathing and was transferred to ICU at St Vincent's Hospital. The
prison source did not know what type of drug was allegedly ingested. Port Phillip
is operated by security company G4S. A spokesman for the union representing
prison guards criticised the number of staff rostered at the maximum-security
prison on weekends. "The private company's refusal to roster enough
staff, especially intel officers, on weekends, leaves this site particularly
vulnerable to contraband and this weakness is known across the system,"
the spokesman for the Community and Public Sector Union said.
"Unfortunately, Corrections seem happy to have its operation at arm's
length, but the private operator is failing Victorians." A G4S
spokeswoman said the death was subject to a coronial inquest and Victoria
Police were investigating on behalf of the Victorian Coroner, who would
formally determine the cause of death. "We are therefore unable to make
any further comment," she said. In response to the union's criticism of
staffing at Port Phillip, she said "G4S has a minimum staffing level
agreement with the CPSU". In June 2015 a 21-year-old inmate died at the
prison, from a suspected methamphetamine overdose. Port Phillip, located in
Truganina, is Victoria's largest prison and houses more than 1000 inmates.
Jul 4, 2016 heraldsun.com.au
Prison officers at Port Phillip Prison sacked over gun licences
FOUR officers from the maximum-security Port Phillip Prison have been
sacked for not having proper firearms licences. The move follows an internal
investigation at the privately run Truganina facility. A spokeswoman for
operator G4S told the Herald Sun: “G4S confirms that following an internal
investigation completed in May 2016, four correctional officers were subject
to internal disciplinary action.” “The four officers were subsequently
dismissed from G4S in June 2016,’’ she said. The Herald Sun understands the
sackings relate to officers not having the appropriate firearms licence and
allegedly falsifying related records but G4S did not provide further detail.
A Corrections Victoria spokesman said the issue was a matter for the
operator. “All contractors and private prison operators are required to meet
the strict security and licensing regulations as required by law,’’ he said.
“Corrections Victoria works closely with contractors and private prison
operators to ensure these regulations are adhered to.” The Herald Sun in May
revealed firearms licensing issues had triggered the sacking of a Port
Phillip Prison officer. It was understood the issue of whether officers have
the appropriate licence to take firearms off-site, such as when escorting
prisoners to hospital or court, had been raised. The prison’s general manager
resigned on June 10 but G4S confirmed this was not related to its
investigation. Port Phillip Prison is Victoria’s largest maximum security
prison with capacity for up to 1087 inmates. G4S operates it under contract
to the Justice Department.
October 28, 2013 The Age Victoria
Pressure
is mounting on the Napthine government to give the Auditor-General ''follow
the dollar'' powers to scrutinise taxpayer-funded services and projects
delivered by the private sector. It comes after staff from the Audit Office
were unable to visit two private jails for a recent audit into drugs in
Victorian prisons because their mandate did not extend to private-sector
providers. Opposition corrections spokeswoman Jill Hennessy said the
Auditor-General's office did not have the authority to visit Port Phillip
Prison and Fulham Correctional Centre to audit drug prevention and detection
controls. ''Government is increasingly providing services through the private
sector. If the Auditor-General doesn't have these powers, we don't know what
rorts might be occurring.'' She said there was no independent scrutiny of
projects delivered through public-private partnerships, such as the $500
million Ravenhall Prison. New Victorian Auditor-General John Doyle has put
''follow the dollar'' powers high on his agenda, using his first annual
report to call for an urgent overhaul of the Audit Act. ''Activities by
third-party providers funded by government to achieve government objectives
are currently beyond my mandate. In effect, spending of significant funds,
including through public-private partnerships, are not subject to audit
scrutiny.'' The Napthine government said it was in talks with the
Auditor-General about reforming the Audit Act, which it has labelled a priority
for 2013-14. The state financial watchdog has been pushing for ''follow the
dollar'' powers for four years, with calls becoming more urgent as the
government finances more projects through public-private partnerships and
outsources services to the private sector. A 2010 parliamentary inquiry into
the Audit Act recommended the watchdog be given ''explicit authority'' to
access the systems and records of public-sector contractors and
subcontractors who are paid by the government to deliver services. Former
auditor Des Pearson warned in his final annual report that his ability to
scrutinise taxpayer-funded projects had ''diminished rapidly''. A spokesman
for Finance Minister Robert Clark said reforming the act was a priority for
2013-14. ''The government has already made clear … that it supports in
principle amending the Audit Act to authorise the Auditor-General to access
the systems and records of public sector contractors in appropriate
circumstances.'' He said the watchdog had access to extensive public and
private data, including random and targeted drug tests, positive result
rates, seizure statistics, and prison capacity as part of his latest audit on
drugs in prisons. The value of public-private partnerships in Victoria is
anticipated to rise from $3 billion in 2012 to $7.9 billion in 2013.
May
29, 2011 Brisbane Times
A faulty prison intercom led to the lonely death of Vanessa Westcott's
father, and compensation has brought scant solace, writes Peter Munro. IAN
Westcott wrote to his daughter in fine cursive script from cell 428,
Scarborough south unit, Port Phillip Prison, about how he would make it up to
her one day. Keep studying, he would tell his child Vanessa, keep doing
''good things''. ''My dad taught me to think the world was a good place. He never
told me it was fair, but he told me it was a good place,'' she says. That
faith was tested by his last letter, discovered on a desk in his cell at
8.09am on Saturday, November 26, 2005. The 55-year-old's final words were
scrawled across a lined A4 page: ''Asthma attack buzzed for help no
response.'' He had died sitting on the cold cement floor with his back
against a wall. A coronial inquest in 2009 pointed to a faulty 20¢ telephone
pin in the single cell's "archaic" intercom system. The lonely
death of Westcott - in the dark, trying to call for help - was preventable,
the coroner found. Controversial prison operator G4S Australia has now
settled Supreme Court proceedings brought by Vanessa and her mother,
Lorraine, Westcott's ex-wife. It is thought to be the first time the world's
largest private security company has compensated grieving relatives over a
death in custody in Victoria. Corrections Victoria - which is believed to
have been indemnified by G4S - and St Vincent's Correctional Health Services
were also parties to last month's out-of-court deal, the terms of which are
confidential. But Vanessa, 30, says the settlement has brought scant solace.
"It's not like I've got any sense of justice or any sense of peace at
all, because Dad's not here,'' she says. "Every time I think about it, I
think how he was cold and he was blotchy and he was on the cement floor and
he knew he was going to die because he wrote a note. He tried to get help and
no one came, and for the rest of my life that is something I have got to deal
with."
July
28, 2010 The Courier
A BALLARAT man whose partner stabbed him after he breached an intervention order
did not appear in Ballarat Magistrates Court yesterday amid security
concerns. Douglas John Farquhar, 32, was expected in court to face 11
charges. The charges included four counts of stalking another person and one
count each of burglary, threat to inflict serious injury, assault with a
weapon, resist police and contravening a family violence intervention order.
Farquhar has been in custody in Port Phillip Prison in Laverton for several
months. Yesterday extra security staff were bought from Melbourne to patrol
Ballarat's Magistrates Court in anticipation of the hearing. Defence lawyer
Alexandra Squarci told the court her client was not present in court due to
an incident at the prison just before leaving. In July a magistrate refused
to jail Farquhar's wife Corrina Burns for stabbing him in December last year.
At the time magistrate Andrew Capell said in context of the harassment,
threats and intimidation she endured, Burns was provoked to the extreme.
Farquhar has a lengthy criminal history including prior convictions for
unlawful assault, assault with a weapon and possessing an unregistered
firearm. G4S _ the company that runs Port Phillip Prison and organised
yesterday's transport _ director of public affairs, Tim Hall commented on the
decision not to transport Farquhar. ''For security and duty of care reasons,
the decision was made not to transport a prisoner to Ballarat court from Port
Phillip Prison yesterday morning,'' Mr Hall said. ''G4S cannot comment on
individual prisoners, but at no time was security compromised." The case
was adjourned until August 13.
August
28, 2009 Herald Sun
A VIOLENT drunken bully who killed his girlfriend's three-year-old son is
suing for damages because he caught hepatitis C in jail. Killer Mark Mietto,
who escaped with just four years in prison over the 2001 killing of little
Jonathan Guiver, has demanded compensation for his "pain and
suffering". His plight has attracted little sympathy from the shattered
dad of his young victim. A drunken Mietto smashed Jonathan's skull at the
boy's mum's Vermont home in June 2001. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter,
saying he had dropped the young boy on his head accidentally, a claim
rejected by the court. Jonathan had complained Mietto had harmed him
previously and an autopsy found bruises on his body consistent with previous
child abuse. Now Mietto claims he is suffering and deserves to be paid
damages. In a writ lodged in the Victorian County Court on Monday, the
34-year-old alleged he had contracted hepatitis C from fellow inmates at Port
Phillip Prison. His suffered liver dysfunction, fatigue, abdominal pain,
night sweats and pain and suffering, the writ said. The former labourer and
painter was also permanently "incapacitated for employments to which he
is suited", the writ alleges. Mietto has accused the private prison's
operator, G4S Custodial Services, of failing to protect him from the deadly
disease. The prison operator should have warned him about the dangers of
sharing electric razors and other personal items with other inmates, and
should have isolated prisoners with the disease, the writ claims. It is
believed Mietto has claimed to the prison he was infected with hepatitis C
while using a communal electric razor in the prison's high-security Charlotte
Unit, which is designed to manage difficult prisoners.
July
9, 2009 The Age
PRIVATE prison operator G4S is under attack over a prisoner's death — for
the third time in nine years — after a coroner found it could have prevented
the fatal asthma attack of a prisoner who died after using a faulty emergency
intercom. Ian Westcott, 50, was found dead in his Port Phillip Prison cell on
the morning of November 26, 2005, about eight hours after he died. On a desk
in his cell, police found a note in his handwriting: "Asthma attack. Buzzed
for help. No response." In a damning finding, coroner Audrey Jamieson
said prison operator GSL — now trading as G4S — failed to take proper
measures to ensure the functionality of its "archaic" emergency
intercom system. "Mr Westcott's death was not … without sufficient
warning as to render his death unpreventable," she said. "I find a
direct correlation between the failure of the intercom system and Mr
Westcott's death. The technology must be capable of meeting the security
needs of the isolated at all times." G4S Australia, a subsidiary of a
British-owned multinational security and prisons company, last year was
criticised by the WA coroner over the "inhumane" death of
Aboriginal prisoner who suffered heatstroke in an unair-conditioned van on a
360-kilometre trip. The company was also found to have contributed to the
hanging deaths of three inmates and the drug overdose of another at Port
Phillip Prison in 1997-98. In 2004, it was fined $500,000 after refusing
immigration detainees food, water and toilet access on a seven-hour trip. Ms
Jamieson recommended a statewide review of prison intercom and security
systems and independent and Department of Justice audits. Investigators had
concluded a single faulty pin on a six-pin telephone plug housed in the jail's
central services cupboard was probably to blame for the faulty intercom.
July
9, 2009 Herald Sun
A CORONER has found a prisoner who died of an asthma attack could have
survived if an intercom had been working. Ian Thomas Campbell Westcott, 55,
was found dead in his Port Phillip Prison cell on November 26, 2005. Prison
officers found a note in his cell reading "asthma attack. buzzed for
help. no response". Coroner Audrey Jamieson described the intercom as
"archaic" and said Mr Westcott's death was totally preventable.
"I find that the failure of the intercom system denied Mr Westcott the
opportunity to receive medical attention,'' Ms Jamieson said. Ms Jamison said
private prison operator GSL, now called G4S, failed to properly maintain the
intercom system and recommended a State Government-commissioned overhaul of
all communication systems in Victorian prisons. Ms Jamieson's also criticised
St Vincent's Correctional Health Services for its medical management of
prisoners. She said Mr Westcott's asthma had never been assessed by medical
staff and he had never received information on how to manage the condition. A
prison doctor told the coroner asthma attacks could cause sudden death, but
Ms Jamieson said Mr Westcott had the self-control to write the note before
his death which indicated he could have been saved. "I thus find that Mr
Westcott's death was not "sudden'' or without warning, or sufficient
warning so as to render his death unpreventable,'' she said. It is estimated
Mr Westcott, who was on remand for dishonesty charges, died eight hours
before being discovered by prison staff. Outside the Coroner's Court, Mr
Westcott's daughter Vanessa and wife Lorraine said they were considering
further legal action against prison authorities. An emotional Vanessa
Westcott said she was devastated by her father's unnecessary death. "I
just want to say that this was so preventable, you know, he could be here
with me right now,'' she said. "They should be held accountable and I'm
going to make sure they are.'' G4S public affairs spokesman Tim Hall said the
company had made immediate changes to their intercom system after Mr
Westcott's death.
September
11, 2008 The Age
COMPLAINTS about Victoria's private prisons have risen up to fourfold in
the past two years, fuelling concerns by a public sector watchdog about the
state's growing reliance on business to provide government services. State
Ombudsman George Brouwer yesterday tabled his 2007-08 annual report, vowing
to shine a light on the more murky aspects of public-private partnerships and
outsourcing and noting the "high risk" that comes with the blurring
of the private and public sectors. In the report, Mr Brouwer highlights a
"growing interdependency" between government and business, which
brings "a high potential for conflict situations and confusion about the
ethical standards required". While issues of conflicts of interest, poor
customer service and failure to fulfil legal requirements remain his core
work, the Ombudsman says public-private contracts and public sector
compliance with the new human rights charter are two new areas of focus. The
2008 report also shows: ■Overall complaints were up 13% to 16,344 on
the previous year. ■Complaints about freedom of information rose by
16%. ■Whistleblower disclosures more than doubled. ■The largest
single source (29%) of complaints related to the Justice Department. ■Local
government made up 23% of complaints and the Department of Human Services
19%. Deputy Ombudsman John Taylor said his office was concerned that private
sector involvement in services traditionally supplied by government may lead
to the erosion of citizens' rights. He pointed to private prisons, noting
400% and 100% increases in complaints respectively about Port Phillip prison
(rising to 443) and Fulham prison (129) since the 2006 annual report. While
rising complaint figures are partly explained by the installation of phones
for inmates, Mr Taylor described the increases as "disproportionately
high". The emphasis on private contracting is a wake-up call for a state
increasingly reliant on PPPs for services ranging from jails to water and now
schools. Mr Taylor said the Ombudsman's office would make a point of
scrutinising deals with business. "Every time there is a major contract
or outsourcing of what traditionally has been a government function we have
an interest; we want to make sure that the normal rights of a citizen to
complain are retained and that the Government doesn't legislate away the
right of an individual to complain to the Ombudsman." Individual
agencies with the most complaints were VicRoads and Port Phillip Prison. ■The
Government is expected to table legislation tomorrow to toughen rules and
guidelines for councillors, including clarifying confusing laws on conflicts
of interest.
June
8, 2008 The Age
A PRISONER subjected to an obscene practical joke by prison officers has
won damages in a case known in prison circles as "Sausagegate". The
private operator of Port Phillip Prison has agreed to pay Kirk Steven Ardern
a large sum for physical and psychological injuries suffered in May 2005. The
Sunday Age understands the payout is less than $100,000, but private prison
operator GSL has already been fined almost $200,000 by Corrections Victoria.
Ardern had been made to believe he was leaving the prison to buy doughnuts,
but was then coerced into inserting what he was told was a package of
contraband drugs and cash into his rectum. But he had been tricked, and was
angered and humiliated after the package — a meat sausage — was revealed
during a strip-search and subsequent mock interrogation. The sausage was
described as being "15 to 20 centimetres long". Three prison
officers suspended on full pay for six to nine months over the incident were
sacked, and two others were counselled. Ardern was released on parole soon
after the incident but is now at Fulham Prison, near Sale, after being jailed
in October 2006 for bashing an elderly couple in their Hughesdale home. GSL
Australia director of public affairs Tim Hall said the behaviour of the staff
involved was inexcusable. GSL is facing a scandal in Western Australia over
the death in February of a 46-year-old man who died after a four-hour trip in
a sealed compartment of a police van when the outside temperature was 43
degrees. And in March, a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission report
found GSL had breached the human rights of five detainees it was taking from
Melbourne's Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre to South Australia's
Baxter facility in September 2004.
November
24, 2007 The Age
THE State Government has made it more difficult for independent observers to
monitor what goes on in jails, lawyers claim. "It's getting harder to
get information about the way the prison system operates," said Hugh de
Kretser, executive officer of the Federation of Community Legal Centres.
"The Government, instead of increasing scrutiny, is going the other
way," he said. This week, Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre was
told it could not set up a legal clinic at Port Phillip Prison to give advice
on issues such as prisoners' treatment in jail, according to the centre's
principal lawyer, Philip Cottier. In the past three months, the Government
had moved to restrict prisoners' rights to make freedom of information
requests and given jail governors overly wide discretion to restrict
prisoners' mail, Mr de Kretser said. The laws about mail were badly drafted
and could potentially capture even innocent mail exchanges, he said.
Corrections Victoria had recently made secret key operational procedures
about how guards should deal with force and firearms, Mr de Kretser said.
These procedures were previously open to public scrutiny. "If we cannot
access the rules Victoria's prisons operate under, how can we hold our
prisons accountable to complying with them?" he said. The criticisms
follow the release of a report this week by the State Ombudsman, George
Brouwer, into a violent incident at the Melbourne Custody Centre earlier this
year. Mr Brouwer found that guards used excessive force against a prisoner
and called for a review of the centre, which is run by a private company, the
GEO Group, under the supervision of Victoria Police. Deputy Ombudsman John
Taylor told The Age that the custody centre was "a closed shop"
with limited public scrutiny: "It's a place that no one can go. It's a
de facto jail, but it's a police jail, and it's very hard to go there unless
you are a lawyer or are from the Ombudsman's office." Mr de Kretser said
Government monitoring of assaults by prison officers in privately run prisons
was weak. "The private prison contractor and the Government have a
common interest in burying the issues," he said.
August
5, 2007 The Age
A PRISONER who was allegedly hurt and humiliated by an obscene practical
joke, known in prison circles as "Sausagegate", is suing the
private operator of Port Phillip Prison at Laverton. Kirk Steven Ardern, 27,
has lodged a writ in the County Court seeking damages for physical and
psychological injuries suffered during the incident on May 22, 2005. The
Sunday Age reported exclusively in March last year that private operator GSL
Australia had been fined almost $200,000 by Corrections Victoria over the
matter and other breaches. Following the Sunday Age report, based on a leaked
copy of an internal investigation, four prison officers who were suspended on
full pay for six to nine months over the incident were sacked, and two others
were counselled. The investigator's report said Ardern was made to believe he
was going out of the prison to buy doughnuts, then coerced into secreting what
he was told was a package of contraband drugs and cash wrapped in cling-wrap
inside his rectum. But he had been tricked, and was angered and humiliated
after the package, a meat sausage, was revealed during a strip-search and a
subsequent mock interrogation. In the writ, filed by solicitors Arnold Thomas
and Becker, the statement of claim says a plan was hatched and carried out
against Ardern by several prison officers, along with several prisoners and a
catering employee. It names the prison officers as Stephen Harmat, Russell
Davies and Appurdural Natkunarajah. A fourth officer was unnamed. The
catering employee is cited as someone named Scott, and the prisoners as Dave
Eddington, "Chris" and "Curly". The writ says the plan
involved persuading Ardern he would be allowed out of the prison if he hid a
package in his rectum and went to Werribee Plaza to give the package to an
unidentified person, then returned to the prison. The plan then involved
strip-searching Ardern before he left prison, "discovering" the
package and treating him as though he had been caught committing a serious
offence. The writ describes the package as being "15 to 20 centimetres
long and tubular in shape and compact and solid". It says Ardern
inserted the package "not of his own free will but acting under
intimidation from Chris, who in the presence of Eddington and Curly" had
told Ardern not to anger the warders and the caterer. "This occurred
after Eddington had told the plaintiff to 'bank' the package which had been
left for him in the prison toilets. In prison parlance, 'bank' meant to
insert the package up his rectum. "The strip-search was carried out by
Davies and the unnamed prison officer. During the strip search the package
was discovered and removed. "Natkunarajah then proceeded to interrogate
the plaintiff and treat him as though he had committed a serious
offence." The writ argues that Ardern was a victim of what amounted to
assault and battery, and suffered damage to the anus and rectum, with
bleeding and pain. His psychological injuries, it said, involved
post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. The writ said Ardern
was especially vulnerable as a prisoner and, because of his psychological
state, personality and circumstances, had been humiliated and embarrassed
through a severe abuse of powers. Ardern has spent most of the time since the
incident in Fulham prison, near Sale, where he is serving a sentence for
assault. GSL |
