Current Private Prisons - Arthur Gorrie Australia's powder keg.

[Kurve]

Secret reports and insider accounts from prison officers and former inmates reveal Brisbane's Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre is overcrowded, increasingly violent and unsafe — even for the staff.

'There's going to be a staff fatality'

Peter and another Arthur Gorrie officer "Carol" spoke to the ABC on the basis they would not be identified, saying they would lose their jobs if management discovered they were speaking out.

They said spikes in attempted suicides and violence at the prison were being driven largely by one factor.

"It's drastically overcrowded. Every cell is doubled up," Carol said.

The 2017 chief inspector's report also reveals a 500 per cent increase in serious assault and a 700 per cent surge in sexual assault between 2013 and 2016.

"I was told by colleagues of a recent incident where a prisoner barricaded himself in a cell. Officers couldn't get in, so they had to take the door off," officer Peter said.

"Because these people aren't trained properly, they went in and they dragged him out, dragged him out into the hallway and then they beat the absolute f**k out of him until he became unconscious and they had to radio for an ambulance because he stopped breathing."

'You're better off going to the RSPCA because you would get treated better there.'

Violence increases as prison reaches capacity (A full house has financial incentives)

'They're shooting up on the landings' 'It was easier to get drugs inside than it was outside'

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-20/inside-arthur-gorrie-correctional-centre/9837260



Any chance at rehabilitation? Should we be concerned about this as a question of ethics? Or, who cares let them kick the **** out of each other!

 

[GreyCrow]

Double ups? Yatala has 4 to a room and 3 to a room cells. Overcrowding isnt a private prison issue

 

[Oscarman]

There's stories Risdon Prison in Hobart has inmates sleeping in common areas. Denied by the Government of course. Also not private.

 

[GreyCrow]

Just a couple of comments on Gorrie. Not sure the source Davenport is overly reliable but some of what he has said I have had told to me happens in SA prisons. I also find it difficult to find major dramas in a prison that still has mostly single bed cells.

I supervised work for the dole sites and a lot of people that passed through had spent some time inside SA prisons. They recounted tales , without any anger or shame, it just seemed a rite of passage to some, like spending a day at dads workplace.

Some of these tales mirror the above. The collusion when things get out of hand balanced by the silence of prisoners to any incidents between them. I mentioned the 4 bed cells and 3 bed cells at Yatala. Trying to find the right mix must be a pain. Smokers in with non-smokers. (now no smoking jails in SA). 1 bloke told me he got bashed because he dared to have a shit at 3am after holding it in for 2 days.

The premise of the thread is good as the US system is broken. The Australian system is also becoming broken. But you and I dont care. Many of our friends or families have never had to spend too much time inside. This is the problem. Everybody knows jails can be better but they dont have the will to demand change. Because it isnt popular.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

I remember family members, particularly parents, crying at Barwon because the staff were so nice to them after their sons had been transferred across from Port Phillip. Had the same reaction too from a mother from Queensland after her son was extradited to Vic.

 

[Kurve]

I remember family members, particularly parents, crying at Barwon because the staff were so nice to them after their sons had been transferred across from Port Phillip. Had the same reaction too from a mother from Queensland after her son was extradited to Vic.

Shame that, it costs nothing to be kind. I'm not telling you anything, you would know how hard it is on family, in many respects they do the time as well. Sometimes I think depending on the circumstances, it might actually be worse.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Shame that, it costs nothing to be kind. I'm not telling you anything, you would know how hard it is on family, in many respects they do the time as well. Sometimes I think depending on the circumstances, it might actually be worse.

I'll make a generalisation here but for a lot of the prisoners, it was always all about them and not so much the wife, kids or girlfriend. It was probably the main reason that visitors can only drop of money for the crooks before the visit and not after. Too many visitors were dropping off money following visits after they'd been threatened.

Wives and children used to barely be able to afford to get to the prison and these lowlifes would threaten them if they didn't put money into their account. The wife would go without so he could gamble and have smokes (good that it's smoke free now). I used to look at some of the visitors and think to myself, 'just go, run, why do you keep coming in to see these scumbags'. I used to listen to how they talked to their visitors and shake my head. One of the worst was actually Matthew Johnson. He's spend his whole hour in a non-contact, box visit, verbally abusing his girlfriend, calling her every name under the sun. She'd be bawling her eyes out and then at the end, he tell her he loved her and he'd see her next week. And she'd come in to do it all over again.