The minister for Corrective Services in WA last week announced a push for greater power to dismiss wayward staff, purportedly with a view to being able to sack corrections staff that are found to be involved in misconduct. The WA Prison Officers Union wields (and always has) an enormous amount of power and subsequently, most policy moves by the department since the riot at Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre, have revolved around equalizing the power balance between these two secretive and unaccountable authoritarian interests.
Victorian prisoner, Craig Minogue(PhD), documented a shortfall in human rights safeguards in Australian prisons. These are run by state-based authorities, however, human rights monitors here are Federally-based (national laws) giving them authority only to act on issues relating to Federal prisoners. Even in this, Federal prisoners, such as alleged people smugglers, are only able to be accommodated in state-run prisons. So, the related authority over even Federal detainees' and prisoners' human rights and detention conditions, in the first instance, is relegated to the state that houses them, which is, usually, a law unto itself under the present system of scrutiny (or overall lack thereof). This presented a particularly worrying problem where Indonesian minors were detained with convicted adult sex offenders in Australian adult male prisons over the last few years. Inept 'wrist-bone scans' that the Australian government used to evaluate the age of these non-English speaking suspects, were wielded against these disadvantaged children by government workers well after they were known to be inherently flawed. Complaints were levelled against the state prison authorities and Federal government only after these children were repatriated to their towns and villages, and any damage already done.
The gap in investigating and policing human rights abuses and conditions in Australian detention/custody, is a problem that people dealing with rights abuses in custody will be well aware of, but few others know about it. This means that there is no pressure from society on the government to lift its game. Clearly, independent monitors are very needed and this has been a long-standing recommendation to Australia and its states from UN human rights agencies repeatedly over the last two decades, drawing virtually no response from the government(s) (both states and Commonwealth), or compunction to comply or explain inaction. Only one Attorney General placed any pressure on the reckless state-based systems to conform to the Convention against Torture. Unceremoniously, Robert McClelland was shanghaied by former PM, Julia Gillard, to rid her cabinet of ministers who might be sympathetic to her rival, Kevin Rudd. In 2008, McClelland, who implemented or commenced several human rights reforms, signed the treaty, but full ratification of the treaty was thwarted by serious stalling tactics from the states and his shortened term in office. Some of his successors went on to introduce off-shore processing; pre-emptive detention that treated Australians unequally before the law via pre-judgments of individuals and minority groups made in view of sub-culture and social status; and, several other legislative initiatives that contradicted fundamental democratic values and usurped the separation of powers.
[According to one prominent journo (though it isn't spoken about publicly, anymore - industrial action - out of sight out of mind, maybe) - the death of the young man also caused a stop-work strike on the roof of the old ABC when Four Corners covered the story but management tried to suppress it (presumably after the typically heavy handed flak levelled against independent journalism from the WA government). That would have been something to see - I wonder if any of you out there still have photos of those journalists striking? If so, email me and let's put up a piece about it - legendary! Now, I could stage roof top protests here when I experience dubious editorial decisions, but as I work from home it may not affect any significant changes - except perhaps falling off.]In October, two Watch Committee representatives reported that they were refused entry by WA prison authorities to check on the welfare of a detainee at Casuarina Maximum Security Prison. This has occurred to WA prison advocates before. During the wrist-bone scan debacle an advocate who spoke to the media was banned from welfare checks on a minor who was alleged to be working alongside paedophiles in Hakea Prison, and the Watch Committee had access revoked after their submission to the UN of the WA Prison Torture Report (Cox, 2000).
In late September, a new Commissioner of Corrective Services was appointed - with an impressive background in the elite special forces (SASR), in business and, in peacekeeping forces, James McMahon would have been a shoe-in pretty much anywhere he expressed an interest. I gather advocates await positive changes to the quite troubled prison system, which has been ignored in the state for some years. It would appear, at least in the 24/7 news brief cycle (hungry for press releases), that there is some reform being planned, which is a lot more than has happened for quite a long time. That total ignore of detention conditions was reminiscent of the era that spawned the Fremantle Prison Riot, the RCIADIC and later, the WA Prison Torture Report (Cox, 2000).
Military training influences in DCS WA's past during those problematic eras, to expert analysts, equated to the militarization of corrections (without any balancing expenditure in other essential areas - such as infrastructure, i.e. basics like toilets, air-con and electricity in Fremantle Prison's cells). An honest and moving account of Fremantle Prison conditions, probably the only personal record in existence, was written by another SASR member. Veteran, Ray Mickelberg, along with his brothers, was wrongfully convicted of the Perth Mint Swindle by two corrupt Perth detectives and spent several years fighting the oppression and corruption within those walls. (I will try to get his prison diary hosted here in the sidebar in the near future, but will need to seek permission from the author who published it.) There have been several local SASR members who have similar service backgrounds who went on to achieve infamy and incarceration in WA prisons for reasons that won't be touched on in this post, but hopefully may be explored in the future.
At the moment, many societies are seeing the militarization of almost everything from shopping mall security and other private security, to policing, intelligence collection and corrections. In the post-9/11 period the Australian PM (Howard) tried to emulate the ethos behind the nationalism and military indoctrination of the USA, despite Australia's unique background as a penal colony (i.e. a giant prison for political prisoners and slaves) and its resultant, long history of anti-authoritarianism. Irreverent and non-conformist foundations are deeply rooted in Australian mainstream culture, values and humour - flag waving (US style) is a relatively recent development. Like the accent, the mindset can be hard for outsiders to grasp, initially. PM Howard went as far as to make primary school funding conditional on the mandatory placement of Australian flags at primary schools and pro-military posters in classrooms (Some schools already hosted an Australian flag, but this was not so common among minority and community schools). His approach to the intelligence prompting Australia's involvement in Iraq & Afghanistan was soon followed by the 'NTER' (a police & military taskforce occupation of Aboriginal NT communities for which, he repealed the Racial Discrimination Act). Really sadly, Australia's military was hyped to the max in a govt-compliant pop-media during this period, thus rendering anything military, now, more or less synonymous with the obfuscation of unsatisfactory standards of government accountability. Nationalistic fervour has also created racial divisions where previously all refugees, immigrants, ancestors of political prisoners and ATSI people were united (not always harmoniously, but generally) under that one umbrella of anti-authoritarianism, as 'battlers' with a typically and distinctive, irreverent sense of humour.
In 2004 the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Van Boven, warned about the pseudo militarization of domestic govt security roles, such as policing and corrections. He perceived a risk that methods utilized in those roles, or adopted by departments headhunting (or even exploiting) ex-special forces personnel, may not be specific to domestic roles, but rather, mirror controversial military methods and treatment of detainees, which now form a notorious part of the post-9/11 era. More recently, even the govt use of Australian special forces personnel in training and supporting Densus 88 is controversial, and possibly opportunistic, due to the allegations of and convictions for human rights abuses by Indonesian special forces personnel in that anti-terror taskforce. Are Australian special forces personnel the marketing point for unsatisfactory foreign policy?
The past methods of the MSU, the “paramilitary” unit of DCS WA were heavily criticized and were the focus of repeated attempted prosecutions relating to prisoner abuse, widely tolerated and condoned by govt in previous eras. McGivern, who investigated the Fremantle Riot (Inquiry report - into the Fremantle Prison Riot, 1988, pp. 35-36), suggested:
At the moment, many societies are seeing the militarization of almost everything from shopping mall security and other private security, to policing, intelligence collection and corrections. In the post-9/11 period the Australian PM (Howard) tried to emulate the ethos behind the nationalism and military indoctrination of the USA, despite Australia's unique background as a penal colony (i.e. a giant prison for political prisoners and slaves) and its resultant, long history of anti-authoritarianism. Irreverent and non-conformist foundations are deeply rooted in Australian mainstream culture, values and humour - flag waving (US style) is a relatively recent development. Like the accent, the mindset can be hard for outsiders to grasp, initially. PM Howard went as far as to make primary school funding conditional on the mandatory placement of Australian flags at primary schools and pro-military posters in classrooms (Some schools already hosted an Australian flag, but this was not so common among minority and community schools). His approach to the intelligence prompting Australia's involvement in Iraq & Afghanistan was soon followed by the 'NTER' (a police & military taskforce occupation of Aboriginal NT communities for which, he repealed the Racial Discrimination Act). Really sadly, Australia's military was hyped to the max in a govt-compliant pop-media during this period, thus rendering anything military, now, more or less synonymous with the obfuscation of unsatisfactory standards of government accountability. Nationalistic fervour has also created racial divisions where previously all refugees, immigrants, ancestors of political prisoners and ATSI people were united (not always harmoniously, but generally) under that one umbrella of anti-authoritarianism, as 'battlers' with a typically and distinctive, irreverent sense of humour.
In 2004 the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Van Boven, warned about the pseudo militarization of domestic govt security roles, such as policing and corrections. He perceived a risk that methods utilized in those roles, or adopted by departments headhunting (or even exploiting) ex-special forces personnel, may not be specific to domestic roles, but rather, mirror controversial military methods and treatment of detainees, which now form a notorious part of the post-9/11 era. More recently, even the govt use of Australian special forces personnel in training and supporting Densus 88 is controversial, and possibly opportunistic, due to the allegations of and convictions for human rights abuses by Indonesian special forces personnel in that anti-terror taskforce. Are Australian special forces personnel the marketing point for unsatisfactory foreign policy?
The past methods of the MSU, the “paramilitary” unit of DCS WA were heavily criticized and were the focus of repeated attempted prosecutions relating to prisoner abuse, widely tolerated and condoned by govt in previous eras. McGivern, who investigated the Fremantle Riot (Inquiry report - into the Fremantle Prison Riot, 1988, pp. 35-36), suggested:
"The increasing para-military role of the MSU may encourage or foster a belief that preventative measures are no longer necessary."
McGivern also had this to say about the role of the military-style training in corrections at that time:
"Providing continuous training in preparation for 'trouble' may in fact foster conditions for such events to occur, There is an argument to de-emphasise the aggressive para-military role of the prison officer and instead encourage positive custody with an emphasis on man management and non aggressive solutions to problems."
The recruitment and staffing of that said 'paramilitary' unit, now named the Emergency Support Group (ESG), has only just been ordered to be partly reformed subsequent to the Spratt Taser Inquiry (CCC, 2011). One inquiry recommendation required a time limit on membership of the ESG. Several ESG staff had been there since MSU days and resigned during the course of the very protracted inquiry. ESG reforms have been limited to this, despite repeated recommendations stretching back decades, particularly in relation to notorious cell ‘extraction’ methods. Sometime after the use of that 'cell extraction' method, and Mr Spratt’s subsequent transfer between the Perth Watch House and Casuarina, he suffered a punctured lung, fractured ribs, dislocated shoulder and other injuries. However, these injuries were not sustained during those 'notorious' moments captured on Police Watch House CCTV that went viral around the world showing WA’s police and prison officers tasering the mentally-ill, homeless Aboriginal man.
It really wasn't until Shadow Attorney General John Quigley revealed Mr Spratt's intubation scars at a protest, that CCC Commissioner Len Roberts Smith stepped in and called an immediate stop to the stuffing around over the various 'internal investigations'.
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Shadow Attorney General shows Kevin Spratt's scars at the Rally for Humaneness in Nov 2011 - image copyright
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How many serious detainee injuries go untreated? How many other Mr Spratts are there? In an interview with him in 2011 he said he had other non-indigenous friends who had experienced prisoner abuse. Former prisoners came forward to testify to such, both during the 2003 Kennedy Royal Commission into Police Misconduct and, during the CCC Inquiry into the treatment of Kevin Spratt in police and prison custody. To no avail. Inaction. Definitely, never used the 't' word.
The WA Prison Torture Report (Cox, 2000) cited the former DPP’s concerns about fatal shortfalls in evidence DCS WA was required to provide to the DPP, for prosecutions relating to prisoner abuse to progress without impediment. They didn’t. No prosecutions resulted, although the unprecedented DICWC(WA) WA Prison Torture Report (Cox, 2000) was delivered to the UN Committee Against Torture, which then in turn brought about a half dozen recommendations regarding protection of rights violation complainants, independent investigators and the use and abuse of restraint mechanisms by the government. {I have posted those UN CAT recommendations on a separate page in the sidebar.}
There is seemingly a huge contrast in standards and treatment exhibited previously by serving military personnel, and ex-service personnel who have taken up domestic roles. The Guantanamo Effect offers some examples of exemplary military standards for the treatment of detainees (ones that defined the world's respect for universal treatment of those captured in war and the treatment of military prisoners) that were discarded pursuant to the advent of Guantanamo Bay and Camp XRay:
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Fletcher & Stover, 2009, The Guantanamo Effect, Foreword, p. xiii
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{The publication of these results was called for by the Senate Committee for Community Affairs during the 2010 Senate Hearing Inquiry. The inquiry also heard that around 20% of Australians are hearing impaired - figures commonly published estimate that rate at 10%.}
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Fletcher & Stover, 2009, The Guantanamo Effect, Foreword, p. xiii
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{Incredibly, one criminal lawyer, who was not Indigenous, not from the region and a real rookie (that's the technical term), pursuant to the discovery of this massively, massively, massively, incomprehensibly widespread, maladministration of justice, asserted in an official interview that: 'deaf people are simply more criminally inclined' . "Believe it or not...” very glad he isn’t representing me…}
Stover and Fletcher noted that in government agency assessments of Guantanamo detainees as early as 2002 and in reports thereafter,
- The CIA considered probably only 30% of detainees had connections to terror-related activities
- GTMO's own commander estimated half of his detention centre population were innocent
- The FBI said only 50 of about 600 detainees were worth keeping at Guantanamo Bay
- However, in contrast, a military review panel (CSRT's later judged by the Supreme Court to be making unlawful determinations) evaluated that only 38 detainees were not of interest to their enquiries. This too points to the politicization of military involvement in detention.
770 detainees were held at Gitmo between 2001-2009 and over 65% were released. The average length of confinement was three years (Stover & Fletcher, 2009, pp. 83-88), although some hunger striking Yemeni detainees - already cleared of any wrongdoing (and in some cases cleared many years ago) have now been held at Guantanamo for over a decade.
This may ring warning bells with some of the local community here, as we recall the plight of mentally-ill Aboriginal man, Marlon Noble, detained for ten years without trial in Greenough Prison; and, another mentally-ill man, Andrew Mallard, bricked up for murder and who spent 11 years wrongfully detained at Casuarina Prison.
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