By Stephen Bavaro
SYDNEY — The ombudsman's report into the Angus Rigg affair has highlighted the neglect shown by police officers towards young prisoners.
Rigg suffered severe brain damage in an apparent suicide attempt in jail. Fallout from the incident included the resignation of state police minister Ted Pickering.
Brett Collins, of Breakout printers, is highly critical of the prison system and the lack of concern and accountability of police and other state employees. Collins has had a 10-year involvement with prison issues and prison activist organisations. He has been involved with Breakout since 1984.
Collins told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ of the mistreatment which many prisoners suffer, as well as lack of concern shown to relatives. "In November last year I found out about a woman whose son had hanged himself in a Parramatta jail cell. The mother was unable to gain any information of his death. I went there as an official visitor and was told that in order for her to find out exactly what happened, she would have to travel from Dubbo to Parramatta. She found out two or three weeks after the incident."
Collins is also concerned about public indifference towards prisoners. "It's easy for people inside prisons to feel forgotten. Not many people within the general community have much sympathy for them because the have 'done wrong'.
"People think that, the more punishment a person receives within the prison system, the less chance there is of that person re-offending. This is a very simplistic notion about why people break the law and end up in prison. The community must realise that people who are in prison are often victims themselves, and they certainly aren't in control of their lives.
"They're very often Aboriginals, youth or unemployed persons. They're very often people who are discriminated against by the state, police, lawyers and the system in general. When they commit suicide in prison, it says a lot about the compassion of a society which allows it to happen. The people who are in control of the government and the state are those who the public trusts, and supposedly hold the moral values of the community, and are representatives of what they claim is a compassionate society."
Collins is mindful of the "do-gooder" label often pinned on those who would like to see better prison conditions. However, he claims that those who make these criticisms miss the whole point about what a prison sentence is supposed to be.
"The law looks at people's offences and says that there will be a deprivation of that person's liberty, and that deprivation is punishment in itself.
"The time they spend in prison should be a time in which a person can prepare themselves for when they leave the prison system. To mistreat and punish them, simply embitters them, so that when they are released they only become more harmful to that community. You can't treat someone harshly and expect them to act well in the community. In the short term it may deter them, but in the long term it can only be counter-productive."
Whilst he welcomed the Rigg report's criticism of the police involved, he was also critical of its recommendation that no disciplinary action be taken against the officers.
Collins argues for a tougher stand to be taken on police incompetence. "When we talk about police, we are not just talking about individuals, but state employees who are given a special responsibility and privilege of power. It is simply not enough for them to be told that they have to do better next time. They should be an example to other officers that certain actions aren't acceptable. They should be accountable for their actions."
The Department of Corrective Services is investigating three attempted suicides at Long Bay Remand Centre between January 23 and 25. Collins sees this investigation as cosmetic and hypocritical in the light of lack of concern or action over Aboriginal deaths in custody.
"It's a belated response by the politicians to say they are now concerned about deaths and attempted suicides within prisons. There's certainly been no structural changes to the prison system since the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody. People inside prisons certainly don't feel any safer."
Collins points out that there has been no effort to increase alternatives to imprisonment, and no increase in money allocated to the prison system. But here are more people in prison now than there were at the time of the royal commission.
"When Nick Greiner became premier in 1988, there were 3200 prisoners in NSW. There are now 6300. The lessons haven't been learnt, and any inquiry now is simply an attempt by politicians to ease the pressure on themselves.
"The minister for police, Terry Griffiths, also claimed that the prisoners were attempting suicide in order to gain attention. That is a clear abdication of responsibility by the minister."
Collins is critical of Griffiths' suggestion that a good way of limiting the number of people in prison would be to "issue an on-the-spot fine ... or give ... a court appearance notice which would cut out the need to take them back to the station".
Collins says that "these type of fines only work if that person has money to pay the fine. It will actually have the opposite effect, it will result in more people going into prison, as those who are often arrested are unemployed or from other disadvantaged groups unable to pay the fines."
Collins feels that a key to solving many of the problems relating to prison suicides is genuine inquiries and investigations. "There should be independent inquiries as well as police inquiries. This will ensure a fairer hearing of those who are critical of the way police handle certain incidents."