20/08/2008   The issues associated with South Australia's high level of remand prisoners has again surfaced.   Lean Byner on Radio 5AA asked the  question "Why should we care about how remand prisoners are treated?"   Dr Craig Raeside spoke about this, and the OARS SA perspective was also put to Leon by CEO Leigh Garrett.  It seems to us that the critical issue about whether South Australians should care about the way we treat remandees, and all prisoners for that point, is that almost all are released back in to the community.   The better the conditions, and the better the treatment they receive, the better citizens they will become after released. CEO Leigh Garrett also questioned the custom and practice associated assessing all remandees as High Security prisoners.   Leigh made it clear that the Department for Correctional Services would only be placing remandees in G Division if their bahaviour warranted it or out of desparation for space.     As a matter of interest, OARS SA has approached the Justice Department to fund a structured bail accommodation service, but this has been refused.

7/08/2008 Chris Kenny in the Advertiser 6/8/2008 (Minor crims deserve a prison break) further questions the relevance and effectiveness of our overuse of incarceration in this State.   He could probably write an article every week questioning criminal justice systems that are manipulated by ignorant politicians across the world, who conceal the truth from the public, who create more victims of crime, and who destroy lives and the futures of offenders and their families.  Here is a few searching questions the people of South Australia might ask both the Government and Opposition in SA in relation to their justice policies.   Is South Australia the only State in Australia that still retains the right of politicians (through Executive Council) to make the final decisions about permitting parole?   Is South Australia the only State that retains its Crime Statistics Bureau within the domain of the Attorney General's Department?  Is the average length of prison sentence extremely low in South Australia because we churn through hundreds of prisoners on very short sentences?  Are hundreds of people locked away in prison because they cannot find accommodation to gain legitimate Parole, legitimate Home Detention, or who cannot be bailed because of homelessness?  Does the incarceration of parents devastate the futures of their children, who are the innocent secondary victims of crime?   Do the children of offenders, who receive virtually no targeted support, go on to repeat the criminal lives of their parents?  The responses of both major political parties in South Australia to these questions would make interesting reading.

6/08/2008  The new prisons being designed for Mobilong are apparently the most technologically advanced in Australia.  So reports the Sunday Mail on Sunday 3rd August.   This article is deeply unbalanced because it almost completely ignores the important requirement for offender treatment and rehabilitation.  Some of the systems described in the article will enhance the lives of prisoners and visitors, provide less intrusive ways of searching visitors (thus maintaining dignity and reducing false positives) and possibly keep the community safer.   They may ensure more humane care and they will improve the efficiency of the prisons.  A really important question does remain unanswered however.   When was the last escape attempt, or successful escape from behind the walls of a maximum or medium security prison, in South Australia?   Escape attempts world-wide are now focussed during transport between prisons or between courts and prisons.    We would do well to remember that the most critical factor in the success of any prison anywhere is the quality of the relationships developed between prison staff and those in their care.   In fact prison security depends significantly on these relationships as well.   The focus in this article on the so-called Supermax concept is unnecessary.   Supermax prisons capture public attention and make great headlines but are fraught with danger.   Australia's first so-called Supermax wing in Long Bay Gaol called Katingal, devastated the humanity of all who were sent within its walls.   Prisoners never saw another human being whilst within its walls unless it was because of illness or misbehaviour.   Prisoners were dehumanised to the point of seeking a way out.   I was told by staff of Long Bay gaol that Katingal had the highest suicide rate of any prison in the world just prior to it being closed decades ago.   I am sure the Department for Correctional Services needs a high security wing for prisoners who are violent or mentally ill, but I am also sure that that they are not calling this a Supermax facility with all of the subsequent negatives that attach to it.