First death in private prison

First death in private prison

By Brendan Greenhill

BRISBANE — A 22-year-old white male serving a three-month sentence in Woodford private prison was found hanging by a video cord at 2.12pm on September 12. The prisoner, whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead at the jail.

The Queensland police's Corrective Services Investigation Unit (CSIU) and the Queensland Corrective Services Commission (QCSC) will independently investigate the death.

This is the first death at Woodford prison, just north of Brisbane. The prison has attracted criticism because of a recent riot there and the lack of training and rehabilitation facilities.

Prison sources say that the CSIU is conducting a murder investigation and that all prisoners are locked down, as of 5.30pm on September 12. They add that with no programs apart from court-ordered rehabilitation courses, the prisoners' morale is low. These claims have been rejected by the QCSC's acting director-general, Peter Rule.

Rule said that CSIU involvement in deaths in custody is standard procedure, adding, "It is quite wrong to claim that the prison is tense. These allegations have been bandied around for some time. An internal prison audit conducted over the last two weeks has found no problems with the programs or the prison management."

This was the second death in custody in Queensland in two days. An inmate at the Sir David Longland prison died on September 11.

From GLW issue 290