Prisons 'out of bounds' for media
BY KAREN FREDERICKS
BRISBANE — Queensland police have charged three women prisoners and a journalist with criminal offences after an article appeared in the Townsville Bulletin alleging abusive treatment in the Townsville Correctional Centre.
The women told journalist John Andersen that they had been isolated, restrained in body belts and locked to a bed without access to food, water or toilet facilities for up to 24 hours at a time over a period of months.
One of the women is 19 years old and in prison for non-payment of fines. Another is a homeless Aboriginal woman with a history of mental illness and self-harm. The third is a 38-year-old life-sentenced prisoner. All now face more time in prison for speaking to a journalist.
Prisoners Legal Service solicitor Cathy Pereira told Green Left Weekly that there are very few avenues for prisoners to make complaints and gain independent assistance, especially in more remote areas like North Queensland.
"Both PLS and the ombudsman are based in Brisbane", she said. "Prisoners could go months or even years up in Townsville or Mareeba without seeing an independent person to whom they could make a complaint. The 'official visitors' scheme has broken down and does not work. They have no power, no training and very little presence in the prisons. No wonder these prisoners felt their only hope was the local paper.
"The media should have free access to prisons anyway. If the prisons were humane and rehabilitative, there would be nothing to hide."
The state government has now appointed former assistant police commissioner Greg Early to investigate the complaints of ill-treatment. Early was a long-time personal assistant of Terry Lewis, the police commissioner convicted of corruption in 1991.