“Ever hopeful, I looked for signs that the prison operations are, or soon would be, world class. Hopes soon dashed.” HUGH SELBY takes a close look at the latest annual report for our adult and youth prisons.

When the late, larger-than-life Sydney impresario Harry M Miller became a guest of Her Majesty’s prison service in NSW (after the collapse of one his companies and a wee bit of fraud) it was widely put about that he was running his businesses from inside.

When former NSW Minister for Corrective Services Rex “Buckets” Jackson was a guest at Berrima jail for several years he was reported to be a skilled clock maker. His crime was to be caught taking bribes. He was reported to have said, “There are people in charge who are animals.” That from a man who was known as a bully.

Brothers 4 Life founder, Bassam Hamzy, reputedly a “hard man”, also likes to stay in touch with the real world while NSW taxpayers are paying for his food and board (which they have been doing since 1999). 

In mid-2011 the Daily Telegraph gleefully reported that he orchestrated drug supplies, a kidnapping, and ordered a slap in the face for a victim – all from his Lithgow gaol cell.

Then in 2016 the Sydney Morning Herald reported that he was caught twice in a fortnight with a mobile phone, this time at the Goulburn SuperMax. I wonder if it was the same phone, recycled. 

This article adds to the detail of the earlier 2011 Telegraph article by claiming that he made 450 calls a day over a two-month period back in 2008. That’s heavy usage, bro! Just amazing that it was never, ever noticed by the attending officers.

I guess that since he was banged up in a small cell for nearly all day, every day, they thought he was talking to himself from morning to night.

It was a laugh-out-loud moment to read that his access to mobile phones was officially explained as by “internal secretion methods”. SuperMax is just that; so forget about secreting. 

Why go to that trouble when it can be brought in by a corrupted officer, even delivered on the food tray through the trap in the bottom of the cell door – an attractive means for all those involved, as we reported is being claimed about our prison, the AMC, recently.

Then last August news.com.au (aka Murdoch media) reported that Mr Hamzy had persuaded NSW Chief Justice Bell that he ought to have the use of a laptop in his cell to prepare for upcoming criminal trials. NSW Corrective Services had argued that his being able to handwrite his submissions was enough. Were they serious? Yes they were.

The Chief Justice is quoted as saying: “At a time in our history when primary school pupils are utilising this technology in the classroom, it seems that the need for a degree of lateral thought in the custodial context may well have arrived.”

Perish the thought. What will this Chief Justice think of next? 

Dragging penology into this century? 

Move from just containment to life improving

Our Corrective Services does allow laptops at the AMC. That said, the running of our prison, as seen from their annual report, and the reported claims of former staff and recent prisoners, falls a long way short of best practice.

The current stock standard recipe is to lock people up in small cells, control their mingling in yards, or let them out to solitarily enjoy “the outside” for a very small part of a day, bore them witless, take away the heterosexual contact that most still crave, restrict visits, call the most menial tasks “work”, and provide too few opportunities for personal and productive skills development.

It’s amazing how ungrateful the prisoners are for the results of that recipe: assaulting each other, being rude (or worse) to staff, dealing in drugs and phones, getting into debt, planning to burn the place down, and even – on occasion – topping themselves as an act of vengeful spite.

Thankfully it’s not all like that. There are better options for prisoners nearing the end of their sentence. Query though how much unnecessary, avoidable damage has been done, and how many opportunities to improve their life skills have been missed, before a prisoner gets to that transition to release stage.

None of which is to ignore the sad reality that there will always be some prisoners who pose an ever-present risk to everyone around them, and for whom a solution other than strict, single cell confinement has not been found.

The latest annual report for our adult and youth prisons can be found here,see pages 65 to 87. Ever hopeful, I looked for signs that the prison operations are, or soon would be, world class. Hopes soon dashed.

We are told, “(Corrections’) vision is to be the leader in the provision of effective correctional services which positively changes lives, reduces reoffending, and increases community safety.” 

Leader against what others? For lack of any competition, it is the only provider in the ACT. There’s no comparative data with other Australian Corrections Services, or with any overseas best practice models. But don’t give up too early because there may be hard evidence of the “positively changing lives” and “reduces re-offending”.

There is a youth justice initiative: “The young offender reintegration program pilot, which aimed at promoting pro-social skills and strength-based approaches to reintegrating priority cohorts, was successfully delivered”. I can only guess at what this collection of English words means. More detail about program content, the skills of the trainers, and the outcomes would be nice.

But don’t give up, not yet.“With a strong focus on rehabilitation, the AMC 

engages actively with the private and community sectors in the ACT to promote positive rehabilitative and reintegration outcomes for detainees and a safer community for all.”Now that is promising, but if and only if it is backed up by some evidence.

There’s close to nothing, but there is something. The case study of the parenting programs provided by Shine for Kids is positive, describing how this connects prisoners with their children.

It is claimed that, “the AMC transitioned to… smoke-free without significant incident”. That is contrary to the information given to CityNews that the price of contraband tobacco has gone through the roof. 

The emphasis in the report upon safety is taken up with training for prison staff to deal with violence. Of course that’s essential, but it would be nice to see it complemented with staff training in their personal development to equip them to better manage and assist prisoners.

Information is given about very short courses completed by prisoners. There is nothing to suggest that any longer term training, akin to apprenticeships is on offer. Prisoners in NSW do have that option. Less than 10 per cent at AMC can take part in the horticulture work of providing plant stock. It seems that most of the “work” is menial and better described as basic cleaning chores. Its contribution to building self-reliance and employment skills is a stretch too far.

Six prisoners were doing distance university courses and there were six laptops for that purpose. To give credit where it is due the students were not restricted to handwriting their notes and assignments.

It’s odd that prisoners are unable to do meaningful work, be paid, and save for their release. What makes it odder is that outside services do provide advice on managing personal finances.

The annual report is a chance to shine, to extol how well an agency is doing. This report is dismal, so much so that it kills hope.

Sex and privacy

We have a part time ACT Inspector of Correctional Services in Rebecca Minty, who says in her latest report, “(Our) review (of an alleged sexual assault at the prison) noted the importance of… a zero-tolerance approach to sexual coercion and violence in prison settings, including ensuring staff have clear guidance on how to respond to disclosures. The review identified a lack of policies or procedures … to guide (staff)… when responding to disclosure of sexual assault in prison.”

In the early 1970s there was a lot of talk about Canadian John Herbert’s eye-opening play Fortune and Men’s Eyes, which lifted the lid on the bleeding obvious, namely that coercive same-sex assaults were rife in prisons.

Here we are, 50 years later, still exploring the need for clear guidance in the ACT prisons. The lack of such guidance brands prison administration as uncaring, indifferent, even incompetent.

The inspector also reported: “In response to concerns raised by [the inspector] about lack of privacy of the toilet in court cells usually reserved for young people, (Corrective Services) undertook remedial work of frosting existing glass panels in the cell doors to ensure the privacy and dignity of detained young people”.

Let’s assume that the clear glass was installed because of the risk of self-harm by a youth detainee. If so, now that the glass is frosted, how is the safety of an “at-risk” detainee to be assured?

For those detainees not considered at risk, why was their privacy not achieved by some other means: for example, a roller or slide blind on the outside of the cell door?

Safety is for all

What’s missing from this report is any awareness that the environment is ideal for misconduct by both prisoners and staff. There are two body scanners but their use seems to be limited to detainees; that is, staff are exempt. The report says nothing about visitors.

Everyone who has used an airport agrees to go through the scanning equipment. It’s a matter of safety for all. The same approach should be taken at the AMC.

There is no mention of body cameras to be worn by staff, a practice that would protect everyone, reduce false complaints, and make investigation of justified complaints so much easier. Such cameras are used in Queensland (and overseas) and there are studies that discuss when the cameras should be used and when they should not be turned on.

The return on investment is poor

The Productivity Commission report for 2024 includes data on the “real net operating” expenditure per prisoner per day for each jurisdiction. The range was from $235 in the NT, with NSW at $298 and the ACT with the prize of $543.

A standard king bed room at the five-star Hyatt Hotel Canberra is 41sqm with a sitting area, generous work desk and Italian marble bathroom with deep soaking tub and separate shower. A guest has access to the gym, indoor pool and sauna, and tea and coffee. All that for $583 a night, just $40 more than at the AMC. Presumably if a guest did their own cleaning, as at AMC, the rate would come down.

The fewer people in prison the cheaper for all of us. For those in prison the road to being a useful, respected member of our community depends upon being provided with skills – not just a work skill, but relationship skills. 

The annual report reveals that very little is being done to promote those skills.A lot more should and could be done.

Prison services are closed institutions, set up to have the community feel safe because lawbreakers are both out of sight and out of mind.

But the price, an inevitable one, beyond the dollar expense, is that corruption, venality and criminal conduct will grow in the shadows. The beneficiaries become so powerful that when honest, competent officers attempt to turn the tide they are cast out. That’s what has happened at the AMC.

Keeping one’s job requires being selectively blind, deaf and dumb. It is a habit that once acquired is convenient to keep.

What must be done

The well-established, systemic problems cannot be corrected by the piecemeal approaches of those now expected to keep a watchful eye and respond effectively and in a timely manner, to individual complaints.

Official Visitors, the Inspector, the ACT Ombudsman, and the Integrity Commission – none of them have the capacity to evaluate the totality of current problems or to set out a new path, one that reflects the best of contemporary penal practice for both adults and youth.

Even appointing an “honest and competent” chief will not turn the tide. Proof of that can be seen in the fate of Police and Corrections Commissioners who took on the system elsewhere in Australia, such asNSW and Queensland, and lost. 

We need a powerful, probing inquiry that looks into dark corners and turns over the rocks, conducted by people with the leadership strength shown by Tony Fitzgerald in Queensland, who exposed what was wrong with the Queensland Police, and by James Wood’s Inquiry that did the same with the NSW Police.

It is naïve to expect the Barr government to want to address the problems in adult and youth detention. They don’t see any votes in it. Besides, no votes are needed for another four years.

But there are votes for others. Shane Rattenbury was responsible for the prisons at one point. 

Now in opposition, he might like to demonstrate his political prowess by building an alliance with the Libs and the independents to force a three-person inquiry into how the AMC and Bimberi could be much better places, with operating policies and staffing that gave everyone confidence that those sent there had access to good programs, would leave changed for the better, would not be bashed,would not be bashers, and would not be either perpetrators or victims of sexual assault. 

Shane, think Green, think native plants and horticulture and park ranger skills, think equipping prisoners to be top tradies helping to solve the housing crisis. It’s the chance to redeem yourself (and make the Greens look like a voting option when we cast our vote soon for those on the Hill).

A prison should not be run for the benefit of the staff. It should be run for the life skills improvement of the detainees, so benefiting not only the staff but also the detainees, their families and us.

It’s time to shine light on the prison’s dark side