“Our judges, magistrates, indigenous elders and lawyers spend a lot of time trying to sentence offenders in a way that respects the multiple aims of sentencing. It is, for the most part, a waste of time.” HUGH SELBY bemoans the abysmal running of ACT prisons.

Once upon a very long time ago I worked the summer holidays as a kitchen hand in an upmarket hotel. 

Two memories from then came to my rescue as I was searching for motifs to make the message in this article clear.

The first memory is of a mains dish that required small, new, boiled potatoes. We only had huge, very old potatoes, bags of them. Ever resourceful, the chef told me to take a hundred or so potatoes, put them in the grinder, and keep grinding until I had one hundred, small, look-like-new potatoes.

From this experience I learned that you can fool most people most of the time.

The second memory is that the hotel café served European desserts, the star being Viennese apple strudel made in the traditional, time-intensive way, which requires the wrap-around pastry to be pulled and stretched, pulled and stretched until it is ever so thin.

The strudels were baked and stored on large metal trays, then cut into serving slices, dusted with icing sugar, and served with fresh, whipped cream on elegant plates. As I said, “upmarket”.

I was sent to get another tray of strudel from the fridge. Then I had to put the strudels, each about the length and width of a loaf of bread, on a cutting board to slice them for the display rack.

That’s when I noticed the green mould on the underside, all the undersides. The strudels looked terrific from the top, but they were rotten, they’d gone off.

I showed the supervisor who was unperturbed. I was told to take a very sharp knife, cut off the bottom of the pastry and put the emasculated strudel on display.

I regret to say that within seconds I had an unforeseen incident. While carrying the tray I slipped on the kitchen floor and all the strudel, green mould and all, hit the floor.

The supervisor, a Pom, let loose with curses. I grinned at the floor as I got down on my knees, then swept and mopped. There was no way that I, with a Viennese grandmother, was going to allow apple strudel a la mould to be served anywhere I worked, even at the very bottom of the hotel hierarchy.

From this experience I learned that all the craftsmanship and care of the strudel maker could be ruined by others who were indifferent to those skills and values and cared only for their own convenience.

While I was able to deal with the sculptured potatoes and the rotten strudel, I can’t say the same for my efforts, and those of numerous others, to have the exposed rottenness of our Corrections system dealt with. 

Au contraire: the corrupt, the incompetent and the bullies laugh all the way to their fortnightly pay. Meantime, the prisoners are warehoused at the AMC or Bimberi, nothing more, nothing less.

This is not the fault of our legal system. Our judges, magistrates, indigenous elders and lawyers spend a lot of time trying to sentence offenders in a way that respects the multiple aims of sentencing (to punish, to deter others, to provide a basis for rehabilitation). 

It is, for the most part, a waste of time. The abysmal running of our prisons (adult and youth), maintained by our taxes and condoned by our politicians and public servants, is just like that green mould. All the other effort by well motivated, highly trained, respected people is for nought.

The media releases from government, the barren answers from politicians to constituents’ concerns, the deception in the annual reports, are like a gravy smother on the “look-like-new” potatoes. To make new from old is impossible. Even the gravy can’t hide the truth forever.

For those looking for the latest evidence it can be found in the recent ACT Supreme Court sentencing decision in DPP v Brooks (not the real name).

Mr Brooks is a damaged human, aged 30. He is violent and dangerous. He has attacked people with a screwdriver, a knife, some other kind of weapon, and his closed fist to the head with sufficient force to knock the victim to the ground. 

He has caused his victims (male and female) terror, shock and pain. 

His criminal history includes serious burglary, theft, threat to kill, assault causing serious injury. 

Mr Brooks’ memories as a child include, “always smashing windows and punching holes in the walls”. He started on weed at 11 and alcohol at 13. He stopped school in year 8. At 20 he was using crystal meth.

From 13 he was in juvenile detention. At 16 he knocked up his girlfriend but couldn’t be at the birth because he was in detention. At 17 he was diagnosed as schizophrenic.

After a lengthy review of Mr Brooks’ life history, his offending, and what was known about his mental health, Justice Taylor concluded: “The conduct and indeed the explanation is consistent with institutionalisation;(sic) aggression, hypervigilance and an inability to take personal responsibility”.

His prospects are not good. “Experts were strongly of the view that Mr Brooks required further psychological and neurological assessment to properly identify his medical and psychological needs”. Quite, but dream on because it’s not going to happen, not at our AMC.

Her Honour summed it up: “I doubt the capacity for the custodial environment to meet those needs, but I am compelled to make recommendations… in an effort to highlight the necessity for these matters to be addressed to give Mr Brooks the best chance of… ultimately, moving away from the persistent engagement with the criminal justice system that has plagued his entire life”.

It will be several years before Mr Brooks can be assessed for parole. His life, and our safety, could be improved but there’s no will to do so.

So this will end with premature death, his or some hapless victim’s. Bravo Barr!

Hugh Selby is a former barrister and the CityNews legal columnist.