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Resisting Carceral Violence from the Inside Out

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Resisting Carceral Violence

Abstract

This chapter investigates women’s transfers to the high-security units of Pentridge Prison—an archaic bluestone penal complex designated for men—during the 1980s. It charts how inside–out collaborations facilitated a powerful public campaign against this routinised practice. To explore some of the risks, possibilities and barriers associated with organising across prison walls, this chapter examines a particular instance of this form of institutionalised violence that took place in the late 1980s. Building unrest inside Fairlea Women’s Prison sparked critical events and official reactions that led to a mass transfer of women to Pentridge’s G Division in 1988. In conditions of extreme deprivation and violence in G Division, imprisoned women formed connections with activists and lawyers to challenge and speak out against the brutality and discrimination they experienced.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A key theme in the complaints associated with men’s imprisonment conditions in Pentridge was that procedures surrounding the use of administrative segregation lacked transparency and prisoners (sentenced and on remand ) were experiencing lengthy and in some cases indefinite periods in isolation. These concerns in Pentridge escalated in 1987 with the protest fire and deaths of seven men over a period of three months in the Jika Jika High-Security Prison (Hallenstein 1989; Dessau 1989). Following this, a series of inquests and official inquiries into these deaths between 1987 and 1990 considered serious allegations of brutality, misconduct and systemic failures specifically in relation to high-security segregation (see Lynn 1993; Murray 1990; Hallenstein 1989; Carlton 2007).

  2. 2.

    WAP (1988) Unpublished protest leaflet ‘Women again being transferred to Pentridge’, within file titled ‘1988 G Division’ held in the personal archives of Amanda George .

  3. 3.

    Anonymous (1988) Unpublished prisoner complaint held in the personal archives of Amanda George .

  4. 4.

    Fitzroy Legal Service (1988) Unpublished, held in the personal archives of Amanda George, 3.

  5. 5.

    Following the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, all Australian jurisdictions were required to provide ‘Muirhead’ cells (named after Commissioner Muirhead), which are a variation of an observation cell . The purpose was to eliminate potential hanging points and maximise observation of prisoners deemed ‘at risk’. The cells are sparsely furnished with a suicide-proof bed (with no mattress) and bedding (McArthur et al. 1999). A decade on from the Royal Commission, the Victorian Correctional Services Taskforce Report on the Review of Suicides and Self-Harm in Victorian Prisons (Kirby et al. 1998, 115–116) confirmed the findings and submissions by expert practitioners that methods for preventing self-harm and suicide through cell design and isolation are ineffective and inhumane. It was concluded that the ‘isolation of suicidal prisoners is an unacceptable practice’ and should be ceased (Kirby et al. 1998, 115–116).

  6. 6.

    Anonymous (1988) Handwritten document, signed by the 18 women, 11 November, held in the personal archives of Amanda George , Melbourne. In 1990, the ‘Dog Squad’ was formed by a contingent of the Office of Corrections Emergency Services Management Unit to cover the policy areas of emergency management planning, intelligence unit and dog squads (OOC 1991–1992, 16). The Dog Squad was historically responsible for conducting ‘a variety of searches including prisoner accommodation, industries and outside areas. A majority of searches are conducted in order to detect drugs and other contraband. Unannounced searches [were] made of all prisons’ (OOC 1991–1992, 16). It provided the key mobile security response unit for all high-security prisoner escorts and included 26 trained dogs and handlers on 30 June 1992 (OOC 1991–1992, 16).

  7. 7.

    Anonymous (1988) Handwritten unpublished correspondence, signed by the 18 women, 11 November, held in the personal archives of Amanda George, Melbourne.

  8. 8.

    Unpublished handwritten notes by anonymous imprisoned women, folder labelled ‘G Division’ and dated 1988, held in the personal archives of Amanda George .

  9. 9.

    Anonymous (1988) G Division. Unsigned handwritten document written from G Division, 14 November, held in the personal archives of Amanda George, Melbourne.

  10. 10.

    Anonymous (1988) G Division. Unsigned handwritten document written from G Division, 15 November, held in the personal archives of Amanda George, Melbourne.

  11. 11.

    Lever Arch Folder titled ‘1988: G Division’, held in the personal archives of Amanda George .

  12. 12.

    Dewan , unpublished handwritten complaint , 23 March 1989, held in the personal archives of Amanda George .

  13. 13.

    B Annexe Women Prisoners, unpublished correspondence to Amanda George (no date), held in the personal archives of Amanda George.

  14. 14.

    WAP and the Prisoners’ Action Group did protest outside Pentridge Prison following receipt of unpublished correspondence from women prisoners in B Annexe.

  15. 15.

    Amanda George , unpublished correspondence to Peter Harmsworth , OOC , re: review of procudures for dealing with self-injuring and suicidal prisoners , 19 March 1991. Corrections Working Group and Essendon Community Legal Centre.

  16. 16.

    Dated 16 September 1988, held in the personal archives of Amanda George.

  17. 17.

    Lever arch folder titled ‘Pentridge 1988’, held in the personal archives of Amanda George .

  18. 18.

    Amanda George , unpublished correspondence to Chris Richards, Slater and Gordon, re: inquest of Karen Watson, 25 May 1989, held in the personal archives of Amanda George.

  19. 19.

    Ibid.

  20. 20.

    Amanda George, unpublished correspondence to Chris Richards, Slater and Gordon, re: inquest of Karen Watson, 25 May 1989, held in the personal archives of Amanda George, 2.

  21. 21.

    There are currently approximately 200 CLCs in Australia. CLCs provide individual casework and free legal services, but historically in Australia they have also engaged in a range of community education projects and campaigns driven to ‘demystify the law and empower people’ (McCulloch and Blair 2013, 168).

  22. 22.

    Jika Jika, often referred to as an ‘electronic zoo’, was designed as a sensory deprivation prison, consisting of six off-the-ground concrete tunnels with tiny cells, 24-hour air-conditioning and the only exercise areas were in concrete cages (Gow 1994; Carlton 2007).

  23. 23.

    File of documents pertaining to events and complaints titled ‘1988 G Division’, held in the personal archives of Amanda George .

  24. 24.

    As part of this research we conducted two focus groups and one of these included FRG members Chris Burnup , Sandy Cook and Linda Hancock on 11 December 2013. We conducted a follow-up in-depth interview with FRG member Sandy Cook on 11 May 2015.

  25. 25.

    Classification is a reference to the classification committee who were a body of representatives responsible for making decisions about security arrangements including visits and placement for prisoners in prison, i.e. minimum-, medium- or high-security (see Carlton 2007, 114–120). In the 1970s, the time which Cook is referring, Fairlea was the only prison housing women in the Victorian system. There were facilities within Fairlea for women deemed by officials to require high-security arrangements during this time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Criminology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

    Bree Carlton

  2. Crime, Justice and Legal Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

    Emma K. Russell

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  1. Bree Carlton
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Correspondence to Bree Carlton .

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Carlton, B., Russell, E.K. (2018). Resisting Carceral Violence from the Inside Out. In: Resisting Carceral Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01695-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01695-1_2

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