Altcourse Prison, UK
April 28, 2008 BBC
A man accused of raping an 18-year-old woman has died after apparently hanging himself in his cell. Mathew Le Cras, 21, of Newborough on Anglesey, was taken to hospital on Thursday from Liverpool's Altcourse jail where he was being held on remand. Doctors are thought to have switched off his life-support machine. He had been charged with the rape of the woman near Gaerwen and had been due at Mold Crown Court for a preliminary hearing on Friday. A spokesman for GSL, which runs the private jail, confirmed Mr Le Cras had died. He had been held at Altcourse prison for a week He is thought to have been found by a prison officer.

April 27, 2008 Daily Post
A 21-YEAR-OLD man accused of raping an 18-year-old woman on Anglesey has died. Matthew James Lecras, of Church Street, Newborough, was rushed to hospital early on Thursday, hours before he was due in court. A spokeswoman for Global Solutions Ltd, the private company which runs Altcourse Prison, Liverpool, where he was being held, said that Lecras had been found in his cell by a member of staff during a routine check. Lecras was being held on remand accused of raping a woman at Gaerwen on April 14. The hearing at Mold Crown court continued in his absence on Friday after the judge heard he was seriously ill in hospital.

April 26, 2008 Daily Post
A 21-YEAR-OLD man accused of raping an 18-year-old woman on Anglesey was in a critical condition last night in hospital. Matthew James Lecras, of Church Street, Newborough, was rushed to hospital early on Thursday, hours before he was due in court. A spokeswoman for Global Solutions Ltd, the private company which runs Altcourse Prison, Liverpool, where he was being held, said that Lecras had been found in his cell by a member of staff during a routine check. It is unclear why he had to be taken to hospital. The spokeswoman said: “He is in a life threatening condition in hospital and an investigation into the circumstances is underway.”

March 26, 2006 Wales on Sunday
A WOMAN whose husband threatened to kill her then committed suicide in jail, is fighting his corner for the sake of their young daughter. Vowing to sue the private prison where her mentally ill ex hanged himself in the days following their divorce, Karen Crabtree wants justice for their four-year-old girl "who has lost her daddy". The Llandudno mum-of-one was devastated last summer when Altcourse Prison in Liverpool told her Lee was dead. The troubled 32-year-old - who believed Karen was the devil - was found hanging from a bunk bed by a fellow inmate's shoelaces in July.

March 23, 2006 BBC
An inquest has heard of concerns of a prison officer and a cellmate for the mental health of a remand prisoner, who was later found hanged in his cell. Lee Crabtree, 32, from Llandudno, had been placed on suicide watch at Altcourse Prison, Liverpool, last July. He was seen several times by medical staff during his time in prison. His cellmate said that he was "depressed to death". The inquest in Liverpool continues on Thursday. Mr Crabtree was discovered in a cell on "Beachers Block", the unit which normally holds remand prisoners and young offenders. The inquest heard how prisoners on suicide watch are supposed to be placed with cellmates, but Mr Crabtree was alone on the day he died because his cellmate was in court. In a statement, his cellmate Raymond Smith said Mr Crabtree was "depressed to death," and "sick in the head". He added: "He had said the devil was playing games with him and that he was being tested."

September 23, 2005 BBC
Ten prisoners who rioted after they claimed guards tried to lock them up early on New Year's Eve have been sentenced by a court. The men caused damage costing £17,500 after barricading themselves inside a wing at Altcourse prison in Liverpool. They staged a sit-in protest after guards attempted to lock them up for the night on 31 December 2004. Mr Davies said the prisoners took over the wing for more than four hours before a team of 50 officers, known as the Tornado Team, took back control. The prison wing had descended into chaos with inmates smashing windows, destroying pool tables and lighting fires.

September 2, 2005 BBC
An investigation is under way following the death of a remand prisoner in a hospital, the Prison Service has said. Robin Spavold, 44, from Llandudno, North Wales, was held at HMP Altcourse in Liverpool on 18 August after being charged with criminal damage. He was taken to the prison's health centre because he was suffering from severe bruising. Mr Spavold was transferred to the nearby Fazakerley Hospital, and died on Thursday. He suffered a cardiac arrest.

August 16, 2005 Daily Post
PRIVATELY-RUN Altcourse Prison has been named the most overcrowded in the country with figures showing that last month it held 50% more inmates than it was designed to hold. According to Home Office statistics, more than 933 prisoners were crammed into the Fazakerley jail, which was built to accommodate 614. The figures show that Altcourse was full beyond even its safe over-crowding limit of 903. Anything above that limit is considered a serious risk to "good order and security" Last night Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle, who has both Altcourse and Walton prisons in his constituency, said: "There has to be a suspicion that in a private prison such as Altcourse, the more prisoners they take in, the more money they get.

July 13, 2005 BBC
An inquiry has been launched after two men were found hanged in their cells at a prison in Liverpool. Lee Jason Crabtree, 32, from Llandudno, Conwy, was found dead on Monday at HM Prison Altcourse. David Oakes, 25, from Warrington, Cheshire, was found on Tuesday. The two deaths are not thought to be linked. The privately-run jail has recently been praised by prison inspectors for its good environment and work with mentally ill inmates. But the report, by the Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers, also highlighted bullying among prisoners and criticised procedures for inmates' first night in jail.  

Australia Immigration Department
October 31, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
THE Federal Government is winding back private management of immigration detention centres after years of controversy over the compromised health and psychological care of detainees. The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, said yesterday the Government was relieving a private company of its responsibility for health and psychological services, which would be transferred to the direct control of her department. The move follows the recommendations of a review triggered by the Palmer report into the deficiencies of care in detention highlighted by the case of Cornelia Rau, the psychiatric patient whose illness went undiagnosed for several months. Global Solutions Ltd, whose management of health services has drawn criticisms of care standards and conflict of interest, denied the loss of services was "in any way the result of dissatisfaction with the services provided" by Global Solutions. A company spokesman said the review of the centres had not criticised the health and psychological services it managed. But the company's management of the centres and detainee health services had represented a "fundamental conflict of interest", said Louise Newman, a psychiatrist and a member of a government expert advisory panel on detention health. Professor Newman said the failings in health care and psychological services, highlighted by the Rau saga and other cases of inadequate care, had resulted in "incalculable" suffering for detainees.

March 2, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
The immigration department made an unexplained $5.7 million payout to the company that used to manage Australia's detention centres, an audit has found. The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has identified a series of anomalies, potential conflicts and inadequate record-keeping in a review of the department's contracts with companies paid to run the centres. The department put detention centre management out to tender in 2001 and a $400 million, four-year contract with Global Solutions Limited (GSL) was ultimately signed in August, 2003. But the ANAO has found DIMIA, now DIMA, wanted to "encourage" the former contractor to end its management of the centres with a contract "completion payment". As a result, Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) received a payout of almost $6 million. "DIMIA was not able to provide evidence of the criteria it used to make its determination to pay ACM $5.7 million in contract completion payments," the ANAO said in its report. "The basis on which DIMIA made these payments was doubtful," it said. Labor says the audit's findings are a scandal. "What we have is nothing short of a scandal in the way the government has handled this," opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke said. "The people who were involved in the negotiations of the contracts on behalf of the department became horribly compromised. "Records weren't kept, records were lost, and some of the records that we have are conflicting."

July 29, 2005 ABC
Detention centre operator to pay for maltreatment.  The private operators of Australia's detention centres, Global Solutions Limited (GSL), will be penalised more than $500,000 for poorly handling five immigration detainees.  The GSL officers have been accused of treating the detainees in an inhumane and undignified manner when the detainees were being transferred from Maribyrnong detention centre in Victoria to the Baxter centre in South Australia in September 2004. An investigation has found that the GSL officers used force against one detainee.  It has also found that overall they failed to provide adequate medical assessment, deprived the detainees of toilet breaks, did not allow them to rest and did not give them enough food during a seven-hour road trip.

July 14, 2005 Daily Telegraph
THE federal government has apologised to Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez for their treatment at the hands of the immigration department.  Prime Minister John Howard said both women were owed an apology.  "Both Cornelia Rau and Mrs Alvarez are owed apologies for their treatment, and on behalf of the government I give those apologies to both of those women who were the victims of mistakes by the department," Mr Howard told reporters.  Mr Howard and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone today released the Palmer report into the immigration department, which catalogues a litany of failures that led to Ms Rau being wrongly detained for 10 months, and Ms Alvarez, also known as Vivian Solon, being wrongly deported. In a statement accompanying the release of the report, Senator Vanstone said the pair would receive assistance.  Mick Palmer, a former federal police commissioner, was appointed to look into the case of Ms Rau.  His inquiry was later widened to include the case of Ms Alvarez.  After criticising the government's contract with Global Solutions Limited (GSL), which runs the immigration detention centres, Mr Palmer recommended an expert group review the company's contract.  Senator Vanstone said Mr Palmer was critical of the department's policy of 'exception reporting', where instead of outlining what should be done, the contract outlined what must not be done to make it as flexible as possible.  "But Mr Palmer's not of the view that the other regulations surrounding detention allow that flexibility to be there," Senator Vanstone said.

Baxter Immigration Facility, Australia
November 14, 2007 The Age
THE Federal Government faces another humiliating compensation payout that could run into millions of dollars as a result of court action taken by a Vietnamese-born man. Tony Tran, 35, was unlawfully detained for more than five years and badly bashed in early 2005 at the Baxter Detention Centre by a mentally ill inmate with a history of violence, a statement of claim filed in the Supreme Court of Victoria says. He was also separated from his son Hai and not told by the Government in 2000 that Hai, then two years old, would be taken by the boy's mother to South Korea, the country of her birth. Three years later the boy was left by his mother with Mr Tran's brother in Australia and later placed in foster care for 14 months after the brother could no longer care for Hai. Mr Tran is seeking compensation from the Federal Government for physical and psychological damage. If successful, any compensation was likely to run into millions of dollars, said litigation expert Anne Gooley, from Maurice Blackburn Cashman. "How do you compensate somebody for detaining them unlawfully for five years?" she said. Ms Gooley expects the case to be settled before it goes to a full hearing.

April 9, 2007 The Australian
THE Federal Government says it is still waiting for a list of claims from the lawyers for Cornelia Rau, an Australian resident detained as an illegal immigrant. Ms Rau's lawyers said today they would sue the Government over her treatment, amid difficulties in reaching a negotiated resolution. Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said the Government still hoped to reach an out-of-court settlement. "The Government has written to Ms Rau's lawyer a number of times over the past few months seeking to obtain a list of claims to enable the Commonwealth to settle this matter," Mr Andrews said through a spokeswoman. "We wish to settle it as expeditiously as possible. "We're just waiting on Ms Rau to provide us with a list of her claims. We can't process a final settlement ... quickly without actually receiving a claim for what she may wish to have compensation for. George Newhouse, one of Ms Rau's solicitors, said the Government's contracting out of Baxter detention centre's operations to Global Solutions Limited appeared to have complicated his client's compensation claim. "The Commonwealth Government has its own financial arrangements with the operators of the detention centre that appear to be complicating Cornelia's case," he said. "That's not Cornelia Rau's problem. It was the Commonwealth Government that set up this ridiculous system of immigration detention. "She shouldn't suffer because of the Commonwealth Government's privatisation of detention."

December 12, 2006 ABC News
More than 30 detainees are reported to be staging a protest at the Baxter detention centre near Port Augusta in South Australia. A caller to the ABC, who says he is a detainee at Baxter, says a group of detainees has blocked the front gate of the detention centre, and others are on a hunger strike. He says the protest follows reports of several detainees harming themselves to draw attention to their frustrations. "It's just a process of long-term immigration detention, it's unnecessary, it's unreasonable," he said. "Any other country in the world - and Australia is a wonderful country - but any other country in the world, they detain you for 30 days, they identify you, then they release you. "There is no purpose for us being here. "We have been vilified by the Government in order to justify our detention. This is unfair." The Immigration Department says there have been five incidents in the past four days. The Department says this morning a detainee was taken to hospital after an incident that is still being investigated. It says two detainees jumped from the roof on Friday, a detainee climbed a tree on Saturday and was treated for heat exhaustion when he came down, and on Sunday another man climbed onto a roof before coming down again.

March 20, 2006 The Age
AT LEAST two long-term immigration detainees — one held for 6½ years — are in a psychiatric hospital after developing mental problems while in detention, the Greens claim. The man who has spent more than six years in detention, a 34-year-old from Bangladesh, was moved from Baxter detention centre last August to Adelaide's Glenside psychiatric hospital. The other man, whose family are Australian citizens, has been detained for more than two years. "This period of time in detention makes this man another Peter Qasim, the long-term detainee who was recently released after seven years," Greens senator Kerry Nettle said. Their cases have been raised by the Greens as up to 100 detainees at Sydney's Villawood detention centre entered the fourth day of a hunger strike aimed at forcing the release of mentally ill detainees held for more than two years.

March 3, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
A DAY of turmoil in the nation's immigration system ended with the Federal Government backing down on several fronts yesterday. It agreed to pay damages to a boy traumatised in detention and allowed a deported Melbourne man to return to Australia on humanitarian grounds. A damning report released by an independent auditor yesterday also raised questions about a successful 2003 bid by the immigration detention contractor GSL, whose contract the Government refused to renew on Wednesday. In Sydney, an 11-year-old Iranian, Shayan Badraie, was offered damages for trauma he suffered in Woomera and Villawood detention centres. The move comes after a 63-day Supreme Court hearing. While in detention between March 2000 and August 2001, the boy became severely traumatised after witnessing riots, a stabbing and a string of other disturbing incidents. He subsequently spent 94 days in hospital, and still requires treatment. Commonwealth lawyers approached lawyers representing Shayan this week to offer a settlement for damages. The exact sum will be fixed at a hearing this morning but is expected to be more than $1 million. Meanwhile, the immigration detention contractor GSL was found to have been hired even though it was more expensive and provided inferior services to competitors, the National Audit Office announced yesterday. GSL's bid was $32.6 million higher than that of the incumbent detention centre operator, ACM, when the latter's bid expired. The audit office found the basis on which ACM was paid $5.7 million after it missed out on the contract was "doubtful", since the department was only required to compensate for matters pertaining to detention. Immigration could not provide evidence of the criteria under which the sum was paid. The audit also found the head of the steering committee, which was heavily involved in the evaluation of the bids, gave a reference for ACM's bid. An independent probity adviser told the steering committee seven months later that this should not happen again.

March 2, 2006 The Age
THE CONTROVERSIAL private operator of Australia's detention centres will not have its lucrative $90-million-a-year contract extended. An independent review, carried out in the wake of the Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez Solon scandals, found that changes to the contract were required. Yesterday Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said all detention services would be re-tendered as part of sweeping reforms to prevent a repeat of the problems that engulfed the Immigration Department last year. GSL, which also operates Victoria's Port Phillip Prison, took over the running of Australia's detention centres in late 2003. The company has come under intense scrutiny, with critics claiming it has introduced a punitive prison regime to detention centres, including the use of solitary confinement. In July last year GSL was penalised more than $500,000 after a report said five detainees endured 6½ hours in the back of a van with no toilet breaks and no food or water while being transferred between the Maribyrnong and Baxter detention centres. Senator Vanstone said that although there was an option to extend the contract with GSL when it expired late next year, the Government had decided to re-tender after a report by former Health Department deputy secretary Mick Roche found changes to the contract were required.The Palmer report on the treatment of Cornelia Rau, an Australian resident wrongfully detained for 10 months in a Brisbane jail and the Baxter detention centre, was scathing about the inadequate health care she received at Baxter. It also said the Government's contract with GSL was "fundamentally flawed" and failed to deliver the immigration detention policy expected by the Government. A damning Auditor-General's report last year said health standards in detention centres were not clearly spelt out in the contract. Another National Audit Office Report, to be tabled in Parliament today, is also expected to be critical of the detention services contract.

January 31, 2006 Scoop
The Victorian Greens Spokesperson on Refugees, Peter Job, today expressed his concerns about growing discontent amongst asylum seekers about their treatment in Baxter detention centre due to the Intransigent policies of the Department of Immigration and its subcontractor Global Solutions Limited. Mr. Job explained that he had just completed a three day visit to Baxter, during which he met with over twenty detainees from a variety of backgrounds. “Despite claims from the Department to be cleaning up its act, the detainees I spoke to claimed the situation in Baxter is actually getting worse, giving consistent accounts of increasingly repressive and heavy handed treatment by management,” Mr. Job said. “They spoke of increasingly intrusive and undignified searches of their bodies and property, especially when accessing the visitor’s compound. They spoke of run down facilities, where broken telephones, kitchen items and leisure facilities were not fixed for months, despite continued requests from detainees. They also continued to complain about the appalling quality of the food, which they claimed had not improved despite the Minister’s assurances to the contrary. “Above all they pointed to a culture in which their opinions and complaints are belittled and ignored, where incidents of discontent are further provoked rather than deescalated, and in which detainees are given little respect as human beings.”

November 23, 2005 Green Left Weekly
I wasn't involved in the asylum seeker debate in 2001 when the government's actions on Tampa were, in their opinion, decisive in getting them re-elected. It was an accident of circumstance that my family was given a voice this past year: we had an obligation to point out the hypocrisy of having one set of rights for citizens and another for suspected "illegals" who are left to rot for years in detention centres without the rule of law to protect them. Even though it took months for all the nasty specifics of Cornelia's treatment to emerge, the broader themes were clear from the outset: the lack of morality - not to mention the expense - of detaining innocent people and hiding them away in the desert; the overall levels of secrecy; the farming out of detention centres to for-profit corporations; the use of punitive isolation to control behaviour; the unchecked power of ill-qualified immigration bureaucrats and privately employed security guards; and the absence of judicial review. The failures exposed by Cornelia's case have hardly been addressed. The reforms emanating from Mick Palmer's inquiry into the wrongful imprisonment of Cornelia have given a greater review role to the federal ombudsman (but only after someone's been detained for two years) and many long-term detainees are being quietly released. A couple of sports fields have been added to Baxter and some of the razor wire in Villawood coming down with great fanfare - only to be replaced by electrified fence. In detention centres, the lack of palatable food has been a deeply felt source of contention. The food issue, so seemingly trivial when compared with indefinite detention, can lead to avoidable tension and abuses. This has not changed. Cornelia's case: In early February, Cornelia was just another non-person in Baxter, receiving no treatment for a florid psychosis. The rest of our family was living in suburban obscurity. We were dragged into public life in early February 2005 when the media became interested. Even before the government announced the Palmer inquiry - only five days after Cornelia was identified - we were getting calls from people with information about what had happened to her during her brush with DIMIA. I was determined to expose the more appalling misuses of power during Cornelia's time behind the wire, much of it in punitive isolation. In the first few days, Senator Amanda Vanstone's office put out various bits of misinformation about how wonderful DIMIA had been to Cornelia and to us. No-one had contacted us. We learned of the phantom medical care being given to detainees. There were horrific cases of neglect: the young child with a broken thumb, which turned purple and swollen in the week it took for him to get medical attention; the man complaining of severe headaches who was fobbed off with Panadol for two years until he collapsed one night between compounds and started to turn blue after which he was finally rushed to hospital where neurosurgeons operated for 12 hours to contain the burst aneurism. There was the woman in Villawood in NSW who couldn't establish breastfeeding with her newborn because guards were in her hospital room 24 hours a day. During the delivery, a guard even gowned up to watch the caesarian, worried no doubt, she might jump up from the table and abscond during the procedure. There were stories of sexual assaults by guards, and in one case, a hastily arranged abortion. Many of our interviewees were worried about repercussions and asked for confidentiality. The former detainees and their families were able to tell us how places like Baxter really worked in practice, how the medical services that DIMIA described in such glowing terms, breached the duty of care requirements. Interview transcripts and court affidavits, including from DIMIA staff that flagrantly contradicted the sort of eyewitness evidence we were getting, were passed onto the university. One such chilling document was the "Behaviour Management Plan" (BMP) from Global Solutions Limited (GSL, the company that runs Baxter among other corrections institutions), which set out rules for detainees in the punishment compound at Baxter, Red One. This is where Cornelia spent 94 days in a psychosis, which had been discerned by other detainees. Evidence we were given showed GSL even flouted its own management plan for much of the time Cornelia was in Red One. For example, detainees have to sign a consent to the BMP before they enter the compound. Cornelia signed no such document. Under the strictest stage of the plan, detainees are allowed four hours out of their cell. In Cornelia's case, we were told by eyewitnesses that on many days she was given only two hours' egress, or none at all. At least on one occasion, Cornelia was punched in the chest so hard she fell backwards into her cell so the guards could lock her inside. [Abridged from a speech by Christine Rau, Cornelia's sister, to the Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House on October 18. For the full text see <http://www.qpilch.org.au/>.]

November 14, 2005 The Age
THE Immigration Department says it will have no hesitation in pursuing criminal charges against detainees who allegedly lit a series of fires at the Baxter detention centre. One detainee was taken to hospital and five others were treated for smoke inhalation on Saturday as a result of four fires that destroyed 14 accommodation rooms and forced the evacuation of 58 detainees at the South Australian facility. The Immigration Department said the damage bill was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The fires forced the removal of 54 detainees to other parts of the centre. Four who are of interest to the police have been isolated and are under constant watch. The fires began in a kitchen, and fire authorities have said the fact there were a number of separate fires suggested there was some unrest at the centre.

November 12, 2005 The Age
One man has been taken to hospital and five others treated for smoke inhalation after a series of fires forced evacuations at the Baxter Detention centre in South Australia. Fifty-eight men being held in detention were evacuated from the White One compound after fires started at the Port Augusta centre around 4am local time a spokesman for the immigration department said. Six of those evacuated were treated on the scene for smoke inhalation with one of them taken to hospital for further treatment. The four separate fires caused more than $25,000 worth of damage and were probably deliberately lit, according to a fire services spokesman.

November 2, 2005 Sidney Morning Herald
Laws that follow through on the government's compromise deal with rebel backbenchers over its tough immigration detention policy were introduced to the lower house on Wednesday. Three-month time limits on deciding protection visa applications and decisions by the Refugee Review Tribunal are two of the major changes introduced in the bill. In addition, the department will be able to release the identity and photographs of people being detained when all other efforts to identify or locate them have failed. This is to rectify the reluctance on DIMIA's part to release information about the mentally ill Australian resident Cornelia Rau who was wrongly locked up in immigration detention for 10 months. Labor's immigration spokesman Tony Burke described the bill as "an incremental step in the right direction". Mr Burke wants the government's contracts with the private company running Australia's immigration detention centres, Global Solutions Ltd, terminated and the management of the centres returned to government hands.

September 13, 2005 The Australian
ILLEGAL immigrants held in detention will be offered taste testing of prospective menus and weekly barbecues in a further attempt by the Howard Government to soften its hardline image on asylum-seekers. The move follows complaints from detainees about the quality of food, including reports of maggot-infested meat, at the privately run Baxter Detention Centre at Port Augusta, South Australia. A confidential government report found food quality had been so bad at Baxter - administered by British conglomerate Global Solutions - that consultants witnessed three-quarters of meals being thrown in bins, with some detainees reporting they were prepared to eat only three or four main meals a week. The report says meals at Baxter often developed a "stewed" appearance, with food "very wet at times, the sauce unthickened and tasteless, or dried out". Immigration Department deputy secretary Bob Correll said yesterday food at Baxter had not been provided to standards required under the contract with GSL. He said there was a direct link between unrest in detention centres and food quality. "Sometimes food has not been served at correct temperature or it is bland," he said. "Special requests in relation to cultural and religious issues were also not being met." The federal Government's $300million contract with GSL is under review. The Palmer Report into the case of Cornelia Rau - a mentally ill Australian resident wrongfully detained at Baxter - found that GSL's contract had "little emphasis on service quality or the establishment of an equitable detention environment".

September 6, 2005 The Age
CONDITIONS at Baxter detention centre are not conducive to good mental health, with more than a fifth of detainees on tranquillisers and anti-depressants, a damning report by a bipartisan parliamentary committee says. The joint standing committee on migration, chaired by Liberal backbencher Don Randall, spoke to about 25 long-term detainees during a visit to Baxter detention centre, near Port Augusta in South Australia, in April this year. "For the committee the three main concerns to emerge from the inspection were the length of detention, mental health in detention and the possibility of physical abuse," Mr Randall says in a report tabled in Parliament yesterday. "The committee cannot deny the impact of long-term detention." When the committee visited Baxter on April 19, more than 50 of the 240 detainees were on anti-depressants and many slept for long periods during the day. The report comes two months after the scathing Palmer inquiry into the wrongful detention of Cornelia Rau, which found mental health care at Baxter was inadequate by any standards.

August 26, 2005 The Age
Police have launched an investigation into claims that guards at South Australia's Baxter detention centre deliberately twisted an asylum seeker's leg until it broke. The Immigration Department has confirmed Peter Mode, a 24-year-old from Zimbabwe, suffered a broken fibula during a violent incident involving three detainees and several guards at the centre on Tuesday. South Australian police are investigating the incident and Mr Mode plans to make an official complaint. Mr Mode said he was assaulted by guards when he sought to protect another inmate, named John, after he threw his meal against a wall, complaining the fish being served to detainees tasted of dust. Mr Mode said seven guards arrived at John's room on Tuesday night to take him to the Red One maximum security unit. "I started arguing with them; 'No you can't take him out of his room, he had an operation last week'," Mr Mode told ABC Radio. "And then I was trying to struggle with them and then they pushed me down to the ground and then one of the officers held my leg. "I was kicking back (saying) 'Just leave me alone'. "Then they pushed the leg and it broke to the ankle." Mr Mode said he told the guard he had broken his leg but he continued to twist it.

August 2, 2005 The Age
The Immigration Department has admitted it had provided misleading answers about a group of detainees who were found to have been inhumanely treated during a transfer to Baxter detention centre. The department yesterday blamed private contractor Global Solutions Limited for its mistake, saying it was relying on information from the detention centre operator. A spokeswoman from the department's media unit admitted it had provided misleading answers to questions from The Age about the incident because "this is what we were told at the time". The admission has sparked renewed calls for GSL's contract to be terminated. Five detainees claimed they were forcibly removed from Maribyrnong detention centre on September 17 last year, put in the back of a van and driven for what seemed to be 10 hours with no toilet breaks and no food or water. In a detailed response to the allegations on September 21 last year, the department said the detainees travelled in "a special-purpose air-conditioned vehicle". "There was a break in a major regional centre a number of hours out of Melbourne where the detainees had a meal and stretched their legs for an hour," the spokeswoman said. "During the drive they had access to food and drink and secure places for toilet stops all along the routes, so the detainees only needed to ask if they required a stop." An independent report on the incident, released late on Friday night by the department, found that the detainees were treated in "an inhumane and undignified manner" and denied food, water and toilet breaks for 6½ hours on the Melbourne-Mildura leg of the journey. The report, by the former head of Queensland Corrective Services, Keith Hamburger, found that appeals for assistance from the detainees were disregarded. One of the detainees said he was forced to urinate "like a dog" in the compartment of the van where he was held. The report also found that force was used on one detainee and that the van used to transport them was "totally unsuitable" for the long trip from Melbourne to South Australia. The Immigration Department and GSL have apologised to the detainees, two managers have resigned and the company has been fined more than $500,000. The Immigration Department spokeswoman said yesterday that the "information (given to The Age) was what should have happened" and that the Hamburger report confirmed that GSL officers had given the department misleading information. "Someone from GSL has already been sanctioned for supplying wrong information to the department," she said. Labor's immigration spokesman, Tony Burke, said the episode showed a lack of clear lines of responsibility and communication. "The department should be out there on the front line so that it knows what's happening to detainees and so it can communicate the message rather than become an extension of the culture of cover-up," he said.

August 1, 2005 The Age
A traumatised asylum seeker has told how he was forced to urinate "same as dog" in the back of a van during a hellish trip between Maribyrnong and Baxter detention centres last year. A damning report, released late on Friday night by the Immigration Department, found that five detainees were denied food, water, medical treatment and toilet stops for six-and-a-half hours on the Melbourne-Mildura leg of the journey. The independent report found the detainees were humiliated and treated in an "inhumane and undignified manner". The asylum seeker, who does not want to be named in case it affects his visa application, told The Age a guard gave him 10 minutes' notice of his transfer last September from the Maribyrnong centre in Melbourne to Baxter north of Port Augusta in South Australia last year. "I wanted to call a lawyer. He said, 'No, take your stuff now'," the asylum seeker said. He said the five detainees were pushed into the van by guards working for detention centre operator Global Solutions Limited. One detainee, who struggled, broke a bone while being forced into the van, the asylum seeker said. He said the van, which was divided into compartments, was dark. The space he was put in was so small he couldn't move. "The guards said, 'If you die inside no one will know'," the man said. "I can't see anything. For eight hours there was no toilet, I had to go in the van, same as dog." He said the detainees were not fed until they arrived at Mildura police station, where they had an hour's break. "I can't believe it," he said. "GSL and the Immigration Department are the law, they can do anything. I didn't know much English, I didn't know what to say to who." He said that although he still felt angry, he did not want compensation. "I'm angry for treating me like a dog," he said. " I don't want money. All I want is for the minister to give me the visa." The Immigration Department apologised for the "very regrettable incident". New department secretary Andrew Metcalfe said GSL would be penalised more than $500,000 and he would refer the matter to police to investigate if criminal offences were committed. Two GSL managers have resigned.

July 25, 2005 Herald Sun
DETAINEES at the Baxter detention centre rioted on Friday night, causing up to $70,000 worth of damage to the complex.
The riot was sparked by complaints of bad food, according to police.  Police are expected to charge some of the 25 detainees who damaged a kitchen, mess hall and store room during the disturbance.  The Department of Immigration said the five minute riot caused between $50,000 and $70,000 damage to the centre in South Australia's North.
A Department spokesman said complaints about the evening meal of lamb aubergine sparked the riot in a compound called Blue Two.   Detainees damaged security cameras, lighting, tables, chairs and food warmers during the disturbance, the spokesman said.

July 14, 2005 Daily Telegraph
THE federal government has apologised to Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez for their treatment at the hands of the immigration department.  Prime Minister John Howard said both women were owed an apology.  "Both Cornelia Rau and Mrs Alvarez are owed apologies for their treatment, and on behalf of the government I give those apologies to both of those women who were the victims of mistakes by the department," Mr Howard told reporters.  Mr Howard and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone today released the Palmer report into the immigration department, which catalogues a litany of failures that led to Ms Rau being wrongly detained for 10 months, and Ms Alvarez, also known as Vivian Solon, being wrongly deported. In a statement accompanying the release of the report, Senator Vanstone said the pair would receive assistance.  Mick Palmer, a former federal police commissioner, was appointed to look into the case of Ms Rau.  His inquiry was later widened to include the case of Ms Alvarez.  After criticising the government's contract with Global Solutions Limited (GSL), which runs the immigration detention centres, Mr Palmer recommended an expert group review the company's contract.  Senator Vanstone said Mr Palmer was critical of the department's policy of 'exception reporting', where instead of outlining what should be done, the contract outlined what must not be done to make it as flexible as possible.  "But Mr Palmer's not of the view that the other regulations surrounding detention allow that flexibility to be there," Senator Vanstone said.

June 29, 2005
IN his explosive report on the detention scandals, former police commissioner Mick Palmer refers to Cornelia Rau's four months in Baxter detention centre as "Anna's journey".  Using the name she took at the time of her admission to the South Australian holding centre, Mr Palmer tells how her mental health deteriorated inside Baxter, yet systemic failures allowed her to remain on the periphery of psychiatric care even after the intervention of the state's director of mental health. Anna arrived at Baxter, on the desert outskirts of Port Augusta, on October 6 without any documentation on her medical history. She was assessed and screened by a contract nurse but things soon got out of hand. "She was unco-operative during the medical induction, by crying, being confused and upset," Mr Palmer says. An assessment by Adam Micallef, a psychologist employed by Global Solutions Ltd, the company with the detention centre contract, was ordered for the next day as a "precaution". Medical papers were sent from Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre, including discharge papers from the Princess Alexandra Hospital. Micallef decided her problems appeared "behavioral", rather than stemming from mental illness. "Anna's behaviour continued to be bizarre," Mr Palmer says. Critically, Micallef wrote that Baxter was not equipped to handle cases such as Anna's, and he recommended that she be moved to an all-female compound such as the one in Villawood detention centre in Sydney. The option was never pursued. Anna had been a month in Baxter when she was seen by the centre's consulting psychiatrist, Andrew Frukacz. Despite two attempts, he was unable to make a definitive diagnosis. He recommended she be assessed in a mental health facility. Acting on Frukacz's advice, attempts were made to bring in South Australia's Rural Remote Mental Health Service to assess Anna. "The RRMHS triage team seemed unsure of their relationship with Baxter and said they would need to clarify matters and then get back," Mr Palmer says. "They did not do so." On November 12, Micallef called a psychiatrist working at Glenside -- South Australia's only dedicated mental health facility -- to discuss Anna's "issues" with Baxter staff. The psychiatrist advised that Anna's problems sounded behavioural but later told Mr Palmer no sense of urgency was conveyed to him at the time. The next day the RRMHS took Anna off their books as to be placed at its allocated beds in Glenside. But no-one at Baxter was told. Micallef sent Anna's psychiatric assessments to Glenside but there was not enough detail in the file to admit her to its waiting list. On New Years's Eve last year, NSW psychiatrist Louise Newman, Adelaide refugee lawyer Claire O'Conner and a local doctor visited 12 detainees at Baxter. After examining several of the detainees, they decided to commit two under the state's mental health act. By January 4, Baxter staff urged Glenside to accept and assess Anna. Three days later a rural doctor contracted to Baxter diagnosed possible "schizoid or schizotypal personality features and possibly schizophrenia", but further discussion with a Glenside psychiatrist resulted in no action.  On January 24, South Australia's then director of mental health services, Jonathon Phillips, offered to have Anna assessed at Glenside. Department of Immigration officials in Canberra sought RRMHS assistance to arrange this, but its director suggested she be examined at Baxter. "It was clear the efforts made by Glenside, RRMHS and Baxter were unco-ordinated and no one took overall responsibility for the arrangements to admit Anna to in-patient care," Mr Palmer says. Eight days later, after media reports of a mentally ill German woman in Baxter, it was finally decided that Anna be assessed under the Mental Health Act. That same day, it was revealed she was in fact Cornelia Rau.

June 5, 2005 The Advertiser
SECURITY guards have been moved on to the grounds of Glenside Mental Health Service to watch over nine Baxter detainees receiving treatment. The guards, employed by the Baxter Detention Centre operators, are costing an estimated $150,000 a month. Effectively, two guards have been assigned to each detainee. They operate out of a hired demountable hut which was recently delivered to the grounds of the hospital. State health officials have made it clear the guards are not welcome. Director of Mental Health, Learne Durrington, said she has approached the Immigration Department about the impact of the guards on other patients. "We're running a hospital here and it needs to be managed as a hospital," Ms Durrington said. "I've proposed that we get rid of the guards and replace them with our own staff who are better trained in mental health care." The Baxter guards are employees of Global Solutions Limited (GSL) subsidiary Group 4, the security company that has the contract to operate the Baxter Detention Centre. "We've taken additional troops from another part of our company," the spokesman, who did not wish to be named, said. "As a result we've got staff shortages and we're recruiting more people – mainly for our Baxter contract." One of the guards told a visitor to Glenside hospital the demountable was hired at a cost of $300 per day. Figures from the Miscellaneous Workers Union show the salary costs of the 54 daily eight-hour shifts to be more than $150,000 per month. A spokesman for the Glenside hospital confirmed two guards were allocated for each detainee. "That's 18 guards on three eight-hour shifts, making a total of 54 guards on a daily basis," he said. The increase in numbers of detainees needing mental health treatment has occurred subsequent to the Cornelia Rau case where an Australian resident suffering psychosis was wrongly detained in Baxter until her real identity was discovered in February this year. Health officials have confirmed that in the year prior to the Rau case only one person had been referred to Glenside, but now nine people were in treatment. Glenside hospital officials are still waiting for a response from the Commonwealth on the presence of the Group 4 guards. Meanwhile, the legal team assisting the Rau family's submission into the Palmer inquiry has questioned the timing of an internal Baxter memo about the identity of a detainee. A story in the Sunday Mail of November 21, 2004, described a missing woman as 168cm tall, 58kg, with dark blonde hair, brown eyes and a brown mole on her left cheek. It subsequently turned out to be Cornelia Rau. It's since been revealed that an internal memo dated November 24 raised the possibility a detainee was an Australian citizen. Legal representatives for the Rau family will ask the Palmer Inquiry to check if the memo was sparked by the article in the Sunday Mail.

February 9, 2005 The Age
The detention centre where mentally ill Australian Cornelia Rau was wrongly held was not visited by a psychiatrist for at least three months last year, documents filed in Adelaide's Federal Court suggest. South Australian Legal Services Commission lawyer Claire O'Connor claimed in documents that Group 4 Falck, the company that runs Australia's detention centres, and the Department of Immigration had breached their duty of care by failing to provide adequate psychiatric care for three mentally ill Iranian men at the Baxter detention centre. Outside the court, she said there were parallels with the Rau case. "Cornelia was sick and wasn't treated, my clients are sick and they are not being treated," Ms O'Connor said. "She is no different to people in there." In documents supporting her attempt to get urgent psychiatric treatment for the men, Ms O'Connor said the centre's suicide and self-harm unit did not employ a psychiatrist. "It is believed there has been no psychiatric visit . . . since about August 2004 and certainly none since November 2004," she said in an affidavit. Ms O'Connor said the problem of the lack of psychiatric care at Baxter was compounded by the fact that the centre itself was contributing to the poor mental health of detainees. She said psychiatrists visited Baxter infrequently and were forced to deal with a series of seriously ill people in a short time. "All they can do is medicate them, they just keep renewing the prescriptions," she said.

February 7, 2005 The Age
Only a full judicial and public inquiry would be sufficient to establish the facts about the detention of a mentally ill Australian woman, her sister said today. Cornelia Rau, a 39-year-old former flight attendant who was released from Baxter immigration detention centre last week after spending 10 months locked up, has caused a national debate over services for the mentally ill. Her sister, Christine Rau, said an inquiry independent of the government and open to public scrutiny was necessary to get to the bottom of the case. Adelaide public defender John Harley, who represents mentally ill people, said he had grave concerns for the fate of other people suffering mental health problems imprisoned by the immigration system. "This is not isolated at all," Mr Harley told ABC radio. "I was informed that (Ms Rau) was in solitary confinement and that involves her being under lights 24 hours a day (with) closed circuit television. "She was allowed out of her room six hours a day, but in some occasions it required four men in riot gear to remove her back into her cell," he said.

February 7, 2005 Herald Sun
THE Federal Government will hold an inquiry into the detention of a mentally ill Australian women at the Baxter centre for illegal immigrants. Prime Minister John Howard yesterday said it was regrettable Cornelia Rau was held in custody for three months in Baxter and before that six months in a Brisbane jail. "Obviously it's . . . a very regrettable incident," Mr Howard said. Ms Rau, a 39-year-old former Qantas flight attendant, was released from Baxter in South Australia on Friday. Australian Democrats leader Lyn Allison said the Government should not be trusted to investigate its own actions. "It is bad enough that Ms Rau was being held in an immigration detention centre," Senator Allison said. "But why did she spend six months in a women's prison before that? Senator Allison said state and federal governments had allowed prisons and detention centres to become "the new psychiatric asylums".

February 5, 2005 The Age
A family snapshot of Cornelia Rau, detained as a suspected illegal immigrant. A mentally ill Australian woman found by Aborigines in a remote Cape York township has been mistakenly held in immigration detention for nearly a year while her distressed family thought she was dead. Cornelia Rau, 39, who suffers from schizophrenia, was last seen in March after she escaped from the psychiatric unit of Sydney's Manly Hospital. The Immigration Department confirmed last night that Ms Rau, who was speaking German and some English, had been held in a Queensland women's prison until September when she was transferred to Baxter detention centre. Ms Rau's sister, Chris Rau, a Sydney journalist, read an article from The Age last Monday about a mystery German-speaking woman held at Baxter, known only as "Anna". Baxter authorities faxed her a photograph, which showed her missing sister. "We're just relieved that she is alive," Chris Rau said. They were also bewildered why the department could not establish her identity when police had her details. Ms Rau was first taken into detention in April. She had been staying near an Aboriginal camp at Coen, in far north Queensland. The Aborigines became concerned that she was sick and brought her into Cairns police. A spokesman for Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the woman was handed over to the Department of Immigration by police in April 2004. She was held in a Queensland women's prison until September when she was transferred to Baxter. Greens senator Kerry Nettle last night called for an inquiry into "this staggering case of mismanagement and abuse". During her three months in Baxter, Ms Rau was kept in isolation for a week, then in a high- security unit locked in a room on her own for 18 hours a day, refugee advocate Pamela Curr said. She said her sister had "been through hell". "We don't know what the implications are going to be for her future condition or her treatment."

December 13, 2004 The Age
The immigration department today accused refugee advocates of inciting incidents within the Baxter detention centre by exaggerating reports of a detainee hunger strike. Refugee support group Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) today said 27 Iranians within the South Australian centre were participating in the hunger strike, now into its second week. Among those were five men who had sewn their lips together and three who were staging a protest on the centre's gymnasium roof, RAR spokeswoman Kathy Verran said. She said those on the roof had been denied water since last night, after guards stopped other detainees bringing water to the men. Ms Verran said detainees had also reported the guards were bouncing balls against the ceiling of the gym, underneath the detainees, to prevent them from sleeping.

December 3, 2004 The Age
Four Sri Lankan men have been hospitalised after refusing food for up to 10 days in a hunger strike at South Australia's Baxter detention centre. Two of the men had also been admitted overnight earlier this week, she said.

December 1, 2004 The Age
Eleven Sri Lankan men at the Baxter detention centre have stepped up their hunger strike and are now refusing medication, a refugee advocate said today. The detainees were determined to continue their hunger strike until death, in a last bid to be granted refugee status in Australia, according to Rural Australians for Refugees spokeswoman Mira Wroblewski. Ms Wroblewski said other hunger strikers were angry that the pair, after their release, had been forced to walk from the detention centre medical facility to their compounds in pouring rain. "It (forcing them to walk in the rain) has just strengthened their resolve.

September 20, 2004 The Age
A hunger strike, a High Court action and a direct appeal to Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone are among last-ditch efforts to stop the forced return of asylum seekers to Sri Lanka. The man on hunger strike, who is 34 and was detained after his visa expired, was put into Baxter's management unit on Thursday and forcibly fed. He resumed his hunger strike on Saturday, Ms Wroblewski said. Eleven other Sri Lankans held at Baxter yesterday entered the fifth day of a peaceful sit-in at the compound.

August 20, 2004 The Age
A food sample from South Australia's Baxter detention centre will be presented to health authorities for inspection after detainees complained they had been served a meal crawling with maggots. The Immigration Department last week said one maggot had been found in food and an investigation was under way. South Australian Greens MP Kris Hanna said he would today present a sample of meat and rice to the state Environmental Health Department for examination. Mr Hanna said the food sample was smuggled out of Baxter following frustration among detainees about the situation. "According to reports in the centre, the food was crawling with live maggots," Mr Hanna said. Detainees at the Baxter centre last week upturned rubbish bins in protest after complaining about maggots in their food.

Inmates of Baxter immigration detention centre took control of a compound yesterday morning and barricaded themselves in. About 50 guards in riot gear surrounded the compound and forced open the door. A spokesman for the Immigration Department confirmed that there had been a disturbance at Baxter. (The Age, March 18, 2004)

July 22, 2006 The Independent
A Kurdish teenager killed himself after spending more than four months in an immigration detention centre, an inquest has heard. Ramazan Kumluca, 18, is the youngest asylum-seeker to have committed suicide while facing deportation from Britain. Campaign groups yesterday called for the closure of all detention centres, comparing them to Victorian workhouses. Mr Kumluca is one of more than 30 asylum-seekers who have killed themselves in the past five years after being told their applications had failed. He had travelled from his home in Turkey to Italy and then on to Britain where he claimed asylum last year, saying that his life was in danger over a £20,000 debt owed by his father. He also claimed that if he was sent back to Italy (under rules that asylum must be claimed in the first safe country reached) he was at risk of exploitation. Mr Kumluca was refused asylum and denied bail because there were fears he would not report back for deportation. He was sent to Campsfield House in Oxfordshire, an immigration removal centre that holds around 100 men at any time. The average stay for detainees at the centre is 14 days, but because the teenager was fighting his deportation order he was held for four and a half months. An inquest at Oxford Old Assizes heard he had been plunged into despair during his incarceration and had complained of insomnia, headaches and anxiety. A fellow inmate, Abdulwase Kamali, told the court Mr Kumluca had appeared "sad" the day before he killed himself. He said: "Ramazan said he had been told by immigration he would be sent back to Italy, and he said if he was sent back to Italy he would be used in sex films. He said he would slash himself or hang himself." On 27 June last year, Mr Kamali and other Muslim detainees alerted warders after calling Mr Kumluca for morning prayers and finding his door would not open. He was found hanging from the door closing mechanism. After investigating his death, a Prison and Probation ombudsman cleared staff of any wrongdoing. The jury returned a verdict of suicide. Outside the court, Bob Hughes, of the pressure group Campaign to Close Campsfield, said: "Here we have an institution full of people being driven deliberately to despair by government policy." "He added: "We believe these people should be allowed to get on with their own lives. Centres like Campsfield are a huge national scandal and shame. Campsfield House has been a removal centre since 1993 and is privately run by the company Global Solutions Limited. In 2002, the then Home Secretary David Blunkett pledged that the centre would be closed, but a year later it was decided to keep it open and expand the number of places. Since 2000, at least 25 asylum-seekers have killed themselves while living in the community after being told they would be deported. Mr Kumluca was the seventh to have committed suicide in a detention centre. More than 2,600 adults and children are being held in detention centres prior to deportation. In January this year another asylum-seeker Bereket Yohannes, from Eritrea, was found hanging at Harmondsworth Removal Centre. An inquest will be held into his death.

June 17, 2006 Indy Media
On Monday 12th of this week a Somalian man went onto a roof at Campsfield; he had been detained for four months (probably illegally, since the government cannot deport people to Somalia) and took a rope and a plastic bag with him. GEO, the new management at Campsfield, asked the police to leave and said they would deal with the matter themselves; we do not know whether they used violence against the Somalian detainee; he has been removed from Campsfield, no doubt to somewhere even worse as is usual in these cases. There have been 12 suicides in immigration detention, and several hundred attempted suicides and cases of self harm requiring medical treatment. GSL lost the contract to run Campsfield to GEO (Global Expertise on Outsourcing), presumably on cost grounds. GEO took over at the beginning of the month. They have changed their name from Wackenhut, and have a discreditable history of running penal institutions in the USA and Australia. GSL's manager, Andy Clark, who had been more willing than his predecessors to allow volunteers and education classes in Campsfield, decided he could not work with GEO; at least two of the people who ran education classes and workshops have been sacked or left, and GEO apparently intends to provide much reduced hours of education (as required under the contract), run by its own officers. But of course the most serious problem is not the conditions inside the centre, but the fact that people are detained there who have committed no crime, been charged or suspected of no crime, with no judicial process and no time limit, often with no access to lawyers, and always with great uncertainty about what is happening to them or about to happen to them.

May 23, 2001
The global private security firm Group 4, is an "Investor in People."  This may come as a surprise.  For since Campsfield opened, almost unnoticed, in the bleary period just before Christmas in 1993, this improvised brick compound has become to many the unacceptable face of the British government's asylum system.  Within weeks, the country's first specialized facility for confining them while their cases were decided was provoking hunger strikes.  Within months, detainees were climbing on to its roofs to protest at the conditions.  Still in its first year of operation, there was a mass escape over its 20ft perimeter fence, and a "disturbance" - involving fires and smashed furniture - which resulted in the deployment of riot police and injuries to detainees, who needed several ambulances and hospital treatment.  Official reports on Campsfield in 1995 and 1998 by two different chief inspectors of prisons found fear, boredom and stress among inmates.  Among the Group 4 staff, the inspections found inexperience, poor pay and exhausting shift work.  This cycle of protest and disorder and repressive countermeasures continued unabated during the late 1990s.  (Guardian Newspapers)

May 14, 2002
As many as 15 asylum seeker accomadation centres could be built across the UK despite an angry response from residents in the locations chosen for the three pilot "villages".  The government plans to build the centres at Throckmorton, near Pershore on Worcestershire, RAF Newton, in Nottinghamshire, and at Bicester, Oxfordshire.  More than 3,000 villagers have signed a petition objecting to a development in their area.  Some local people are anxious about plans to house large numbers of asylum seekers near them, particularly following the riot and fire which destroyed the $100m Yari's Wood centre.  Steve Mitchell, chairman of Pinvin Parish Council, promised to fight the plans "every step of the way".  (BBC News)

Dover Asylum Screening Centre, London City Airport
September 12, 2005 BBC
Immigration detainees have been forced to sleep on tables or plastic chairs because of sub-standard provisions, the prisons watchdog has revealed. Facilities at Gatwick Airport, London City Airport and Dover Asylum Centre were inappropriate for overnight stays, the chief inspector of prisons said. City Airport was "unsuitable" for holding children, the report said. The government said it takes detainees' welfare seriously but that facilities may need independent monitoring. Holding centres at ports and airports hold foreign travellers whose permission to be in the country needs to be examined by immigration officers. But none of the centres inspected, all run by private company GSL UK Limited, had adequate child protection arrangements, according to the report. Inspectors found detainees were sleeping in inadequate conditions, there were no regular healthcare visits and suicide-prevention measures were not good enough.

Global Solutions, UK
December 18, 2007 Yahoo Business Wire
Cognetas, an independent mid-market pan-European private equity firm specialising in complex deals, today announces the sale of Global Solutions (GSL) for £355 million to G4S. The sale, subject to EU merger clearance and South African competition commission clearance, is expected to complete in 2008. GSL is a leading provider of outsourced support services to public authorities and corporate organisations worldwide. Services are typically provided under long-term contracts (5 to 30 years) either directly to the end customer or through joint ventures and Public Private Partnerships with government and corporates. GSL has operations in the UK, South Africa and Australia. Its service offering covers three areas: Custodial services, including prison management, escorting, immigration, custody and training; Public Services, for example healthcare, education and Local Authority services; and Business services, comprising utilities, office accommodation and other managed services. Cognetas backed the original MBO of GSL in 2004 in a £207 million (€309 million) transaction. At the time, Cognetas underwrote equity and debt to facilitate certainty for the vendor with an initial commitment of £105 million (€158 million) on behalf of Cognetas Fund I. This was reduced within two months to £54 million (€81 million) by introducing senior debt. The balance of the funding was provided by Englefield Capital on behalf of the Englefield Funds. Since then Cognetas has supported management in the implementation of a growth plan that has seen revenues increase from £291 million in 2004 to over £400 million in 2007 through organic growth, in fill acquisition and expansion of services in its sectors over three continents with the number of staff employed increasing by over 25% to more than 9,500. Nigel McConnell, Managing Partner of Cognetas commented: “We are delighted to be associated with the success of GSL over the past three years and we are pleased to see that the dynamic management team has built the business into a worldwide quality provider of outsourced services. We leave the business on extremely sound and robust grounds which will help sustain its continued growth. I am confident that being part of a larger global business like G4S will take this business forward to a new level and I wish them well”.

November 29, 2007 The Telegraph
Group4Securicor is in talks to buy Global Solutions, a company it used to own, for around £350m. Earlier this year, private equity firm Cognetas appointed investment bank UBS to carry out a strategic review of Global Solutions, which runs a number of Britain's prisons and detention centres. However, the credit crunch forced Cognetas to put the review of Global Solutions on hold. Since then, the company has received a number of approaches, including one from Group4Securicor. Cognetas bought Global Solutions, which also manages hospitals, schools and tourist offices, from Danish security firm Group 4 Falk for about £200m three years ago. Group4Securicor is now understood to be carrying out due diligence on the business. However, it is not the only company bidding. Sources said US group GEO and several private equity firms have also made approaches for the company. Global Solutions has previously come under the spotlight for the way it runs its prisons and detention centres, following the Government's privatisation of the sector. Earlier this year, there was a Panorama investigation by an undercover BBC reporter, who worked as a custody officer, in one of Global Solutions' prisons at Rye Hill. None of the parties involved would comment.

August 26, 2007 The Observer
A possible sale or flotation of Global Solutions, which runs a number of Britain's prisons and detention centres, has been shelved by private equity owner Cognetas, according to City sources. UBS, the investment bank that was appointed last month to undertake a strategic review of the prisons group, is understood to have advised Cognetas against a move while global credit and stock markets are still on tenterhooks. Cognetas bought Global Solutions, which also manages hospitals, schools and tourist offices, from Danish security firm Group 4 Falk for about £200m three years ago. The company has stoked occasional controversy, most recently after the BBC's Panorama programme looked into the way Global Solutions ran Rye Hill prison, near Rugby, Warwickshire. The jail was the subject of a report by the chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, who found the staff were inexperienced. There has also been criticism of the way it runs asylum centres - last year, a prisons inspectorate inquiry was ordered into Yarl's Wood, an immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire that was formerly run by Global.

June 14, 2007 The Telegraph
Global Solutions, a company that runs some of Britain's prisons and detention centres, may be about to change hands for around £400m. Private equity firm Cognetas, which owns Global Solutions, has appointed investment bank UBS to carry out a strategic review of the business, according to sources familiar with the matter. It is understood that the review is likely to examine a float, sale, refinancing and possible future acquisition for the business. Sources stressed that the strategic review might not necessarily lead to an imminent sale of Global Solutions, which Cognetas bought in 2004 from Danish security firm Group 4 Falck for around £207m. The move comes as Global Solutions - which also builds and manages hospitals, schools and tourist offices for several public organisations around the world - has come under the public spotlight for the way it runs its prisons and detention centres, following the Government's privatisation of the sector. Earlier this year, there was a Panorama investigation by an undercover BBC reporter, who worked as a custody officer, in one of Global Solutions' prisons at Rye Hill. Global Solutions' detention centres for asylum seekers have also been criticised. Last year, a prison inspectorate inquiry was ordered after two refugees had to go to hospital following prolonged detention in Yarl's Wood, an immigration removal centre formerly run by Global Solutions. Cognetas declined to comment.

March 19, 2006 The Age
FOUR prison officers have been sacked and two more counselled in the wake of the so-called "Sausagegate" scandal, which hurt and humiliated a vulnerable inmate of the privately owned and run Port Phillip Prison. The Bracks Government has put GSL Australia, operator of the Laverton maximum-security complex, on notice over a spate of alarming incidents. The prisoner was tricked into believing he was leaving the jail, coerced into inserting a sausage in his body, then strip-searched by officers "in" on the "joke". The dismissed officers were corrections supervisor Trevor Spearman, who allegedly tried to cover up the incident, and corrections officer Steven Harmat, who allegedly played the leading role, and corrections officers Russell Davies and Appudurai Natkunarajah, who joined the prank. Until last week, they had been suspended for six to nine months on full pay following the report of the investigation by GSL's security manager, Jim Keegan, revealed exclusively in The Sunday Age last week. Anti-private prison activist Charandev Singh said the report shows that more needs to be done to address serious systemic problems in the prison. His concern is backed by Vanessa Westcott, daughter of a man who died of an asthma attack at the prison in November after a help button he pressed apparently did not work. Ms Westcott said the prison was leaving people like her father, remanded alleged offender Ian Westcott, 55, in cells not monitored between 8pm and 8am. His death, after he reportedly left a note saying he had called for help, is the subject of three inquiries. Ms Westcott, a University of Melbourne doctoral student researching in outback Western Australia, wants to prevent such tragedies occurring. Her solicitor, Fitzroy Legal Service's Stan Winford, said not enough had been done to implement the findings of inquests conducted into deaths at the prison in the late 1990s. GSL was recently given a penalty of almost $200,000 over "Sausagegate", which happened last May. The penalty appears to have included other incidents. In another embarrassment this week, the company's transport manager, Rod St George, was dressed down by Judge John Nixon in Geelong County Court over a bungle that left a prisoner late for court and without food or water for almost seven hours. The problems come at an awkward time for GSL and the Bracks Government, which is in the midst of a scheduled review of GSL's contract. Minister for Corrections, Tim Holding told The Sunday Age: "The Government will not accept failure in the management of any of our prisons." Under the terms of its 20-year contract, begun in 1997, GSL was to face a review after five years, then every three years. If renewed, the second of its three-year terms would begin on July 1. Mr Singh, a human rights advocate with Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre, said the penalty faced by GSL was "tokenistic" compared to its annual revenue of $147 million. Police have investigated "Sausagegate" and have forwarded their investigation to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

March 12 2006 The Age
THE private company running Port Phillip Prison, GSL Australia, has been fined almost $200,000 and four officers have been suspended over a practical joke that humiliated and hurt a vulnerable prisoner last year. Known in prison circles as "Sausagegate", the incident involved the prisoner being coerced into hiding a package of supposed contraband inside his body and then being strip-searched by officers who were in on the "joke". A scathing internal GSL report on the case, obtained by The Sunday Age, reveals that the prisoner rejected efforts to make him cover up the incident, which left him angry, humiliated and physically hurt. The scandal is likely to revive debate over the use of private companies to run prisons and immigration detention centres. Last year GSL was fined almost $500,000 by federal authorities over mistreatment of immigration detainees, and an independent review has decided against an automatic extension of its contract to run immigration detention centres. Police who investigated the latest case have now referred files to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Victorian Corrections Commissioner Kelvin Anderson said the matter had "been taken extremely seriously", resulting in what he termed a "significant financial penalty" under its contract. The Sunday Age believes that the sum is close to $200,000.

August 16, 2005 BBC
Facilities at four short-term immigrant holding centres have been condemned as "inadequate" by the prisons watchdog. Dover Asylum Screening Centre, a centre at London City Airport and two at Gatwick Airport are not suitable for overnight stays, its report says. Detainees were found to have slept on tables or plastic chairs, it adds. Immigrants are only supposed to be detained for a few hours, but Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said people were sometimes held overnight, and occasionally for up to 36 hours. Ms Owers said none of the centres had adequate child protection arrangements. A spokesman for GSL UK Limited, which was in charge of the centres at the time of the inspections, said it was inappropriate to comment as the company no longer ran them. The centres have since been taken over by Group 4 Securicor.

July 9, 2005
Here is a story about your taxes at work. It concerns a company called GSL (Australia) Pty Ltd, previously known as Group 4 Correction Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British security company Group 4 Securitas, whose core business includes running prisons. GSL's parent has merged twice in the past five years. The second time was a year ago, with a British-based multinational called Securicor to create "one of the largest security companies in the world, with 340,000 employees in 108 countries", according to GSL's website.  On July 13, 2004, GSL was sold, for $500 million, as a stand-alone company to "two of Europe's leading private equity companies, Englefield Capital and Electra Partners Europe". The GSL website says GSL has 8000 employees globally, including 1064 in Australia.  A year earlier, on August 27, 2003, GSL signed a contract with the Australian Government's Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs to take over the operation of all its mainland "immigration detention facilities". The contract runs for four years, with a government option for another three years.  The cost to taxpayers: $90 million a year.  That is, $90 million "not including overheads and contract administration", according to the Auditor-General, whose office has just investigated the Immigration Department's management of the GSL contract. What do taxpayers get for their $90 million?  Well, the first thing they get is a bill for another $30 million, which is what the Audit Office found it now costs the department in annual overheads to administer the contract. These costs have gone up at the same time as the number of detainees has gone down. In 2003-04 administration costs totalled $20 million, while in the year just ended June 30 they were "projected to reach $30 million".  The number of detainees, as at June 29, was 844. Do your sums on a total cost of $120 million and you'll find the detention of each and every detainee cost taxpayers an average $142,000 throughout 2004-05. Perhaps this is why GSL Australia's managing director, Peter Olszak, is quoted on the company website as "expressing confidence 'we will continue to go from strength to strength'."   The Audit Office, in its report released this week, says the Immigration Department stated it funded $120.5 million in 2004-05 to provide "lawful, appropriate, humane and efficient detention of unlawful non-citizens". It also found the department's "internal monitoring and reporting arrangements" neither defined nor measured "lawful, appropriate, humane or efficient detention".  The report's overall conclusion, in part: "The contract does not establish clear expectations for the level and quality of services delivered, mechanisms to protect the Commonwealth's interests are not clear, and there is insufficient information about the quality of services and their costs to allow a value-for-money calculation."  All of which means what?  Labor's Sharon Grierson, deputy chairwoman of Parliament's public accounts and audit committee, was the only MP to respond to the Audit Office report. Grierson said in a statement on Thursday: "The department has no idea what is going on inside detention centres. The last thing we should do is assume anything about these centres, given the culture of complacency and the lack of proper review. The ANAO report makes it clear there is simply no way of knowing whether the Commonwealth is receiving value for money or, more importantly, whether the needs of detainees are being met. The department simply shuts its eyes and hopes for the best. DIMIA has absolutely no idea if (or to what extent) it is insured for incidents at detention centres, why the cost of detention is rising even while the number of detainees is falling, or even what assets and equipment it owns in these centres."  A lot of "don't knows" for $120 million.

April 9, 2005 The Guardian
Security firms involved in the deportation of failed asylum seekers are facing more and more claims of intimidation and assault. Group 4/Global Solutions Ltd (GSL) topped the league table of complaints by asylum seekers and their lawyers. Campaigners who studied 35 complaints now being pursued by lawyers revealed GSL was involved in 30% of cases. GSL, which deals with by far the majority of deportees in Britain, recently won a 10-year Home Office contract to run Bicester Accommodation Centre for asylum seekers. The firm was criticised last month after the broadcast of the BBC documentary Asylum Undercover, which contained claims of abuse by GSL guards. Most of the alleged assaults analysed involve incidents on the way to or at airports. Most concern incidents resulting in cuts, bruises and swelling, although deportees have complained of head injuries, damaged nerves, and sexual assault.

March 31, 2005 IRR News
Recent unannounced inspections of centres used to hold asylum seekers in transit to detention centres and to ports for deportation have found that no centre meets the minimum requirements in relation to child protection. Officials carried out their first (unannounced) inspections into 'holding' centres for asylum seekers between June and October 2004. The holding centres, all run by private company GSL Ltd, (formerly Group 4) were: Communications House (Old Street, London), Lunar House (Croydon), Electric House (Croydon) and Dallas Court (Manchester). The report states that 'all four holding centres had inadequate provision for childcare and child protection. None had a child protection policy in place, and staff likely to be in contact with children had not undergone enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks.' At Lunar House the inspection team reported that they 'spoke to one woman detainee with a two-year-old child during the mid-afternoon. She and the child had been in other areas of the building since 8am that morning. Neither she nor her child had been offered anything to eat during that time and had to wait for relocation to a residential centre that evening.' They found that this was 'unacceptable'. At Dallas Court, the team found that 'a weekend shift recently complained when they discovered a young woman in the holding room who had miscarried a few days previously. She had been collected from a hospital following psychiatric referral, had not eaten for three days and had to be helped to and from the van. She was subject to a live F2052SH self-harm monitoring form because she kept asking for her baby and said she wanted to die. Having been delivered to the holding room in the morning, she was not due to be collected by another vehicle until more than six hours later.' For the first time it emerged that other private contractors (unnamed in this report) are being used to move asylum seekers - though GSL Ltd remains responsible for the four holding centres inspected here. The inspection teams also found a worrying 'absence of operational or independent oversight, compared to other immigration detention facilities. There was no Independent Monitoring Board, and no on-site monitor to provide daily oversight of service provision, as there is in immigration removal centres (IRCs). Senior Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) staff visited only occasionally, and, with the exception of Dallas Court, had little involvement with the centres.'

MANCHESTER'S new £30m court is at the centre of a new storm after dozens of prisoners were hours late arriving from their cells.  Furious lawyers sat around for up to three hours yesterday waiting for their clients to arrive from police stations, including Bootle Street less than a mile away.  GSL, the private security firm that ferries prisoners to the court, blamed "logistical problems" and has apologised to court authorities.  It is the latest in a string of problems at the court since it opened in May.   Around 40 people were due to be moved from holding cells in Manchester to the court before 10am yesterday, in time for morning hearings.  Less than half were delivered on time and more were dropped off at 11am and 11.45am. Lawyers were still waiting for at least eight clients at 12.30pm. GSL, part of Group 4, said the final transfer was made at 12.45pm.  Court bosses have already threatened to fine GSL for previous failures to get prisoners into court on time.  (Manchester Online, August 31, 2004)

HM Prison Altcourse, UK
July 13, 2005
An inquiry has been launched after two men were found hanged in their cells at a prison in Liverpool. Lee Jason Crabtree, 32, from Llandudno, Conwy, was found dead on Monday at HM Prison Altcourse. David Oakes, 25, from Warrington, Cheshire, was found on Tuesday. The two deaths are not thought to be linked. The privately-run jail has recently been praised by prison inspectors for its good environment and work with mentally ill inmates. But the report, by the Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers, also highlighted bullying among prisoners and criticised procedures for inmates' first night in jail.

Maribyrnoug Detention Centre, New South Wales
December 16, 2008 The Age
THREE detainees at Maribyrnong Detention Centre pulled off brazen escapes at the weekend, raising questions about immigration security. The latest escapes come less than two months after a Vietnamese detainee posed as a visitor and walked straight past security guards. Opposition immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone called on detention centre operator GSL to review security, after two Vietnamese men scaled a five-metre fence at the rear of the detention centre at lunchtime on Saturday and disappeared. The following night, Turkish man Mustafa Bectis managed to shrug off his two escorts at the emergency department of the Western General Hospital in Footscray, where he was being treated for a cut arm. "If someone has just climbed over the back fence, GSL does need to very urgently review its security," Ms Stone said. "If another person is being escorted to hospital and managed to escape then certainly they've got to take a lot more care." Mr Bectis, who was not handcuffed or shackled, raced through a door and vanished. The two escapes are believed to have been assisted by people from the outside, with detainees able to communicate using email and mobile phones. Police were immediately called in both instances by GSL, but have been unable to trace the absconders. Ms Stone also criticised the decision not to make the escapes public, saying that residents who lived near the detention centre could have helped the police. "Australia is such a multicultural place, it is very easy for anyone to blend into the background — we don't require a showing of papers at borders between states," she said. She also said GSL may need to review its mobile phone policy where a detainee had a high flight risk. In the past three years, 20 detainees have escaped while at Maribyrnong, Villawood and Perth detention centres, mostly while being escorted to court or on social outings. Four escapes have been from Maribyrnong this year, compared with just two from Villawood and one from Perth. The weekend shemozzle has come at a sensitive time for GSL, which hopes its contract will be renewed after the former government re-tendered all detention services. A decision is expected to be announced in the first half of next year. The Government is already under pressure over its border protection policy, with the Opposition claiming the scrapping of temporary protection visas has made Australia a "soft target" for people smugglers. An Immigration Department spokesman said GSL would review security arrangements at Maribyrnong. "It is the responsibility of the detention services provider to ensure appropriate security is maintained at all times," he said. But he said email and mobile phone access were a "fundamental right" for people in immigration detention, and their use would not form part of the review. GSL's director of public affairs, Tim Hall, said escapes were a matter of great concern. "We constantly strive to balance the needs of clients who are being held in administrative detention, not imprisonment, against our obligation to ensure that they are securely detained," he said.

Oakington Asylum Reception Center, Cambridgeshire
December 12, 2008 The Guardian
Conditions have deteriorated significantly at Oakington immigration removal centre in Cambridgeshire, with half the detainees saying they feel unsafe and staff increasingly using force, according to the chief inspector of prisons. A report by Anne Owers, published today, says that Oakington, which had been a flagship "fast-track" asylum centre, has lost direction and purpose and is not performing well, especially in the areas of safety and respect. The relationships between the private security staff running the centre and the 328 detainees have deteriorated to the extent that they are significantly worse than at any other removal centre. The chief inspector says the management and staff take so little interest in individual detainees that they were unaware of the fact that they had been holding one Chinese man for nearly two years. Owers says that Oakington has changed considerably since it was the fast-track processing centre and now holds only men, some for long periods, and all facing the possibility of deportation. The threat of closure has been hanging over the centre for the past four years, which means many of the staff are temporary. "None of this makes for a stable, secure and positive environment," says the inspection report. "Half the detainees, compared with a third last time [2005], said that they had felt unsafe. Only 60%, compared with 89% last time, and 94% in 2004, said that most staff treated them with respect. These are significant and troubling slippages." One source of fear is the use of poorly supervised dormitory accommodation, with failed asylum seekers locked up with foreign national prisoners also facing deportation. The use of force to control detainees has also increased at the centre - which is run by the private security company Global Solutions Ltd - from 53 incidents last year to 34 in the first six months of this year. The number of detainees put on segregation for breaching rules has also risen, from 328 times in the whole of 2007 to 220 in the first six months of this year. "This was a disappointing inspection of an establishment which seemed to have lost direction and purpose," Owers says, adding that the UK Border Agency should quickly clarify Oakington's future. The agency said it would consider the report's recommendations. "We take any concerns about the welfare of our detainees extremely seriously. Our removal centres play a vital role in enforcing immigration rules and we are determined to make sure they are well run, safe and secure."

November 14, 2006 Cambridge Evening News
A report by Anne Owers, Chief Inspector of Prisons, found bosses had failed to implement improvements recommended following an earlier inspection in several key areas designed to improve the welfare of detainees. Highlighting her concerns, she warned the centre would have to take note of its shortcomings if, as is planned, it stays open for another three years. She said: "Oakington remains a reasonably safe environment. It was, however, disappointing several of our recommendations on suicide and self-harm had not been implemented, and that anti-bullying procedures were weak. "This will be of increased importance if the centre remains in operation, and holds men who are detained for longer periods, with no on-site access to independent legal advice or to the immigration service." The centre was also rapped for failing to improve its race relations procedures, although staff were not accused of being racist towards detainees. Ms Owers said: "We were extremely disappointed to find there to be insufficient attention to basic protective race relations structures, such as effective ethnic monitoring procedures. "There can be no excuse for failing to put in place effective mechanisms to detect and prevent racial discrimination." The lack of suitable activities and welfare support for detainees was also criticised, and Ms Owers said the centre was in a period of transition. A CULTURE of bullying and abuse was exposed by an undercover investigation at Oakington Reception Centre. Global Solutions Ltd (GSL), which runs the centre, launched an investigation after an undercover reporter spent three months working there, filming abuse that went on. One member of staff, Jason Martin, known to colleagues at Oakington as Wolfie, was filmed telling a detainee whose mental well-being was reportedly causing concern: “Get out of ******* bed before I do you some damage.” Martin, right, then tipped him out of bed after saying: “You just don’t want to do it because I’m white. And you think you’re not going to do anything because a white person tells you what to do. Well I’m afraid you’re wrong. My great- grandfather shot your great-grandfather and nicked his ******* country off you for 200 years. “I’m not to be ****** about with. Personally I don’t go with this Gandhi ****. Passive resistance means **** all to me.” GSL said Mr Martin subsequently moved on to a job as a prison custody officer for a private company.

December 15, 2005 Virgin.net
New safeguards are to be introduced after evidence of racism was uncovered at an asylum seeker detention centre. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will act as an independent monitor of complaints from October next year, ministers said. The ombudsman, currently Stephen Shaw, investigated Oakington fast-track detention centre in Cambridgeshire earlier this year after a BBC documentary exposed allegations of racism and mistreatment. "The behaviour of some of those working for the contractor company, as seen in the BBC documentary and confirmed by Stephen Shaw's report, was unacceptable." Oakington, which is already marked for closure by the end of next year, is run by the private company Global Solutions Ltd. Oakington officers boasted of hitting detainees and made racist comments while a BBC researcher was working undercover at the Cambridgeshire centre.

March 4, 2005 Interactive Investor
The government asked the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman to investigate allegations of abuse at the Oakington immigrant detention centre, said Home Office Minister Des Browne. The independent probe was established after a BBC television documentary showed staff at the centre racially and physically abusing asylum seekers. Ombudsman Stephen Shaw's remit will be to investigate the allegations made in the documentary and review the centre's own probe into the affair, Browne said.  Oakington is run by Global Solutions Ltd. GSL was formed after Group 4 Falck merged with with Securicor in 2004. Electra Partners Europe and Englefield Capital each took 50 pct stakes in GSL last July, according to GSL's website.

March 3, 2005 Financial Times
A BBC film showing asylum seekers being assaulted, racially abused and sexually humiliated by guards has prompted demands for a public debate into how government policy is fuelling human rights abuses and miscarriages of justice. The film, shown last night, has generated adverse publicity for Global Solutions, one of the government's largest contractors, which runs Oakington detention centre near Cambridge and the in-country escorting contract featured in the undercover documentary. The Home Office said it was taking the matter "extremely seriously" and would decide on what further action to take once it had all the facts. GSL was formed in 2004, when Group 4 Falck of Denmark merged with Securicor, its UK rival. It inherited a number of public-private partnership contracts, from healthcare and schools to the construction and servicing of the new GCHQ, one of the largest buildings developed under the private finance initiative. What has shocked human rights and refugee groups is that Oakington had been considered one of the better-run and more humane detention centres. The documentary has fuelled concerns that the abuses at Oakington are but the symptoms of a wider malaise across the system that has long generated protests to the Home Office from human rights lawyers.

November 9, 2004 The Guardian
Children detained in the Oakington asylum reception centre in Cambridgeshire are not being cared for properly, with some found to be suffering distress, according to the chief inspector of prisons. Anne Owers says in a report published today that when she visited the privately run centre she found that 41 children were being detained, some for weeks. The chief inspector's report also discloses that the agreed procedures for detaining the children of asylum seekers had not been followed. "The centre made conscientious attempts to identify and support children at risk of harm, but residential staff lacked the necessary qualifications or support from social services," she says.

Port Phillip Prison, Australia
September 11, 2008 The Age
COMPLAINTS about Victoria's private prisons have risen up to fourfold in the past two years, fuelling concerns by a public sector watchdog about the state's growing reliance on business to provide government services. State Ombudsman George Brouwer yesterday tabled his 2007-08 annual report, vowing to shine a light on the more murky aspects of public-private partnerships and outsourcing and noting the "high risk" that comes with the blurring of the private and public sectors. In the report, Mr Brouwer highlights a "growing interdependency" between government and business, which brings "a high potential for conflict situations and confusion about the ethical standards required". While issues of conflicts of interest, poor customer service and failure to fulfil legal requirements remain his core work, the Ombudsman says public-private contracts and public sector compliance with the new human rights charter are two new areas of focus. The 2008 report also shows: ■Overall complaints were up 13% to 16,344 on the previous year. ■Complaints about freedom of information rose by 16%. ■Whistleblower disclosures more than doubled. ■The largest single source (29%) of complaints related to the Justice Department. ■Local government made up 23% of complaints and the Department of Human Services 19%. Deputy Ombudsman John Taylor said his office was concerned that private sector involvement in services traditionally supplied by government may lead to the erosion of citizens' rights. He pointed to private prisons, noting 400% and 100% increases in complaints respectively about Port Phillip prison (rising to 443) and Fulham prison (129) since the 2006 annual report. While rising complaint figures are partly explained by the installation of phones for inmates, Mr Taylor described the increases as "disproportionately high". The emphasis on private contracting is a wake-up call for a state increasingly reliant on PPPs for services ranging from jails to water and now schools. Mr Taylor said the Ombudsman's office would make a point of scrutinising deals with business. "Every time there is a major contract or outsourcing of what traditionally has been a government function we have an interest; we want to make sure that the normal rights of a citizen to complain are retained and that the Government doesn't legislate away the right of an individual to complain to the Ombudsman." Individual agencies with the most complaints were VicRoads and Port Phillip Prison. ■The Government is expected to table legislation tomorrow to toughen rules and guidelines for councillors, including clarifying confusing laws on conflicts of interest.

August 5, 2007 The Ages
A PRISONER who was allegedly hurt and humiliated by an obscene practical joke, known in prison circles as "Sausagegate", is suing the private operator of Port Phillip Prison at Laverton. Kirk Steven Ardern, 27, has lodged a writ in the County Court seeking damages for physical and psychological injuries suffered during the incident on May 22, 2005. The Sunday Age reported exclusively in March last year that private operator GSL Australia had been fined almost $200,000 by Corrections Victoria over the matter and other breaches. Following the Sunday Age report, based on a leaked copy of an internal investigation, four prison officers who were suspended on full pay for six to nine months over the incident were sacked, and two others were counselled. The investigator's report said Ardern was made to believe he was going out of the prison to buy doughnuts, then coerced into secreting what he was told was a package of contraband drugs and cash wrapped in cling-wrap inside his rectum. But he had been tricked, and was angered and humiliated after the package, a meat sausage, was revealed during a strip-search and a subsequent mock interrogation. In the writ, filed by solicitors Arnold Thomas and Becker, the statement of claim says a plan was hatched and carried out against Ardern by several prison officers, along with several prisoners and a catering employee. It names the prison officers as Stephen Harmat, Russell Davies and Appurdural Natkunarajah. A fourth officer was unnamed. The catering employee is cited as someone named Scott, and the prisoners as Dave Eddington, "Chris" and "Curly". The writ says the plan involved persuading Ardern he would be allowed out of the prison if he hid a package in his rectum and went to Werribee Plaza to give the package to an unidentified person, then returned to the prison. The plan then involved strip-searching Ardern before he left prison, "discovering" the package and treating him as though he had been caught committing a serious offence. The writ describes the package as being "15 to 20 centimetres long and tubular in shape and compact and solid". It says Ardern inserted the package "not of his own free will but acting under intimidation from Chris, who in the presence of Eddington and Curly" had told Ardern not to anger the warders and the caterer. "This occurred after Eddington had told the plaintiff to 'bank' the package which had been left for him in the prison toilets. In prison parlance, 'bank' meant to insert the package up his rectum. "The strip-search was carried out by Davies and the unnamed prison officer. During the strip search the package was discovered and removed. "Natkunarajah then proceeded to interrogate the plaintiff and treat him as though he had committed a serious offence." The writ argues that Ardern was a victim of what amounted to assault and battery, and suffered damage to the anus and rectum, with bleeding and pain. His psychological injuries, it said, involved post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. The writ said Ardern was especially vulnerable as a prisoner and, because of his psychological state, personality and circumstances, had been humiliated and embarrassed through a severe abuse of powers. Ardern has spent most of the time since the incident in Fulham prison, near Sale, where he is serving a sentence for assault. GSL was warned at the time that the case could affect the renewal of its contract with Australian Correctional Facility Pty Ltd, which sub-contracts to GSL. The contract for Port Phillip Prison is a 20-year agreement with reviews every three to five years. In the most recent review, completed in June, the Government required GSL to improve its performance and standards. The result has been a clean-out at the top of GSL, which now has a new director, new management team and a new compliance regime that includes daily checks and regular auditing.

November 28, 2006 The Age
THE daughter of a prisoner who died of an asthma attack in his Port Phillip Prison cell after an emergency buzzer allegedly failed has demanded answers over her father's death. "I want someone to be held accountable," a tearful Vanessa Westcott said outside Melbourne Coroners Court yesterday. An inquest on Ian Thomas Westcott heard yesterday that the 55-year-old man left a note in his cell saying his cries for help went unheeded. "He wrote that he had asthma on the note and that he had attempted to call for assistance," Port Phillip Prison doctor Eugenie Tuck told the court. Barrister Ian Freckelton, for Mr Westcott's family, said the intercom unit that allegedly failed Mr Westcott was insufficiently tested and checked. Dr Freckelton said that while a poor connection was the likely cause of the intercom problem in Mr Westcott's cell, he had been advised of intercom deficiencies in other Victorian prisons. "This is an issue that has wider significance in this state," he said. Mr Westcott, who was charged with dishonesty offences and remanded in July 2005, was found dead in his cell on November 28 last year. The court heard that a medical history taken from Mr Westcott when he was remanded at Melbourne Assessment Prison had no mention of his asthma and arrived at Port Phillip Prison the week after his death — four months after it was taken. The inquest continues today.

November 28, 2006 The Australian
AN inquest into the asthma-related death of a prisoner at Port Phillip private prison in Melbourne will begin today at the Victorian Coroner's Court. Remand prisoner Ian Westcott, 55, was found dead in his cell on November 26 last year, after he had apparently suffered an asthma attack. A handwritten note was found in Mr Westcott's cell which said: "Asthma attack buzzed for help no response." The inquest will investigate alleged failures of the prison's emergency intercom system and the medical care provided to Mr Westcott. His daughter, Vanessa, has said she hoped the inquest would provide some answers "for why my father died in such horrific and humiliating circumstances". "I have so many unanswered questions as to why my father was denied help when he was dying in his cell, and why we as his family had to hear of his death from the media and not from those responsible for his care." "My dad's last plea for help will not go unheard again." The 300-bed Port Phillip prison is in Laverton in Melbourne's south-west and is managed by Global Solutions Limited.

March 25, 2006 The Age
THE private company that operates Port Phillip Prison has defended its security measures after an inmate was murdered on Thursday. Tim Hall, national spokesman for GSL (Australia) said while the stabbing of Darren Parkes was a tragedy, Port Phillip had a good safety record and little could have been done to prevent the murder. "Security can always be improved but there are some violent people in prison," Mr Hall told The Age. "Regrettably, sometimes in the best-managed prisons, violent incidents occur." He said Parkes was the first inmate to be killed at the maximum security prison since 1997 when GSL (then Group 4 Falck) began operating the prison after being awarded a tender by the Kennett government. Parkes, 29, was on remand at Port Phillip and awaiting trial over the robbery and attempted murder of South Melbourne Market fruiterer Bendetto Riccardi. Mr Riccardi was shot in a car park in May last year and is now a paraplegic. A prison source told The Age yesterday that Parkes, who was not a protected prisoner, was in his cell at the Laverton prison's Scarborough North unit when he was stabbed in the chest about 4.30pm on Thursday. The Age believes the attacker used an implement taken from a meal tray and which had been fashioned into a weapon. Victoria Police will apply to the Magistrates Court next week to interview a suspect over the stabbing. The comments by GSL's Mr Hall attracted an angry response from Charandev Singh, an advocate for prisoners from Brimbank Community Legal Centre. "If they are unconcerned on a commercial level about a prisoner being stabbed to death, then that's an indication of their lack of priority (for) this man's life," Mr Singh said yesterday. He said Parkes was the third Victorian prisoner to be murdered since 1998 and that private prison operators and the State Government were jointly responsible.

March 19, 2006 The Age
FOUR prison officers have been sacked and two more counselled in the wake of the so-called "Sausagegate" scandal, which hurt and humiliated a vulnerable inmate of the privately owned and run Port Phillip Prison. The Bracks Government has put GSL Australia, operator of the Laverton maximum-security complex, on notice over a spate of alarming incidents. The prisoner was tricked into believing he was leaving the jail, coerced into inserting a sausage in his body, then strip-searched by officers "in" on the "joke". The dismissed officers were corrections supervisor Trevor Spearman, who allegedly tried to cover up the incident, and corrections officer Steven Harmat, who allegedly played the leading role, and corrections officers Russell Davies and Appudurai Natkunarajah, who joined the prank. Until last week, they had been suspended for six to nine months on full pay following the report of the investigation by GSL's security manager, Jim Keegan, revealed exclusively in The Sunday Age last week. Anti-private prison activist Charandev Singh said the report shows that more needs to be done to address serious systemic problems in the prison. His concern is backed by Vanessa Westcott, daughter of a man who died of an asthma attack at the prison in November after a help button he pressed apparently did not work. Ms Westcott said the prison was leaving people like her father, remanded alleged offender Ian Westcott, 55, in cells not monitored between 8pm and 8am. His death, after he reportedly left a note saying he had called for help, is the subject of three inquiries. Ms Westcott, a University of Melbourne doctoral student researching in outback Western Australia, wants to prevent such tragedies occurring. Her solicitor, Fitzroy Legal Service's Stan Winford, said not enough had been done to implement the findings of inquests conducted into deaths at the prison in the late 1990s. GSL was recently given a penalty of almost $200,000 over "Sausagegate", which happened last May. The penalty appears to have included other incidents. In another embarrassment this week, the company's transport manager, Rod St George, was dressed down by Judge John Nixon in Geelong County Court over a bungle that left a prisoner late for court and without food or water for almost seven hours. The problems come at an awkward time for GSL and the Bracks Government, which is in the midst of a scheduled review of GSL's contract. Minister for Corrections, Tim Holding told The Sunday Age: "The Government will not accept failure in the management of any of our prisons." Under the terms of its 20-year contract, begun in 1997, GSL was to face a review after five years, then every three years. If renewed, the second of its three-year terms would begin on July 1. Mr Singh, a human rights advocate with Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre, said the penalty faced by GSL was "tokenistic" compared to its annual revenue of $147 million. Police have investigated "Sausagegate" and have forwarded their investigation to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

March 16, 2006 Geelong Informant
PORT Phillip Prison operator Global Solutions Limited (GSL) was yesterday called to account over its bungling of a prisoner's delivery to Geelong County Court on Tuesday. The mishap resulted in a prisoner being forced to go without food or drink for seven-and-a-half hours. Judge John Nixon requested the attendance of GSL's Transport Operations Manager at court after the prisoner, due to stand trial in Geelong County Court at 10.30am, was not delivered at court until 2.30pm. When he arrived, concerned court staff discovered the man had been locked in a holding cell at Port Phillip Prison since 7am and had not been given anything to eat or drink since breakfast. It was also discovered that after collecting the prisoner from Port Phillip at noon, the prison vehicle travelled to Geelong via Melbourne Assessment Prison and other places. Judge John Nixon described the situation as absolutely outrageous. At 10am yesterday GSL Transport Operations manager Roderick St George appeared in Geelong County Court where he was questioned under oath by Crown Prosecutor Andrew Moore about the incident. Mr St George said a jail order had been faxed to the prison at 3.31pm on March 13 but because Monday was a public holiday, the jail order sat in the tray until it was read at 7.15am Tuesday morning. He said no one knew the prisoner was to come to Geelong until the fax was read, despite the prisoner already having been taken to the holding cell at 7am to await transport. Mr St George said any jail order received after 4pm would be regarded as ad hoc, yet he had already told the court the jail order had been faxed to the prison half an hour earlier. He said there was no indication the job was of high priority and said he was unaware the prisoner was required for trial, even though a letter was attached to the jail order, to the contrary. Mr St George said he had collected the letter before attending court yesterday and had not been made privy to its contents earlier. When asked why the man had not been given food or drink for seven and a half hours, Mr St George said it was the prison's responsibility to feed and water prisoners. Judge Nixon told Mr St George that what had taken place was an inxecusable blunder on GSL's part and Mr St George agreed.

March 12 2006 The Age
THE private company running Port Phillip Prison, GSL Australia, has been fined almost $200,000 and four officers have been suspended over a practical joke that humiliated and hurt a vulnerable prisoner last year. Known in prison circles as "Sausagegate", the incident involved the prisoner being coerced into hiding a package of supposed contraband inside his body and then being strip-searched by officers who were in on the "joke". A scathing internal GSL report on the case, obtained by The Sunday Age, reveals that the prisoner rejected efforts to make him cover up the incident, which left him angry, humiliated and physically hurt. The scandal is likely to revive debate over the use of private companies to run prisons and immigration detention centres. Last year GSL was fined almost $500,000 by federal authorities over mistreatment of immigration detainees, and an independent review has decided against an automatic extension of its contract to run immigration detention centres. Police who investigated the latest case have now referred files to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Victorian Corrections Commissioner Kelvin Anderson said the matter had "been taken extremely seriously", resulting in what he termed a "significant financial penalty" under its contract. The Sunday Age believes that the sum is close to $200,000.

December 1, 2005 The Age
A JAIL inmate who died from an asthma attack at the weekend left a note telling authorities he had tried to get help but his calls went unanswered due to a faulty intercom system. Corrections Commissioner Kelvin Anderson said yesterday the body of the 55-year-old remand prisoner, a known asthmatic, was found by Port Phillip Prison staff after lockdown between 8pm Friday and 8am Saturday along with a note that stated he had unsuccessfully tried to raise the alarm using the intercom button but there had been "no response". The unit where the deceased man was staying, Scarborough South, was not staffed around the clock, he said, but patrolling checks by the 11 prison officers on duty to monitor the 750 prisoners had been conducted. Opposition corrections spokesman Richard Dalla-Riva said the death was unacceptable. "To have a prisoner to die in such circumstances, where he has had to write a note saying that the alarm doesn't work as he is dying, I think is a just a tragic set of circumstances. "It paints a very poor picture on the hapless Corrections Minister," Mr Dalla-Riva said. There have been two other serious incidents in the jail system over the past week. A man stabbed at Barwon Prison on Tuesday is in a stable condition and, in a separate incident, Noel Faure (one of three men accused of murdering underworld crime patriarch Lewis Moran) is also in a stable condition following a self-mutilation attempt.

June 7, 2005 Herald Sun
THE Corrections Commissioner is awaiting the outcome of an investigation into the alleged abuse of a prisoner at Port Phillip Prison before deciding whether to penalise the prison's private operator. Two prison guards have been stood down and could face criminal charges over the incident sources describe as a practical joke gone wrong. The incident is believed to revolve around a prisoner who was coerced into internally concealing a sausage to smuggle it out of the prison on a day leave trip, before being strip searched by guards allegedly in on the joke. Two more guards could be stood down over the alleged incident. It is believed two prisoners may also be charged with a criminal offence, possibly rape. The alleged abuse victim is understood to have later learned the event was a joke on him and reported it to authorities.

December 7, 2004 The Age
Port Phillip Prison's new youth unit was a whitewash that failed to deliver promised training and counselling programs, one of its former "peer educators" said yesterday. Martin Camm, 48, said he quit his mentoring role to younger prisoners because there were too few peer educators and too many men who needed help. Mr Camm told a coroner's inquiry into the death in custody of Anthony Douglas Kennedy that peer educators were encouraged to rate as "low" the risk of their youthful charges doing harm to themselves in written assessments, or there would be more forms to fill out and the prisoners would be isolated in their cells. Mr Kennedy, 20, was found hanging from a shower fitting in Beechworth Prison on November 21, 2002, two days after he was moved from Port Phillip Prison. An attempt a week earlier to move Mr Kennedy to Beechworth was abandoned when he threatened to kill himself if he was moved. Mr Camm said only a few of the promised programs were available to prisoners and he was unable to refer Mr Kennedy, who was distressed at the loss of both his parents, to a grief and loss program. "I could not do it," he said. "There was only three or four of us as peer educators doing 75 men. It was just a whitewash. What it was portrayed to be in the media was not what it was."

A MOBILE phone has been found in a cell at the maximum security Port Phillip Prison.  The phone was found in the cell of Mark Wilcox, an inmate of the jail's Scarborough South section of the privately run Laverton prison.  It is the ninth mobile to be found at Port Phillip in the past three years and has again sparked concern at how contraband could be getting in.  A prison officer using a phone detecting device on night duty found the Nokia mobile and a charger about two weeks ago.  In October last year, the operator of Port Phillip Prison, Group 4, was warned after a string of security breaches.   Last year, career criminal Hugo Rich was found with three phones and a digital camera in his cell.   Weeks earlier, another mobile had been found with a loaded revolver and syringes in the cell of kidnapper Kevin Farrugia.  (Herald Sun)

Rye Hill Prison, Rugby, England
September 23, 2009 BBC
The treatment of a Ukrainian man who died while on suicide watch in jail was "appalling and at times unacceptable", a coroner has said. Aleksey Baranovsky, 33, died while on suicide watch at HMP Rye Hill, Warwickshire, in June 2006. He had been eligible for parole but was due to be deported upon his release and had been self-harming in protest. A jury found there were serious failures and inadequacies that contributed to the death. Assistant deputy coroner for Northamptonshire Tom Osbourne made his comments as the jury returned its verdict. The inquest, held at Rushden and Diamonds Football Club in Irthlingborough, had heard Mr Baranovsky, who was serving a seven-year sentence, had repeatedly self-harmed while in prison. He had feared deportation, saying he would be killed. Mr Baranovsky was transferred to Rye Hill in February 2006 after serving the early part of his sentence in other prisons. He was found in his cell during the early hours of 10 June. The inquest heard he had been placed on constant supervision, but was found unconscious, kneeling on the ground with his head and arms on his bed. Ambulance crews were unable to resuscitate him. He "lost so much blood that was not replaced, he died", the jury heard. 'Inadequate systems' -- The jury returned a narrative verdict, saying he died following a prolonged period of deliberate self-harm by way of cutting himself and regularly refusing food. They also said there was a failure to assess healthcare needs and to draw up a detailed care plan, as well as inadequate systems and processes regarding communication between healthcare staff, prison security and prison management. The jury also ruled there was insufficient training and knowledge of some prison policies, a failure to carry out and follow agreed actions and "inadequate interventions". They gave the cause of death as anaemia due to chronic blood loss and under nutrition. Mr Osbourne said: "The treatment that Aleksey received during the period he was at Rye Hill was both appalling and at times unacceptable. "I have no hesitation in adopting the words of Stephen Shaw from the Prison and Probation Ombudsman when he said it was "shameful." He added he did not feel the need to make any recommendations as changes had already been made at the prison. The inquest heard a psychiatric assessment recommended after a meeting at the jail was not carried out as staff did not feel it was necessary. Several staff members said Mr Baranovsky refused food and treatment, despite their efforts. Security manager Liz Clay told how, on one occasion, blood was left in the cell for more than 12 hours before it was cleaned. A chaplain also said he thought there had been a "lack of care and compassion" towards the inmate. Speaking after the verdict, Jerry Petherick, managing director of offender management at GSL, which runs Rye Hill, said there had been huge changes. "I think we have learned from this enormously and from the ombudsman's report."

February 10, 2009 The Times
Staff at a privately run jail failed to do all they could to ensure the safety of an inmate who killed himself while suffering a mental illness, a coroner’s jury ruled yesterday. In a highly critical verdict, the jury said the inmate’s death could have been avoided if staff at Rye Hill prison had carried out proper observations of him. They said a lack of trained and experienced staff in the segregation unit at the jail, then run by GSL private seucurity firm, made it an unsafe place to hold Michael Bailey. Tom Osborne, assistant deputy coroner for Northamptonshire said the death of Bailey, 23, from Birmingham was avoidable. He added that it was shameful that the prisoner had not been transferrred to hospital because of his mental health problems. Bailey, serving a four year sentence for drug offences, was found dead in his cell in the segregation unit at the prison in March 2005. He had suddenly changed from being a fit, confident young man to being quiet and subdued in the days before his death. His mother Caroline Bailey told the inquest she tried to express concerns after noticing marks on her son’s neck during a visit on March 22. But nothing was done and he was found dead in his cell on March 24. The jury was highly critical of staff at the prison when they answered a number of questions surrounding his death as part of their verdict. They said there had been a failure of communication between the segregation unit and health care staff. There had also been a failure to carry out a full or adequate mental health assessment during the time Bailey was in the unit and prison officers, healthcare staff, and doctors knew or should have known he was under a “real and immediate risk of self-harm or suicide”. The jury said Bailey’s death could have been avoided if observations had been properly carried out, if he had been given appropriate medication, and if he had been placed on constant observations. The verdict also said a lack of trained and experienced staff and effective management on the segregation unit created an unsafe environment to hold him. “There was a failure on the part of all staff to take responsibility for ensuring Michael Bailey’s safety. The prison staff, healthcare staff and doctors did not do all that could be expected of them to prevent Michael Bailey hanging himself”, the jury said. Mr Osborne, the assistant coroner, said he would to write to both the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health about the lack of availability of secure beds in the prison and the health service. He said: “I believe that in this day and age it is shameful that there is not the ability to transfer somebody who is in urgent need of medical attention to an appropriate hospital. The inquest, which started last month, heard the Category B prison run by private company GSL experienced problems with “illicit items” being brought in, including drugs and mobile phones. In the month following the death, the chief inspector of prisons found the jail was “an unsafe and unstable environment, both for prisoners and staff”. Jeremy Petherick, managing director of offender management and immigration services for Group Four Securicor, which took over running Rye Hill from GSL, said the prison is a very different place now. He said: “My reaction is one of sorrow about the incident happening at all and I would like to express my condolences to the family.”

July 16, 2008 BBC
The stab death of a prisoner at a jail seen as unsafe was "possibly avoidable", ministers have admitted. Wayne Reid, 44, of Birmingham, was stabbed in the chest by another inmate at HMP Rye Hill, on the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire border. Three men were sentenced in April 2006 over his murder, which happened days before he was due to be released. Prisons Minister David Hanson told Parliament the running of the jail was currently under examination. Mr Hanson said they were hoping to find out "what lessons could be learned". An inquest jury ruled last month that the prison was "unsafe and unstable". A statement issued by the jail said that since Reid's death in 2005 changes had been made. 'Tragic death' -- Leicestershire North West MP David Taylor asked the minister in the House of Commons what was being done to improve safety at that jail and others across the UK. Mr Hanson said the government had received a letter from the coroner who carried out the inquest, outlining some of the issues that had been raised in the hearing. He said: "We are working to see whether lessons can be learnt from the coroner's verdict into Wayne Reid's tragic and possibly avoidable death." Rye Hill is a category-B prison run by private security company GSL. Bisharat Chaudry, of Slough, Berkshire, and Ibrahim Musone, of Cricklewood, London, were convicted of Reid's murder. Deedar Syed, 26, of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, was also jailed for disposing of a blood-stained jacket.

July 7, 2008 The Guardian
At the end of last month, a Northampton inquest jury delivered their verdict on the death of a prisoner, Wayne Reid, at Rye Hill prison, a privately run jail, near Rugby. Reid, 44, from Birmingham, was stabbed to death in April 2005. Two prisoners were later jailed for life for the killing. The inquest jury concluded that "knives were brought into the prison undetected because the security searches carried out were inadequate, especially those on members of staff". It found that the prison authorities did not do all that reasonably could be expected of them to prevent the risk of harm to Reid and other prisoners and concluded that bad management, inexperienced staff and lack of security contributed to the death. It is not the first time that the category B jail, holding 600 serious offenders and operated by Global Solutions Ltd (GSL), has come under fire. Reid's murder took place while a prisons inspectorate team was in the jail. In the scathing report that followed, the chief inspector, Anne Owers, said the prison had deteriorated - since the last inspection - to the extent that it was an "unsafe and unstable environment, both for prisoners and staff". Owers took the highly unusual step of informing government ministers of her fears. She questioned whether inexperienced and poorly supported staff were fully in control of undermanned wings. During their visit, inspectors were shown illicit mobile phones in the possession of prisoners who also reported the presence drugs, alcohol and knives. The jury was told that a "criminal subculture" existed at Rye Hill at the time of the murder and that a security report posted two days before Reid died warned that a knife, believed to have been smuggled in by a member of staff, was hidden on the wing where Reid was housed. It also found that management at the jail ought to have been aware that a "contract" had been taken out on Reid. A seasoned prison governor told the jury that searches for illicit items were not carried out properly, with jail records showing two cells being searched by the same officer at exactly the same time. One witness told the coroner the prison was approaching a state where "you can do what you like and get away with it". The solicitor who represented the Reid family at the inquest says that evidence emerged showing the contract between the private prison and the Home Office provided a financial incentive not to carry out proper cell searches, which meant that knives were available on the wing. She said that a dispute that could have resulted in a black eye ended up as a fatal stabbing. Two weeks before Reid was murdered, another prisoner at Rye Hill, Michael Bailey, apparently took his own life in the jail's segregation unit. Bailey had made serious allegations of corruption against an officer at Rye Hill. Three members of staff were later charged with the manslaughter, by gross negligence, of the 23-year- old. They were cleared on the direction of the judge at Northampton crown court. After the verdict, one of the defendants, Paul Smith, who managed the segregation unit at the time of Bailey's death, said that GSL "failed me and failed Michael Bailey. In my role as manager I did not have the opportunity to do the job properly. I expressed concern about the level of support and training to senior management and they didn't do anything." In June, 2006, another prisoner at Rye Hill, Oleksiy Baronovsky died, apparently from self-inflicted injuries. The prison ombudsman's report on Baronovsky's death is complete, but its contents will not be revealed until the inquest, but impeccable sources have described it as a "shocking document" castigating the lack of medical treatment for a man who was clearly seriously ill. Every private jail has in place a controller, appointed by the Ministry of Justice, to monitor the regime. During a Panorama/ Guardian undercover inquiry into Rye Hill in 2006, it emerged that few, if any, staff knew of the controller's existence. A spokesman for the MOJ said that the Offender Management Bill enabled some duties, previously undertaken by the controller, to be transferred to the contractor. The first private prison in this country opened in 1994 and there are nine now operating in England and Wales. Critics of non-state jails say that the legislation came in by stealth and the morality of profiting from punishment was never debated in parliament. Deborah Coles, co-director of Inquest, said that where prisons are run for profit, the health, safety and welfare of prisoners will always run second to financial interests. She says that these three deaths and the two critical reports into Rye Hill show the role of controllers are subsumed within the culture of the private sector and she accuses the Ministry of Justice of "washing its hands" of the failings of private jails. An MoJ spokesman said the ministry remain concerned about Rye Hill and the prison is still subject to a rectification notice (requiring GSL to rectify failures in performance covered by the contract). He said that the contract is being robustly managed and progress is being made to take forward the chief inspector's recommendations. Three avoidable deaths and two damning chief inspector's reports on, Rye Hill continues to operate as a jail for serious offenders, despite clear evidence that it is an unsafe place for both prisoners and staff. The catalogue of continuing failings begs the question: how many more mistakes, or fatalities, will it take before the Ministry of Justice decides that GSL is not fit to run this dangerous prison?

June 26, 2008 BBC
A prison where an inmate was stabbed to death was "unsafe and unstable" for both prisoners and staff, an inquest jury has ruled. Wayne Reid, 44, of Birmingham, was stabbed in the chest by another inmate at HMP Rye Hill, on the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire border. Three men were sentenced in April 2006 over his murder. A statement issued by the prison after the inquest said since Reid's death in 2005 system changes had been made. The jury gave its verdict in a series of nine individual statements at the end of a two-week inquest held at Rushden and Diamonds Football Club in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire. These included findings that staff were inadequately supported by management, the prison's cell-searching system had failed and lax security meant knives could be taken in. The final three statements said: "The prison authorities ought to have known that Mr Reid was under a real and immediate risk of harm from other prisoners. "The prison authorities did not do all that reasonably could be expected of them to prevent the risk of harm to Mr Reid or any other prisoner. "We conclude that our above findings in relation to Rye Hill prison created an environment that contributed to the death of Wayne Reid." Rye Hill prison is a category-B prison run by private security company GSL. 'Run ragged' -- A solicitor for Mr Reid's family said they were pleased with the verdict but added a penalty point system for finding banned items in the prison was a disincentive for management to search properly. "That's the most disturbing thing that's emerged," she said. The inquest heard there was only two custody officers overseeing Reid's wing of 70 prisoners when he died. Inspectors also said there was a "criminal subculture" at Rye Hill, searches were not taking place properly and inexperienced officers were being "run ragged by experienced prisoners". A spokesman for GSL said: "Managing a prison is an extremely complex task and since 2005 a number of changes have taken place, including the appointment of several experienced managers and staff, to move the prison forward." Bisharat Chaudry, of Slough, Berkshire, and Ibrahim Musone, of Cricklewood, London, have been convicted of Reid's murder. Deedar Syed, 26, of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, was also jailed for disposing of a blood-stained jacket.

June 26, 2008 Channel 14 News
The jury at an inquest holds a private prison company partly to blame for the death of an inmate. Simon Israel reports. Wayne Reid was stabbed by another prisoner at Rye Hill jail in Warwickshire, run by the private security group GSL. The jury found that knives were allowed in because of inadequate searches of staff. Channel 4 News has learned that under a penalty point system imposed by the government, the discovery of weapons was not thought as important an offence as an assault.

December 11, 2007 BBC
Gordon Hacker, of Corbett Street, Rugby, admitted conspiring to smuggle cannabis into HMP Rye Hill between November 2004 and April 2005. The 44-year-old was jailed for four years at Northampton Crown Court. Convicted armed robbers Steven McCluskey and Thomas Zealand, both from Coventry, were jailed for five years and four-and-a-half years respectively. McCluskey, 25, admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis while Zealand, 27, also admitted supplying heroin and ecstasy. The court heard Hacker had advised the inmates when the best times were for drugs to be thrown over the prison wall. He claimed he had not been rewarded for his actions and had helped the inmates because he felt under pressure. "He was surrounded by prisoners who knew the prison inside out. What he did was try to create a favour to get an easy shift," Peter Hunter, defending, said. Sentencing Hacker, Judge Richard Bray said: "A depressing picture has been painted of Rye Hill Prison, of the availability of drugs within the prison and of low morale among inmates and prison officers. 'Breach of trust' "You knew what was going on and facilitated the process by giving notice to those involved of the best times to throw drugs over the prison wall. "I appreciate what was said about the regime at Rye Hill Prison but that cannot excuse what you did, it was a grave breach of trust." The court heard Zealand's girlfriend Sheree Williams, 23, of Charity Road, Coventry, controlled bank accounts used by prisoners to pay for the drugs and stored 9kg of cannabis in her son's wardrobe. She was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Zealand's 26-year-old sister Stephanie, of Thompsons Road, Coventry, who was McCluskey's girlfriend, admitted possession of class A drugs with intent to supply and money laundering. She was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

November 19, 2007 BBC News
A former prison officer has pleaded guilty to helping inmates smuggle drugs into a private prison in Warwickshire. Gordon Hacker, from Rugby, conspired with inmates serving at HMP Rye Hill between November 2004 and April 2005, Northampton Crown Court heard. Hacker, 44, tipped off inmates about the best times for accomplices to throw drugs into the prison over the prison wall, the court was told. He was remanded on conditional bail and is due to be sentenced in December. Hacker, 44, was charged along with four co-defendants, all of whom had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply controlled drugs at Rye Hill. Elaborate conspiracy -- They are Stephen McClusky and Thomas Zealand, who were inmates at Rye Hill at the time of the conspiracy, and Sheree Williams and Stephanie Zealand, the two men's girlfriends. They are all also due to be sentenced in December. Judge Richard Bray, presiding, described the elaborate drug-trafficking conspiracy at Rye Hill. He told the court: "It consisted of using moneys that had been earned in prison through prison work, or moneys used by relatives of inmates in prison to fund a bank account used by one of the girlfriends of the prisoners." Drugs were then bought with the money on the outside and thrown over the prison walls at night to inmates who were waiting on the inside, the court heard. Judge Bray told the court Hacker's involvement was "by telling them when was a good time to throw stuff over the wall, and doubtless turning a blind eye to what was going on". Telephone records revealed that Hacker had received frequent and regular telephone calls over the four-month period from 2004 to 2005 from Stephen McClusky and Thomas Zealand. Rachel Brand QC, prosecuting, told the court: "Sometimes he was being called by these men several times, many times, in the course of one day." Ms Brand told the court that although the calls often lasted no more than a few seconds, it was "enough, I suppose, for someone to say I need to speak to you, come and see me". Ecstasy, diamorphine, heroin -- There was insufficient evidence to prove whether Hacker had actually brought drugs into the prison himself, or whether he realised the scale of the trafficking, the court was told. But payments ranging from £20 to more than £800 were made into the bank account being used for the conspiracy. The payments to the account held by Sheree Williams amounted to £6,390; and large quantities of drugs were found at the homes of Sheree Williams and Stephanie Zealand, the court was told. The drugs included cannabis resin, ecstasy pills, diamorphine and heroin. Speaking outside the court, Det Sgt Andy Blaize of Northamptonshire Police, said postal orders were sent from "numerous" prisoners to addresses across Coventry. He said: "When you look at these addresses, there is some link with an inmate, and Stephanie Zealand has gone to collect the majority of these postal orders." Judge Bray said: "As to the scale of all this, we're not talking about the odd throw over the prison walls here. This is serious stuff." In 2005, a report by the chief inspector of prisons found HMP Rye Hill to be "unsafe for staff and inmates alike". The report of the inspection was described by the Prison Reform Trust as "one of the most damning we have ever seen".

October 9, 2007 The Guardian
One of the most troubled privately-run jails in Britain urgently needs a team of public sector managers to come in and bail it out, according to a report by the chief inspector of prisons published today. Prisoners, rather than the often young and inexperienced staff, are in control in parts of Rye Hill prison near Rugby, Warwickshire, which is run by the private security firm GSL, Anne Owers warns. At least 100 inmates should be moved out to other jails, she says. In her third inspection since the prison opened in 2001, the chief inspector says that safety remains "fundamentally fragile" with 52% of the 660 inmates, including 150 lifers, saying they felt unsafe. When prison inspectors visited Rye Hill in June they were told of 617 reportable incidents so far this year, including two rooftop protests, drug finds and assaults. Ten weapons had been found in the previous four weeks and glass bottles available from the canteen had been used as weapons in violent assaults. The inspectors say prisoners were not only verbally aggressive towards staff but had also managed to subvert the incentives scheme to such a point that many of the most badly behaved were actually on the "enhanced" or "super-enhanced" levels of the scheme, which include extra visits and even meals with families. The Prison Service said last night that a decision had been taken in August to reduce Rye Hill's population from 664 to 600. But it rejected the chief inspector's demand for a team of experienced public sector managers to be sent in to stabilise the prison. Instead a "rectification notice" has been issued against GSL, which has appointed a new director. The chief inspector's report follows disclosures by an undercover reporter working for Guardian Films who earlier this year uncovered routine bullying of staff by prisoners who had easy access to drugs and mobile phones. Ms Owers says many prisoners and staff told inspectors that prisoners were inadequately supervised on the wings, often by only one member of staff: "There was some evidence that violent incidents were not consistently followed up or investigated, which led to prisoners stating that they, rather than the staff, were in control of the units."

August 11, 2007 Northampton Chronicle
An organised gang who smuggled drugs into a privately-run prison in Northamptonshire have been warned to expect long prison sentences. Two inmates at HMP Rye Hill, near Daventry, arranged for their girlfriends to be paid by either inmates sending out postal orders as payment or for friends and family to deposit money in a bank account before they would supply prisoners with cannabis, ecstasy or heroin. Prisoner Thomas Zealand, 24, who is currently serving six-and-a-half years at neighbouring HMP Onley, his girlfriend Sheree Williams, 22, fellow inmate Steven McCluskey, 26, and his girlfriend Stephanie Zealand, 26, Thomas's sister, have all admitted their roles involved in supplying drugs. They were charged after the police investigation into the death of Michael Bailey, who was found hanged in his cell at the jail sited on the Warwickshire-Northamptonshire border in March 2006. At Northampton Crown Court Thomas Zealand pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis between August 2004 and July 2005. Due for release next month, he reacted with anger and abuse after Judge Richard Bray refused an application for him to be released on bail pending sentence. Stephanie Zealand admitted possessing cannabis, ecstasy and heroin with intent to supply as well being concerned in retaining criminal property by having postal orders sent to her Coventry home as payment for prison drugs supplied. Once payment was made, word was sent into the prison for the drugs to be supplied. Williams admitted possessing nine kilos of cannabis found at her home in July 2005 and a similar money laundering charge in using her bank account to deposit payments for drugs. Rachel Brand QC said prisoners' friends and family would pay money in for drugs to be supplied to their loved ones inside HMP Rye Hill. Judge Richard Bray, who has previously criticised both Rye Hill and Wellingborough Prisons for their record on drugs, said the gang should expect to receive lengthy prison sentences. Releasing the two women on conditional bail, he said: "These are serious charges they have pleaded to. Let me say this, they would be very, very foolish if they do not turn up on the day they are required to do so because there will be consecutive sentences for breach of bail." Heroin addict McCluskey, who is serving nine years for armed robbery, has already pleaded guilty to the cannabis conspiracy charge and three offences of being concerned in the supply of cannabis, ecstasy and heroin. He will be sentenced later this year. Gordon Hacker, aged 44, of Corbett Street, Rugby, who worked as a prison guard, denies conspiracy to supply class C cannabis. He was released on bail pending his trial in November.

June 25, 2007 BBC
A group of prisoners has caused a disturbance at a privately run jail in Warwickshire. The inmates took control of one wing at Rye Hill prison during the incident on Monday afternoon. A team of specially trained and equipped staff regained control of the wing after two hours. A spokesman for GSL, which runs Rye Hill, said that despite some damage at the prison, there were no injuries to either staff or inmates.

April 16, 2007 Guardian Unlimited
The Home Office has pledged to review the management of a privately run prison where an investigation by Guardian Films and the BBC uncovered routine bullying of staff by prisoners at the jail. A reporter working undercover as a prison officer at the troubled Rye Hill jail found widespread intimidation of staff and incidents where diligent custody officers were urged to "back off" by senior colleagues for fear of upsetting inmates. It also found that prisoners had easy access to drugs and mobile phones. The investigation, which will be shown tonight, comes after the jail had already been heavily criticised by inspectors over the murder of an inmate and the "avoidable" suicides of prisoners. The Home Office insisted that Global Solutions Limited (GSL), the private firm that runs Rye Hill, has already been penalised for failings at the jail. But it added that the management would be reviewed again after tonight's broadcast. In a statement a spokeswoman said: "The regional offender manager will continue to work closely with the Commercial and Competitions Unit of Noms [the National Offender Manager Service] and the Home Office controller in considering whether further remedial action is required to ensure compliance by GSL against the contract. A review will be held following the showing of the Panorama programme and the response received from the contractor, as to whether additional action is required." The statement also admitted there had been failings at the jail. It said: "There have been undoubted failures in the past performance of GSL against their contract to deliver the required service in a number of areas. Both the current contract holder, the regional offender manager for the East Midlands, and the previous holder, the head of the office for contracted prisons, have sought to remedy these failings through robust contract management. "Contract management of Rye Hill has involved financial penalties related to specific incidents (escapes), the withholding of invoices and penalty points to reflect poor performance, which translate into further financial penalties."

April 16, 2007 BBC
An undercover reporter has unearthed evidence of intimidation and corruption at a privately-run prison, a Panorama investigation will say. The reporter, who worked at Rye Hill, a category B prison in Warwickshire, for five months, says prisoners openly threatened a newly qualified officer. He also says he was asked by inmates to smuggle in mobile phones and drugs. GSL, which runs the jail, said inmates' behaviour was unacceptable but accused the reporter of ignoring his training. Murder in cell: HMP Rye Hill is one of a growing number of private prisons in the country intended to help deal with a rising prison population. It houses 600 prisoners nearing the end of sentences of at least four years, including criminals from the Iranian embassy siege and Strangeways prison riots. However in the last two years, there have been one murder and two suicides, and government inspectors have given it two damning reports. During one inspection, prisoner Wayne Reid was stabbed through the heart in his cell by two other prisoners, both with criminal records for violence and knife crime. Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said even before the murder, her team had "established to their own satisfaction that they felt it was unsafe and unstable for both prisoners and staff". She shouldn't be frightened - she's fully supported. As part of the investigation by Guardian Films on behalf of the BBC, the reporter, a former SAS ex-British Army soldier, undertook a 13-week training period to become a newly qualified prison officer. He was earning £250 a week - a third less than officers in the state sector. During his time on the wings, he said a new recruit was threatened for enforcing prison rules too keenly. At one point, she was threatened with a pool cue by one prisoner, the programme says. The officer said: "I'm not feeling safe because of the staff. "And I don't know if I can be bothered with it for the money. They're going to kill me I do believe." Smuggling cannabis: GSL's director of communications, John Bates, said: "People shouldn't be surprised by the fact that prisoners in a prison seek to coerce staff into making their lives easier and we don't hide from that fact, and that's why during the training, we return to that theme regularly." And of the officer, he said: "She shouldn't be frightened. She's fully supported." In another incident, the undercover reporter says he was openly approached by inmates seeking to "groom" him into a smuggler. He reports being offered £200 for a standard mobile phone and up to £750 for a camera phone, to be paid to him by telephone banking. Another prisoner offered him up to £1,500 - more than he earns in a month from GSL - for one delivery of cannabis. Mr Bates said the prisoners' behaviour was "completely unacceptable" and the reporter knew what they were doing was illegal. "If that officer had done what he had been trained to do - that matter would have been dealt with. He failed his colleagues and he put himself at risk," he added. Panorama: Life Behind Bars can be seen on BBC1 at 2030 BST on Monday 16 April.

June 8, 2006 BBC News
Four prison officers have appeared in court over charges relating to the death of a prisoner in March last year. Michael Bailey, 23, was found dead in his cell at HMP Rye Hill, on the Northants and Warwickshire border. Daniel Daymond, Paul Smith, Samantha Prime and Ben King appeared at Daventry Magistrates' Court to face charges over his death. The four were granted unconditional bail and will reappear at Northampton Crown Court on 23 June. Mr Daymond, 23, of Rugby, is accused of manslaughter by gross negligence and conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Mr Smith, 39, of Birchwood, Warrington, and Ms Prime, 28, of Rugby, both face a single charge of causing manslaughter by gross negligence. Mr King, 21, of Southbrook, Daventry, is charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

April 23, 2006 24 DASH
Prison officers are calling for all jail wardens to be better armed claiming they should be given metal batons in order to defend themselves from assault. The Prison Officers Association (POA) conference next month will vote on whether the extendable baton should be allowed in many more prisons. The union's national general secretary Brian Caton said he supported the proposals and predicted the motions would be passed. Currently, staff at private prisons such as Doncaster do not carry batons. "We would say that's wrong," Mr Caton said. "Prisoners in private prisons are no less violent, they're no less difficult. "You are twice as likely to be attacked in a private prison as in a public prison." Last July the Chief Inspector of Prisons warned that staff at a privately-run prison were being bullied by inmates. Anne Owers demanded urgent action after discovering unsafe conditions at Rye Hill jail, near Rugby in Warwickshire, which is run by GSL UK Ltd. Inexperienced officers were ignoring misbehaviour and evidence of contraband in order to "survive" on the wings, the report said.

April 6, 2006 BBC
Two prisoners who murdered a fellow inmate in his cell five days before his release have been jailed for life. Wayne Reid, 44, of Birmingham, was stabbed at Rye Hill Prison, near Rugby, Northampton Crown Court heard. Inmates Ibrahim Musone, of Cricklewood, north London, and Bisharat Chaudry, of Slough, Berks, will serve at least 15 years and 14 years respectively. Deedar Syed, 26, of Peterborough, Cambs, was jailed for 30 months for disposing of a blood-stained jacket.

December 21, 2005 The Times
A PRIVATELY run jail is out of control, with high levels of assaults and a culture on the wings of drug abuse, according to a highly critical report published today. Prison officers were covered with a bucket of excrement by inmates at Forest Bank jail as inspectors toured the building. The incident known in prison slang as "potting" was the latest in a number of similar attacks on prison staff. Anne Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, criticised the culture at the jail which was "steeped in serious drug abuse". In one month alone, more than 2kg of cannabis, 60g of heroin and 4.6g of cocaine were found at the jail, run by United Kingdom Detention Services. Ms Owers was so alarmed by the prison in Salford, Greater Manchester, that she immediately alerted senior Prison Service officials to the extent of the failings. "There had been a significant deterioration in safety so that urgent management attention and remedial action was required to rebuild staff confidence and properly regain control of the prison," the inspection report said. A surprise inspection in July at the jail, run by UKDS, a subsidiary of Sodexho Alliance which runs three prisons, found routine intimidation of staff, prisoner assaults on other prisoners running at 25 a month and staff turnover of 25 per cent a year. There had been 2,500 prisoner discipline hearings in six months and 40 per cent of compulsory drug tests were positive. Ms Owers said: "There were a series of assaults against staff, including one unsavoury incident when a bucket of excrement was thrown into an office and over two staff who were there, while we were at the prison. This was by no means the first such 'potting' incident in the prison's recent history. We were told there were two or three others in the previous couple of months." The report depicts a prison where drugs are rife and that a high level of staff turnover meant custody officers were unable to tackle problems. It is the second report in less than six months in which Ms Owers has found serious problems of control at a privately run jail. In July she found that staff at Rye Hill jail near Rugby had little confidence in controlling prisoners and the premises were "almost out of control". Staff turnover at the prison, operated by GSL, formerly part of the Group 4, was running at 40 per cent a year. Private sector involvement in the prison system has helped to spur the public sector to improve its performance and introduced innovation into the jail system. But staff turnover at private jails is higher than State-run jails - reflecting lower pay for officers compared with those in State prisons. It is also difficult to get information about what goes on in private jails with "commercial confidentiality" used as a reason not to disclose details. One prison watchdog said: "The private sector do not like anyone knowing too much about what goes on in their prisons. If they could get away with giving out no information at all, they would."

August 5, 2005 The Guardian
Police investigating the death of a prisoner in the segregation unit of a privately run jail have referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service. Michael Bailey, 24, was found hanging in his cell at Rye Hill prison, near Rugby, in March. Prisoners at the jail told the Guardian at the time that he had been segregated after giving staff the name of an officer who had been supplying drugs. Following the death, six staff were suspended from the prison and two custody officers remain on police bail. Officers from the homicide and major crime unit of Northamptonshire police are investigating allegations of supplying controlled drugs to the prison. Rye Hill, operated by Global Solutions Ltd, holds 600 serious offenders. After an inspection in April, the chief inspector of prisons said the jail was "unsafe for staff and inmates alike". The report of the inspection, published last month, was described by the Prison Reform Trust as "one of the most damning we have ever seen". In April, another prisoner, 44-year-old Wayne Reid, died from stab wounds. Reid had been due to be released a few days after he died. Three men have been charged with his murder. Detective Chief Inspector Pete Windridge, of Northamptonshire police, said the force had investigated the death of Michael Bailey and had sent its preliminary findings to the CPS. He added that "an investigation into the supply of controlled drugs into the prison is ongoing. Two prison custody officers, a 21-year-old man from Bedworth [near Coventry] and a 42-year-old man from Warwickshire, remain on police bail pending further inquiries. "A further two men who are prison inmates and three women not connected with the prison have also been arrested and bailed in relation to this investigation."

July 29, 2005 Morning Star
The Prison Officers Association called for the return of Rye Hill jail to public control yesterday, after the Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers found that staff at the private prison are being bullied by inmates. In a damning new report, Ms Owers found that inexperienced prison officers are ignoring inmates' misbehaviour and working in pairs, just in order to "survive" on the wings of the Warwickshire jail, which is run by privateers GSL UK Ltd. "We saw evidence of staff being bullied by prisoners and withdrawing from, rather than confronting, intimidatory and aggressive behaviour," Ms Owers said. A POA spokesman explained that, while the union is "extremely concerned" at the findings, it is not altogether suprised. "We have been receiving information from our members about the lack of control, as well as lack of management supervision," he said.

July 28, 2005 Politics
Anne Owers said the situation at Rye Hill prison near Rugby had reached a point that staff, many of whom were "inexperienced and poorly supported", were being bullied by inmates.  During her unannounced inspection, a death occurred that resulted in a murder investigation, while before the team arrived at Rye Hill the prison had seen a hostage situation. Inspectors reported an increasing number of inmates testing positive for drugs and found knives, drugs and alcohol were all available on the wings at the prison, some of which were only staffed by two officers.  Inmates at the prison, which is owned and operated by private company GSL UK, reported that they sorted out fights and bullying themselves.  "So great were the concerns that I immediately informed ministers and urged the chief executive of the National Offender Management Service to take immediate and decisive action," Ms Owers said.  Rye Hill is a category B jail and has a capacity of about 600 inmates. GSL has been fined £95,000 as a result of its poor performance.  The Prison Reform Trust said today's report was "one of the most damning reports of a prison we have seen", which painted a picture of an institution run not by private company but by the prisoners themselves.  Ms Owers' report comments on the "keenness and enthusiasm" of residential staff but criticises their lack of training and adequate management support, and highlights the estimated 40 per cent staff turnover rate. The director of the Prison Reform Trust, Juliet Lyon, said this turnover figure would "disgrace many burger bars", saying it was "hazardous to safety and undermines the work of a prison in guiding prisoners towards a responsible life on release".

July 28, 2005 The Guardian
A private prison was yesterday described as "unsafe", with prisoners bullying staff, and drugs, knives and alcohol freely available.  The inspection report into Rye Hill prison, near Rugby, was described by the Prison Reform Trust as "one of the most damning reports of a prison we have seen".  The trust's director, Juliet Lyon, said: "This prison appears to be run not by a private company, but by the prisoners themselves."  The chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, said Rye Hill had deteriorated to the extent that, at the time of inspection, it was "an unsafe and unstable environment".  Inspectors found inexperienced staff on a wing of 70 unlocked prisoners, "surviving by ignoring misbehaviour or evidence of illicit possessions". They also witnessed evidence of staff being bullied by prisoners.  In the period immediately before the inspection, in April, the jail, holding 600 serious offenders, had experienced an apparently self-inflicted death in the segregation unit. A hostage was taken and there had been a 100% rise in the number of assaults against staff, at a time when assault figures are down across the service.  Staff and prisoners told inspectors that managers at the jail gave no support to custody staff and were rarely seen on the wings when prisoners were unlocked. The report also highlighted failings in the race relations programme at the jail. An analysis of use of force data shown to inspectors revealed that 57% of all recorded use of force involved black or ethnic minority prisoners, yet that group accounted for only 37% of the jail's population.

May 20, 2005 BBC
A prison officer arrested on suspicion of supplying drugs after the death of an inmate has been released on bail. Michael Bailey, 23, who was serving a four-year term for supplying drugs, was found hanged in the segregation unit of Rye Hill prison, Warks, on 24 March. He had been separated from others amid concerns about his behaviour. Northamptonshire Police, who are investigating the death, said the 42-year-old Warwickshire man had been released pending further inquiries. He was detained on Thursday on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of controlled drugs. Detectives also searched a house in Rugby as part of the investigation. A 21-year-old officer from Coventry was arrested on 19 April on the same charge and has since been released on police bail pending further inquiries. Two staff at the privately-run prison were suspended in March for alleged irregularities with documentation pending an internal inquiry but not as a direct result of Mr Bailey's death. Rye Hill is run by GSL and houses 660 male prisoners, including 150 vulnerable inmates at a purpose-built unit.

April 22, 2005 BBC
Ibrahim Musone, Bisharat Chaudry and Deedar Syed are charged with murdering Wayne Martin Reid at Rye Hill Prison in Willoughby, near Rugby, Warwickshire.  The men, aged 40, 30 and 25, are accused of stabbing 44-year-old Reid, from Birmingham, on 13 April. A post-mortem examination revealed that Reid, from Balsall Heath, died of stab wounds. He was serving a seven-year sentence for robbery at the 660-inmate jail, which is run by the private security company GSL.

April 19, 2005 BBC
A prison officer has been arrested on suspicion of supplying drugs by police investigating the death of an inmate at Rye Hill prison in Warwickshire. Michael Bailey, from Birmingham, was found hanged in his cell in the segregation unit on 24 March. The 23-year-old had been serving a four-year sentence for supplying drugs. Northamptonshire Police said they arrested a 21-year-old prison custody officer, from the Coventry area, on Tuesday morning.

April 14, 2005 BBC
Three prisoners have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a fellow inmate at a privately-run jail. Wayne Martin Reid, 44, from Balsall Heath, Birmingham, was stabbed at Rye Hill Prison, near Rugby, Warwickshire. He was given first aid by officers and medical staff but pronounced dead on Wednesday afternoon. John Bates, a spokesman for prison operator GSL, which runs Rye Hill jail, said Reid was stabbed in the chest. "Our condolences have been passed to the family and friends of Mr Reid," he added.

November 1, 2004 BBC
An investigation is being carried out at a Warwickshire prison after two inmates finished a rooftop protest. The men came down from the roof of a shed at Rye Hill prison near Rugby at just after 9.30pm on Saturday evening.  It is not clear what the demonstration at the jail, which is run by Global Solutions Ltd, was about.

UK Court Security
February 16, 2006 BBC
A councillor has called for an urgent review of security after two prisoners escaped from Derby Crown Court in the space of a week. Derby city councillor Richard Smalley said one of the prisoners was on remand for allegedly being involved in a post-office robbery in his ward. Kabbar Kamara, 25, from Liverpool made his escape after being refused bail. He appeared in a court on the top floor before getting away in a manner likened to the fictional character Spiderman. Unsuccessful search. He punched his way through the dock, ran from the court and into a toilet. He squeezed through a window, climbed onto a roof, jumped down to another level and dropped 12 feet to the ground. Police used a helicopter and dogs to search for him but without success. Previously Fabian Wilson, 23, from Derby absconded after appearing in court charged with breaching a community service order. Mr Smalley, deputy Conservative leader on the city council, said: "I think it's of paramount importance that the way offenders or alleged offenders are handled within the court is looked at and tightened up." Security at the court is handled by GLS, formerly Group 4. A spokesman said a review would be conducted to identify any lessons that could be learned from the escapes.

UK Prisoner Transport
June 11, 2009 This Is Nottingham
A SUICIDAL prisoner ran through the grounds of a primary school naked in a violent escape bid. Patrick Jones, 29, had just assaulted two prison guards in their van after they saved his life. Nottingham Crown Court heard he was "lashing out like a crazed animal" when they brought him round from a failed suicide attempt. "He broke free, ran off down the motorway embankment into some trees," said Dawn Pritchard, prosecuting. "He removed his jeans and ran off naked. He ran through the grounds of Trowell Primary School naked at 12.15pm on April 16 last year. He was located near Cossall village." Global Solutions custody officers Maxine Starbuck and Richard Carrington stopped their van 15-20 minutes into their journey when Jones made a "half-hearted" suicide attempt with a ligature. The court heard the father-of-two dropped forward and went blue. The officers cut the ligature from his neck and he took a gasp for air. Mr Carrington was hit in the legs and Ms Starbuck's hair was pulled. "He said there were voices in his head to kill himself and that's what he intended to do," said Miss Pritchard. Jones was being driven from Derby Magistrates' Court to Nottingham Prison when the drama unfolded. The officers were aware he was considered a suicide risk. Judge Dudley Bennett sentenced Jones to nine months in prison consecutive to a three-year sentence he is serving for burglary. The judge said that prison officers had to be protected from violence. "If you offer them violence you serve a sentence for it." Jones, of St Giles Road, Derby, pleaded guilty to escape and two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm on the officers. Mark Watson, in mitigation, said: "He was very unwell at the time of this offence and that impacted on his behaviour."

February 1, 2006 The Guardian
Heavily pregnant prisoners are being forced to travel hundreds of miles in claustrophobic prison vans known to inmates as "sweatboxes", the Guardian has learned. The women are being transported in conditions which campaigners have criticised as "unethical and barbaric", often spending many hours in cramped cells measuring 860mm by 620mm (34in by 24in), with hard seats and no seatbelts. Beverley Beech, chairwoman of the Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services, called for the Prison Service to stop using cellular vehicles to transport pregnant prisoners. "It is time this unethical and barbaric practice was stopped," she said. "Women in advanced pregnancy are in no position to run away and they should be treated with humanity and awareness of their condition." A source within Styal prison in Cheshire said a 27-year-old inmate had spent four hours in a van the day before her baby was due. She expected to be taken to court in Liverpool by taxi and complained when told she would travel in a prison van. She was then offered a thin cushion. The trip from Styal to Liverpool should have taken less than an hour but lasted two and half hours because the vehicle had to drop off other prisoners. The prisoner was allowed one toilet break. After an hour-long court hearing, she made a 90-minute journey back to Styal. Global Solutions, which operates a fleet of 400 prison vehicles, said specifications were agreed with the Home Office. A spokesman said there was provision for people with special needs, including pregnant women, and the company was not aware of any complaints regarding the transport of pregnant women.

Villawood Detention Centre, Sydney, Australia
July 21, 2008 The Age
THE Immigration Department has referred allegations of drug use at Villawood detention centre to NSW Police. The referral follows the Opposition's attack on Immigration Minister Chris Evans for not seeking immediate police involvement. Initially, Mr Evans said his department would investigate the allegations raised by former pastoral worker Pauline Lovitt and detainee Wilton Briggs. The Age reported last week that Ms Lovitt saw detainees on "ice" and marijuana while working at Villawood from March to last month, and believed staff were involved in selling them. "It is a very good move," said Ms Lovitt of the Government's response. "I do think it's in the best interests of the clients and the staff." Mr Briggs, a New Zealander, has been under 24-hour surveillance since raising the allegations last week. He said he was threatened by a woman drug addict on Wednesday, because she was angry the drug supply inside Villawood could be affected. The private company that runs Villawood, GSL, has denied drug problems at the centre, despite putting Mr Briggs under surveillance. Mr Briggs, 29, said the drug addict threatened him and his partner and baby in Villawood's visitors' centre, but GSL officers did not restrain her. Ms Lovitt said rehabilitation programs to help people in withdrawal must be introduced if there were a clampdown. She urged the Federal Government to overhaul Villawood's management. Detainees turned to drugs because they were given no help with their detention cases. Employees were under instruction not to help detainees — to the point where church workers must sign documents not to proselytise in case a detainee converted and it helped their case. Ms Lovitt said resolving detainees' cases more quickly by offering them lawyers, translators and information would save money. Labor's platform is to move Villawood, Australia's biggest mainland detention centre, into public management. It is yet to announce its plans for it.

July 18, 2008 Brisbane Times
A Villawood detainee injured in a rooftop "protest" at the Sydney detention centre has been taken to hospital. The Department of Immigration says the man, whose details could not be confirmed, was injured climbing onto the roof about 2pm (AEST) Friday and again when coming down 20 minutes later. Two members of centre's staff were also hurt as they tried to bring him down. None of the injuries were said to be life-threatening. "The decision was taken to assist him down from the roof and while (the staff) brought him down they became caught in security wire," an immigration spokesman told AAP. "One cut their finger and was treated on site. The other had more serious injuries and was sent to hospital for further treatment." The detainee was also taken to hospital. The immigration spokesman said the incident was not a suicide attempt. The incident occurred on the roof of Stage One of the centre, the highest security area and the only part of the facility that has security wire. Jamal Daoud, a member of the Refugee Action Coalition of NSW, was at the centre at the time of the incident and said the atmosphere at the facility was "depressing". "Many people there have been in detention for more than six months, some more than two years," he said. "They are just counting incidents like these and have reached their limit. They are very depressed." Investigations are continuing.

July 17, 2008 The Age
A CALL for a police investigation into claims of drug use at Sydney's Villawood detention centre has been dismissed. Immigration Minister Chris Evans yesterday declined to respond to an Opposition call to bring in the police. He referred comments to the Immigration Department, which said it was handling the investigation, and urged people with information to go to the police independently. Shadow immigration spokesman Chris Ellison said the response was not good enough. "These are allegations of criminal activities in our immigration detention centre," he said. "There is a duty of care to those people who are held in immigration detention." Pauline Lovitt, a former pastoral care worker at Villawood who raised the allegations, said she was disappointed by Mr Evan's response. She said she had seen detainees on "ice" and marijuana while working there from March to June, and believed some staff were involved in selling drugs. "The Government doesn't seem to be concerned that people's lives actually get destroyed by drugs," she said. "If someone is alleging there's a serious drug issue, they should be looking at it seriously. "They must be crazy. It's quite obvious when you walk in there and you talk to people that they are on drugs. I don't know how you can pretend that they aren't." Ms Lovitt said she was "quite prepared" to go to the police, and planned to make a statement. She said she wrote to Mr Evans about the situation six weeks ago, but he had not yet responded to her. Ms Lovitt's claims have been backed by a current detainee inside Villawood, New Zealander Wilton Briggs, 29. Another detainee contacted The Age anonymously yesterday to support the allegations. Villawood is run by a private company, GSL, which was granted an extension on its contract last year. The ALP's platform has been to move Villawood into public management, but it has yet to clarify its plans. A tender for Villawood's extension was put out in 2006. Senator Ellison said the Government should urgently finalise the new contract, given the allegations of drugs use. "The minister indicated at the February Senate estimates hearings that he would be making an announcement about the future of the detention centre management `shortly'," he said. "It is now July, and we are yet to hear any announcement."

July 15, 2008 The Age
DRUG-TAKING is rife at Villawood detention centre and staff are involved in selling drugs to detainees, a former employee says. The Federal Government last night called an inquiry into allegations that detainees at the nation's biggest detention centre were using drugs such as ice and marijuana. In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into Australia's detention policies, former pastoral care worker Paula Lovitt said she had been told by detainees that guards and visitors were bringing drugs and alcohol into Villawood. Responding to the allegations, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said last night: "I am naturally concerned about claims of drug and alcohol use in the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre and have asked the department to investigate." In her submission, Ms Lovitt has urged the Government to introduce drug-testing for staff at the Sydney centre and offer detainees rehabilitation programs. On her first visit to Villawood's stage one maximum security area, she said, she was shocked to see a Vietnamese detainee "totally out of it on drugs, apparently on ice". "It's absolutely shocking in there, it's awful. It's dark and dingy and they've got about six people in a room," she said of stage one. "They all sit in there and smoke dope and a lot of them won't come out at all." GSL, the private company running the centre, said the comments were a "disgraceful slur". "There is no drug problem among staff at Villawood," spokesman Tim Hall said. "There is not a drug problem among detainees at Villawood. Some detainees who arrived at Villawood on a methadone program continue with their program under medical supervision." But Wilton Briggs, 29, a New Zealander detained in Villawood, told The Age from Villawood last night: "There is a huge drug problem here." He said some people became violent when they could not get drugs and threatened other detainees and harassed them for money. He said detainees were not protected by management. "There is also no protection for stage one clients … There's no duty of care," said Briggs, who has a criminal history in NZ. Labor's platform has been to put Villawood into public management. But GSL's contract was extended last year. A tender has been put out for the contract. Senator Evans said the Government would soon make an announcement about it. A Department of Immigration spokesman said "prohibited substances" such as drugs or alcohol had been confiscated four times at Villawood since December. There have also been seven incidences of self harm and 13 hunger strikes. Over the past year, there have been 108 assaults in all of Australia's detention centres. Villawood has 210 detainees, of whom 189 are men and 21 women. They are a mix of former criminals awaiting deportation in the maximum security stage one area, and people who have overstayed their visas in stages two and three. Ms Lovitt said students who had overstayed their visas could be thrown into stage one. She noted the case of a Chinese student who was put in stage one after hitting another detainee in stage two, but who had no criminal history. "This kid was absolutely beside himself … he was not coming out of his cell at all because there's a person in stage one from China who has committed two murders." Ms Lovitt, a former librarian and prison ministry worker, was employed at Villawood from March to June. She said she was compelled to speak out by the "appalling" conditions. Many detainees in stage one turned to drugs because of despair over their cases, she said. Ms Lovitt accused the Department of Immigration of covering up the situation. She said a New Zealand man was put into solitary confinement after being stabbed by a fellow detainee, so "information did not get out about it". "The officers are now bringing drugs to him because he said that's what keeps him going," said Ms Lovitt. "GSL are trying to cover up their behaviour and the Department of Immigration are trying to cover up whatever is happening in there."

July 13, 2007 ABC
Ali Humayun in suing the Immigration Department for negligence after he became a heroin addict inside Villawood. Ali Beg Humayun, a 26-year-old Pakistani man, was detained in January 2005 after failing to comply with the conditions of his student visa. Mr Humayun's lawyer, Roger de Robillard, says the Department of Immigration and Australasian Correctional Services Pty Ltd have breached their duty of care by placing Mr Humayun in a room with a known heroin addict. He says Mr Humayun has also been subjected to violence and harassment during his detention. Mr Robillard also says that without any explanation, the centre's management took his client off the anti-depressant medications prescribed to him, and refused him access to a psychiatrist. Mr Humayun says the situation became intolerable. "After going so long without my medicine, I couldn't take it anymore. I broke down, I cracked," he said. "Drugs are everywhere inside detention. Every day we get asked 'do you want some heroin, want some dope, want some marijuana', and without my medication it was so hard to stay away from it all." "Inside, most people end up taking drugs in some form, because we use them to escape our situation. It's hopeless." "I watched [my cell-mate] shoot-up every day. I finally cracked and tried heroin and the next thing I knew I was addicted to it." Mr Humayun says he continued to use the drug, with the knowledge of some guards, for three months until he formed a relationship with his current partner, Julio Lorenzo, a 41-year-old Spanish national who was also being detained at Villawood. "The guards knew I was taking drugs, they knew what was happening," he said. "Some [of the guards] even offered me drugs." "I think they prefer that we are all on them [drugs] because that way, we don't cause trouble. We just sit there and we give up and we don't make a fuss and we don't keep fighting [to get out]." Mr Humayun is now on a daily methadone program. A spokeswoman for the Minister for Immigration, Kevin Andrews, has confirmed that the case has been filed against the Department in the Supreme Court. Mr Andrews has refused to give any further comment, saying that the matter is before the courts.

March 20, 2006 The Age
AT LEAST two long-term immigration detainees — one held for 6½ years — are in a psychiatric hospital after developing mental problems while in detention, the Greens claim. The man who has spent more than six years in detention, a 34-year-old from Bangladesh, was moved from Baxter detention centre last August to Adelaide's Glenside psychiatric hospital. The other man, whose family are Australian citizens, has been detained for more than two years. "This period of time in detention makes this man another Peter Qasim, the long-term detainee who was recently released after seven years," Greens senator Kerry Nettle said. Their cases have been raised by the Greens as up to 100 detainees at Sydney's Villawood detention centre entered the fourth day of a hunger strike aimed at forcing the release of mentally ill detainees held for more than two years.

March 3, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
A DAY of turmoil in the nation's immigration system ended with the Federal Government backing down on several fronts yesterday. It agreed to pay damages to a boy traumatised in detention and allowed a deported Melbourne man to return to Australia on humanitarian grounds. A damning report released by an independent auditor yesterday also raised questions about a successful 2003 bid by the immigration detention contractor GSL, whose contract the Government refused to renew on Wednesday. In Sydney, an 11-year-old Iranian, Shayan Badraie, was offered damages for trauma he suffered in Woomera and Villawood detention centres. The move comes after a 63-day Supreme Court hearing. While in detention between March 2000 and August 2001, the boy became severely traumatised after witnessing riots, a stabbing and a string of other disturbing incidents. He subsequently spent 94 days in hospital, and still requires treatment. Commonwealth lawyers approached lawyers representing Shayan this week to offer a settlement for damages. The exact sum will be fixed at a hearing this morning but is expected to be more than $1 million. Meanwhile, the immigration detention contractor GSL was found to have been hired even though it was more expensive and provided inferior services to competitors, the National Audit Office announced yesterday. GSL's bid was $32.6 million higher than that of the incumbent detention centre operator, ACM, when the latter's bid expired. The audit office found the basis on which ACM was paid $5.7 million after it missed out on the contract was "doubtful", since the department was only required to compensate for matters pertaining to detention. Immigration could not provide evidence of the criteria under which the sum was paid. The audit also found the head of the steering committee, which was heavily involved in the evaluation of the bids, gave a reference for ACM's bid. An independent probity adviser told the steering committee seven months later that this should not happen again.

December 30, 2005 ABC
Alarming new allegations have emerged from the Villawood detention centre of intimidation and violence against detainees. Dozens of asylum seekers have joined in accusing some staff members of behaving like thugs, taking bribes and sanctioning criminal activity. The claims are the latest in a string of complaints against contractors employed by the Department of Immigration. Sixty-two Villawood detainees have signed a letter alleging corruption and intimidation on the part of a staff member employed by Global Solutions Limited.

December 30, 2005 The Age
Detainees at Sydney's Villawood detention centre have accused a senior staff member of running a drug trafficking business. The claim is contained in a letter signed by 62 detainees at the centre and forwarded to the Commonwealth Ombudsman on behalf of an Indian man who they say has been moved into maximum security for speaking out about the issue. The immigration department said today they had not previously heard of the allegations concerning the staffer, who is also accused of running an illegal CD burning business. The letter names the person, but the department would not be drawn on whether they would be subjected to an internal review. The detainees say former Sydney taxi driver Harrinder Kharbanda, 36, has been on hunger strike since he was forcibly removed from his stage two cell on December 19 after trying to take some food into his room. The letter says he is being unfairly punished for speaking out about the alleged corrupt conduct of a senior staff member at the centre. "He runs drug trafficking and an illegal CD burning business," the letter said of the staff member. "He often tries to intimidate the detainees by threatening or assaulting us with the help of those officers who work as a bunch of thugs. "His corrupt acts are well known among the detainees in stage two and if someone tries to take some legal action, he punishes the detainee by abusing his decision-making power and or fabricating false reports about the person." The detainees call on the federal government to intervene on behalf of Mr Kharbanda, who has spent the past nine months in detention for overstaying his visa.

December 6, 2005 The Australian
A COURT will decide today whether the Immigration Department and a private prison company acted criminally in employing detainees as "slave labourers" and paying them in phone cards and cigarettes. Bangladeshi asylum-seeker Motahar Hussein will put to the Federal Court a case alleging that GSL, which runs the nation's detention centres, acted in contravention of the Migration Act by illegally employing detainees under a "merit system" classifying them as volunteers, to be paid the equivalent of $1 an hour. Mr Hussein, a detainee at the Villawood detention centre in Sydney for more than a year, will ask the Federal Court to grant orders preventing GSL from employing detainees without rewards. He is also seeking an injunction forcing the company to immediately cease its employment of detainees under the volunteer system. Mr Hussein's case has prompted a campaign by the union movement, which accused GSL of profiting from federal government money intended to pay kitchen hands, cleaners, gardeners and other providers for their services at detention centres. "Our information is that the majority of workers are actually volunteers, so GSL must be making a motza," said Unions NSW deputy assistant secretary Chris Christodoulou. "They are taking unfair advantage of the poverty and ignorance of the helpless detainees or refugees by paying them a paltry $1 an hour in phone cards and cigarettes," Mr Hussein said. "Most Australians would regard it as slave work." Mr Hussein said detainees had no choice but to work, because visitors could not bring them more than $10 a visit, there was no ATM within the detention centre to withdraw their own money and the federal Government charged detainees about $130 a day to stay there.

November 23, 2005 Green Left Weekly
I wasn't involved in the asylum seeker debate in 2001 when the government's actions on Tampa were, in their opinion, decisive in getting them re-elected. It was an accident of circumstance that my family was given a voice this past year: we had an obligation to point out the hypocrisy of having one set of rights for citizens and another for suspected "illegals" who are left to rot for years in detention centres without the rule of law to protect them. Even though it took months for all the nasty specifics of Cornelia's treatment to emerge, the broader themes were clear from the outset: the lack of morality - not to mention the expense - of detaining innocent people and hiding them away in the desert; the overall levels of secrecy; the farming out of detention centres to for-profit corporations; the use of punitive isolation to control behaviour; the unchecked power of ill-qualified immigration bureaucrats and privately employed security guards; and the absence of judicial review. The failures exposed by Cornelia's case have hardly been addressed. The reforms emanating from Mick Palmer's inquiry into the wrongful imprisonment of Cornelia have given a greater review role to the federal ombudsman (but only after someone's been detained for two years) and many long-term detainees are being quietly released. A couple of sports fields have been added to Baxter and some of the razor wire in Villawood coming down with great fanfare - only to be replaced by electrified fence. In detention centres, the lack of palatable food has been a deeply felt source of contention. The food issue, so seemingly trivial when compared with indefinite detention, can lead to avoidable tension and abuses. This has not changed. Cornelia's case: In early February, Cornelia was just another non-person in Baxter, receiving no treatment for a florid psychosis. The rest of our family was living in suburban obscurity. We were dragged into public life in early February 2005 when the media became interested. Even before the government announced the Palmer inquiry - only five days after Cornelia was identified - we were getting calls from people with information about what had happened to her during her brush with DIMIA. I was determined to expose the more appalling misuses of power during Cornelia's time behind the wire, much of it in punitive isolation. In the first few days, Senator Amanda Vanstone's office put out various bits of misinformation about how wonderful DIMIA had been to Cornelia and to us. No-one had contacted us. We learned of the phantom medical care being given to detainees. There were horrific cases of neglect: the young child with a broken thumb, which turned purple and swollen in the week it took for him to get medical attention; the man complaining of severe headaches who was fobbed off with Panadol for two years until he collapsed one night between compounds and started to turn blue after which he was finally rushed to hospital where neurosurgeons operated for 12 hours to contain the burst aneurism. There was the woman in Villawood in NSW who couldn't establish breastfeeding with her newborn because guards were in her hospital room 24 hours a day. During the delivery, a guard even gowned up to watch the caesarian, worried no doubt, she might jump up from the table and abscond during the procedure. There were stories of sexual assaults by guards, and in one case, a hastily arranged abortion. Many of our interviewees were worried about repercussions and asked for confidentiality. The former detainees and their families were able to tell us how places like Baxter really worked in practice, how the medical services that DIMIA described in such glowing terms, breached the duty of care requirements. Interview transcripts and court affidavits, including from DIMIA staff that flagrantly contradicted the sort of eyewitness evidence we were getting, were passed onto the university. One such chilling document was the "Behaviour Management Plan" (BMP) from Global Solutions Limited (GSL, the company that runs Baxter among other corrections institutions), which set out rules for detainees in the punishment compound at Baxter, Red One. This is where Cornelia spent 94 days in a psychosis, which had been discerned by other detainees. Evidence we were given showed GSL even flouted its own management plan for much of the time Cornelia was in Red One. For example, detainees have to sign a consent to the BMP before they enter the compound. Cornelia signed no such document. Under the strictest stage of the plan, detainees are allowed four hours out of their cell. In Cornelia's case, we were told by eyewitnesses that on many days she was given only two hours' egress, or none at all. At least on one occasion, Cornelia was punched in the chest so hard she fell backwards into her cell so the guards could lock her inside. [Abridged from a speech by Christine Rau, Cornelia's sister, to the Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House on October 18. For the full text see <http://www.qpilch.org.au/>.]

October 26, 2005 The Age
THE Immigration Department may have unlawfully detained a person for more than six years. The Commonwealth Ombudsman, John McMillan, is investigating 222 cases where people were released from immigration detention after they were found to be lawfully in Australia. Meanwhile, six Chinese asylum seekers at Villawood detention centre have been on a hunger strike for six days, claiming that Chinese nationals are incarcerated longer than asylum seekers from other countries. The Victorian Greens have accused the Government of discriminating against Chinese asylum seekers because of its close economic ties with China.

October 10, 2005 The Australian
A WOMAN in immigration detention underwent a cesarean section in a public operating theatre with a security guard looking on. In what appears to be one of the worst examples of the Howard Government's mandatory detention policy at work, Heng Hak Kiang, 35, delivered her third child at Sydney's Fairfield hospital with a female immigration guard present during the surgery. A second officer from the Howard Government's privatised detention centre security firm, Global Solutions Ltd, then spent four days guarding Ms Heng in her room, according to a submission to a Senate inquiry into the Migration Act. She was watched by two seated guards 24 hours a day for the following four days, Ms Heng told The Australian. "Sometimes a guard would talk. Sometimes one other guard would not say anything," Ms Heng said.

September 8, 2005 Sidney Morning Herald
Detainees at Villawood detention centre are being paid in cigarettes and phone cards to do chores such as cleaning, gardening and food preparation by the centre's private operators, GSL, a detainee has claimed. Motahar Hussein alleges in letters to the Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, and the Australian Federal Police that detainees have had to work for the equivalent of $1 an hour. Last night a spokesman for Senator Vanstone denied any detainees were forced to work but a spokesman for the Department of Immigration confirmed that inmates over the age of 15 were invited to "engage voluntarily in useful and meaningful activities so that they may contribute to the care of themselves and of the detainee community". Detainees who did the activities, which the department confirmed included the work outlined by Mr Hussein, are given "merit points", which can be "exchanged" for items not freely available in detention, such as cigarettes and phone cards. Mr Hussein said it took a detainee an hour to earn $1 worth of merit points. He said the centre's management, and departmental policy, in effect forced inmates to work by restricting the amount of cash available to them. There is no ATM in the centre and visitors are forbidden to give any inmate more than $10.

September 7, 2005 Sidney Morning Herald
Staff at Villawood Detention Centre have paid a detainee with cigarettes and telephone cards to carry out their work, a peak union body says. Unions NSW today called for a full review of working conditions at Villawood following claims from detainee Motahar Hussein that the detention centre was profiting from detainees. Unions NSW deputy assistant secretary Chris Christodoulou said he had written to Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone about Mr Hussein. "Mr Hussein alleges that contractors GSL (Global Solutions Limited) and DNCA (Delaware North Companies Australia) are using detainees to meet their contracts with the Department of Immigration (DIMIA), including in food preparation, cleaning and the library," he said. "Unions NSW is seeking clarification from the Minister on whether this is true and if so, whether they are being paid in cigarettes and phone cards, a breach of the Migration Act." Mr Christodoulou said the detainees seemed to be treated worse than convicted criminals. "In NSW we have a set of standards for prison labour and a monitoring committee that ensures everything is above board," he said. "Of equal concern is the prospect that DIMIA is awarding contracts to companies who are using detainees in a way that may be in breach of its own Migration Act. "Either way, the Minister has some questions to answer."

August 23, 2005 The Age
A CHILD who was so traumatised by his time in detention centres that he psychologically "shut down" will make legal history when he sues the Government next week. Former child detainee Shayan Badraie, now aged 10, suffered post-traumatic stress after being exposed to riots and witnessing suicide attempts and violence in detention. Since 1999, close to 3900 children have been held in detention centres across Australia. Some have been born in detention. Many have been detained for years. The couple are also suing Australian Correctional Services and Australian Correctional Management, the operators of the Woomera and Villawood detention centres, where Shayan was held for almost two years from the age of five. In May 2002, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission found that Shayan's detention breached the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It found Shayan's continuing detention was "unjust, unreasonable and unproportional", and recommended the Government pay the Badraie family $70,000 for Shayan's suffering and the costs of continuing psychiatric counselling.

July 21, 2005 Sidney Morning Herald
Ian Hwang and his sister, Janie, arrive at Stanmore Public School.  A young boy who witnessed three attempted suicides after he was forcibly removed from school and placed in immigration detention was "traumatised by the horrors", his lawyer said today.  Ian Hwang, 12, and his six-year-old Australian-born sister Janie have been released after more than four months at Villawood detention centre in south-western Sydney.  The children were removed from Sydney's Stanmore Public School on March 8 after their mother Young Lee was arrested for overstaying her visa.  Lawyer Michaela Byers today said while she was pleased the children had been released on bridging visas, they were traumatised by their experiences inside.  Ian would have a psychological assessment next Monday to determine the extent of the "scarring", Ms Byers said.  "Ian saw three attempts at suicide inside, one where a man swallowed a lot of bleach and another involving self-laceration," she said.  "There was a lot of blood.  "He was very distressed by it and he contemplated doing it himself.  "It was very, very upsetting (for him) to have that happening around him."

June 11, 2005 The Australian
THE security tape showing the "reception" of Indian national Pavan Kumar Tripuraneni at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney is dark and grainy. On tape the two officers who made up the reception committee, Peter Warren and Shane Thomas, appear to move like people under water. But what happens next is shown clearly enough for internal investigator Peter Saxon, who analysed the tape and interviewed other officers, to conclude that Warren, the senior officer on the scene, had been involved in "an assault on a detainee" and that both he and Thomas had engaged in "serious misconduct". Inquirer has obtained a copy of the report into the incident by Saxon, a manager with Global Solutions Ltd (usually known only as GSL), the company that operates the detention centres for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. Saxon suggests that the alleged assault on Tripuraneni, who ended up with a fractured wrist, could have rendered "at least one officer subject to possible criminal proceedings". The general manager at Villawood had reported the incident to police but the matter was dropped after Tripuraneni was conveniently deported about two weeks later, in September last year. Saxon recommended that Warren and Thomas face disciplinary action. Though suspended on full pay for three months, both went back to work in December, after the company decided "to facilitate their return to duty". Immigration sources have suggested that under its contract with DIMIA, GSL was fined under the contract for the alleged assault on Tripuraneni. Then the company and the department buried the whole thing. In another company document, national operations manager Mike Ryan suggests that GSL cannot risk further disciplining officers involved in an assault. "It is plain that any adverse outcome, in particular their dismissal, would be vigorously tested in the Industrial Relations Commission and our appreciation of any such action is that the GSL position could not be sustained." What does this admission mean? The reason the company couldn't risk sacking officers who were alleged to have committed an assault was that it had failed to give them any appropriate training for detention work. Saxon had reported as much: "Neither Mr Warren nor Mr Thomas has yet undertaken the GSL ... training." The training is specified in the detention services contract between GSL and the department. When GSL won the detention centre contract from another company, Australian Correctional Management, effective early last year, it emphasised that its staff would be trained to deliver humane administrative detention. But GSL is believed to have failed to give initial training to 30 detention centre officers at Villawood who were previously employed by ACM. Last year the Australian National Audit Office analysed the contract between DIMIA and ACM. That contract ran for about six years, "at a cost to the commonwealth of more than half a billion dollars". But the ANAO audit found that there had been astonishingly little forethought about the management of this contract. Its report states: "DIMIA had not developed and documented a strategy for its detention function, nor put in place a contract management plan. Other than the contract itself, there was no documentation of the means by which the detention objectives would be achieved. This meant that DIMIA was not able to assess whether its strategies were actually working." But there is little sign that DIMIA learned much from its unhappy experience with ACM, judging by the standards set out in the present contract. Riddled with inconsistencies, ambiguities and motherhood statements, it holds the contractor to standards that probably can't be monitored. The performance measure under the heading "dignity" states that "a substantiated instance of a detainee being humiliated or treated discourteously" will incur a fine of $10,000. What happens in the real world of the detention centres is suggested by other tapes obtained by Inquirer. The three videotapes document the treatment of Virginia Leong, the Malaysian woman released from Villawood last month after three years in detention. She was two months pregnant when she was detained. Initial reports of her plight said psychiatrists had suggested that Leong and her three-year-old daughter, Naomi, would be at risk if they remained in detention. Left languishing in Villawood for years watching the child grow listless and strange, the distraught Leong resorted to desperate measures. About a year ago, she climbed on to the roof of the detention centre with the child. The videotapes show what happened next. When she came down from the roof, Leong, a slight-built woman hardly larger than a child, was dragged along with her head held down by two large detention centre officers. When they reached the management unit, Leong was pushed face-down on the floor and a male officer about twice her size sat astride her, tightly holding her hands behind her back as a nurse instructed Leong, who was crying, to take Valium.

February 15, 2005 The Age
The Australian government has paid $25,000 compensation to a French national held by immigration authorities without diplomatic representation, the ABC reported today. The French government has lodged a formal complaint about the treatment of Mohamadou Sacko, saying embassy officials were not told about his detention and questioning in Sydney. But the embassy said it has yet to receive a response to the complaint. Mr Sacko was held for several days after arriving at Sydney airport 18 months ago to start an English language course. He said on arrival he was detained on suspicion of carrying a false passport and was taken to the Villawood detention centre.

Yarl's Wood, Benfordshire, England
October 23, 2009 BBC
Police can be sued for the estimated £42m damage caused during a riot at a Bedfordshire immigration detention centre, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The claim against Bedfordshire Police Authority by Yarl's Wood Immigration Ltd (YWIL) and GSL Ltd was dismissed in the High Court last year. Three appeal judges have now ruled that the 1886 Riot (Damages) Act could be used in a claim. Almost half of the centre was destroyed by fire in February 2002. The Act allows companies and individuals to sue the police over loss caused by "any persons riotously and tumultuously assembled together," the court heard. There will be a trial over liability and the amount of damages at a future date in the High Court. 'Disappointing decision' -- Last year, a High Court judge ruled Bedfordshire Police had done nothing wrong in deciding to stay on guard at the detention centre's perimeter fence until invited on to the site by the operators. The fire at the Yarl's Wood centre destroyed half the buildings. Peter Conniff, chairman of Bedfordshire Police Authority, said: "Obviously the authority is disappointed to learn of the appeal court's decision, which rules that Group 4 and their insurers are entitled to make a claim against the authority and our insurers under the Riot Damages Act 1886. "This decision reverses that of the High Court last year and there are obviously a number of legal issues that still need to be considered. "However, I would like to reassure local taxpayers that any successful claim against the authority will be met by our insurance and not from the taxpayers' pocket. "It is likely that there will now be a further hearing in the High Court in due course to consider the merits of Group 4's claim. "But we cannot say more at this stage as the authority and its insurers need to take stock of the position in the light of this latest twist in the Yarl's Wood saga."

September 30, 2008 BBC
A claim against Bedfordshire Police for more than £42m for fire damage after a riot at Yarl's Wood detention centre has been thrown out at the High Court. Mr Justice Beatson dismissed the claim by Yarl's Wood Immigration Limited, GSL UK (formerly Group 4), and their insurers. The claim was made under the 1886 Riot (Damages) Act, which allows companies and individuals to sue the police. The judge said police did nothing wrong in staying outside until invited in. Almost half of the detention centre at Clapham, Bedfordshire, was destroyed by fire on the night of 14 February 2002. 'Overlapping duties' -- Mr Justice Beatson said that the police had a "fundamental duty" to maintain law and order. But Bedfordshire Police had done nothing wrong in deciding to stay on guard at the detention centre's perimeter fence until invited onto the site by the operators, he said. The judge ruled that the 1886 Act was intended to compensate citizens who suffered the effects of riot damage, not private contractors who were exercising "public authority" over the detention centre for the Home Office. It was not the intention of the 1886 Act to make one public authority liable to another when they had overlapping duties to maintain order, Mr Justice Beatson said.

October 4, 2006 Financial Times
Private contractors that run one of the government's detention centres for asylum seekers have been sharply criticised by the country's top prisons' watchdog. A report today on the treatment of detainees at Yarl's Wood, north Bedfordshire - a 400-bed immigration removal centre run by Global Solutions Limited under Home Office contract - finds healthcare was "inadequate . . . undermined by a lack of needs assessment, weak audit and clinical governance systems [and] in-adequate staff training". The prison inspectorate's inquiry was ordered after two Ugandan refugees were hospitalised following prolonged detention in Yarl's Wood. One of the women was left traumatised and unable to speak. Anne Owers, chief inspector of prisons, told the Financial Times that companies should be stripped of the right to commission healthcare services in detention centres, and that the job should pass to the NHS. "This should happen as soon as possible," Ms Owers said. "Provisions [at Yarl's Wood] were not in place for people with previous medical conditions . . . or for longer stays in detention." Medical services at the centre are contracted out by GSL to Veritas Management, a healthcare service provider. Veritas saidit "provides detainees and dependent children at Yarl's Wood with access to the same range and quality of services as the general public receives from the NHS". Liam Byrne, Home Office minister for immigration, agreed to Ms Owers' demand that all healthcare providers in detention centres be re-quired to register with the Healthcare Commission, an independent regulator. Officials said no decision on commissioning arrangements had yet been reached. The contract to run Yarl's Wood expires in April and has been put out to tender. GSL, which has reapplied, said: "The staff at Yarl's Wood take their responsibilities for the care and well-being of residents very seriously. A detailed contract agreed with the Immigration Service specifies the service levels. These are monitored daily by on-site Immigration Service personnel." Inspectors criticise the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate, saying it was unresponsive to clinical concerns regarding an alleged history of torture. "The clinical review adds weight to a growing concern among medical and other commentators that the increased use of immigration detention raises serious concerns about the mental health of detainees," the report says. Sophie Odogo, 35, and Enid Ruhango, 32, were detained at Yarl's Wood from mid-2005 for eight and nine months respectively. Both say they fled rape and torture in Uganda, claims substantiated by independent medical examinations.

September 20, 2006 The Independent
The psychological effects of Britain's policy of locking up asylum-seekers were demonstrated yesterday at an inquest into the death of an Angolan man who took his life so that his teenage son might stay in Britain. The inquest jury hearing the case of Manuel Bravo watched images from CCTV cameras at the Yarl's Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire that showed him leaving his room and hanging himself in a stairwell. His last words to his 13-year-old son Antonio, who shared his room at Yarl's Wood where they had been moved together 12 hours earlier, had been: "Be brave. Work hard. Do well at school." Mr Bravo, whose case was highlighted by The Independent last year, had walked into a library in Leeds, five months before his death, and typed out a signed declaration of intent. "I want to die or kill myself as I don't have any chances," he wrote. "If I die I would like my son to stay with the Government, or NSPCC, or youth protection in the UK." He did not pass the note, discovered after his death, to friends. Within hours of his removal to Yarl's Wood, Mr Bravo was composing a suicide note. "I do not have a life any more," he wrote. "My son Antonio is to stay here in the UK to continue his education. Antonio, I do not want you to go back to Angola to suffer." The inquest, at Bedford coroner's court, asked questions of Yarl's Wood's capacity to deal with individuals such as Mr Bravo. He was not considered a suicide risk, despite arriving at the centre with a rolled-up coil of washing line cord in his bag and a medical record which revealed he had been on antidepressants, prescribed by a Leeds GP, for months. He told custody officers that the cord was for "his own protection" and they removed it, not thinking to mention it to the centre's nurse, who later interviewed the father and son together. The nurse told the inquest she would not have taken Mr Bravo's explanation for the cord at "face value" and that it might have affected the way she assessed his state of mind. The troubled history of Yarl's Wood * November 2001: The £100m centre, the biggest in Europe at the time, opened in Bedfordshire but was soon dogged with allegations of racism and brutality. Global Solutions UK Ltd (GSL) - a division of Group 4 - insisted staff were conscientious and professional. * February 2002: A riot, the worst at a detention centre for 16 years, broke out and a fire destroyed half the centre, causing £40m of damage. * November 2004: The Government's "ambitious and unachievable" policy of doubling deportations of failed asylum-seekers was blamed for the riot and fire according to an inquiry report. It said the mishandling of a female detainee triggered the disturbance. * June 2005: Zimbabwean women at the centre went on hunger strike in protest at their imminent deportation. * July 2005: More than 30 Ugandan women went on hunger strike asking for their asylum claims to be reconsidered and protesting at conditions, particularly lack of health care. One mother described having to live with her six-year-old son in a room so small it felt like a cage. * July 2005: Ann Owers, the chief inspector of prisons, reported that children at Yarl's Wood were being "damaged" by their experience. Inspectors found a five-year-old autistic girl was so badly neglected she had not eaten properly for four days. * December 2005: Al Aynsley-Green, the children's commissioner for England, issued a report saying that children at the centre were being denied basic rights, kept in prison-like conditions, fed junk food and deprived of proper play facilities. * March 2006: Campaign groups including the Refugee Council and Save the Children described the policy of detaining children, mostly at Yarl's Wood, as inhumane. Many were left suffering depression, nightmares and eating problems.

July 25, 2006 BBC
Children held at an immigration centre said they feared being killed, according to the prisons watchdog. In a critical report on Yarl's Wood, Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers called for a "complete overhaul" of the policy of detaining children. Ms Owers told the BBC she had found no evidence child detention was subject to welfare checks pledged by ministers. The sole social worker looking after children at the Bedfordshire centre recently resigned, the report reveals. Ms Owers sent an unannounced team of inspectors to the Bedfordshire removal centre in February 2006, a year after a critical report into the institution. Yarl's Wood is a centre used to hold families - usually failed asylum seekers - prior to deportation. The chief inspector said the team had come away with considerable concerns. "We were concerned about decisions to detain not taking into account the welfare of the child and also decisions in detention not taking into account assessments about the welfare of children," said Ms Owers. "There was a social worker in place and she was doing [child welfare] assessments but nobody knew what to do with them, either in the centre or the immigration authorities who make decisions about detention. In fact, she later resigned." Children interviewed by the 10-strong team talked of an "intimidatory environment", said Ms Owers. Some said they feared they would be killed, while one 10-year-old felt like a "species in danger". A 13-year-old told of being handcuffed in transit, while three spoke of vomiting in vans. "There was a 10-year-old saying the officers were tall and scary and their shoes were big and noisy," Ms Owers told the BBC. "We had a nine-year-old saying that when they came into the room at night to do roll checks, her little brother was so scared he fell out of bed because of a stranger coming into his room."

September 16, 2005 The Independent
A man held at an immigration detention centre with his 13-year-old son hanged himself yesterday. The failed asylum-seeker, who has not been named, was discovered by staff in the family unit and was rushed to hospital. He died soon after arriving. Anti-deportation campaigners said the man was a 35-year-old Angolan who had been living in Leeds with his son before they were taken to the Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre, in Bedfordshire. The death at the centre, built to house 900 detainees, comes at a time when 30 Ugandan women being held there are on hunger strike. Anti-deportation campaigners are organising a demonstration outside the centre, run by GSL Ltd, a private company, on Saturday.