Australia Hall of Shame

Acacia Prison
Wooroloo, Australia
Serco (AIMS, and Sodexho formerly CCA)
January 15, 2010 West Australian
Confiscated contraband which could include weapons, drugs and pornography is missing inside WA's biggest men's jail, prompting an internal investigation into the security breach. The Department of Corrective Services confirmed the contraband was found to be missing at privately-run Acacia Prison last week and that some had not been recovered. Corrective Services security director Simon Kincart said the department was confident the contraband, which was taken from a storage cabinet, would be found soon. The department refused to say what the contraband was and would not answer questions about whether prisoners or staff were suspects or whether the cabinet had been left unlocked. "Internal investigations are continuing and I'm not prepared to make any further comment which may risk compromising prison operations," Mr Kincart said. Shadow corrective services minister Paul Papalia said the incident was a serious security breach and highlighted the pressures from chronic overcrowding in WA jails. Corrective Services Minister Christian Porter said he was aware of the situation at Acacia and the department was investigating the matter. Serco Australia, which runs the jail, said it had nothing to add to the department's statement.

December 29, 2009 The Western Australian
A violent prisoner who assaulted four jail staff and was involved in a dozen other aggressive outbursts was allowed to stay in the general medium-security prison population, leaked emails from Acacia Prison reveal. The confidential emails from concerned workers to management claimed staff shortages were partly to blame for the unsafe working environment. The emails, obtained by "The West Australian", said management should have put the violent prisoner on a close supervision order or under a specialist management regime. The staff indicated in some of the emails, written between September and this month, that individualised attention was increasingly difficult as staff were struggling with heavy workloads at the overcrowded jail. There is one less staff member now compared with when the prison had 150 fewer inmates. The staff said there had been 22 staff recruits since the additional inmates, but 23 had left or were on long-term leave. The emails said the violent prisoner's 16 aggressive incidents included him groping the jail's female chaplain. "We are all aware that we work in a prison, but allowing one prisoner to perpetrate four assaults in six months and still stay medium security needs to be addressed," a worker wrote. The staff claim that managers from Serco Australia, which could not be contacted yesterday, told them they wanted to keep the prisoner in the mainstream jail population to "normalise" him before he was moved to a country facility. Another guard said in an email that a lone female guard had to supervise 150 inmates during outdoor activity. The guard was concerned at the big number of prisoners and feared for her safety because the group included a prisoner who had continually threatened to rape and kill her. "Incidents of a threatening/confronting nature have resulted in staff securing themselves rather than controlling situations," the guard wrote. "Recent incidents reflect the sentiment of prisoners who are fully aware of the staff's lack of ability to contain the prisoners here in an emergency situation." Shadow corrective services minister Paul Papalia said it was important to discuss the problems because Serco Australia was likely to be considered for new jail contracts. Mr Papalia said staff shortages meant the prison was not achieving the number of organised activities required under its contract. The Community and Public Sector Union said there were continuing concerns about staff safety as prison populations increased, causing tensions in sleeping quarters and in places such as the kitchen and gym. Attorney-General Christian Porter said yesterday it was difficult to verify the accuracy of the staff claims but said: "I have asked the Department of Corrective Services to check each of these allegations thoroughly to see if they can be verified."

November 26, 2004 The West Australian
A drug dealer is suing the company that runs WA's only private prison over an injury he sustained while working in the prison workshop. Pasquale "Peter" Mancini has twice been operated on at Hollywood Private Hospital while serving a 10 1/2-year jail term resulting from police operations that netted big amounts of heroin, cocaine and speed. He launched legal proceedings against Australian Integration Management Services this month over the rupturing of his pectoral muscle. His writ alleges he was exposed to danger while working as the leading hand at the Acacia Prison workshop and wasn't given prompt medical treatment, exacerbating the injury. He claims AIMS failed to maintain a safe system of work, required him to lift boards alone, and did not provide mechanical or other assistance.

April 7, 2004
GUARDS at privately run Acacia Prison in Wooroloo remained on strike last night in a stand-off with prison management over the guards' claim of dangerously low numbers of staff and the suspension of a union delegate. About 100 guards on strike claim that Australian Integration Management Services does not put enough staff on each shift to ensure safe working conditions. The union wants at least 32 guards on a shift to supervise about 740 inmates. Spokesmen for the company did not return phone calls yesterday. The strike began on Monday when the company suspended a union delegate who had called an Acacia Joint Unions meeting, then escorted from the jail about 40 guards at the meeting and locked them out. Jail guards on the next shift voted not to work. Community and Public Sector Union branch secretary Toni Walkington said the union wanted the suspended delegate reinstated and an opportunity to discuss staffing and other issues with management. "They just don't appear to be prepared to sit down and discuss in a meaningful way," she said. Before the strike, guards had met at the start of each shift to make sure there were enough staff on it. "Basically, Acacia has paid less than rates payable in public prisons and staffing levels have not met the same standards and we have tried bargaining processes and a whole range of different avenues to meet what are adequate standards, not necessarily the same as public standards, but adequate standards," Ms Walkington said. "We have managed mostly to be able to talk that through but what has become evident is that Acacia need to make savings in their operations. "Basically, we think that they can't return a profit as a privately operating prison so they're just squeezing their workforce to make the difference between a profitable operation and an operation running at a loss." The jail was being run by a skeleton staff, mainly of management. "Without a doubt, the normal activities of the prison cannot occur at the moment so prisoners will have to be spending most of their time locked up in the cells," she said. "There will be no programs addressing issues of why people first offended, no education, their activities, rehabilitation programs won't be happening." (The West.com)

April 6, 2004
The union representing prison officers at the Acacia Prison east of Perth says workers will continue to press their claim for increased staffing levels. The Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union says officer numbers at the private prison are simply inadequate. (ABC.net)

October 4, 2000
The Victorian Government has taken control of one of its prisons away from CCA claiming it failed to act on security issues. However, CCA has the contract to run West Australia's new Acacia at Wooroloo. Labor's spokesman for justice, Jim McGinty, says the situation will have to be closely monitored.

Arthur Gorrie Correctional Center
Wacol, Australia
GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections)
March 11, 2010 ABC
Queensland's Indigenous community will march on State Parliament today, enraged over the circumstances surrounding a recent death in custody. An 18-year-old prisoner died late last month and there are claims Brisbane jail staff denied him adequate medical treatment even though he was too sick to walk. Today's march coincides with the reopened inquest into the controversial Palm Island death in custody. Prison chaplain Reverend Alex Gator says inmates at the Arthur Gorrie correctional centre called her with news of the latest tragedy last month. "This young youth, only 18 years of age, he had spent five weeks on remand and then the five weeks he was at Arthur Gorrie he became ill, so he was ill for six days," she said. "The first time he'd gone to the medical centre he was given Panadol, other times he'd gone he was told that there was nothing wrong with him. So he was repeatedly denied medical assistance. "Towards the end the boys had to carry him, the Murri boys in his unit had to carry him, because he could hardly walk. "They nearly caused a riot, the Murri boys. They yelled out to the officer, 'get him to the hospital' because something was wrong with him. "And one officer made the comment, 'Well if he can go to the toilet, there's nothing wrong with him'." Reverend Gator says the teenager was ultimately rushed to hospital and put on life support. But he died a few days later on February 20. "I conducted a memorial service. The boys said they only saw him a couple of weeks ago talking, laughing, joking and next thing they hear this young man is dead," she said. Reverend Gator says the teenager should never have been put in jail because he had a serious pre-existing medical condition. "That is the question we're asking - why? Why was he in prison, not in hospital? I mean he wasn't a terrorist, a paedophile, rapist or a murderer," she said. "He was in there for a misdemeanour. And as far as I'm concerned, it's just racial discrimination towards Aboriginal people. This is about racial hatred attitudes towards Aboriginal people. "They're deliberately turned away and told there's nothing wrong with them. And Corrective Services have failed in their duty of care to provide a service to this young man." 'Could have been avoided' -- Brisbane Indigenous community leader Sam Watson says news of the death in custody has spread like wildfire. "We are very concerned about this because this appears to be yet another Aboriginal death in custody that could have been avoided, that should have been avoided," he said. Queensland Corrective Services has issued a written statement saying "there are no suspicious causes" in the teenager's death. The statement adds that all deaths in custody are referred to the coroner and to the chief inspector of prisons for investigation. But Mr Watson says the Indigenous community is calling on the Queensland Government to instigate a full coronial inquest. "There have to be a lot of questions answered. We want to get to the bottom of this and we want to do it very, very quickly," he said.

June 1, 2008 Courier Mail
A CAREER criminal on remand for assault was accidentally released from a privately run Brisbane jail last week. Three prison staff have been suspended over the security bungle at the Arthur Gorrie correctional centre at Wacol in Brisbane's west. Prison sources said the breach occurred when staff were processing the inmate for release into police custody. Police had been granted a court order to remove the inmate on Tuesday in relation to a break-and-enter investigation. However, prison staff discharged the inmate for release and gave him his property. Police arrived to collect him from a high-security area at the rear of the jail, which is used for transferring inmates, but they were directed to the reception area. Queensland Corrective Services denied the man was wrongfully discharged, saying the jail's operator, the GEO Group Australia, had reported there had been a "breach of internal security procedures". She said at no time was the inmate, who has since been returned to the jail, not in prison or police custody. She confirmed jail management suspended three staff as a result of an internal report on the incident and an investigation was under way. State Opposition prisons spokesman Vaughan Johnson demanded a full investigation into the incident, saying the jail had mismanaged the custodial process.

January 19, 2008 ABC
Prison guards who walked off the job at Queensland's biggest remand centre yesterday are now back at work. Brisbane's Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre had been locked down since Friday afternoon, with only a skeleton management team running the centre and police patrolling the perimetre. The guards began their strike after being ordered to stop handcuffing prisonners with their hands behind their backs. The remand facility operators, Geo, had requested a hearing before the Industrial Relations Commission this morning, but Geo spokesman Pierre Langford says Geo and the Miscellaneous Workers Union representing the guards will instead continue their talks on Monday. "I suppose I would like to say on behalf of Geo Group Australia that we appreciate the assistance that the commission has provided us with today," he said. "At this point in time the parties have agreed to get back together early next week, to have further discussions and our employees have returned to work today, so we're pleased with that."

October 25, 2006 Townsville Bulletin
A TENDER for the state's two privately-run prisons is not a criticism of the current operators, the Queensland Government said today. Corrective Services Minister Judy Spence said new tenders to run Borallon and Arthur Gorrie correctional centres, valued at a total of $200 million, would ensure taxpayers got value for money. "It is not about the performance of the current operators,'' Ms Spence said. The Arthur Gorrie jail has been under fire in recent years over a number of deaths in custody, security failures and assaults on prisoners by staff. Borallon made headlines four years ago when a report showed it had the highest rate of illicit drug use in the state, with almost one in three prisoners using drugs. Four companies will be invited to tender: GEO Group Australia Pty Ltd, GSL Australia Pty Ltd, Management and Training Corporation Pty Ltd and Serco Australia Pty Ltd. GEO currently operates Arthur Gorrie, and Management and Training Corporation operates Borallon. Ms Spence said the contracts would be for five years, with an option for Queensland Corrective Services to extend them for a further five years. The tenders will be evaluated in the first half of next year with new contracts to start on January 1, 2008. An independent probity auditor has been contracted to oversee the entire project.

November 30, 2005 Australian
THE bonus and penalty system on which private prisons in Australia are run has been accused of encouraging operators to cover up riots and drug abuse by prisoners. Queensland Prison Officers Association secretary Brian Newman yesterday accused private prison operators of covering up incidents in their facilities that could threaten performance bonuses worth up to $500,000 a year. "Nine years ago I worked at Arthur Gorrie (Correctional Centre at Wacol, west of Brisbane) and I would make drug finds but the drugs would be flushed down the toilet in front of me by senior officials," Mr Newman said. "You were powerless to do anything about it. "Anecdotal evidence given to me is that it still goes on today. There is no incentive for privately run prisons to report incidents." The management contract of Arthur Gorrie operator, the GEO Group, formerly known as Australasian Correctional Management, with the Queensland Government provides a $500,000 performance bonus to prevent crime, drug abuse and riots. The Arthur Gorrie contract, a copy of which has been obtained by The Australian, says the $500,000 bonus will be reduced by $100,000 for each escape, "loss of control (riot)" or death in custody. Penalties of $25,000 are also imposed for a string of problems such as discharging a prisoner in error, assaults by prisoners resulting in injury or a case of self-harm or attempted suicide. Other incidents that incur the $25,000 penalty include serious industrial injuries, deliberately lit fires, major security breaches such as attempted escapes or hostage-taking and loss of high-risk restricted articles. If random urine tests disclose that drug use in the prison is higher than 9 per cent and does not reduce towards the target of 4per cent, the penalty applicable is also $25,000. The bonuses and penalty provisions are the same for the contracts the GEO Group, the Australian subsidiary of the Miami-based Wackenhut, has with the Victorian and NSW governments to run the Melbourne Custody Centre and the Fulham and Junee prisons. Mr Newman said his association had asked the Queensland Government to conduct an inquiry into allegations by staff at Arthur Gorrie that "incidents" had been covered up "to avoid financial penalty to breach of contract". GEO Group is paid almost $800 a week for each of the 710 prisoners housed at Arthur Gorrie. A spokesman for Queensland Corrective Services Minister Judy Spence yesterday confirmed that contracts for privately run prisons did provide for performance bonuses. "However, we are not able to confirm amounts or any details on payments or deductions regarding the bonuses as these matters are commercial in confidence," he said. Col Kelaher, GEO Group executive manager of operations, said he could not comment on the contract with the Government.

January 26, 2005 South-West News
WORKERS at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre at Wacol staged a strike from noon Friday to 5pm on Saturday over a wages and conditions dispute. The Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union accused correctional centre owners GEO Group of not meeting its obligations under the Queensland Industrial Relations Act. Union prisons organiser David Pullen said the centre's 700 prisoners were locked down in cells during the strike. GEO group managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout said the action ended after an IRC officer recommended a return to work.

December 24, 2004 Courier Mail
QUEENSLAND'S prisons are overcrowded and urgently require more funding to stop the growing number of inmate deaths, a report by a state coroner has found. The findings came at the end of an inquiry into the suicide of prisoner William Mark Bailey in November 2002 at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre. Deputy state coroner Christine Clements found no one else was responsible for Bailey's death and recommended no further action. Arthur Gorrie, a remand and reception centre that temporarily holds prisoners awaiting court hearings, can hold up to 800 people. It is managed by GEO Group Australia but owned by the Queensland Corrective Services department. "Evidence was given that there are 250 cells at Arthur Gorrie but at the time of the inquest there were 750 prisoners being held at the facility," Ms Clements said.

October 28, 2003
SEVERAL serious security flaws have been uncovered at Brisbane's privately run Arthur Gorrie prison, which houses Queensland's most notorious inmate, Postcard Bandit Brendan Abbott. An internal report conducted after an assault on a prisoner in the jail's maximum security unit found major deficiencies including prison doors jamming and staff being unaware for up to 90 seconds that doors were open. The revelations will put further pressure on jail operator Australasian Correctional Management, a subsidiary of US giant Wackenhut. Corrective Services Minister Tony McGrady put the company on notice that it might lose its contract after staff failed to report the alleged assault within the required time. The assault led to the resignation of the prison's general manager, the suspension of four maximum security unit prison officers and a correctional manager being stood down. The jail houses some of the state's most dangerous prisoners including convicted killer Jason Nixon. An internal investigation was launched at the jail after Mr McGrady found out about the incident through The Courier-Mail and issued ACM with a non-compliance notice. Mr McGrady is yet to view the report of the investigation, which has been obtained by The Courier-Mail. The report was prompted by an alleged assault on serial rapist Troy Burley on October 11 in the MSU of the Arthur Gorrie Remand and Reception Centre after a bungle enabled an inmate to get through a door in the exercise yard to a common area and bash him. The report found: • The doors in the exercise yard tended to bounce away from the magnetic hold and were not constructed specifically for the electronic security system. • Electronic failure did not contribute to the alleged attack on Burley and a prison officer had not waited for confirmation a door had closed. • The closed-circuit television which monitors prisoners was obsolete and inadequate for a such a high-risk area. • The practice for prisoners to open doors under intercom direction from staff had led to an "undue familiarity". Prison sources said the intercom system was used because there was not enough staff in the MSU. "The crims are escorted at all times for the first few weeks they are in the MSU, after that they can buzz the main controllers to get in and out of their cells," a prison source said. The internal report recommended the four officers in the MSU be disciplined over the Burley incident, console operation training be reviewed and the surveillance and electronic security door control be upgraded. The breach at the jail came three days after inmate Mark Day was killed in the exercise yard at the nearby Sir David Longland jail's MSU. State Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg accused Mr McGrady of double standards for not taking action against staff at Sir David Longland over Day's murder. "Mr McGrady jumped up and down demanding answers from Arthur Gorrie. We didn't see that when a prisoner was murdered in a state-run prison," Mr Springborg said. The Queensland Prison Officers Association said the report's findings showed ACM was more interested in profit and cost-cutting than rehabilitation of prisoners. "It's an example of human warehousing – locking criminals away and moving them around by remote control rather than them having one-on-one interaction with prison officers," spokesman Brian Newman said. (The Courier-Mail)

October 23, 2003
A QUEENSLAND private jail being investigated over security failures is again under scrutiny over an alleged assault. A Department of Corrective Services spokesman said today an investigation was under way into a maximum security prisoner's claim that he was assaulted by staff while being handcuffed. Operators of the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, Australasian Correctional Management, were issued with a non-compliance notice after they failed to notify authorities of an alleged assault between two prisoners in the maximum security unit last week. (News.com.au)

October 14, 2003
STATE Prisons Minister Tony McGrady has put a Brisbane jail on notice and warned its private operators they may lose their contract after the company failed to report an assault on an inmate in a maximum security unit. The attack in the Arthur Gorrie Remand and Reception Centre at Wacol on serial rapist Troy Burley last Friday follows the murder of an inmate in a similar unit at a nearby state-run jail. It also emerged last night the attack on 28-year-old Burley was the second major security breach in the jail's MSU since July. The first breach also involved Burley. The second incident happened when a staff bungle enabled an inmate to get through three doors into the common area and bash Burley. The most dangerous prisoners are housed in Queensland's two maximum security units. They are allowed to move outside their cells only while handcuffed and under escort. An angry Mr McGrady last night served a non-compliance notice on Australasian Correctional Management after he learnt of the assault through The Courier-Mail. "Indeed, had they been issued with a prior non-compliance notice, termination of the contract would have been a likely outcome today," he said. ACM has seven days to respond to the Corrective Services Department with a new MSU strategy. Mr McGrady declined to comment on whether he was still confident of their ability to operate the jail. (The Courier-Mail)

January 13, 2003
GUARDS at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre fear the maximum security prison could be severely under-staffed for up to 48 hours, placing staff and prisoners ar risk. About 300 prison officers are expected to walk off for 24 hours after meeting today about failed negotiations on an enterprise bargaining agreement. Their union expects Australasian Correctional Management, which operates the prison, to retaliate by locking out the guards for another 24 hours. Prison officers have made a claim for a 7.5 percent, or $52-a-week, pay rise. ACM has offered 1 percent less than the CPI, or 2 percent, whichever is greater.

February 12, 2003
Prison guards at Brisbane 's privately-run maximum security Arthur Gorrie jail will walk off the job for a three-day strike from Sunday, in an attempt to force a pay rise. The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) warned the dispute would continue until the jail's employer, Australasian Correctional Management, matched the guards' pay to that of public sector prison employees. "The wages of private prison officers are already behind those of public sector officers, therefore if we accept any less we will forever and a day be going backwards," LHMU Queensland secretary Ron Monaghan said. Mr Monaghan warned the prison operator not to use untrained staff to do the guards' work during the upcoming strike - the third in as many weeks. "It's a maximum security reception and remand centre so you have all sorts including hardened criminals - it can be volatile," Mr Monaghan said. (AAP Newsfeed)

Auckland Central Remand Prison
New Zealand
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
July 19, 2005 Stuff
An inmate in Auckland's former private prison who stowed away in a shipping container to depart New Zealand should be sent back here to face rape charges, says a Fiji court. The Suva Magistrate's Court recommended that Shumendra Nilesh Chandra, 30, a computer operator, of Auckland be sent back to New Zealand. Australasian Correctional Management, which managed Auckland Central Remand Prison until its contract expired recently, had to pay the Government $50,000 for the escape, under the terms of its contract. The company said at the time that its investigation into how Chandra allegedly slipped his handcuffs and fled guards was unable to find out how he did it.

July 13, 2005 Scoop
The return today of New Zealand's only privately run prison to public sector management is an opportunity for the Corrections Department to prove it can deliver a first-class service, Green Party Justice Spokesperson Nandor Tanczos says. The Department took over management of Auckland Central Remand Prison from the GEO Group at midnight last night. "The Green Party welcomes the handover today of the management of the Auckland Central Remand Prison to the public sector," Nandor says. "I call on new Corrections Department CEO Barry Matthews to use this as an opportunity to deliver best prison practice. There is no reason why the public sector can't provide a better service than the private and now is the time for Mr Matthews to demonstrate this. "International experience shows widespread abuse and poor conditions in many privately run prisons. ACRP was clearly a loss leader designed to be a foot in the door for the private prison conglomerates. It is extremely unlikely that any further private prisons here would all be run as well as ACRP was by Mr Karauria and his team. "But the principle issue is that prisons must be run by the public sector. As one of the most tangible manifestations of state power, they must be fully accountable to the people of New Zealand. A profit-driven service is ultimately only accountable to its overseas shareholders. "There have been some clear cases of this lack of accountability in Australia. For example ACM, the predecessor to Geo, placed a contractual obligation upon some of their staff to not provide information to the judiciary, which would have the effect of inhibiting the investigation of abuse and mismanagement. "It must also be remembered that private prisons can have a corrupting influence on the political system, in that they create a profit motive to the lobby for longer custodial sentences. "The Green Party have taken a number of steps to increase accountability in the public sector through changes to the Corrections Act and a written commitment to the establishment of an independent prison inspectorate from the Labour-led Government," Nandor says.

July 13, 2005 Scoop
The Public Service Association (PSA) is welcoming the return of the Auckland Central Remand Prison to the public prisons service. The Public Service Association (PSA) is New Zealand’s largest state sector union, and has a growing membership at the Department of Corrections. The contract between the Department and Australasian Correctional Management Limited to run the remand prison expired overnight. It will now be run by the Department of Corrections. PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott said workers employed by the private prison operator had, in effect, made the operation profitable since they were employed on poorer terms and conditions than the rest of the nation’s prison staff. “Imprisoning people for the crimes they have committed is a core role of the state and it should never be hived off to a private operator for profit. “The ACRP experiment proved that the exercise was a simple cost-cutting exercise of the type imposed across the public sector during the 1990s. “It employed fewer officers per inmate and paid them less than staff employed by Corrections at all the other prisons across the country. “At a time when Corrections is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain quality staff it beggars belief that National would advocate greater use of private prison contracts. More private prisons would inevitably drag down pay and conditions for all prison staff and make recruitment even harder. “National’s advocacy of tougher, longer sentences for a wider range of offences means it must be planning to employ many more prison staff. We have to ask who they think is going to staff them?,” Brenda Pilott said.

July 13, 2005 New Zealand Herald
Prisons run by private companies are not an option, Corrections Minister Paul Swain says. Opposition parties have said that ending private participation in the prison system is a triumph of ideology over commonsense, but Mr Swain said the simple issue was that private companies should not make profits out of prisoners. However, Auckland Central Remand Prison (ACRP) was well managed before it was handed back to the state today. "In the end, we have a public prison service, a public police force, a public courts system," he said on National Radio. "This is a role the Government or the public should be involved in, not the private sector."

July 12, 2005 Scoop
The GEO Group, holders of the private management contract for the Auckland Central Remand Prison, said today that although they were extremely disappointed that the contract had come to a close they would like to thank all of those people who have supported them during their time in New Zealand. The contract ends at midnight on July 12.

January 25, 2004
An investigation into how an inmate from Auckland's private prison slipped his handcuff and fled guards has been unable to find out how he did it. Nilesh Chandra was due to appear in court on sex-related charges, including rape, when he escaped during a hospital visit last May. He was being escorted by two guards from the Auckland Central Remand Prison. An internal report by the prison found insufficient evidence to say whether the cuffs were incorrectly applied. It says the prison would have to examine Chandra's wrist to determine whether the handcuffs were incorrectly applied "or whether some deformity, peculiarity or abnormality in the prisoner's hand/wrist enabled him to slip from the restraint". Chandra, a Fiji-Indian, later stowed away to Fiji inside a container on a ship and was arrested by police at the port. New Zealand police are seeking legal advice on his extradition. Australasian Correctional Management paid the Government $50,000 for the escape, under the terms of its contract to manage the prison. (NZ Herald)

December 4, 2000
A violent inmate placed a dummy in his bed, changed into new clothes and walked out the front door of the privatetly run prison during visiting hours. The escape is the first from the privately run prison in New Zealand. Under ACM's contract with the Department of Corrections the company must pay $50,000 for every escape. (AAP News Feed)

Australian Federal Government
March 9, 2009 Sidney Morning Herald
AS A state open to the peddling of political influence from those who have donated to government election coffers, NSW takes some beating. Starting with Sydney's foundation 221 years ago, bending the rules of governance - and worse - to help mates who have helped you has been part of the political culture. Fortunately there is far more transparency now than in the bad old days about who makes financial donations to whom. But three recent cases in Sydney show how the culture still lives in the state Labor Party in a worrying way. The first involves Nick Lalich, the Mayor of Fairfield and state MP for Cabramatta. He presided over a meeting of Fairfield City Council last week that considered a $1 million application from Fred Pisciuneri, a developer. Coincidentally, Mr Pisciuneri had made a $2000 donation to Labor at a fund-raising dinner for Mr Lalich in October, when he won the seat in a byelection. Mr Lalich declared a "non-significant, non-pecuniary conflict of interest" at the council meeting. He now says he "probably" could have been more cautious and abstained from voting. Then there is Virginia Judge, the Minister for Fair Trading, who organised a campaign against a Coles supermarket being built near Strathfield Plaza, a shopping centre in her electorate. She also successfully lobbied her colleague Tony Kelly, the Minister for Police, to have a police station shopfront set up in the plaza. Outwardly, there seems little to question. But then we learn Strathfield Plaza is owned by Memo Corporation, a company that has donated more than $50,000 to Ms Judge's political campaigns over six years. Finally Paul McLeay, the MP for Heathcote, was vice-chairman of a parliamentary committee reviewing a $26 million government contract with GEO Group to run the state's only private prison at Junee. The same company had donated $2000 to Mr McLeay's political campaign. It later gave more than $45,000 to Labor, before the 2007 election. While all three MPs protest their innocence at charges of inappropriate behaviour, the cases nonetheless suggest a distinct trend for a party that seems bereft of fresh initiatives after 14 years in power. Instead of its traditional pursuit of social justice, Labor seems to have succumbed to what the state Opposition rightly calls a "donations-for-decisions culture". Its most brazen, and extreme, manifestation was on display in the scandal that engulfed Wollongong City Council last year. Equally, the Sydney deals show the need for tougher rules against what has become in effect the recycling of political money to do favours for donors.

March 6, 2009 The Examiner
THE father of a Government MP who accepted a $2000 donation from a private prison operator is a lobbyist for another company bidding to run two more NSW jails listed for privatisation. Leo McLeay, whose son Paul also chaired a committee that reviewed private prison contracts, appears on the NSW Premier's Department lobbyist register as a consultant for Enhance Corporate. Enhance lists Serco as a client. Serco, a multinational that runs a jail in Western Australia, has lodged an expression of interest with the NSW Government to run Parklea and Cessnock jails. But both Leo McLeay, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, and Serco say Enhance Corporate is not involved in lobbying for the jails contract. A spokeswoman for Serco, Emma Needham, said the company had engaged another lobbying firm, Government Relations Australia, for the contract. "We are not using Enhance on this project," Ms Needham told the Herald. "Our most recent relationship with them was earlier this year. They were advising us on transport issues. That work concluded earlier this week." Mr McLeay confirmed he had worked with Serco but "on a small scoping study". He said: "It is completely unrelated to prisons." According to a list posted by the NSW Department of Commerce, four other companies have also tendered for the contract. They are GSL Australia, Management and Training Corporation, the London-based Sodexo and GEO Group Australia, which donated $45,000 to the Labor Party before the state election in 2007 and which Paul McLeay said had paid for a table at one of his fund-raising dinners. Leo McLeay's firm lists several blue-chip corporations and organisations as clients in NSW, including Cisco Systems, Lend Lease, United Group, the Australian Rugby League and the Law Society. The executive director of the group is the former Queensland deputy premier, Jim Elder, who quit politics in late 2000 after being caught up in an electoral fraud scandal. An associate director is Chris Ellison, the former justice minister for the Howard government. Meanwhile, NSW prison officers will begin overtime bans at Long Bay jail this morning, with staff at Parklea, Grafton and other prisons expected to impose similar bans over the weekend. The officers are angry about comments made last week by Ron Woodham, the Corrective Services Commissioner, to an upper house inquiry into the proposed privatisation of Cessnock and Parklea jails, in which he accused them of the "manipulation" of overtime rosters. "Commissioner Woodham has repeatedly claimed that prison officers are chasing overtime, when the reality is the prisons rely on overtime because of low staff levels," said the chairman of the Prison Officers Vocational Branch, Matt Bindley.

March 5, 2009 Sidney Morning Herald
THE LABOR MP Paul McLeay is under pressure to stand down as chairman of a parliamentary committee after it emerged that he accepted a donation from the company that runs the state's only private prison. When he accepted the donation from the GEO Group the committee was reviewing the company's $26 million contract. GEO donated $2000 to Mr McLeay's personal campaign on August 28, 2005 when the member for Heathcote was vice-chairman of the Public Accounts Committee that was looking into whether the private Junee prison was providing value for money compared to public jails. A month later a report from the committee concluded that the Government should keep the prison operating. GEO donated more than $45,000 to the Labor Party in the lead-up to the last state election but the donation to Mr McLeay was the only one from the company that went to an individual MP. Mr McLeay, who is now committee chairman and receives an extra $17,440, said he doubted there was any "overlap". "From my recollection the report was well and truly over and I had a fund-raising dinner or luncheon sometime after that, and there were about 12 people there, one of which was GEO," he said yesterday. "Maybe the committee had finished the work and it took a while for the report to be tabled because I wouldn't have accepted a donation if we were still looking at it because that would have not been appropriate." The committee's report concluded that Junee provided good value for money because it was able to house prisoners for $73.59 a day compared to the state-run Kempsey jail which costs $91.75 a day. GEO is the second biggest operator of private prisons in the US. It is favoured to take over Parklea and Cessnock jails when they are privatised. A spokesman for GEO said there was no discussion of the committee's report at Mr McLeay's dinner and the company had understood that the report had been written long before the fund-raiser was held. The Greens MP Sylvia Hale said Mr McLeay should be stood down as committee chairman. "It was completely inappropriate for Mr McLeay to accept a personal campaign donation from GEO while he was vice-chairman of the public accounts committee that was examining the GEO private prison contract," Ms Hale said. "It is fundamentally wrong for a company that is receiving public funds from a government contract to be donating some of those funds back to the party that granted them the contract. All of this is even more concerning when the donations are from a company with the international reputation of the GEO group." Ms Hale will today introduce a private member's bill into the upper house to prevent the privatisation of the state's prisons unless any sale has the support of both houses of Parliament.

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.

November 24, 2007 The Age
THE State Government has made it more difficult for independent observers to monitor what goes on in jails, lawyers claim. "It's getting harder to get information about the way the prison system operates," said Hugh de Kretser, executive officer of the Federation of Community Legal Centres. "The Government, instead of increasing scrutiny, is going the other way," he said. This week, Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre was told it could not set up a legal clinic at Port Phillip Prison to give advice on issues such as prisoners' treatment in jail, according to the centre's principal lawyer, Philip Cottier. In the past three months, the Government had moved to restrict prisoners' rights to make freedom of information requests and given jail governors overly wide discretion to restrict prisoners' mail, Mr de Kretser said. The laws about mail were badly drafted and could potentially capture even innocent mail exchanges, he said. Corrections Victoria had recently made secret key operational procedures about how guards should deal with force and firearms, Mr de Kretser said. These procedures were previously open to public scrutiny. "If we cannot access the rules Victoria's prisons operate under, how can we hold our prisons accountable to complying with them?" he said. The criticisms follow the release of a report this week by the State Ombudsman, George Brouwer, into a violent incident at the Melbourne Custody Centre earlier this year. Mr Brouwer found that guards used excessive force against a prisoner and called for a review of the centre, which is run by a private company, the GEO Group, under the supervision of Victoria Police. Deputy Ombudsman John Taylor told The Age that the custody centre was "a closed shop" with limited public scrutiny: "It's a place that no one can go. It's a de facto jail, but it's a police jail, and it's very hard to go there unless you are a lawyer or are from the Ombudsman's office." Mr de Kretser said Government monitoring of assaults by prison officers in privately run prisons was weak. "The private prison contractor and the Government have a common interest in burying the issues," he said.

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."

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.

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.

November 13, 2004 AP
Doubts have been cast on the financial stability of security contractor AIMS Corporation, with a new Department of Justice report warning of possible risks to the Government over the corporation's $21 million a year contract to manage Acacia Prison. The department's annual report on WA's only private prison, tabled in the Legislative Assembly this week, revealed plans to scrutinise AIMS' books to uncover any financial risks the company posed to WA taxpayers. The report said the department had held concerns over the financial health of AIMS for two years, and closer monitoring of the prison over the last year exposed multiple financial issues, including cashflow problems and long delays in invoice payments by the prison. The report attacked AIMS over a host of other problems at the $79 million prison, most significantly, the level of illicit drug use. Nearly one in 10 random urine samples tested positive for illicit substances in the past financial year, the most cases ever recorded in the three year history of the prison. Another cause for serious concern was the high number of test refusals. Criticism was also levelled at faulty electronic systems. AIMS was penalised $211,598 for various deficiencies at the prison, including the drug problem. Its five-year contract to manage Acacia expires in May 2006, with the department to review the contract before it expires. The performance of AIMS, which also manages court security and custodial services in WA, was thrust into the spotlight this year when nine dangerous criminals escaped from the Supreme Court lockup in June.

November 5, 2004 New Zealand Herald
The Land Transport Management Act has paved the way for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in road transport and the Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill will accelerate this privatisation into the health and education sectors. It is commonly argued that PPP schemes provide the necessary roads and other infrastructure assets more quickly and cheaply than direct taxpayer funding. This is unlikely to be true. Research by Sanjiv Sachdev, of the Kingston Business School in England, shows the apparent efficiency of private prisons is not the result of innovative management but shorter holidays, lower pay and worse pensions. The average basic pay is 30 per cent lower and annual leave is five to eight days fewer than in the public sector. Taking into account pension losses, he estimates that privatised staff are up to 70 per cent worse off.

July 23, 2004
The private security company lambasted over the mass escape of prisoners from Perth's Supreme Court has issued a public apology. AIMS Corporation's contract with the West Australian government first came under scrutiny following a breakout by nine maximum security prisoners from the central Perth courthouse on June 10. But the pressure on the company intensified still further with the escape last week of Adrian John Ugle, who slipped out of his handcuffs and fled from AIMS officers who had been transporting him to a hospital appointment. Ugle, 28, who was serving a two-year sentence at Casuarina Prison for aggravated burglary and previous escapes, spent four days on the run before being returned to custody last Saturday. Ugle's escapade prompted the State Government to consider dumping AIMS from their contract to protect and transport the state's convicted criminals. (News.com)

June 19, 2004
Australasian Correctional Management ran 12 immigration detention centres on behalf of the Howard Government from early 1998 until early this year. According to the Australian National Audit Office report, the Department of Immigration, Indigenous and Multicultural Affairs had no strategy for detaining asylum seekers, let alone a contract management plan with ACM. The damning report found: No risk management strategy in the contract. No contract management training or guidance. No performance targets and an ad hoc approach to changing numbers. No contract monitoring or assessment. No financial risk strategy or asset management plan. "This meant that DIMIA was not able to assess whether its strategies were actually working in practice," the report said. During the contract the number of detainees varied from just a handful in 1998 to 3000 in the year 2000. And the auditors could find no assurance that the financial aspects of the $500 million contract "operated as intended". The report also found a gap in the audit trail." Invoicing procedures where the audit trail between the services provided and payments made did not provide senior managers with assurance that full value for money was being achieved," it said. "A systematic approach to risk management, including the establishment of an appropriate and documented risk management strategy, should have been an integral part of contract management," the auditors said. According to the report a manual for departmental centre managers was not issued until four years after the contract began and had not been kept up to date. In its response to the report the department agreed with the six recommendations made by the auditors. It defended itself by saying the audit did not "fully reflect and take account of the complexity of the environment and the nature of the previous detention contract". "Many aspects of the contract were intended to be flexibly addressed through negotiation and discussion," it said. Opposition immigration spokesman Stephen Smith demanded the return of immigration detention centres to government management. "The report is a comprehensive condemnation of the Government's policy of the privatisation of the management of immigration detention centres and a comprehensive indictment of DIMIA's administration of it," Mr Smith said. The auditors found that 38 of the 100 immigration detention standards issued by the department had no performance measures and another 37 were only partially covered. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone's spokesman did not respond to the report. (The Courier Mail)

March 2, 2004
The Pope clearly opposes the federal government's policy of mandatory detention of children, according to an Australian asylum seeker advocate honoured by the Vatican. Adelaide Centacare director Dale West will next month be awarded a Venerable Cross by the Pope in recognition of his work for detainees. The welfare worker said the awarding of the Venerable Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice showed the Pope opposed mandatory detention of children. "That message is clear," said Mr West, a member of the Uniting Church who is believed to be the only non-Catholic in Australia to receive the Papal honour. "It's support at the highest level in the Catholic Church for what we're doing. "It says we have got support even beyond the bishops in Australia and, without sounding conceited about this, it says we've taken the right view." Mr West has for four years been a vocal opponent of holding children in mandatory detention. He was instrumental in bringing the Baktiari children to Adelaide last August after they were released from the Baxter detention centre. (The Age)

February 9, 2004
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon will be given responsibility for regulating the state's private security industry under proposed tough new laws. The Age believes responsibility for the more than 20,000 Victorians who work as crowd controllers, security guards and private investigators will be taken from a police unit known as the Private Agents Registrar and placed directly under Ms Nixon's supervision to tighten controls on the industry. The regulation of security staff came to prominence last month after the death of former Test cricketer and media personality David Hookes outside a St Kilda hotel. St Albans bouncer Zdravko Micevic, 21, has been charged with manslaughter. (State Political Reporter)

January 22, 2004
The Bracks Government was yesterday accused of incompetence for breaching its own laws by failing to establish new security industry regulations after existing ones expired three years ago. A report last year by a parliamentary sub-committee that scrutinises regulations had criticised the Government's inaction, it was revealed yesterday. Opposition Leader Robert Doyle said the Government had been lazy and incompetent by not establishing new regulations to tighten controls on the security industry, despite having begun a review in 2000. (State Political Reporter)

October 10, 2003
Australia's treatment of refugees in detention centres was the harshest in the world, federal human rights commissioner Sev Ozdowski said today. Dr Ozdowski said the billion dollar system removed basic liberties from refugees, resulting in levels of despair unseen in detention camps elsewhere. "It (Australia's system) is the harshest - the harshest mainly from the point of view of the length (of detention)," he told seminar guests at Monash University. "I've never seen the level of despair (in camps anywhere) that I've seen in Australia." He said the longest a child had been held in detention in Australia was five years, five months. By April this year, 50 children had been detained for more than two years. Dr Ozdowski, who has conducted an inquiry into detention centres and will have his findings tabled in federal parliament next year, said the social implications of indefinite detention were shattering. Family life disintegrated, people became suicidal and he had seen children as young as 10 with signs of self-harm. He quoted from one detainee who said "it's 16 months since my detention. My life has been taken away from me ... I've become a useless person who wishes for death everyday." Dr Ozdowski, who was once himself a Polish refugee, also said the government's system of temporary protection visas (TPVs) was "ill-conceived". "I personally believe that the TPV system is a disaster and we'll be paying for it for a long time," he said. He said TPVs stopped people integrating into Australian society and contributed to mental health problems. Dr Ozdowski said that unlike prison life, where inmates have regular routines with access to TV, sport, literature and education, detention centres offered no such distractions. He said officials that he interviewed from the immigration department showed a lack of interest in improving the lot of detainees. "My view is that this culture in the department contributes to the harshness in the detention system," he said. He said the biggest human rights abuses had occurred during riots at the centres. "(It happened) where basically control was lost and gas was used and physical force was used," he said. "You just don't keep people imprisoned for a long time for no good reason." Senator Vanstone issued a statement saying Australia was "one of the great immigration success stories". "We have a generous, robust and ordered immigration system," she said. "It is very difficult when people jump the queue and arrive in Australia with no paperwork. The systems that we have in place are there to make sure that those people who are most in need get help, and those who aren't are repatriated." (The Age)

July 9, 2003
The Federal Government will go to the High Court in an attempt to keep five children in an immigration detention centre after the Family Court yesterday dismissed an application to overturn a landmark ruling that it had the power to set them free. The Family Court yesterday granted the Government permission to appeal to the High Court over the June judgement, in which two out of a three-judge bench found the indefinite detention of children was unlawful and that the court could order their release. This was because there were "important questions of law and of public interest involved". But the Family Court refused the Government's demand that, in the interim, it should issue a "stay" on the judgement, preventing any court acting on the ruling and ordering the release of any children from detention. A spokesman for the Immigration Minister, Philip Ruddock, responded to yesterday's ruling, saying "we'll look at possibly asking the High Court to consider a stay". There are more than 100 children in immigration detention centres in Australia. (Sidney Morning Herald)

January 2, 2003
Up to 39 people have been moved from immigration detention centres to jails or police cells across the country to try to end several days of violence in five detention centre. The Federal Government also threatened strip-searches at detention centres yesterday as senior immigration officials prepared reports on the four days of violence, which have caused an estimated $8 million damage. (The Age)

January 1, 2003
The Australian Federal Police will look into whether the series of arson attacks that have hit five immigration detention centres in as many days were part of an organized campaign. The Federal Attorney-General, Daryl Williams, said he had heard suggestions that the fires and violence - which caused $8.5 million damage - were "an orchestrated set of events" but he thought there was no substantive evidence to support the claim. The Department of Immigration said tension was still high at Western Australia's Port Hedland centre, South Australia's Baxter and Woomera centres and the centres at Christmas Island. The five days of violent protest culminated with fires and a car-ramming at Sydney's Villawood centre on New Year's Eve. (smh.au.com)

January 1, 2003
A ring of militant asylum seekers planned and coordinated the fires in immigration detention facilities across the country, centre managers claimed yesterday. Five of the country's seven centres have been hit by fire over the past week, causing more than $8 million damage. In the latest incidents, about $500,000 damage was caused during a riot on New Year's Eve at Villawood in Sydney. Staff from Australasian Correctional Management believe that detainees from various centres had been in regular telephone contact since December 27, when the first of the fires broke out at Baxter in South Australia. A group of about 50 to 60 men from Baxter are alleged to be among the ringleaders. The allegations come as about seven handcuffed detainees from Woomera were transferred to Port Augusta police station for questioning over a rampage in the early hours of Tuesday morning. (The Age)

December 31, 2002
Asylum seekers who have caused about $8 million damage to detention centres in the past week have been warned by the Federal Government they will housed in "far less comfortable" circumstances if they do not stop destroying property. The warning followed fires that caused about $2.5 million damage at Woomera, including the destruction of 33 accommodation blocks. The Department of Immigration said that in the latest incident at Woomera, guards were pelted with stones and threatened with metal bars as they tried to extinguish fires. "Staff attempting to extinguish the fires were set upon by around 10 detainees in each compound," the department said. A fire at Port Hedland in Western Australia caused $3 million damage and a blaze at Baxter in South Australia, caused about $2.25 million damage. The Federal Government is considering closing the Woomera centre, at which there have been escapes, protests and riots in recent years. (The Age)

December 30, 2002
It could be "very difficult" to prosecute the asylum seekers responsible for fires at detention centres across the country, estimated to have caused about $5.25 million worth of damage, Attorney-General Daryl Williams said yesterday. After fires in the remote Western Australian facility of Port Hedland caused damage estimated at $3 million, Mr Williams conceded court action could prove impossible. "If they are not cooperating, and it's not likely they will cooperate, it may be very difficult to identify those who are directly responsible," he said. The fire at Port Hedland is believed to have been deliberately lit in a copy-cat style act after fires at South Australia's new Baxter detention centre, which caused $2.25 million damage. The Department of Immigration also revealed that detainees at the Woomera centre in South Australia had deliberately lit fires on Sunday, causing little damage, and a guard at the detention centre at Perth airport had been hospitalised yesterday after a scuffle with four detainees. An Iranian inmate of the Baxter centre who witnessed the fires said people were extremely frustrated and had behaved irrationally because Australian Correctional Management were mistreating people. "It is the incompetent management of the ACM, that they couldn't understand the detainees have not good mentality in here," the man said. "They must manage all of the people in here and calm them down." (The Age)

December 4, 2002
The Howard Government yesterday bowed to pressure to soften its treatment of women and children asylum seekers as Labor began debating a dramatic departure from the refugee policy it took to last year's election. Under new guidelines released by Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock, unaccompanied minors will now be placed in foster care and women with children will be offered an alternative to living in high-security detention centres. (The Age)

November 15, 2002
Some 533 Afghan asylum seekers have accepted the Federal Government's $2000 cash offer to return home rather than face continued detention in harsh and isolated detention centres. (The Age)

Australian Immigration Department
April 3, 2009 The Age
THE Federal Government is set to dump controversial company G4S as operator of immigration detention centres. The Department of Immigration has announced that Serco, which runs prisons and immigration centres in Britain, is its preferred tender to run Australia's six detentions centres. The contract is believed to be worth up to $500 million. But human rights advocates have hit out at the decision, saying Serco has a poor record in Britain, and detention centres should be operated by the public sector. Advocate Charandev Singh said Serco's record in Britain showed a "prison mentality" would be brought to its operations in Australia. "The Government just wants a clean skin in Australia — somebody with no blemishes (here)," Mr Singh said. "G4S and Serco are basically the same company. They come from the same corporate background, running prisons."

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.

May 13, 2003
A year after a national call for the release of all children from immigration detention centres, a study has found unprecedented rates of mental illness among young asylum seekers. The study of 10 families found that just one child out of a total of 22 children and 14 adults was not suffering a major depression. Some were suicidal, and had harmed themselves. Some were also suffering from post traumatic stress disorders, which started, or worsened, during their detention. Findings from the study, to form the the keynote address at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists congress in Hobart today, were said to be causing great concern among health professionals. "There isn't a cohort of children as distressed as this group that we have been able to find anywhere in the medical literature in the world," said Zachary Steel, who co-ordinated the study. Mr Steel is a clinical psychologist in the School of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales. The study's findings come a year after an alliance of doctors and health professionals called for the immediate release of children from detention centres and a review of Australia's detention policies. The study's findings come a year after an alliance of doctors and health professionals called for the immediate release of children from detention centres and a review of Australia's detention policies. (The Age)

February 17, 2003
Children held in Australian immigration detention camps spend an average of 15 months behind the razor wire. One child was detained for more than five years, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock told Parliament. Labor MP Tanya Plibersek said most Australians would be shocked to learn how long children were detained. (The Age)

August 27, 2002
A night spent in immigration detention can cost an asylum seeker more than a quality bed in some five-star hotels. The Federal Government bills detainees up to $191 per person for each day spent behind barbed wire. The price of a night in detention, however, varies across the nation's six immigration compounds: some detainees can be kept more frugally - for $60 a night per person, an Immigration Department spokeswoman confirmed. The Migration Act makes detainees liable for all costs the government incurs in keeping them detained, from food to one-way air fares out of the country if they are deported. Inquiries by The Age confirm some former detainees who have been released into the community have received bills in excess of $200,000. (The Age)

Australasian Correctional Management Pty Limited
Australia
Wackenhut
July 9, 2004
A damning report by the Auditor-General, released two weeks ago, showed initial detention arrangements with private prison operators Australian Centre Management to be a farce. Appalling hygiene and frequent escapes perpetuated by ACM's lackadaisical attitude to detainees was highlighted as a failure of the immigration department. With a second report by the Auditor-General expected to detail arrangements with ACM's replacement Global Systems Management later this year, the department maintains it. (The Austrailian)

March 17, 2004
The company dumped last year as manager of Australia's immigration detention centres could soon be back in charge if a change of ownership goes ahead. Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (now known as the Geo Group) has offered $490 million to buy Global Solutions, the company now managing the centres. The Geo Group also owns the company formerly known as Australasian Correctional Management, now Geo Australia. ACM was stripped of management of the detention centres in December 2002, less than halfway through a 10-year contract. Its four-year tenure was dogged by riots, hunger strikes, suicide attempts and allegations of human rights abuses at the six detention centres under its management, including Woomera, Port Hedland, Villawood and Maribyrnong. ACM earned an estimated $328 million during the life of its contract. But the transfer of management was criticised at the time because both ACM and Global Solutions were owned by the Danish firm Group 4 Falck. Group 4 later sold off Wackenhut Corrections, which changed its name to the Geo Group last December. Group 4 Falck, which is merging with British security firm Securicor, now wants to sell Global Solutions. And the prime bidder is the Geo Group – which has offered $490 million. An Immigration Department official said the department was aware of the corporate manoeuvres. He said the sale of Global Solutions was a matter for the two companies, but there were provisions in the detention service contract about changes of the contractor which would have to be met before any change of ownership could take place. "The department is currently in dialogue with GSL (Global Solutions) to resolve these matters prior to the sale proceeding," he said. The conditions of the contract remain confidential. Opposition immigration spokesman Stephen Smith yesterday said: "This is but another illustration as to why the management of detention centres needs to be returned to Commonwealth officers on Commonwealth territory. "You can take over a company but you can't take over the Commonwealth," Mr Smith said. Howard Glenn, national director of A Just Australia, said he had reservations about management of the detention centres returning to the same hands. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission was soon to release a report into the treatment of children in detention under ACM's management. Mr Glenn said the report could be highly critical of ACM. "There's kids who have been in detention through all the owners, for over three years," Mr Glenn said. "While the company structures change, there's no action from the Government in moving these kids out. "Before giving the keys back to this company who had it in the crisis days of 2001, let's hear what the Human Rights Commission says." (The Courier Mail)

September 26, 2003
The Government has been hiding the real reasons why a private company lost the contract to run six immigration detention centres. The Immigration Minister, Philip Ruddock, is covering up the poor performance of Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) when it managed six of Australia's immigration detention centres from February 1998 to December 2002. Also covering up the poor performance is the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (Dimia), which is acting in the commercial interests of ACM despite continuing revelations about the poor performance of the company. BRW has discovered a serious contractual breach relating to ACM and its handling of an escape that the department is keeping secret. Despite the seriousness of the breach - and the amount of about $90 million in taxpayers' money paid to the company for each year of the contract - the Federal Government refuses to disclose details about why a default notice was served on ACM. It also brings into question the Government's claim that ACM lost the contract to manage the detention centres because of poor value for money rather than poor performance. After a lengthy freedom-of-information request that began in May 2002, BRW has established that the department secretary, Bill Farmer, or his agent, issued a default notice to ACM under the contract. The default notice, which warns that a contact may be cancelled, was issued between March 1, 2001 and September 5, 2002. The assistant secretary of unauthorised arrivals and detention services, Jim Williams, wrote to BRW on September 5: "I believe that there is a real risk that disclosure of the document would cause unreasonable harm to ACM's business reputation and potentially prejudice its ability to perform competitively in its industry." Despite a long history of violent incidents at detention centres, including a mass breakout from Woomera detention centre, South Australia, in June 2000 and a riot in August 2000, it is the only default notice issued by Dimia to ACM under its "general agreement" contract. In October 2000, the Victorian Government took back the contract for the Melbourne Metropolitan Women's Correctional Centre, in Deer Park, after issuing three default notices to its operator, Corrections Corporation of Australia. ACM held the detention centre contract from February 1998. Dimia announced on May 25, 2001 that it would be re-tendering the contract. On December 22, 2002 Ruddock announced that Dimia would enter negotiations with another company, Group 4 Falck, to provide detention centre services. Group 4 Falck is a majority owner of ACM's United States owner, Wackenhut Corrections Corp. Dimia's sensitivity to ACM's business reputation is characteristic of its defence of ACM in numerous public inquiries. In 2001, despite direct questions about ACM's performance under the contract, Dimia staff, including Farmer and the then deputy secretary Andrew Metcalfe (now promoted to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet) said the removal of the contract from ACM was based on value-for-money reasons. Since some of Dimia's stonewalling defences of ACM in 2001, the poor performance of ACM in managing detention centres has been revealed even more starkly. In July 2002, the former operations officer at the Woomera detention centre, Allan Clifton, told the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Com-mission inquiry into children in immigration detention that it was regular ACM practice to inflate figures on services provided. He also said that staff at Woomera were under-resourced in training, numbers and medical supplies, and that children had been endangered in riots. (Business Review Weekly)

December 23, 2002
The new manager of Australia's detention centres will have to comply with a 51-page list of obligations to detainees if it is to receive the full value of the $100 million-plus contract. The manager, Group 4, will have to provide native-language newspapers and agree to a requirement that the Immigration Department be told within one hour if any detainee is placed under restraint. The list exposes Group 4 to fines if standards are breached. The present operator, Australasian Correctional Management, which lost its contract renewal bid at the weekend, had been subject to only a four-page general statement of detention principles during its six-year term. The ALP has described the new contract with Group 4 - whose international parent merged with ACM earlier this year - as a "sham". It was inappropriate with an international business in corrections to be handling detention centres, it said. A union representing detention centre workers warned yesterday that there could be industrial strife if ACM did not pay outstanding entitlements before departing the scene. It claimed that ACM was yet to pay staff 2002 wage increases. (The Age)

December 23, 2002
RIOTS, arson attacks, hunger strikes and lip-sewing protests were no match for the dollar yesterday when the Federal Government replaced the private operators of Australia's detention centres for a better deal. As a refugee activists vowed to stage mass protests this Easter at the new Baxter Detention Centre near Port Augusta, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock yesterday announced his preferred contractor for the centres. Austalian Correctional Management lost the multi-million dollar deal to Group 4, Falck Global Solutions Pty Ltd, with which it recently merged. (The Advertiser)

October 9, 2002
Australia's immigration department and detention centre management have been told they must give evidence in public to a national inquiry into child detention. The Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) and Australiasian Correctional Management (ACM) have wanted secret hearings, arguing open evidence could put staff and detainees at risk. However Australian Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski today rejected submissions arguing the confidential nature of their evidence justified a private hearing. DIMIA and ACM will now have to publicly release any documents required by the commission. In today's report, Dr. Ozdowski said each document needed to be assessed at face value, and the majority of documents requested by the commission would not pose a credible risk to safety. DIMIA and ACP's argument that the inquiry would hinder tender processes for new detention services did not satisfy the commissioner. "I have decided that any prejudice to the tender process that may be caused by the holding of public hearings involving DIMIA and ACM is outweighed by the public interest in the inquiry being held in an open, efficient and timely manner," Dr. Ozdowski said. (Smh.au.com)

May 1, 2002
Police arrested 31 protesters, charging one for using firecrackers on police horses, during May Day protests in Sydney today. City East regional commander Dick Adams said about 400 protesters took part in today's May Day action. One horse fell, bringing a policewoman down with it. The horse was quickly up, while the policewoman rolled onto her side with horses stepping all around her. The policewoman returned and remounted, joining the drive to clear the protesters from the driveway leading into the building housing ACM. (smh.com)

May 1, 2002
Police and M1 protesters have clashed outside the Australasian Correctional Management building in Sydney this morning. Police attempted to push back the protest line after about 100 demonstrators moved from the front to the side garage entrance. More than 500 people gathered to blockade the front of the building, with protesters letting off bungers and chanting before the clash. (The Age)

October 4, 2001
Wackenhut Corrections Corporation/ -- In the news release, "Wackenhut Corrections' (NYSE: WHC) Australian Subsidiary Renews and Expands Health Care Services Contract for Victoria Public Corrections Enterprise," issued Sept. 18, 2001, we are advised by the company that the headline should read "Wackenhut Corrections' Australian Subsidiary Is Nominated as the Preferred Tenderer of the Health Care Services Contract for Victoria Public Corrections Enterprise." Also, the first paragraph, third line, should read "Australasian Correctional Management Pty Limited ("ACM")has been nominated as the preferred tenderer of the health care services contract for The Public Corrections Enterprise, Victoria ('CORE') -- with the final outcome of the tender process contingent on a number of other factors, including purchase and funding approval" rather than "Australasian Correctional Management Pty Limited ('ACM') has renewed and expanded its health care services contract.

Baxter Detention Centre
South Australia, Australia
Global Solutions (formerly run by Group 4 and by Wackenhut Corrections)
September 13, 2008 Sidney Morning Herald
About 10 o'clock one evening in January 2003, Mary Rohde got out of her four-wheel-drive to lock the gate to the visitor carpark at the Baxter immigration detention facility near Port Augusta, where she was a detention officer. She felt a presence but saw no one, and returned to the car to radio the control room. Suddenly an arm was round her neck, a blade at her throat. Terror and incomprehension overwhelmed her. Eventually the arm loosened and she looked round; in the back seat was her boss. It had been a security drill. "That'll teach her to lock the car door," a supervisor later remarked. Rhode was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and, five years later, has not recovered, despite psychiatric treatment. Her symptoms are typical. She suffers from nightmares and insomnia. She cannot manage social situations, cannot sit in a doctor's waiting room; even visits from her adult children are too much to cope with. Half an hour after they arrive she finds herself weeping in her bedroom. "I'm now the shell of the person I was. I drink and take drugs; for me to cope, that's what I have to do," she says. Rohde is one of many former officers who developed post-traumatic stress disorder and other stress-related disorders while working in detention centres around Australia. Statistics from WorkCover South Australia record 62 claims for post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental disorders made by guards at Woomera and Baxter. Many are unlikely to work again. We have been told a lot about the impact of detention on asylum seekers, but not about the impact on those who worked there. By 1999 leaky vessels were making their way to Australia carrying mostly asylum seekers from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. Arrival numbers overwhelmed detention centres at Curtin and Port Hedland, both in northern Western Australia. The overflow shifted to a makeshift camp near Woomera, South Australia, where they languished in desert heat until given visas or sent home. Five hundred kilometres from Adelaide, with access to the detention centre barred to almost all, it was impossible for outsiders to know what happened within. Woomera's carrying capacity was 400. By April 2000 it held more than 1400 detainees, and officers were needed to keep order. Detention services were privatised by the Howard government in 1997. The successful tenderer was Australasian Correctional Management, or ACM, a subsidiary of the US giant Wackenhut corporation, which ran private jails in Australia and overseas. Many ACM detention centre officers had been jail staff but the company also advertised for them. With free accommodation and the minimum requirement of five 12-hour shifts a week, the conditions seemed excellent - about $1200 a week. For Rohde, recently separated from her husband and experiencing financial difficulties, the job seemed a godsend. Many officers believed they were on important duty. In 2000 Australians got the message they were under siege; that the boatloads surely included terrorists. Still others thought this was a chance to show kindness. Within weeks, the new recruits would find themselves kitted up in riot gear and wielding batons, extinguishing fires, or cutting down would-be suicides. Trevor Robertson signed up to Woomera in June 2000. He had recently completed training as a prison officer in Brisbane. His partner, Kendall Jones, expecting their first child, urged him to apply. As with Rohde, the move would be the mistake of their lives. An imposing figure, Robertson was respected by colleagues and soon became a supervisor. When Woomera closed and the operation transferred to the Baxter centre near Port Augusta, Robertson went too. One former colleague remembers him as even-tempered, fair and good in a crisis - "the best operator at Woomera". Robertson has been unable to work, his marriage teeters in the balance, and he rarely leaves the loungeroom of his modest Port Augusta home. He does not socialise, and spends his time bent over the computer, poring over state and federal law, or on the phone to any bureaucrat or politician who will talk to him about immigration detention. It is an obsession. He has reflected long and hard about why it all went so wrong in immigration detention centres. All the officers interviewed for this story said training was inadequate. In an intensive four- to six-week course, new recruits practised restraint and riot drills, became familiar with the Migration Act, and were encouraged to treat detainees with respect. Robertson does not think any training could have prepared officers for the dire daily situations. He told ABC TV's Four Corners program that three days after training he was at Woomera when 500 detainees attempted to escape. The job was close to impossible. Detention centres became violent; chaos reigned. These desert prisons held people who were distressed and traumatised for months or years on end, waiting for news on their visa applications. Many eventually became deranged. Riots, hunger strikes, self-harm and suicide attempts were common. Officers became the focus of detainee anger and resentment, and threats were made against them and their families. It angers Robertson that he and colleagues were denied help. "We were the police; we were the mental health-care workers; we were the social workers," he recalls bitterly. Detention centres had rules, and most detainees obeyed them. A core group, however, was troublesome and the only consequence of their behaviour was incarceration in the "management unit", a form of solitary confinement where detainees frequently became so unmanageable it was easier to return them to their compounds. Troublemakers lit fires, smashed windows, stood over and bullied others and assaulted officers with relative impunity. Experts argue that incarceration in detention centres induces mental illness. According to ACM statistics for October 2001, three psychologists saw 764 residents at Woomera. A psychiatrist visited every few weeks, but daily care of people with mental illness was left to untrained officers. Rod Gigney, a kindly officer, would bribe Anna with fruit, trying to curb her behaviour. The young woman wandered around naked at Baxter and defecated on the floor. To officers less sympathetic, Anna was just a heroin-addicted, damned nuisance. She turned out to be the schizophrenic German-born Australian Cornelia Rau. Gigney made many reports about Anna to management, without effect. Carol Wiltshire was deeply concerned about a woman who had not left her room for 10 months. She was catatonic, covered in bedsores and unable to tend to her small child. Wiltshire's supervisor suggested she "poke her with a stick and see if she's still alive". It was another month before she was transferred to Adelaide's Glenside mental health facility. Understaffing was significant and chronic. Often an officer as young as 20 would be left alone in a compound where three officers were required, leaving them vulnerable and insecure. Sean Ferris was alone at Baxter when a riot broke out. He locked himself in the office, which was pounded with stones and set alight. Simon Forsyth, then 21, faced a fire on his first shift at Baxter. He did not know how to use the extinguisher. An October 2005 report recounts the incident that ended Robertson's career. By then, Baxter detainees were predominantly visa overstayers and criminals awaiting deportation. There was a fight, Robertson was assaulted and "suddenly I lost control". "I was really trying to hurt people; I had my hands around their throats." And that was that. The once solid and reliable officer, mentor to fellow workers, finally cracked. Battered, bruised and hysterical, he was driven home. When he said he was fit to return to work three weeks later, he broke down, was subsequently diagnosed with an adjustment disorder and has not worked since. Clive Skinn, a Port Augusta local who worked at Woomera and Baxter, loathes all detainees. Sitting uncomfortably on the couch in Robertson's lounge room, he is tense with anger. "My body is full of hatred," Skinn says. He had not given refugees a thought before he went to Woomera; he knew nothing about Muslims. On his second day on the job, a detainee head-butted him. Another spat at him soon after. Wiltshire says Skinn was never the same after having to cut down a man who attempted to hang himself. Life became unmanageable. Skinn was quick to anger, could not get on with his children, could not sleep. He awoke suddenly one morning convinced that there were Muslims in his house. He seized a chair and trashed the place, smashed windows and the TV, broke holes in the walls. He was diagnosed with anxiety and depression and spent 18 months on workers' compensation. While still profoundly affected, he holds down a job in an underground mine at Roxby Downs, but the past catches up with him. "I'd like to kill them all," Skinn says of detainees. "And I feel the same way about the children. They were as bad as the parents." Gigney's breakdown was a consequence of concern for detainees. He listened to their despair, smuggled extra milk rations for children, and watched helplessly as they suffered physically and mentally. A boy, 12, was among the three would-be suicides he cut down. Officers who displayed compassion were held in contempt by many co-workers, and became known as "care bears". The diminutive and softly spoken Annie Brown (not her real name), 55, thought working at Baxter would be an opportunity to help the unfortunate. Each day she would say to herself, "I've got 12 hours to make these people's lives better." For this she was taunted and ridiculed by fellow officers; for Annie, the worst part of work at Baxter was the attitude of many co-workers. Annie's husband is also a former Baxter officer. "We were people who had normal lives," Annie says through tears. "We don't have them any more." After being ignored by superiors, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and agoraphobia, and for a year could not leave her house. Many people with post-traumatic stress disorder have to confront the fact that what was normality is not likely to return. This is Rohde's reality. "I want my life back," she says. "But the psychiatrist has said that I will never be the person I was before. I have to try to learn to live with the person I am now." Three years since his diagnosis, Robertson shows no sign of improvement. For Kendall, life with Trevor is close to unbearable. She says he is distant, obnoxious and arrogant. He gets angry with the children, impatient, distracted. He does not go to bed until 3am, and rises late. As Jones and Robertson do seemingly fruitless battle with bureaucrats, they are frustrated that former detainees can pursue compensation for psychological damage but former officers cannot. Gigney continues to try to find work. In his home town of Whyalla the mining boom is in full swing, but being sound of body is not enough for him to take advantage of it. He has just made his second attempt to get a truck driver's licence. He would pulled over to answer his phone when a water truck went past, triggering a flashback to the water cannon used during riots at Woomera, and an incident involving children. He sat in the cabin and wept. In the suburban Adelaide pub where she works as a kitchenhand, Wiltshire shares a drink with another former officer, Barbara Zillner. The camaraderie among former officers is akin to that between Vietnam War veterans - no one else comprehends what they went through. In 2000 Wiltshire, a single mother doing it tough, saw Woomera as a chance to escape the poverty trap. Like others, she broke down, diagnosed with an adjustment disorder. Her road to recovery has been hard, but she now holds down a job and a relationship. Having recovered a measure of equilibrium in her life, she looks back and wonders at what she went through. "I was proud to be a detention centre officer, protecting Australia's borders. Then I changed. I became a monster, a cowboy, like all the other officers. They were all driven crazy. When I look back, I just think - what the hell did I do that for? To end up hating people for no reason."

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.

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 The Age
The Immigration Department has stalled for weeks over transferring from Baxter to a psychiatric institution three severely depressed men who a mental health expert says need immediate hospital care. This is despite the department being severely criticised by the Palmer inquiry over the inadequate mental health treatment it provides for immigration detainees. Former police commissioner Mick Palmer's report on the wrongful detention of mentally ill Cornelia Rau, which is highly critical of the department's culture, will be released today, with the Government's plans for action on mental health, identification and other aspects of immigration detention.

June 29, 2005 The Australian
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
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. (The Age)

July 29, 2004
Two murals border a grassy patch in the fenced-in adult education compound of the Baxter immigration detention centre. Goldfish feature in one. The other, still being painted by detainees yesterday, is an abstract composition of nine blue eyes and brown faces. For the first time since the fires in 2002, journalists were allowed in the centre. An Iranian detainee, who said he had been in detention for about four years, waited until the Immigration Department official was out of earshot before he started whispering to the Herald. The mural of the eyes represented confusion, he explained. "People don't know what they're doing, they've lost their personality, they don't know what happens to them," he said. And the fish? "If you scream underwater, nobody hears your voice, if you're crying, nobody hears." One area the media had never seen before was the grim "Management Unit", where detainees with behavioural issues are put into solitary confinement - sometimes for more than a month at a time. The Red compound, burnt during the fires in 2002, is for "problem" detainees who have come out of the "Management Unit" and are being "re-integrated" into the general detention centre population. There were no detainees in the Red compound yesterday either - just empty non-carpeted rooms with metal furniture bolted to the floor and a peephole for guards to look through when doing their head counts each night. (Sidney Morning Herald)

March 18, 2004
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, Greens refugee spokeswoman Pamela Cur said yesterday. Furniture was broken in the confrontation, which followed arguments overnight after guards tried to forcibly remove a detainee from his room, she said. Ms Cur said the inmate reportedly had been suicidal and staff had tried to force him into solitary isolation cells. The man, who has a medical condition, has a fear of solitary confinement and at one stage he climbed on to the compound roof, refugee advocates said. A spokesman for the Immigration Department confirmed that there had been a disturbance at Baxter. A detainee had scaled a shade structure, but he later came down. The disturbance had been limited to one compound, the spokesman said. Centre staff were monitoring the compound where the disturbance had taken place. Late yesterday afternoon it appeared calm. (The Age)

November 20, 2003
A High Court judge has cleared the way for a challenge to Australia's detention laws that could ultimately result in all children being released from immigration detention centres. High Court Justice Kenneth Hayne ruled in Melbourne yesterday that the challenge, launched by refugee advocate Eric Vadarlis, could proceed to a February hearing before the court's full bench. The legal action aims to free four child detainees from South Australia's Baxter Detention Centre on the grounds that the detention of children for administrative purposes is unconstitutional. (The Age)

July 30, 2003
An Iranian man at the Baxter detention centre has refused to eat for the past 18 days after his seven-year-old daughter was sent back to Iran, the Australian Democrats said today. Kate Reynolds, Democrats' social justice spokeswoman in South Australia's upper house, called for authorities to provide medical care and grief counseling to Amin Mastipour (Amin Mastipour), who was on a hunger strike in a Baxter isolation unit. "I cannot believe that this man's child - who has been with him for the past five years - has been torn away from him like this," Ms Reynolds said. (Sidney Morning News)

July 27, 2003
Alamdar Bakhtiyari, who has spent three of his mere 15 years living in detention, says he never wants to come out. He says he feels safer behind Baxter detention centre's razor wire. As he sits with The Age, his angry father at his side, Alamdar is edgy, fearful. His face switches like a flashing light, now scowling, now smiling. When he does speak, his words tumble out filled with accusations and disbelief. "It is not fair you come and talk to us, and then you go home to your family and a nice house and we stay here. We are not free to leave. You have lovely homes and families, but all we have is nothing, not even our freedom. "I am not allowed to enjoy freedom like other boys. It makes me crazy, I hate it here. I hate Australia. I am not a criminal, I have done nothing wrong." Then the switch is thrown again. "You know what ACM stands for?" he says flashing a smile. "Always Changing their Minds." Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) is the private company that runs Baxter and decides what Alamdar can and cannot do. After almost three years of detention, Alamdar, with his younger brother Montazar (Monty), bears all the signs of someone completely institutionalised. His fear of the outside world outweighs his fear of incarceration. He says his life has been torn apart by the competing forces in Australia's immigration debate: the refugee activists, the lawyers, the media and Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock. Alamdar carries the scars of detention, some of which are still visible. At the height of the Woomera turmoil, when riots and hunger strikes were commonplace and teenage detainees were threatening to kill themselves and drinking shampoo, Alamdar stitched his lips together. Out of frustration he slashed himself repeatedly with razor blades, and in a moment of deep despair he gouged the word "freedom" into his forearm. (The Age)

April 21, 2003
South Australian police have apologized to protestors after a heavily tactical response squad drove into their camp near the Baxter detention centre searching for a rifle that had allegedly been aimed at a police helicopter. The search of the site turned up a camera tripod. A total of 33 people were arrested during the three-day Easter protest against mandatory detention of asylum seekers. More than 350 police were on hand for the protests. But as protesters left, riot police charged at selected groups to clear them from the area. (The Age)

April 18, 2003
Police clashed with protesters outside the Baxter detention centre today after demonstrators climbed barricades and tried to march on the centre. Ignoring police appeals to remain beyond a roadblock erected to seal access to the centre, hundreds of protesters confronted police in a tense stand-off this afternoon. Some protesters climbed the barricades and attempted to make their way on foot to the centre's main gates, before a second line of police blocked their path and began confiscating camping equipment. Hundreds of protesters from around Australia have converged on Port Augusta to rally against the government's treatment of asylum seekers. Some 300 police officers were redeployed to Port Augusta this weekend, after last year's Easter rally at the Woomera detention centre, during which detainees staged several mass escapes with the help of demonstrators. Refugee Action Collective protest organiser Fleur Taylor, from Melbourne, said centre manager Australasian Correctional Management (ACM), authorized by the Department of Immigration (DIMIA), had increased punishment of Baxter detainees. (The Age)

March 10, 2003
Two men who escaped from the Baxter immigration detention centre last night spent just hours on the run before being recaptured by South Australian police early today. Police said the men fled into bushland north of the Port Augusta facility at 11.18pm (CDT). A search involving local police and Australian Federal Police was organised, including the use of a police aircraft. (The Age)

January 3, 2003
It was meant to be the new, friendlier face of Australia's asylum seeker policy. Although an electrified fence runs around the outside, and security cameras are everywhere except in private areas, the rooms are modern. There is more grass and play area for children than in other centres. But today part of Baxter lies in ruins, and along with it any hope of an easy resolution to the fate of Australia's asylum seekers. Just after midnight on Friday last week a fire broke out in an empty room in Red 1, a men's compound at Baxter. Although detainees cannot possess matches or lighters, arsonists may have made a lighter from electric wiring or a toaster. They had mattresses and newspapers - plenty of fuel. Two nights later, a bigger fire was lit in Red 1. Staff tried to put it out but did not have enough water. Fire crews arrived, people were banging on doors to wake those still asleep. Many detainees were collapsing from smoke inhalation. At about 3pm that day more fires were lit. Desperate to get out but told not to, detainees broke down the gate and tried to break out of the compound. Guards in riot gear confronted them. When some detainees were asked why they had started the fire they replied: "We were trying to get away. The centre is making us crazy." By Sunday night the fires were spreading, first to Port Hedland detention centre, later to Woomera, Christmas Island and Villawood. The "ferocity" of the actions took guards by surprise, an ACM employee said. On December 17, newspapers in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne published the same article. Carrying headlines such as "Five Star Asylums" and "It's not all mriots at our Club Fed", it reported that detainees enjoyed luxuries such as gyms, Foxtel, DVDs and yoga classes. The article, and a similar one in a Port Hedland newspaper, made some people in the Port Hedland detention centre "very angry," says the town's Uniting Church minister, Bev Fabb. She says most of the article's information was wrong for Port Hedland. The article also troubled Harry Minas of the Federal Government's Independent Detention Advisory Group. Neither Professor Minas nor Ms Fabb suggest a direct link between the article and the arson but many asylum seeker advocates feel the article helped to exacerbate what one advocate describes as a "huge deterioration" in the mood of detainees in the past month. A shift is under way in the centres. Numbers are dwindling. No boat has reached Australia for 14 months. Baxter, Woomera and Port Hedland are way below capacity. On New Year's Eve the Immigration Department handed a letter to 488 detainees in Baxter, Port Hedland and Woomera. The letter said most of them had been rejected as refugees and had "no right to remain in this country . . . You can choose to bring your detention to an end at any time by leaving Australia". According to what an Iranian detainee told asylum seeker advocate Ian Knowles, a group of men, infuriated by the letter, marched to the immigration office and demanded to be deported straight away. Guards in riot gear pushed them back to a compound. ACM confirmed that tear gas was used. Mr Minas adds: "People are saying, 'It's their (the detainees') own bloody fault', and in a way it is. "But people have to ask what makes this group prefer be in a detention centre environment rather than to go go home. "They are not choosing a soft life in Australia." (The Age)

January 3, 2003
Thirteen pairs of scissors, two chisels, home-made weapons, broken glass panels and lighter fluid have been found after searches in Australia's seven immigration detention centres. But strip searches of the 132 men detained at Baxter and Woomera in South Australia, conducted this week, apparently uncovered little. An Immigration Department statement refers only to two mobile phones and one screwdriver being found. The five-day spree of violence in five of the seven immigration detention centres has left a damages bill of $8.4 million. The bill climbed $400,000 yesterday after the Immigration Department revealed the cost of fires at Christmas Island four days ago. (The Age)

December 29, 2002
Asylum seekers who caused more than $2 million in damage by using bedding and furniture to fuel six separate fires at the three-month-old Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia face jail terms before being deported. One of the centre's nine compounds was destroyed after five fires began simultaneously early yesterday, and 13 people, including two guards, were taken to hospital. Forty-seven detainees were evacuated to another compound within the centre, where another big fire broke out shortly after 3.30pm. Eighty-one rooms were destroyed, including 17 in the second compound. Two en suite units were destroyed and a mess hall was damaged. According to the Department of Immigration website, riots in detention centres have caused more than $5 million in damage over the past 18 months. More than three-quarters of this has occurred at Woomera Detention Centre, where six buildings were destroyed in riots in August 2000 and a further three burnt during riots in November last year. (Sidney Morning Hearld)

December 27, 2002
Inmates at South Australia's Baxter detention centre used mattresses and newspapers to light three fires that gutted a complex of four rooms, Australasian Correctional Management said yesterday. The fires, which caused an estimated $60,000 damage, have been referred by the Department of Immigration to Australian Federal Police for investigation. A spokesman for Australasian Correctional Management, which is contracted to run the Baxter immigration detention centre, said the fires had been lit in the single men's complex, which included two bedrooms and two toilet areas. (The Age)

November 6, 2002
Up to 30 detainees at South Australia's Baxter detention centre were hit by nearly 50 guards in full riot gear last week and then refused medical treatment, according to an asylum seeker. Afghan Fahim Shah said about eight detainees were hurt last Thursday's attack in the mess where about 30 people were eating dinner. "They threw my plate and beat me with the stick and pushed me three times with the shield to go outside from the mess," he said. He said there had been two other incidents of brutality by Australasian Correctional Management guards at the centre since it opened about six weeks ago. (The Age)

Borallon Correctional Centre
Queensland, Australia
Serco (formerly run by Management and Training Corporation)
October 25, 2006 Townsville Bulletin
A TENDER for the state's two privately-run prisons is not a criticism of the current operators, the Queensland Government said today. Corrective Services Minister Judy Spence said new tenders to run Borallon and Arthur Gorrie correctional centres, valued at a total of $200 million, would ensure taxpayers got value for money. "It is not about the performance of the current operators,'' Ms Spence said. The Arthur Gorrie jail has been under fire in recent years over a number of deaths in custody, security failures and assaults on prisoners by staff. Borallon made headlines four years ago when a report showed it had the highest rate of illicit drug use in the state, with almost one in three prisoners using drugs. Four companies will be invited to tender: GEO Group Australia Pty Ltd, GSL Australia Pty Ltd, Management and Training Corporation Pty Ltd and Serco Australia Pty Ltd. GEO currently operates Arthur Gorrie, and Management and Training Corporation operates Borallon. Ms Spence said the contracts would be for five years, with an option for Queensland Corrective Services to extend them for a further five years. The tenders will be evaluated in the first half of next year with new contracts to start on January 1, 2008. An independent probity auditor has been contracted to oversee the entire project.

February 22, 2004
OFFICERS at a privately-run prison in Queensland will walk off the job again over the next two days. Prison officers at the Borallon Correctional Centre, near Ipswich, will lock prisoners in their cells during six-hour stoppages tomorrow and on Tuesday in a dispute over enterprise bargaining negotiations The prison is operated by the US-based prison company Management and Training Corporation (MTC), under contract to the Queensland Government. Last week, about 500 low and medium security inmates were locked in their cells for two hours on Monday and Tuesday morning. The prison officers' union, the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, said it would increase the length of the stoppages if the dispute dragged on. About 150 prison officers have been calling for a six per cent annual pay rise over the next two years but MTC offered an increase of just 1.9 per cent a year. MTC also wants to reduce prison officers' sick leave entitlements to six days a year from eight in the last agreement which expired last month. LHMWU spokesman Ron Simon said the union would also ban overtime at the prison. "Each week we've increased the length and intensity, of the walkout," he said. "This time our members are stopping twice for six hours and imposing a two-week overtime ban, commencing Monday morning." (Townsville Bulletin)

February 9, 2004
INMATES at Borallon Correctional Centre near Ipswich will be placed in lockdown mode tomorrow and Tuesday as prison officers strike in support of increased wages and benefits. Almost 500 low and medium security inmates at the privatised prison will be locked down and managed under a skeleton staff structure for two hours from 8am (AEST) tomorrow and on Tuesday, while members of the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) rally for a pay increase. The prison has been run by US firm Management and Training Corporation (MTC) since September 2000, under contract to the Queensland government. About 150 prison officers, whose current enterprise agreement expired last month, are calling for a six per cent annual pay rise over the next two years in addition to paid parental leave and income protection. (Townsville Bulletin)

August 14, 2001
Drugs and illegal 'home brew' have been discovered during random searches in Queensland's prisons. Four prisoners have also lost open security classification after testing positive to drugs. Two prisoners already in custody are facing charges after random searches uncovered drugs at Borallon Correctional Centre and illegal brew at Borallon and Woodford Correctional Centres. (ABC News)

Casuarina Prison
West Australia
CCA
December 7, 2000
A potentially dangerous man serving a six-year jail sentence for various theft offences escaped from a prisoner-transport van between jail and the West Australian Supreme Court. David Graeme Hintz, 24, escaped from the back of a Corrections Corporation of Australia security van as it traveled down a busy city street in rout to court. The Ministry of Justice said today's escape was the third from CCA custody since July 31, when the private contractors took over the service. (News Limited, Dec. 6, 2000)

Christmas Island Detention Center
Christmas Island
Serco
February 27, 2010 Green Left Weekly
An asylum seeker accused of rioting in the Christmas Island detention centre on November 21 recently contacted a refugee advocate about living conditions inside. The refugee advocate asked Green Left Weekly to withhold both their name. At the trial of the accused rioters on January 20, the magistrate did not issue orders to move them. Yet the accused were moved to “red compound”. The asylum seeker said they felt violated by surveillance cameras in the toilets, and complained about this. They have since been moved to the centre’s “alpha compound”. There are no surveillance cameras in the toilets at the alpha compound, but it is more crowded. The asylum seeker said he was in a 12-by-10 foot room with two others. It was too small to fit a table or cupboard, or to display religious items. He said they were not allowed out to the oval, church or the pool. They were surrounded by an electric fence. They had access to mobile phones in red compound, but they are banned in alpha compound. There are two computers for 100 people. He wrote: “We can’t inform this message [to] anybody, so I inform you: what can we do?” He was distraught about the fate of his family, fearful of his fate in detention, and desperate to continue tertiary studies. He was very appreciative of what practical help the refugee advocate could provide, which was to send him books on learning English. That there was a need to send books suggests little had changed since a 2003 report characterised the detention centre’s library services to asylum seekers as “leftovers and scraps”. The living conditions sounded like a Siberian prison camp under Stalin. Serco, the company that runs the privatised detention centre, refused to speak to GLW. However, a Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) spokesperson answered some questions by email. DIAC advised that if refugees are unhappy with their living conditions they can “raise such issues with the detention services provider”. The refugee advocate told GLW that the ombudsman plans to visit the island. It is not clear if the ombudsman will have access to complaints. There is a higher security area known as “red compound”. Surveillance of toilet areas is used only if inmates pose a very high risk to themselves or others. Alpha compound is an “ordinary holding area”, DIAC told GLW. Asylum seekers are given 50 credit points (worth about $1) per week with which they can purchase items such as cigarettes or phone cards to use with fixed phones. According to DIAC, many of the books available were “sourced from the Christmas Island local school, while some books, magazines and newspapers have been donated by people living on the island”. However, a “large order” of Tamil books that includes novels, cricket books and magazines had just been delivered. Given the serious gap between the asylum seeker’s evidence and DIAC’s description, it is of grave concern that ordinary Australians cannot freely contact staff or residents at the centre. Serco Australia has pledged to “meet the highest standards of performance and accountability”. But has it?

November 24, 2009 The Age
RIOTING refugees could be kicked out of Australia for their part in a wild brawl that broke out in Christmas Island's detention centre on Saturday night. Security is also set to be beefed up following the riot, in which 150 Afghan and Tamil asylum seekers attacked each other with pool cues, brooms and tree branches. The fight was sparked by a dispute over a game of pool. As a Federal Police probe began, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned that the ringleaders had jeopardised their asylum claims: ''If a detainee on Christmas Island has committed a serious offence this will be taken into consideration as part of the assessment as to whether or not they are granted a visa.'' A fourth asylum seeker who was badly injured in the brawl was flown to Perth for treatment, joining three other men already in Fremantle Hospital, in a stable condition. While 43 asylum seekers were hurt, five guards employed by the centre's manager Serco suffered minor injuries. Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the warring groups were being kept separate and he promised tighter security. The problem started when two Afghan men using a pool table refused to give it up and taunted waiting Tamils, a source said. ''The Afghans kept heckling and wouldn't get out. Normally when two people lose, they leave and let the next two have a go. The men exchanged foul language and one Afghan hit the Tamil guy and the Tamil guy hit back and then it escalated with pool cues,'' the source said. A fight erupted and continued for 45 minutes before it was broken up by Serco staff. After detainees were locked in their rooms for an hour, those treated for wounds returned to find 50 Afghan men waiting. Another brawl erupted. The source said Sinhalese Sri Lankans backed Tamil countrymen in the fight that left some with broken bones and head injuries. Senator Evans dismissed suggestions ethnic tensions, such as resentment towards the Afghans for getting visas quicker, triggered the fight. He said Sri Lankan men had become increasingly anxious after some of their countrymen were deported a few weeks ago. ''There has been some increased tension around the Sri Lankans in particular being a bit concerned, as we have had some people removed back to Sri Lanka,'' Mr Evans said. He added he was ''quite comfortable'' that the centre was being managed properly, despite becoming increasingly overcrowded as more detainees were squeezed in.

Corrections Corporation of Australia
CCA
January 21, 2006 Sidney Morning Herald
HERE'S a conundrum for you. While the introduction of super fund choice mid last year was supposed to open up the options for the placement of your retirement savings, a growing number of fund members are finding their options shrinking. That's because choice, and the introduction of a new licensing regime by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, are forcing fund trustees to seriously rethink their commitment to running a fund. A recent Federal Court case involving trustees sued by fund members for losses incurred because their fund was not adequately diversified will further test that commitment. The court case, Kernaghan v Corrections Corporation of Australia Staff Superannuation Pty Ltd, revolved around whether the trustees were able to claim on their liability insurance, as they had settled out of court with the 73 fund members who originally sued them. But it highlights how even a fund that has produced good performance can run into problems if the trustees don't do their job properly. In a nutshell, the case arose because the super fund, which had $5 million of its $6.5 million in real estate investments, was suddenly faced with having to pay out a large number of fund members due to retrenchments. The employer sponsoring the fund lost two contracts in the second half of 2000 and the fund needed more than $4.6 million to pay out members' entitlements before the end of that year. While the fund had $1.5 million in liquid assets, its major asset was $4.2 million tied up in units in a trust which owned two properties in Queensland. It also owned two industrial properties in Victoria valued at $310,000 and $550,000 respectively. To pay out members it was forced to put the properties on the market. The Queensland properties, in particular, represented a problem as the remaining period on the leases was relatively short and unless new leases could be negotiated quickly, the property was unlikely to be sold at the book values. Tensions with fund members were exacerbated when the trustees reduced the interim earnings rate on their accounts and then effectively froze their accounts so that no members could be paid out until the trustees knew what the real value of the properties would be. As you can imagine, these weren't ideal sale conditions and the properties were sold at a discount. Both Victorian properties were sold at a loss on their original sale price. The trustees, who had been warned before the retrenchments that the fund needed to be better diversified, eventually settled out of court and paid the members $275,000 plus costs, which amounted to $539,000. While one of the founding trustees of the fund strongly defended the fund's investment strategy in court and pointed to the fact that it had a strong earnings history, it was interesting to note Justice North's comments on this point. He said, strong earnings history aside, the investment strategy was fundamental flawed. "It may have been an appropriate strategy for an entrepreneurial enterprise, but it was ill advised for a fund designed to provide security for employees in their retirement and for which risk minimisation should have been a primary concern," he said. Justice North agreed with the trustees' legal advice that if the case had gone to court, the fund members would probably have succeeded. While most major super funds do have diversified investment strategies, the case sounds a couple of warnings. First, that producing good returns isn't enough. Risk management and minimisation is also an essential part of managing other people's retirement savings. And second, that liquidity is a big issue for super funds. While this fund may well have been sufficiently liquid to meet its obligations if the members hadn't been retrenched, funds need to be able to handle the unexpected. And big investments in illiquid assets like property don't let them do this - a fact that many self-managed super funds concentrating on property investments should also consider.

Curtin Detention Centre
Australia
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
July 19, 2005 The Age
The Immigration Department is under fire again for failing to protect a woman who was sexually abused in front of her daughter in a detention centre. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has found that the department failed in its duty of care and breached her human rights. The woman, an Iranian refugee from a minority religious group, complained of two violent attacks by other detainees at the Curtin detention centre in Western Australia.
In one incident a man had tried to rape her, and in another a man punched her in the chest and face, tore her clothes off and broke her finger. Her young daughter, who came to her aid, was also punched. In preliminary findings seen by The Age, Human Rights Commission president John von Doussa slammed the department and the manager of the Curtin centre, Australasian Correctional Management. News of his finding follows the damning indictment of the department over the illegal detention of Cornelia Rau and the mistaken deportation of Vivian Alvarez Solon. In his report last week, former Federal Police commissioner Mick Palmer identified "a serious cultural problem" and called for urgent reform.

June 2, 2005 The Australian
HE was locked up alongside convicted criminals in a maximum-security prison, but Iranian asylum-seeker Zal Shahbazi was happy to be there. "It was really much better than detention," he said. "I had a terrible time in prison, but in detention they put pressure on you mentally because you don't know when you will be free. As the Howard Government shows signs of softening on its hardline policy of mandatory detention for women and children, Mr Shahbazi recalls his blackest days in the now-defunct Curtin detention centre. In April 2002, he was locked in the mess hall with about 40 other detainees, including women and children. "Forty guards came and opened one of the doors, and they started beating us," Mr Shahbazi said. "Everyone -- even the women with kids. Everyone was yelling, we were terrified. They beat me with a baton, they beat my leg and my back." After complaining, Mr Shahbazi was arrested and sent to Broome Regional Prison, where he shared a cell and one toilet with up to eight maximum-security prisoners. His charge was damaging commonwealth property during the clash with Australasian Correctional Management guards. He was told he would be on remand for three weeks.

February 11, 2002
Federal police were investigating claims a female asylum seeker was sexually assaulted at the Curtin detention centre, Justice Minister Chris Ellison said today. The woman had since been moved to the Baxter detention centre in South Australia as the Australian Federal Police looked into claims the Iranian woman was a victim of assault mid-last year. Senator Ellison said the AFP was made aware last year of two separate allegations the woman had been assaulted, but neither claim involved sexual assault, and only one was referred to West Australian police. However, human rights organisation Amnesty International intervened and wrote to the AFP alleging the assaults were sexual. (Sidney Morning News )

January 27, 2003
Six months after an alleged sexual assault at Curtin Detention Centre, Western Australia will investigate. Federal and state police had declined to investigate the alleged attempted rape of an Iranian mother because each said it was the responsibility of the other. But, after The Age reported the stand-off yesterday, Western Australia's Police Minister, Michelle Roberts, called for a full report from her state police commissioner, Barry Matthews. Unfortunately, he said, state police received the complaint from detention centre management only after Curtin had largely closed and the women had been moved to Baxter in South Australia. The alleged victim, a Sabian Mandaean (follower of John the Baptist), said in a statement to Federal Police that she was punched in the chest and face, her clothes were torn off and her finger was broken in the assault by an 18-year-old Afghan. Her young daughter, who came to her aid, was also punched. There is no agreement assigning responsibility for policing in detention centres, although the AFP wrote to Amnesty International that such an agreement was a "very high priority". The AFP is negotiating agreements with each state. In the meantime, according to Amnesty national director Mara Mousatafine, women and girls in detention centres have no legal protection against sexual violence. (The Age)

August 19, 2002
Conditions in Australia's remote detention centres resembled metal hospitals but without proper staff and facilities, Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski said today. The key cause of mental health problems for detainees were long periods of detention rather than detention conditions, he told federal parliamentary human rights sub-committee. "To be perfectly honest, it looks to me that especially Woomera, Curtin and Port Hedland are a bit like mental hospitals, only without proper staff to run mental hospitals and without proper facilities." Such problems had not existed a year ago, he said. "This is really associated with the length of detention." (The Age)

April 23, 2002
Hysterical scenes of bleeding asylum seekers smashing their heads against walls and demanding to be released from their cells at Curtin Detention Centre have been recorded on a video leaked to the media. The video, made by staff at the West Australian centre, showed distraught Afghani asylum seekers hurling themselves against walls in the lead up to a riot at the centre last year. Centre operator Australian Correctional Management (ACM) recorded the incident for internal purposes but it was leaked to ABC's Lateline program last night. An advocate for the detainees told Lateline that hunger strikers wanted a lawyer but authorities told them they would have to pay for their own legal representation. Since they had no money they asked if it was possible to sell their own blood so they could hire a lawyer because they had nothing else to offer, the advocate said. Lateline said the emotionally charged scenes preceded a riot last June which resulted in massive damage to the desert camp. (The Age)

April 23, 2002
Australia's inhumane detention centres should be closed, Greens Senator Bob Brown has said. Australia's inhumane detention centres should be closed, Greens Senator Bob Brown said today. Senator Brown told journalists in Hobart that leaked video footage from the Curtin Detention Centre, broadcast by ABC TV last night, was now going around the world and would further destroy Australia's good reputation. He said the centres were modern concentration camps which inflicted mental horror on men, women and children. "We don't keep rapists and murderers in jails with such harsh mental conditions as concentration camps like Woomera and Curtin," he said. Senator Brown said the government's selective reporting of events in the centres was censorship like South Africa's apartheid. (The Age)

April 23, 2002
Detainees at the Curtin Detention Centre in Western Australia were being treated humanely, Prime Minister John Howard said today. Mr Howard said he had seen video footage aired last night on the ABC depicting alleged mistreatment of asylum seekers. He said he had sought advice on allegations there was an unwillingness to provide medical attention, but advice from the Immigration Minister's office said this was not true. He said the staff at the centre in the state's north were in fact prevented from administering medical attention because of the conduct of the detainees. (The Age)

April 22, 2002
The Federal Government has warned it may use force to end a tense stand-off between asylum seekers and authorities at the Curtin detention centre in Western Australia. After three days of violent unrest, the government was losing patience, acting Immigration Minister Chris Ellison said yesterday. Negotiations were continuing with detainees armed with curtain rods, sharpened broom sticks, knives and cleavers in the main compound at the centre, he said. About 300 detainees have refused to leave the centre's main compound since rioting broke out on Friday night. Twenty-eight guards and several detainees were injured in the violence. Fires were lit in accommodation blocks, activity rooms and the kitchen were ransacked and thousands of dollars worth of equipment such as computers, sewing machines and hairdressing facilities were destroyed. (The Age)

April 21, 2002
Detainees went on a rampage at the Curtin Detention Centre in Western Australia, damaging buildings and leaving one guard in hospital after their applications for asylum were rejected. Buildings and equipment were damaged, fires were lit and blankets and clothing ransacked during the rampage, leaving what the Immigration Department described as a substantial bill. Fourteen Australian Correctional Management officers were injured during the riot which began at dinner time on Friday night. Acting Immigration Minister Chris Ellison told journalists the detainees involved had had their applications for asylum rejected. "We understand that the majority of the people involved in this disturbance had their applications rejected and are awaiting removal," Senator Ellison said. The Australian Democrats said the management of detention centres was out of control. "(Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock) must recognise that his detention regime has failed asylum seekers and failed the taxpayer," Democrats immigration spokesman Andrew Bartlett said. (Sidney Morning News)

April 20, 2002
Staff at the Curtin detention centre were injured and buildings damaged during rioting by detainees last night. An Immigration Department spokesman confirmed there was a disturbance at the centre near Derby in which several staff were hurt and buildings and property damaged. He did not know how many were involved in the riot. One staff member was taken to Derby Regional Hospital by ambulance. Natasha Verco, from the Refugee Freedom Bus organisation, said she received a call from a detainee in the centre about 8 pm pleading for help. Ms Verco claimed the man said guards were dressed in riot gear and were systematically beating people. "I could hear screaming in the background and he said there was blood everywhere," she said. But the department spokesman denied the allegation that detainees were being beaten. "The only injuries have been to the ACM (Australasian Correctional Management) officers," the spokesman said. Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock last week announced the centre, 44 kilometres from Derby, would be closed because of a drop in illegal boat people. Refugee Action Collective spokesman Ian Rintoul said Curtin should be scrapped because it was remote, inhospitable and the most repressive detention centre. (The Age)

April 11, 2002
The closure of the Curtin detention centre will badly affect the local economy, with the loss of about 20 jobs, according to the Derby-West Kimberley shire. Shire president Elsia (Elsia) Archer said she was disappointed to receive the phone call from Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock this morning that the centre would close. "I'm disappointed but I guess I knew it was going to close. We tried to keep it open," Ms Archer said. "It will have an impact on the community." Ms Archer said the closure was because the Royal Australian Air Force wanted the space at its base back. (The Age)

April 11, 2002
Woomera detention centre will be scaled down and the Curtin centre closed as part of a long term federal government plan. Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock made the announcement today following a review of detention centres across the country. The government plan developed from the review included the scaling down of Woomera, in South Australia, and the closure of West Australia's Curtin facility, he said in a statement released to reporters shortly before a press conference in Sydney. Mr Ruddock said the Baxter centre would be able to house 1,200 asylum seekers, with about two people to each room and ensuite facilities available. "It involves a number of internally configurated compounds which enable people to live in smaller communities with a high degree of amenities," Mr Ruddock said in Sydney. He said the Woomera scale-back would result in its capacity being dropped from 2000 to 800. The detention centre on Christmas Island would increase to 400 places by July and about 1,000 by the end of the year, he said. (The Age)

October 30, 2001
A prisons watchdog has described conditions in Australia's migrant detention centres as "disgraceful" and has called for an independent inspectorate to improve standards. The Inspector of Custodial Services in Western Australia, Richard Harding, says a visit to the Curtin Detention centre near Derby in June revealed overcrowded accommodation, broken toilets and inadequate medical and dental services. Professor Harding says an independent federal inspectorate would ensure the centres are managed properly by contracted firms like Australasian Correctional Management. (World News from Australia)

June 12, 2001
They were banned from speaking to the media, but the desperate asylum-seekers refused to be silenced after risking weeks at sea to get to Australia only to be held behind barbed wire in remote outback camps. First came the children, may skipping and giggling, holding placards declaring: "Please save us from these cages" and "Stop demonizing us." One girl smiled shyly as she showed visitors her neatly written plea: "Please stop hating us." The camps are normally closed to public scrutiny but Curtin was opened briefly on Sunday. Media groups had to sign undertakings they would not interview detainees or take photographs that would identify them. Detainees at the three biggest camps -- Port Hedland, Curtin and Woomera -- have staged peaceful breakouts and hunger strikes, sewn their lips together, and unleashed bursts of violence to protest being held, some fro years, and denied rights afforded to those refugees who arrive legally. Critics of the camps protest the outsourcing of their management to the U.S.-owned prison management firm Australasian Correctional Management, saying it is wrong for a private firm seeking to seek profit from managing refugees. (Reuters)

Family Court
Australia
August 26, 2003
The Family Court has freed five young siblings detained for 32 months in immigration centres, saying they had been exposed to violence and other inappropriate behaviour. The full bench also questioned the Immigration Minister's "curious" 13-month campaign to keep them behind wire. Supporters greeted the two teenage boys and their three young sisters - who will still be deported to Pakistan - before they were driven out of the Baxter detention centre at Port Augusta. One of the boys had tried to hang himself while detained - mostly in now-closed Woomera - while the other had joined hunger strikes and stitched his lips together, the court heard. Three judges found overwhelming grounds for the immediate removal of the children, who cannot be indentified. This overturned an earlier Family Court ruling and forced the Immigration Minister, Philip Ruddock, to abandon a trial next month opposing their release. "The minister's interest in detaining them in unlawful detention seems somewhat curious," the judges said. "It seems difficult to see how the minister's legitimate interests could extend beyond ensuring the availability of the children if and when the time comes to have them removed from Australia." The children spent their first night of freedom together since arriving by boat in Australia with their mother in January, 2001. Their father arrived 15 months earlier, claiming to have fled the Taliban in Afghanistan, and lived in Sydney from August 2000 on a temporary protection visa. But in May 2001 the refugee application by the mother and children was refused on the grounds they were from Pakistan, not Afghanistan. Waiting on appeals, the father was re-detained and the two older boys in particular experienced what the full court described as "violence and other inappropriate behaviour" at Woomera. The two boys also escaped from Woomera but were returned three weeks later. (Sidney Morning News)

August 14, 2003
A Family Court justice today appealed to Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to show compassion to an Iranian family held in Australian detention centres for more than two years. Justice Richard Chisholm ruled he did not have the power to release the parents and three children from detention, despite evidence of them suffering "highly damaging experiences in their time in Australia". But the minister did have such power, he said. "The evidence indicates that they have had terrible experiences in detention, and they are now in a serious state of mental ill health and distress," Justice Chisholm said. "For over two years, a large number of highly qualified medical experts have been urging that they be released into the community, saying their mental health is at risk unless this happens. "On any view, this is a serious and worrying case." The parents and children - girls now aged 19 and 15 and a four-year-old boy - have appealed against the rejection of their visa applications which subsequently earmarked them for deportation. They asked the Family Court to release them on an interim basis into residential housing in Adelaide until their High Court appeal was decided. "I do not have the power or jurisdiction to make the orders sought by the applicants," Justice Chisholm said. "Nevertheless, I hope that now that all the evidence is available, the minister might give further consideration to whether some alternative arrangements might be made that would help these unfortunate children. "The evidence, although untested, strongly suggests that these children have had highly damaging experiences in their time in Australia." Justice Chisholm said on evidence presented to him, the children would benefit from a release into the community but he did not have the power to do so. "It is within the minister's legal powers to arrange this," he said. "I express the hope that he will give careful and compassionate consideration to the urgent needs of this unfortunate family." The family came to Australian from Iran in December 2000 and was initially held at the Woomera detention centre in South Australia's north. The father is now held at the Baxter detention centre, also in SA's north, while the mother and children are held at a Woomera home detention program. (The Age)

June 24, 2003
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said today he would appeal a Family Court of Australia ruling that holding children indefinitely in immigration detention was illegal. He said applications were filed in the Family Court and High Court yesterday afternoon. "In the event that the Family Court certificate is not granted then I will pursue the appeal directly in the High Court," Mr Ruddock said. (The Age)

June 20, 2003
The Family Court has mounted a major challenge to the detention of children under Australian immigration laws and claimed the right to order their release. Detaining children under such laws is probably illegal, the court ruled yesterday in a decision that could affect 108 children now in custody. In a blow to the Federal Government's detention practices, the court claimed the right to order the release of children on welfare grounds, saying that its responsibility for their well-being overrode immigration law. A majority decision of the full Family Court upheld the appeal of two boys and their three sisters against an earlier ruling that the court had no jurisdiction over children in detention. The court ordered that the case of the children - boys aged 14 and 12 and girls 11, nine and six - be retried urgently. The court found that the continued detention of the five children, whose whose parents are also held under immigration law, "raises the very real possibility of these children spending their entire childhood in detention". "It seems to us that the Migration Act cannot be interpreted to produce this effect," Chief Justice Alastair Nicholson and Justice Stephen O'Ryan said. They added that the detention breached Australia's obligations under UN conventions and was probably "unlawful". A psychological report to the court said the children's experiences in detention "have been superimposed on previous trauma". The children showed "unhappiness and depression and an undermining of their ability to achieve their developmental milestones". A spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said the Government might appeal against the decision. (The Age)

June 20, 2003
The children of asylum seekers should not be kept behind razor wire, Opposition Leader Simon Crean said today. Mr Crean was commenting after the Family Court ruled the federal government was acting illegally by indefinitely detaining children in immigration detention centres. He said although the court's decision was a preliminary one, children of asylum seekers should not be held in camps. "I just don't believe kids should be behind razor wire," Mr Crean told Perth radio 6PR. (The Age)

June 19, 2003
Over 100 child asylum seekers could be released from detention after the Family Court ruled today that it is unlawful for the Federal Government to detain children indefinitely. Chief Justice of the Family Court, Justice Alastair Nicholson, and Justice Stephen O'Ryan made the majority ruling while dealing with an appeal against another judge's decision that the court had no jurisdiction over children being held in immigration detention. The judges agreed that the court's welfare jurisdiction extended to the protection of children in immigration detention. (The Age)

Fulham Correctional Centre
Sale, Australia
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
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.

July 10, 2008 The Age
Prisoners sparked a fire during a "disturbance'' at a private jail in south-east Victoria last night. It is understood the fire at the Fulham Correctional Centre in West Sale was started when disgruntled inmates threw a mattress over a fridge and set it alight. A Corrections Victoria spokeswoman confirmed the incident at the Fulham Correctional Centre in West Sale. Nobody was injured in the incident. "We can confirm there was a disturbance involving a number of prisoners and we can confirm a fire was set alight,'' the spokeswoman said. "The staff moved quickly to contain the incident and put out the fire.'' Fulham is a private prison housing up to 785 minimum and medium security prisoners. It is owned by GEO Group Australia.

September 16, 2007 Sunday Herald
INMATES of Fulham Correctional Centre, near Sale, are receiving personal gym training and specialised diet advice while in jail. Inmates of Fulham Correctional Centre are bulking up in a state-of-the-art gym with guidance from two sport and recreation officers. Prison sources said the officers were effectively personal trainers, giving inmates a service that would cost a member of the public up to $8000 a year. The prison has a record of providing perks for inmates and used to employ a karate sensei to teach martial arts skills. Prison sources said the $200,000 program saw officers set up training regimes for prisoners and devise diets to help them achieve maximum bulk. The source said inmates had access to a spacious cutting-edge gym which is unusual in jails. "The gym is well equipped with a section for free weights and weight training," the source said. "You see all these crooks getting absolutely everything and they get it all for nothing." The trainers are employed by the GEO Group Australia, which receives taxpayers' money to run the prison. People Against Lenient Sentencing president Steve Medcraft slammed the jail's personal trainers. "Rehabilitation has taken on a new meaning. Life's better inside than outside," he said. Crime Victims Support Association president Noel McNamara said: "On the outside world you pay a small fortune to have these sessions," he said. "To have them free for people who are supposed to be paying their debt to society is an insult to victims of crime." A Fulham Correctional Centre spokesman said: "Keeping inmates healthy means they have fewer medical problems and are a lower cost to taxpayers."

December 22, 2005 The Age
THE murder of a prisoner was "a travesty" that happened at a time of inadequate supervision and searches at the Fulham Correctional Centre, a coroner has found. Paul Anthony Shaw, 30, was stabbed to death on November 11, 1999, in the protection unit at Fulham with a home-made knife known as a "shiv". Coroner Phillip Byrne found this week that two other prisoners, Benjamin Kyriacou and Jason Los, were implicated in Shaw's death. Both have already been tried and acquitted of Shaw's murder. He ruled that there had been a failure of staff to appreciate impending trouble in the unit, due to an inadequate level of supervision, surveillance and monitoring. He said the prison's private operators, Australasian Correctional Management, had inadequately audited implements such as the broom from which the "shiv" had been made. "Incarceration obviously represents a loss of liberty. It is a travesty when it results in a prisoner losing his life," Mr Byrne said.

September 27, 2005 ABC
Unions and management at Fulham Prison near Sale, in south-east Victoria, are still negotiating to end a dispute over pay and leave which has lead to work bans. Prison guards are refusing to process new prisoners, escort inmates to court, or conduct urine tests. They are also refusing to lock or unlock prison cells unless a supervisor is present. The Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) has deemed the work bans lawful and has ordered both parties into conciliation. John Crane from the Community and Public Sector Union says the 12 per cent pay offer for guards is inadequate. "There are two private prisons in Victoria - the other private prison gets seven weeks leave per year," he said. "The workers at Fulham certainly don't get that, so we're hoping to at least bridge the gap with regard to leave. "If we can't do it with leave, we'd like to address other components which would address workers' concerns."

September 26, 2005 The Australian
THE Australian Industrial Relations Commission will today decide if prison guards at a privately-owned Victorian jail can continue work bans imposed in support of an enterprise bargaining claim. The prison is operated by the GEO Group Australia at Sale, 200 km east of Melbourne. The prison workers, members of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), have been pushing for better wages and conditions in enterprise bargaining negotiations since March, union organiser John Crane said. Their log of claims before the AIRC includes a call for seven weeks of annual leave, up from five weeks, to match warders at other private jails in Victoria, he said. Work bans have been in place for some time but were escalated on Thursday last week to include bans on overtime, paperwork and higher duties. Mr Crane said the company moved to terminate the bargaining period when the new bans were introduced. The AIRC will rule on that issue today, he said.

September 12, 2005 ABC Gippsland
Prison guards at the Fulham Correctional Centre near Sale have stepped up industrial action after failed negotiations last week. The US company running Fulham, GEO, has offered guards the 12 per cent pay rise they want, but will not pay them two weeks extra annual leave. Stage two work bans are now in force that include bans on prison programs and some escorts and urine sample collections. "I'm not really sure what the public sector is paying and getting, we do have an annualised salary for our staff, it's been negotiated with staff and finalised through the CPSU [Community and Public Sector Union] over two previous EBA [enterprise bargaining agreement] processes and negotiations so we'd like to look at Fulham as a stand-alone business in a sense, we don't really compare ourselves with the public sector," he said. The CPSU has taken a swipe at the State Government for letting private companies run correctional facilities. The union's John Crane says guards get paid up to 40 per cent less than those in the public system. Mr Crane also says the Government has not honoured the promise of its last Corrections Minister. "Andre Haermeyer, stood out the front of the Fulham Correctional Centre and made a promise that the Labor Government would no longer continue to support private prisons, and made a commitment that prisons are the responsibility, for their operation, within government - now the Government have sat on their hands," he said.

May 5, 2005 Herald Sun
VICTORIA Police are hunting an escapee from a private prison in eastern Victoria. Saim Yalniz, 44, was last seen at the privately run Fulham Corrections Centre, west of Sale, between 6pm (AEST) and 9.10pm yesterday, police said. He was discovered missing by prison officers when he failed to attend the 9pm muster at the prison.

May 27, 2003
The operation of the Fulham prison in Sale will be investigated following allegations of mismanagement levelled against its private operator, Australasian Correctional Management. State Corrections Minister Andre Haermeyer has asked the Justice Department for probity checks on the Fulham Correctional Centre. The move follows allegations raised last week about ACM's management of the now-closed Woomera asylum-seeker detention centre in South Australia. Federal Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock has instructed his department to investigate allegations made by former Woomera staff that ACM defrauded the Government of millions of dollars by misrepresenting staff levels and health and education programs provided to detainees. ACM has denied the charges. (The Age)

May 15, 2001
Victorian prison managers have rejected claims that inmates are being subjected to illegal daily body searches. The claims were made by prisoners at the privately run Port Philip and Fulham jails. John Myers, the general manager of Australasian Correctional Management, which also runs the Fulham prison at Sale, says the allegation about cavity searches is wrong. "Searching is an important aspect of any prison operation." (ABC News)

Group 4 Securicor (formerly Global Solutions)
November 6, 2009 West Australia Today
The ongoing contract with a private prison transport company responsible for the death of an Aboriginal elder in January last year has sparked legal retaliation. The Deaths in Custody Watch Committee has told radio 6PR that it was seeking independent legal advice to appeal the decision to keep the $25million a year contract between the State Government and contractor G4S. The State Coroner found that the company was responsible for the death of 46-year-old Mr Ward, who had been arrested for drink driving and was being transported 350kms to a Kalgoorlie Court when he suffered heat stroke from the 50C heat inside the unairconditioned truck. "It is outrageous and unimaginable that they [G4S] could continue their contract. They have been responsible for six deaths in Australia in less than nine years," committee spokesman Mark Newhouse said. He said the company, under its current terms, could still be responsible for two more deaths in custody and not have its contract terminated before it expired in 2011. "What is even more concerning is that in one incident, if there are four to five deaths, that is not considered a breach of contract, which is outrageous," he said. The group is also planning on mounting a public campaign to improve proper approvals for public contracts and improving the monitoring of those being transported while in custody. Mr Newhouse said there had been no evidence from the company that any improvements had been made. G4S have refused to comment on the grounds that it was a confidential contract. The Attorney General Christian Porter was also unavailable for comment.

September 30, 2009 ABC
The West Australian Government has officially responded to the coroner's findings in the case of Mr Ward, who died of heatstroke in a prisoner transport vehicle. The coroner said the Aboriginal elder's death in searing desert heat was a disgrace, as the van was "not fit for humans". But the Government has decided not terminate the contract of the private company which transported Mr Ward. The Government says it supports all of the coroner's recommendations - some of which have already been acted on. But the full response has come three months after the coroner handed down his findings, and 20 months since the tragedy occurred. The Government agrees there should be more training and monitoring of staff, and there should not be transportation of prisoners over long distances. But the Attorney-General Christian Porter says the contract with private operators G4S is likely to continue. Mr Porter has suggested the company may have to pay a penalty. "The penalties that you've spoken of, for a death for instance, I understand are $100,000 which seems to me to be ridiculous in the scope of what occurred here," he said. "But again, the question about termination is very unfortunately a question about the legality of being able to terminate under the terms of the present contract." The coroner called for the prisoner transport fleet to be completely replaced. This will not happen until the end of next year. Mr Porter says responsibility for transporting prisoners could be brought back to the public sector. "The final decision as to whether or not this service will be public or private has not yet been made but I can say that if a determination is made to keep this service in the private sector, the contract that governs the process will be a completely different type of contract to the one that presently exists," he said. The Deaths In Custody Watch Committee says Group 4 and GSL staff have contributed to the deaths of six people in Australia. The committee's Marc Newhouse says the contract should have been terminated. "We're completely outraged that the contract with G4S - he hasn't announced the termination of it, it has to be terminated," he said. "They've been subject to critical reports by the Australian Human Rights Commission. This company is not fit to operate in this country and they should be terminated." Noongar elder Ben Taylor says he believes racism in the system is causing Aboriginal people to suffer. "There's a lotta racism there and the only ones who're gonna suffer are my people, Aboriginal people," he said. "This is got to go wider, and I'm on the Watch Committee with Marc and we're going to keep hanging on here because there's more lives that are going to be taken, and that's going to be blackfellas, Aboriginal people, my people, and that's the full stop." Mr Newhouse says the committee had also called for a speedier response in the wake of a death in custody. "That the Coroner's Act is amended in line with the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommendations, that a system of mandatory reporting be put in place so that government and other relevant bodies have to report within a certain time frame," he said. "The point of it is to save lives and to prevent lives being lost." But Mr Porter says the Labor state government should have ended the contract with the company. But the Opposition Leader Eric Ripper says there were other considerations. "You can't just terminate a contract without there being financial consequences for taxpayers and the government does have a responsibility to both protect prisoners and the interests of taxpayers," he said. "That's why this matter needs careful examination rather than a kneejerk reaction."

September 16, 2009 The West Australian
The prison watchdog’s powers will be expanded to allow him to audit individual cases as part of the Government’s response to a coronial inquiry into the death of an Aboriginal elder in the back of a transport van. A legislative package to be announced by Attorney-General Christian Porter this morning will strengthen the powers of the Inspector of Custodial Services in line with recommendations of State Coroner Alastair Hope. The laws will include giving him the power to issue "show cause" notices which require a response from the department of Corrective Services. Mr Hope delivered a damning report in June which found the Department of Corrective Services, prisoner transport company G4S, formerly known as Global Solutions Limited, and the two guards who drove the van had all contributed to Mr Ward’s death. Mr Porter said the Government would not support the Opposition’s proposed legislation on the recommendations, which is scheduled to be debated in State Parliament this afternoon. He said the Labor Bill was flawed and the Government’s legislative package would go further than the Coroner’s recommendations, giving Inspector Neil Morgan the power to carry out individual audits the treatment of up to about 40 prisoners each year. Mr Porter said he would be seeking Cabinet approval for more money to provide extra staff to conduct the audits. Today’s debate on the powers of the inspector coincides with a "day of action" organised by the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, which is calling on the Government to respond to the Coroner’s report on Mr Ward’s death.

July 2, 2009 WA Today
The Director of Public Prosecutions has begun his inquiries into the death of an Aboriginal elder in the back of a prison van, giving his family and supporters hope that charges could be laid. The victim was 46-year-old Warburton man Mr Ward, who was effectively roasted in the van during a four-hour journey between Laverton and Kalgoorlie in January last year. A coronial inquest found Mr Ward's death was "wholly avoidable", and State Coroner Alistair Hope recommended charges should be laid over the incident. The inquest was told that Mr Ward - whose first name cannot be published because of cultural reasons - had endured temperatures in excess of 50 degrees in the pod of the van. Mr Hope found "inhumane treatment'' led to the elder's death and said the company involved, Global Solutions Ltd (GSL), its two guards Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell, and the Department of Corrective Services had all contributed to Mr Ward's "terrible death''. Today, DPP Robert Cock QC met with two detective sergeants from the Major Crime Squad about the "horrendous" incident and said he had asked them to conduct further inquiries into the man's death. Mr Cock has also been in touch with the Coroner's Court and asked for further information. His spokeswoman said once he gathered all the information, he would then be in a position to decide if charges should be laid. "I don't know how long the garnering of all the information I require will take," Mr Cock said. "But as soon as I have it all, I will make a decision about charges."

June 23, 2009 The West
The West Australian government is reviewing the contract of a security company involved in the death in custody of an Aboriginal elder, Premier Colin Barnett says. Global Solutions, which was acquired by UK-based security services giant G4S last year, provided security for government groups including the Department of Immigration and the WA Department of Corrective Services. GSL employed two guards to transport the elder, 46-year-old Mr Ward, who died in the back of a prison van on a four-hour journey across the WA goldfields in January 2008. Mr Ward, whose first name cannot be released for cultural reasons, was being taken from Laverton to Kalgoorlie to face a drink-driving charge. He died of heat stroke after suffering temperatures of 50C in the rear pod of a van driven by the guards, Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell. Earlier this month, WA coroner Alistair Hope apportioned blame for the “wholly avoidable” death among the guards, GSL and the WA Department of Corrective Services. The Director of Public Prosecutions is considering whether charges should be laid over the matter. Mr Barnett said today that G4S would be scrutinised before their government contract was renewed. “It is an absolute tragedy that a prisoner in the care of the state could end up dying in that condition,” Mr Barnett said. “The coroner’s reported, the attorney-general is dealing with that issue, and we will certainly look at the contract and the performance, and ensure that it is never repeated in Western Australia again.” The transport tender for corrective services is due to come up next year. Mr Barnett said G4S would be judged on their performance. “I’m not involved directly in the administration of that contract, but I assure you we will leave no stone unturned to ensure that future prisoners are treated with respect and safely,“ he said. “It would be quite inappropriate for me to comment on a tender process, but obviously their performance will be one of the factors that will be taken into account when that future tender is awarded.”

June 23, 2009 Brisbane Times
A sacked security guard has offered her apologies to the family of an Aboriginal elder who died in custody, while the West Australian government says it's reviewing her former employer's contract. Nina Stokoe, one of two guards who had charge of the man when he died of heatstroke in the back of a secure van during a 360km drive, accused authorities of providing inadequate vehicles to transport prisoners. Security giant G4S last week sacked Ms Stokoe and the other guard, Graham Powell, claiming the pair failed to follow directions to check on prisoners every two hours during the fatal four-hour journey. Mr Ward, whose first name cannot be released for cultural reasons, died after suffering temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius in the rear of the privately operated van which had no air-conditioning. He was being taken from Laverton to Kalgoorlie on January 27 last year to face charges of drink-driving. WA coroner Alastair Hope, who in his findings said Mr Ward had suffered "inhumane treatment", has asked the director of public prosecutions to consider laying charges over the incident. Mr Hope found that Ms Stokoe, Mr Powell, Global Solutions Ltd (since acquired by G4S) and the Department of Corrective Services had all contributed to Mr Ward's "terrible death". Ms Stokoe on Tuesday broke her silence in an interview with the Nine Network, saying she is distraught over Mr Ward's death. In excerpts aired on Fairfax Radio on Tuesday, Ms Stokoe broke down while offering an apology to Mr Ward's family. "I am very sorry that it's happened and I can understand how they feel," she said. "I only wish that it never happened and that he was still around. "I am so sorry that it happened. "Mr Ward will always be on my mind, always, he will never go away." Mr Stokoe said guards endured terrible conditions in the vans supplied by authorities but were afraid of complaining lest they lose their shifts. She accepted her part in Mr Ward's death but said the prison vans were "untrustworthy". "(We've) probably been scapegoats, but at the end of the day we were the ones that were driving the vehicle," she said. "We had no choice what vehicle to drive. "At the end of the day, every day in Kalgoorlie when we drove out to pick up prisoners it's pot luck. "There's many times we have been sat by the side of the road broken down. "Sometimes 15, 20-odd hours those vehicles have been stuck out in the middle of nowhere, broken down, with prisoners on board and without prisoners on board. "Those vehicles were untrustworthy." WA Premier Colin Barnett said the government was reviewing G4S' contract. "It is an absolute tragedy that a prisoner in the care of the state could end up dying in that condition," Mr Barnett said on Tuesday. "The coroner's reported, the attorney-general is dealing with that issue, and we will certainly look at the contract and the performance, and ensure that it is never repeated in Western Australia again." The transport tender for corrective services is due to come up next year.

June 19, 2009 Brisbane Times
Two security guards who had charge of a prison van in which an Aboriginal elder died of heat stroke have been sacked, their employer says. UK-based security services giant G4S said on Friday it had terminated the employment of the two guards, Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell, following the completion of a coroner's hearing into the man's death. West Australian Coroner Alastair Hope last Friday delivered a finding that the man, known only as Mr Ward for cultural reasons, had died of heat stroke. He said he had suffered through temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius in the un-airconditioned pod of a van during a 360km journey between Laverton and Kalgoorlie on January 27 last year. Mr Hope apportioned blame for Mr Ward's death between Ms Stokoe and Mr Powell, the private company Global Solutions Ltd (GSL), which has since been acquired by G4S, and the WA Department of Corrective Services. G4S Public affairs director Tim Hall said Ms Stokoe and Mr Powell had disregarded orders to check on prisoners at least once every two hours. But he said their dismissal was a result of the Department of Corrective Services withdrawing their work permits on Monday. "The withdrawal of their work permits effectively made any other considerations unnecessary," Mr Hall told AAP on Friday. Mr Hope has asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider whether charges should be laid over the incident.

June 15, 2009 Four Corners
The company linked to the death of Mr Ward was the subject of a damning report in 2005. An investigation by the ABC's Four Corners program found GSL (now G4S) was the subject of a damning report, published in 2005, by Queensland officials regarding the transportation of immigration detainees in 2004. In that incident, none of the detainees was given food during a seven-hour leg of a lengthy trip from Melbourne to South Australia, and only two were given water. The man who wrote the report, the former head of Queensland's corrective services, Keith Hamburger, says he is concerned about the issues raised by the subsequent death of Mr Ward in Western Australia. The Human Rights Commission later found that one of the detainees was so thirsty that he was forced to drink his own urine. Last week the state's coroner found Mr Ward had died of heat stroke after being carted through the desert in 40 degree-plus heat in a prisoner transport van that had faulty air conditioning. The Aboriginal elder, who had been arrested for drink driving, was found with a third-degree burn on his stomach where his body had come into contact with the van's floor. The coroner found the private security guards who drove the van, the company which employed them, GSL, and the WA Department of Corrective Services all contributed to his death. "The criticism of the company related to our procedures and processes," GSL spokesman Tim Hall has told ABC radio. "We accept that there was some ground for criticism." However it is not the first time GSL's procedures have been criticised. Mr Hamburger's findings were equally damning. He found GSL was "responsible for placing the safety of detainees at risk", "humiliating" them, and "disregarding appeals for assistance from detainees in obvious distress". The guards had driven the first leg of the journey to South Australia non-stop for seven hours. None of the detainees was given food, and only two were given water. "I felt quite appalled actually," Mr Hamburger told Four Corners. "I sat in the van. I talked to the staff that did the escort. I saw the CCTV footage. I was very shocked by the whole thing." One of the asylum seekers, now settled in Australia, describes for the first time the journey he endured. "People was in the back shouting and crying and I was banging as well because I needed to go to the toilet," he said. "And they didn't stop for anything. And I have to do it in the car." 'Great concern' -- One year after the Hamburger report was released, the WA government gave the contract for prisoner transport in the state to GSL. "If these issues are being repeated that's a matter of great concern, because this is not rocket science," Mr Hamburger said. "We're dealing here with, as I've said, duty of care. "We've had many years of experience across the board in corrections and detention and police in dealing with these situations. "There's a whole body of evidence around I guess on how to do these things, and so it is concerning. "They should know better."

June 13, 2009 Perth Now
ONE of two guards suspended over the death of an Aboriginal elder in a prisoner transport van, says she has been ''gagged'' from talking about the tragedy. On Friday, State Coroner Alastair Hope recommended Director of Public Prosecutions Robert Cock consider criminal charges over the "unnecessary and wholly avoidable death'' of Mr Ward, 46, who died on January 27 last year. Officers Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell drove the Warbuton elder, whose first name cannot be released for cultural reasons, for the 352km Outback journey between the Goldfields towns of Laverton to Kalgoorlie. In his stinging finding, Mr Hope said Mr Ward died when temperatures rose to 50C in the pod of the commercially owned van which had no air-conditioning and little-to-no air flow. Contracted transport company, G4S, formally known as Global Solutions Ltd, stood down Ms Stokoe and Mr Powell on Friday. "The two employees have been suspended and the findings of the coroner, the coroner's report and recommendations will be considered carefully and it will then be decided what the next step should be,'' G4S spokesman Tim Hall told ABC radio yesterday. Ms Stokoe declined to comment on her suspension, saying: "I can't talk about anything, I would like to, but I can't''. Mr Ward's family is planning to sue G4S, which runs other custodial services including court security, over the tragedy. Prison Officer's Union secretary John Welch said the inquest had raised questions about the privatisation of custodial services in WA. Mr Welch said he feared G4S would be allowed to be apply for the contract to run the recently announced Eastern Goldfields prison which was scheduled for completion by the end of 2013. "You wonder why, in the light apparent failures of privatisation, you would want to even consider looking at having at private provider in the Goldfields,'' Mr Welch said. A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Christian Porter said no decision had been made on whether the prison would be public or private, and any discussion on the potential awarding of a private contract was speculative. Deaths in Custody Watch Committee chair Marc Newhouse said another public protest was planned for the city on Saturday to lobby the State Government for improvements.

June 12, 2009 WA Today
A man died a "terrible death" in the back of a prison van where temperatures reached 50 degrees celsius, the West Australian coroner has found. Coroner Alistair Hope, in his findings handed down on Friday, said the 46-year-old Aboriginal man's death had been "wholly unnecessary and avoidable". Mr Ward, whose first name cannot be released for cultural reasons, died while being transferred 350km from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in a transit van on January 27, after being picked up for drink-driving on Australia Day. The air-conditioning unit inside the prisoner's compartment of the commercially operated van was not working and the coroner was told Mr Ward would have suffered through temperatures of 50 degrees before his death. He received third-degree burns where his body came into contact with the metal floor in the back of the Global Solutions Ltd (GSL) vehicle. Mr Hope found Mr Ward, of the Goldfields town of Warburton, died of heat stroke. He said his death was the result of a "litany of errors" and accused the prison van drivers of collusion and giving false evidence. He said the fact the prison van did not have a spare tyre was an indication of GSL's "reckless approach". It was a disgrace that a prisoner yet to be convicted was transported such a distance in the oven-hot conditions, Mr Hope said. The prisoner's compartment had little light, no restraints to protect the person inside if the van was involved in an accident, had little air flow and the fan did not work when tested, Mr Hope added. There was no proper method for a prisoner to communicate with the drivers, he said. About 40 protesters demonstrated outside Perth's Central Law Courts, where the coroner delivered his findings. Amnesty International called it "a disgrace that a prisoner should be transported in this way in the 21st century".

May 16, 2009 The West
He literally cooked to death. Trapped in a prison van for four hours, suffocated by temperatures that climbed to more than 50C, the Aboriginal elder had no way to communicate with security officers sitting just a metre away, in the airconditioned cab. His only sustenance was a small bottle of water and a meat pie. When he finally collapsed on the van floor, the metal was so hot it seared his skin. Yesterday, Corrective Services Commissioner Ian Johnson travelled to Kalgoorlie to publicly apologise to Mr Ward’s family, accepting responsibility for the 46-year-old’s death in January last year. It was a dramatic end to a coronial inquest that has revealed a litany of failures in the justice and custodial systems in WA’s outback. Widow Nancy Ward and her children will return to Laverton next week after sitting quietly and with dignity throughout the case, which has attracted the attention of the United Nations and the Australian Human Rights Commission. Mr Ward, a conservation worker, a supporter and interpreter for local police and an advocate and educator for children of the Gibson Desert, was an international ambassador for the Ngaanyatjarra people. His family say he was treated like an animal. Mr Ward had been drinking on Australia Day last year in the remote Goldfields town of Laverton when he was arrested for driving with more than four times the legal alcohol limit. Conducting a quasi-court hearing for Mr Ward at his cell door at the local police station, justice of the peace Barrye Thompson remanded him in custody to face court in Kalgoorlie the following day. Mr Thompson told the inquest he had no formal training when appointed as a JP and could not even remember whether he had read the Bail Act. The Aboriginal Legal Service was not contacted. Guards and police officers testified the prison vans used by Global Solutions Limited and maintained by the State were notoriously unreliable, sub-standard and the air-conditioning was often faulty. GSL’s supervisor in Kalgoorlie, Leanne Jenkins, had warned her management an incident would occur unless the vehicles were replaced. At 11.20am, the GSL prison van pulled into a secure area at Laverton police station where the guards were told they would have a trouble-free passenger. Mr Ward made a comment about the warm day and a guard told him “the quicker he got into the van, the quicker the air-conditioning would kick in”. But the air-conditioning did not work: it had been reported faulty in the GSL maintenance log more than a month earlier. Before making the continuous 360km journey to Kalgoorlie, the guards did not tell Mr Ward there was a duress alarm in the back of the van in case he needed help. Towards the end of the trip, they heard a loud thump. Pulling over on to the side of the road and opening the outer door of the van, the guards felt the heat radiating from the rear pod and they saw Mr Ward face-down on the van floor — unconscious and unresponsive. Reaching into the back of the van felt like a “blast from a furnace”, according to Dr Lucien LaGrange, who assisted in removing Mr Ward’s lifeless body at Kalgoorlie Hospital. Doctors found full-thickness contact burns on his stomach and tried for 20 minutes to resuscitate Mr Ward, whose skin felt like a “hot cup of coffee”. They managed to get a brief return of a heartbeat, but after putting him in an ice bath, his body temperature was still 41.7C. Coroner Alastair Hope is due to deliver his findings on June 12. For now, the Ward family will have to return to a community missing a leader. It is little comfort to them that money was allocated in this week’s State Budget to replace the fleet of transport vans — four years after the Department for Corrective Services undertook to do so. “I am sorry,” Mr Johnson told Mrs Ward yesterday. “I have a deep regret but no matter what I say, it’s not going to change what happened.”

May 14, 2009 The West
More than 30 family members and supporters of Mr Ward, an Aboriginal elder who had a fatal heatstroke in the back of a prison van, gathered outside the Kalgoorlie Courthouse yesterday to call for those responsible for his death to face tribal punishment. Mr Ward’s widow Nancy and his four sons were among those who wailed in grief as they demanded justice and answers to why the Warburton elder died in such horrific circumstances. The family’s interpreter and relative, Gail Jamieson, said that under traditional law, anyone found culpable of the death should be speared. “The family is just devastated,” she said. “He was treated with no respect and he was a well-respected, outstanding elder. If they were in an Aboriginal culture, they would be speared because us Aboriginal people are also going through two cultures.” The inquest was told no disciplinary action was taken against the two GSL officers responsible for transporting Mr Ward on the day he died. Mr Ward died after a four-hour journey in a GSL prison van from Laverton to Kalgoorlie on January 27 last year when temperatures reached 42C. Global Solutions Limited general manager John Hughes said security officers Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell were stood down on full pay and were reinstated when an internal investigation found they had not violated company policies or procedures. Questioned by the family’s barrister Michael Rynne, Mr Hughes said any reinvestigation would depend on Coroner Alastair Hope’s findings. GSL’s multi-million-dollar contract could require it to pay a penalty of 4.5 per cent of its value if found to have failed in its duty of care. Mr Hughes said he understood GSL’s obligations included ensuring officers minimised hardship to detainees, conducting regular checks to ensure their safety, security and health and preventing injury. The inquest concludes today.

March 21, 2009 The West
The security guard who drove the van in which an Aboriginal elder died of heat stroke has admitted he should take responsibility for the death. Testifying for a second day at the inquest into the death of 46-year-old Mr Ward, Global Solutions Limited driver Graham Powell said yesterday he regretted how Mr Ward died. “In hindsight, if I had to do that journey again, I would certainly be doing it a lot differently,” he said. He agreed with lawyer assisting the coroner, Felicity Zempilas, it was inhumane to transport prisoners in the rear pod of the van over long distances and that the vans were “certainly not designed for that”. Coroner Alastair Hope told Mr Powell he was “troubled” over his evidence about phone calls made after Mr Ward collapsed. Mr Hope said a delay of two minutes between calls was a long time in an emergency. To questions from his counsel Linda Black, Mr Powell said he should have checked the airconditioning, made comfort stops and told Mr Ward explicitly how to communicate with the officers if he was in distress. The inquest has heard Mr Powell and colleague Nina Stokoe did not stop during the four hours they had Mr Ward in the van in mid-40C heat while driving from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in January last year. Mr Ward suffered a full-thickness hand-size burn on his stomach from a hot metal surface inside the van. Senior chemist David Tranthim-Fryer said the prison van temperature would have been above 50C. Evidence from a police re-enactment he helped with revealed the van floor reached 56C and the air temperature at least 50C on a slightly cooler day. The temperature would have been hotter with a person inside because there would have been another heat source. “We opened the back doors and could feel the heat coming out of the pods. The hot air affects you more than anything else,” Mr Tranthim-Fryer said. Mr Ward’s body temperature was 41.7C after 20 minutes of resuscitation in an ice bath while being fanned. The van’s rear-pod airconditioning was not working, a fault noted in the GSL maintenance log more than a month before Mr Ward’s death. Mr Powell said he did not check the airconditioning in the pod despite knowing it had a history of faults. He had assumed Ms Stokoe checked it. Mr Hope has heard evidence from witnesses, including GSL’s Kalgoorlie supervisor Leanne Jenkins, who spoke of substandard “unreliable” prison vans which were not suitable for long distance travel. The inquest did not finish within the two-week timeframe and Mr Hope adjourned it until May 11. Outside, Mr Ward’s cousin Bernard Newberry said his family wanted those responsible charged. The family has asked that Mr Ward’s first name not be used.

March 20, 2009 The West Australian
The guard responsible for transporting an Aboriginal elder who died in custody was previously demoted for breaching procedures and compromising prisoner safety. Giving evidence at a coronial inquest into the death of 46-yearold Mr Ward, Global Solutions Limited security officer Graham Powell said he had been stood down as a supervisor because he breached the company’s policies and procedures. The inquest in Kalgoorlie was told Mr Powell was stood down from GSL for six months in January 2007 because he compromised prisoner security when he failed to ensure prisoners were loaded into a prison van in a secure area. He also breached procedure by smoking in prison vans and allowing staff and prisoners to smoke in cells. Mr Ward’s relatives travelled from around the State to attend the inquest yesterday. Mr Ward’s widow Nancy cried when Mr Powell told how he and fellow security officer Nina Stokoe heard a “loud thud” when Mr Ward collapsed in the back of a prison van. Mr Ward died of heatstroke after collapsing in the back of the GSL prison van during a fourhour, non-stop journey from Laverton to Kalgoorlie-Boulder on January 27 last year. Mr Powell said when he arrived at the hospital he checked the airconditioning in the rear pod of the prison van. “I put my arm inside the prisoner compartment and it appeared to me there was no air coming out the vents,” he told State Coroner Alastair Hope. Mr Powell said he had not checked the prison van’s air-conditioning before leaving for Laverton because it had not been included on a vehicle inspection check sheet. He agreed with Mr Hope that it was highly dangerous not to check the air-conditioning before transporting prisoners.

March 18, 2009 Perth Now
TWO guards responsible for transporting an Aboriginal elder 352km across the West Australian outback joked about how he must have been "freezing his balls off" hours before he died of heatstroke in the back of a corrective services van, an inquest has been told. Giving evidence via video link yesterday, Global Solutions Ltd officer Nina Stokoe said she did not check that the air-conditioning in the back of the corrective services van in which the prisoner died was working - even though it had been faulty and the outside temperature had soared to 42C - because it was not part of procedure. Ms Stokoe said she assumed the air-conditioning was working in the rear because there was no problem with the air-conditioning in the front cab and Ward, whose family does not want his last name published for cultural reasons, would have banged on the side of the van if there was a problem. According to Ms Stokoe, during previous trips, other prisoners often complained that the air-conditioning was too cold, and she and fellow officer Graham Powell joked that, while they were too hot, Ward would be the opposite. "I had a joke with Graham," she told the inquest into Ward's death. "(I said) I bet he's freezing his balls off while we're sitting here stinking hot." Coroner Alastair Hope asked whether it would have been prudent to check the air-conditioning on such a hot day when it had been known to break down and Ward was in a section of the van with only metal seats. "It (the air-conditioning) wasn't on the check list ... I wouldn't know how to check it," Ms Stokoe replied. Ward died on January 27 last year after attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. He was being transferred from Laverton to prison in Kalgoorlie after being arrested for drink driving on Australia Day. Mr Hope was yesterday also told how the Kalgoorlie-based supervisor for GSL, Leanne Jenkins, warned her superiors just four months before Ward's death that someone would "eventually die" if the company's outdated and poorly maintained vans were not replaced. Ms Jenkins said the only response she received was that any vehicles in need of repairs should not be driven. She said the two vans based at Kalgoorlie always had problems and were not suitable for long trips. Ms Stokoe and Mr Powell made no stops on the 3 1/2-hour journey until they heard a thud in the back of the van when they were just outside Kalgoorlie. When they pulled over to check on Ward, Ms Stokoe said, they did not open the van's back doors completely because it was not procedure and Ward might have been trying to escape. "If he was mucking around and it was an escape attempt, we would look like idiots," she said. After realising he only had a faint pulse, the officers rushed Ward to hospital. The inquest continues today.

March 17, 2009 Perth Now
AN Aboriginal elder who died in the back of a prison van arrived at hospital, unconscious and with third-degree burns, an inquest has heard. Lucien LaGrange, who was working in the emergency department of Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital when Ward arrived in the non-airconditioned van, said a blast of hot air hit him when he opened the back of the vehicle. Respected elder Ward - whose family does not want his first name mentioned for cultural reasons - did not appear to be breathing. "It was like a blast from a furnace - it was extremely hot," Dr LaGrange told Coroner Alastair Hope. "I was struck by how wet and slippery he was. It was almost like he had been coated in soap - he just slid." Dr LaGrange said that despite medical staff placing ice over Ward's body, his body temperature was 41.7C. That day, January 27 last year, the outside temperature climbed to 42C. After many resuscitation attempts, Ward was declared dead about 90 minutes after arriving at the hospital. Ward was being transported 352km from Laverton to Goldfields Regional Prison in Kalgoorlie after being charged with drink-driving on Australia Day. The inquest was told that the company responsible for transporting Ward, Global Solutions Ltd, raised concerns with the West Australian Government about the poor state of its vans before Ward's death, but was told no new vehicles were available. Under a multi-million-dollar contract, GSL is responsible for transporting prisoners, while the Department of Corrective Services is responsible for maintaining the fleet of vehicles. Former GSL employee Thomas Akatsa told the hearing that after the company failed to secure new vans from the Government, he raised concerns with the company's supervisors, including airconditioning faults and overheating, but was told not to talk about it. Mr Akatsa said the vans used to transport prisoners were sub-standard, did not contain toilets and were not suitable for travelling long distances. Despite regular problems with airconditioning in the back of the vans, Mr Akatsa said there was no requirement for staff to check the airconditioning was working. He said that while he always did check, not all officers did, including one of the officers who transported Ward on that day, Graham Powell. The inquest heard that Mr Powell, who is to give evidence today, had been demoted from a supervisor to a driver before the death. One of his colleagues at the time, Lynette Corcoran-Sugars, testified that she requested not to work with Mr Powell, accusing him of breaching procedures and inappropriately using constraints on prisoners. Ms Corcoran-Sugars and Mr Akatsa said that when they transported prisoners from Laverton to Kalgoorlie, they made at least one stop and offered prisoners water, food and a toilet break. The inquest has heard that no stops were made during Ward's journey and that he was given only a 600ml bottle of water and a pie before leaving Laverton. Questions were raised about whether Ward should even have been in custody, with barrister Lachlan Carter for the Aboriginal Legal Service claiming a proper bail hearing, as defined by the act, did not take place. The inquest heard that GSL's motto was "safety first". Mr Hope questioned how this could be the case when the company allowed staff to transport prisoners in vehicles that did not have a usable spare tyre. The inquest continues today.

March 12, 2009 ABC
A coronial inquest into the death in custody of an Aboriginal elder from the Central Desert will resume today in Kalgoorlie, in south-eastern Western Australia . Mr Ward died in Kalgoorlie hospital in January last year after being transferred in the back of a prison van from Laverton. Temperatures on the day were mid-40 degrees Celsius and the journey lasted for four hours. In Warburton earlier this week, the inquest heard the airconditioning in the back of the van was not working and that Mr Ward died of heatstroke. Mr Ward's family testified he was a hard working and respected elder. The inquiry will today hear from police officers who arrested Mr Ward for drink driving and officers from the private transport company Global Solutions Limited which transported him to Kalgoorlie.

March 13, 2008 The Age
A NIGERIAN man who twice resorted to drinking his urine during a nightmarish seven-hour transfer to Baxter detention centre without food or water will be given $20,000 compensation. Four others who endured the trip in the back of the van with him will also be compensated after the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission found they had been subjected to "degrading treatment". The five detainees, whose plight was revealed in The Age, were taken from Maribyrnong in Melbourne to Baxter on September 17, 2004 by guards from GSL, the company that runs Australia's detention centres. A report by commission president John von Doussa found the van did not stop for any breaks in the seven hours from Melbourne to Mildura, breaching the detainees' human rights. The report said the drivers ignored signs that the detainees needed toilet stops, having watched them urinate on closed-circuit camera, and disregarded their banging on the walls. Nigerian man Austin Okoye, 26, suffered the "additional indignity" of twice drinking his urine to relieve his "excessive thirst", the report said. GSL guards were also accused of using excessive force in removing 53-year-old Vietnamese detainee Huong Hai Nguyen from his dormitory at Maribyrnong for the trip. The Immigration Department initially denied Mr Nguyen's allegations. But the department referred the case to the commission after receiving a second complaint from Mr Okoye. In July 2005, Immigration Department secretary Andrew Metcalfe said GSL would be fined $500,000 after the independent report substantiated most of the allegations. Yesterday Mr Metcalfe said GSL would also pay the compensation. "These people were mistreated and they deserve to be compensated," he said. The report said Mr Okoye and Mr Nguyen should get $20,000 each, and the others $15,000. GSL spokesman Tim Hall said the company did not accept the claims about Mr Okoye being forced to drink his urine. But he said GSL endorsed the rest of the report and the Commonwealth would be fully indemnified. The report urged the Government to locate the victims as soon as possible (three of them, including Mr Nguyen and Mr Okoye, have been deported) to provide them with their compensation and a formal apology.

February 22, 2008 The Green Left
A February 22 meeting between Western Australian prisons minister Margaret Quirk, Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Dennis Eggington and WA Deaths in Custody Watch Committee chairperson Marc Newhouse resulted in some ministerial promises of reforms following the the death in custody of an Aboriginal elder on January 27. The elder, from the desert town of Warburton, died after collapsing in the back of a prison van while being transported for four hours in 43oC heat to a jail in the outback city of Kalgoorlie. He had been arrested on January 26 for alleged drink-driving while visiting relatives in the remote town of Laverton, 352 kilometres north of Kalgoorie. The van was driven and staffed by employees of Global Solutions Ltd, an Anglo-French prison management company, which the WA government has contracted to transport prisoners. Professor Richard Harding, the WA government’s inspector of custodial services, told the news media on January 29 that he was not surprised at the Warburton elder’s death, given the state of the prisoner transport fleet. He said that the “government-owned vans are continually breaking down, leaving prisoners stranded in searingly hot conditions in remote areas”. Among other things, Quirk has agreed to overhaul procedures followed when a prisoner is transported. New procedures, to be in place by March 14, will include a health assessment and provision of water and food.

February 4, 2008 News.com.AU
THE contractor that transported an Aboriginal leader who died in custody last weekend has previously been criticised for the treatment of detainees. Government contractor Global Solutions Limited has been accused of the humiliation and sensory deprivation of detainees, who were forced to urinate in their cramped compartments, inadequate provision of food and fluids and the prank strip search of a prisoner. The death of Ian Ward in the sealed compartment of a "bloody hot" van last Sunday as the outside temperature climbed to 43C has prompted an unprecedented attack on the Carpenter Government by the Inspector of Custodial Services, who said the state's chronically deficient prisoner transport system would probably not be tolerated if 95 per cent of prisoners were white, instead of up to 95 per cent of them being Aboriginal. Anger is growing in the desert community of Warburton in WA's Ngaanyatjarra lands over the death of Mr Ward, who collapsed in what may have been an unairconditioned or inadequately airconditioned rear compartment while being transported 352km by GSL. The van transporting Mr Ward left the town of Laverton about midday for Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison to be remanded in custody on a drink-driving charge when he vomited on himself and fell unconscious. His body was wheeled into Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital at 4.30pm on Sunday after the two GSL guards in the van found he had collapsed in the back. Witness Jodie Aurisch said a female GSL guard told an emergency department doctor: "It is bloody hot in the back of the van". GSL and its $70 million prison transport contract with the Carpenter Government are likely to be examined as part of a coronial inquest into Mr Ward's death in custody. It will not be the first time the company faces scrutiny. In 2005, GSL was fined almost $500,000 over mistreatment of immigration detainees. In 2006, GSL was fined a reported $200,000 after guards at Port Phillip Prison in Victoria jokingly strip searched a prisoner as part of a prank called "Sausagegate". A federal government report into GSL's transfer of five detainees from Maribyrnong Detention Centre in Melbourne to Baxter Immigration Facility in South Australia over two days in 2004 found the officers involved had not been adequately trained and treated the detainees inhumanely. In his report into the incident for the Howard government, investigator Keith Hamburger found the van used was unsafe and inhumane and that the detainees had been denied access to toilet facilities, forcing them to urinate in their compartments. The officers were also found to have ignored appeals for assistance from detainees in distress. Melbourne legal advocate Chandarev Singh said GSL had shown "a pattern of lethal indifference". GSL's director of public affairs, Tim Hall, said Mr Singh's "inaccurate and unpleasant personal views" did not warrant comment.

February 1, 2008 The Western Australian
Police yesterday refused to reveal the results of a post-mortem examination on the body of an Aboriginal elder who died after he collapsed in custody while being taken to Kalgoorlie in the back of a van. It is understood police received the results yesterday. Warburton Aboriginal elder Ian Ward collapsed in the back of a Global Solutions Limited van on Sunday after a four-hour trip from Laverton to Kalgoorlie and died a short time later at Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital. The 46-year-old, who was being transferred to face a charge of drinkdriving, was found unconscious in the back of the van in the middle of the afternoon when temperatures outside exceeded 40 degrees. It is understood the van’s air-conditioning broke down the previous week and had to be replaced. The van is part of a fleet owned by the State Government but managed by the private prison management company. The State Government’s controversial deal with Global Solutions Limited, the group responsible for prisoner transport, could be tested, depending on the outcome of the investigation into Mr Ward’s death. Opposition Leader Troy Buswell said the death in custody raised serious concerns over the State Government’s “gifting” of the contract to GSL. GSL was controversially awarded the $70 million prisoner transport, court custody and security services contract last year when the company bought out the previous contractor Australian Integrated Management Service. Letters obtained under Freedom of Information laws revealed the Inspector for Custodial Services, Richard Harding, told Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk in April that the plan for GSL to take over the contract was unwise and risky. Despite his advice, Cabinet not only approved the takeover of the AIMS contract by GSL last July, but days later it extended the deal by three years without any public tender process. “Depending on the outcome of the investigation by police and the coroner, the State Government needs to be examining every aspect of the contract and take action against GSL if and when it is appropriate,” Mr Buswell said. Ms Quirk said issues surrounding Mr Ward’s death, including the contract with GSL, was a matter for the police investigation and the coronial inquest and it was not appropriate to speculate.

January 31, 2008 News.Com.AU
PRISONER transport contractors for the WA government were warned about the "parlous state" of their fleet well before an Aboriginal elder died in a prison van. Ian Ward, 46, of Warburton in the Goldfields, died during a Global Solutions Ltd transfer from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in hot conditions on January 27. It is unclear if the airconditioning was off, or faulty. Drivers of the van took Mr Ward, who had been picked up for drink driving on Australia Day, to Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital after they found him collapsed. He died a short time later. WA Custodial Services Inspector Richard Harding wrote to GSL last year outlining six concerns, including 'GSL's capacity to cope with the logistical challenge of running a transport service across such huge distances as are involved with Western Australia''. "The parlous state'' of the government-owned fleet upon which GSL would have to rely was among Mr Harding's concerns. GSL is contracted by the WA government to provide prisoner transport services and by the federal government to run immigration detention camps and transport immigration detainees and prisoners. Project SafeCom spokesman Jack Smit said there had been other transportation issues under the watch of GSL, formerly US-owned but bought last month by European security consortium Group 4 Securitas. "This is an ongoing issue partly because it's an out-of-Australia company ... you no longer have people employed who are directly responsible, by contract, to the minister,'' Mr Smit said. A 2005 federal government inquiry found GSL failed to provide medical assessments and treatments for injured detainees who were being transferred to the Baxter detention centre in South Australia from Maribyrnong in 2004. The probe found the van used to transport detainees was "unsafe and inhumane'' with airconditioning design faults. The five were sent an apology and compensated by the immigration department. WA major crime squad detectives are investigating the latest death amid calls from human rights groups for an independent investigation. WA Deaths in Custody watch committee spokesman Marc Newhouse said Mr Ward's death should not have happened. "Clearly the government has already been warned about the state of that fleet, which is government-owned,'' Mr Newhouse said.

January 29, 2008 News.Com.AU
THE West Australian desert town of Warburton was in mourning yesterday over the death in custody of its former Aboriginal community chairman, who was arrested on Australia Day for allegedly drink-driving. Ian Ward, a 46-year-old father of five and one of the last nomads born in the Gibson Desert, died the following day after collapsing in the back of a security van during a 915km journey to jail in the goldfields city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Major Crime Squad detectives are investigating. Mr Ward was being driven by contractors for the Department of Corrective Services, who noticed he had collapsed as they neared their destination. Mr Ward's nephew Andrew Johns said his large family was gathering in Warburton to remember a man who lobbied for his people's native title rights. "We are very sad today," Mr Johns said. The family understands Mr Ward died of a heart attack in hot conditions in the back of the van. "It is a long way to go and very hot," he said. Police had stopped Mr Ward last Saturday at 9.30pm in his remote home town of Warburton, about 1500km northwest of Perth in the traditional Ngaanyatjarra lands between the Gibson and Victoria deserts. He was charged with one count of drink-driving and taken to the lockup in Warburton. Mr Ward was driven 570km to the courthouse in Laverton, where he appeared on Sunday morning and was remanded in custody. Police say he was being transported to the nearest jail - the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison 352km away - when he collapsed. Mr Ward was being transported by Global Solutions Ltd, having been picked up in Laverton at 11.40am, police say. He was being taken in the rear of the GSL security van. As the van neared Kalgoorlie, he was found to have collapsed. He was conveyed to Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital, where he died a short time later.

March 16, 2006 The Age
WHEN Devandar Naidu was at work his boss would kick his chair from beneath him. The security guard was subjected over four years to names such as "coconut head" and "monkey face". He would start work at 7am and not be allowed to go home until 10pm. He had to ask his boss's permission to go to the toilet. Yesterday, the NSW Supreme Court awarded the former guard $1.9 million in compensation for the relentless bullying that left him incapable of working again. Outside the court, Mr Naidu's lawyer, Shaun McCarthy, described the award as a "rare victory for the little man against a giant … conglomerate". "He had a nervous breakdown, he will never work again," Mr McCarthy said. The abuse of Mr Naidu at the hands of News Ltd's security and fire manager, Lance Chaloner, was described as "extraordinary" by Justice Michael Adams. The abuse started in 1992, when Mr Chaloner threw tantrums, would kick chairs from under Mr Naidu, and call him names such as "black c---". Although his hours were 7am to 4pm, Mr Chaloner made him work unpaid until after 10pm. When Mr Naidu went on a rare holiday to Fiji with his family, Mr Chaloner insisted that he telephone work every day, which involved a 15-kilometre trip to a phone, and he had to pay for the calls. When he returned, he was told to do manual work at Mr Chaloner's home, and threatened with the sack if he didn't. Mr Chaloner was dismissed by News Ltd in January 1997. The judge said that although Mr Naidu remained at work until mid-1997, he could not operate effectively. He had major depression and post traumatic stress disorder. News Ltd will share the damages with Group 4 Securitas Pty Ltd, the bulk to be paid by Group 4, which employed Mr Naidu.

Junee Jail
Junee, New South Wales
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
March 9, 2009 Sidney Morning Herald
AS A state open to the peddling of political influence from those who have donated to government election coffers, NSW takes some beating. Starting with Sydney's foundation 221 years ago, bending the rules of governance - and worse - to help mates who have helped you has been part of the political culture. Fortunately there is far more transparency now than in the bad old days about who makes financial donations to whom. But three recent cases in Sydney show how the culture still lives in the state Labor Party in a worrying way. The first involves Nick Lalich, the Mayor of Fairfield and state MP for Cabramatta. He presided over a meeting of Fairfield City Council last week that considered a $1 million application from Fred Pisciuneri, a developer. Coincidentally, Mr Pisciuneri had made a $2000 donation to Labor at a fund-raising dinner for Mr Lalich in October, when he won the seat in a byelection. Mr Lalich declared a "non-significant, non-pecuniary conflict of interest" at the council meeting. He now says he "probably" could have been more cautious and abstained from voting. Then there is Virginia Judge, the Minister for Fair Trading, who organised a campaign against a Coles supermarket being built near Strathfield Plaza, a shopping centre in her electorate. She also successfully lobbied her colleague Tony Kelly, the Minister for Police, to have a police station shopfront set up in the plaza. Outwardly, there seems little to question. But then we learn Strathfield Plaza is owned by Memo Corporation, a company that has donated more than $50,000 to Ms Judge's political campaigns over six years. Finally Paul McLeay, the MP for Heathcote, was vice-chairman of a parliamentary committee reviewing a $26 million government contract with GEO Group to run the state's only private prison at Junee. The same company had donated $2000 to Mr McLeay's political campaign. It later gave more than $45,000 to Labor, before the 2007 election. While all three MPs protest their innocence at charges of inappropriate behaviour, the cases nonetheless suggest a distinct trend for a party that seems bereft of fresh initiatives after 14 years in power. Instead of its traditional pursuit of social justice, Labor seems to have succumbed to what the state Opposition rightly calls a "donations-for-decisions culture". Its most brazen, and extreme, manifestation was on display in the scandal that engulfed Wollongong City Council last year. Equally, the Sydney deals show the need for tougher rules against what has become in effect the recycling of political money to do favours for donors.

January 28, 2009 Daily Advertiser
TWO Junee jail inmates yesterday spent hours on a roof of the prison in baking heat after what is believed to be an escape attempt was foiled by guards. Guards late last night were trying to talk the men down from their rooftop perch. The drama began about 3.30pm when the prisoners reportedly made a dash for a maintenance vehicle apparently with the intention of making a jail break. The men were prevented from getting into the vehicle by guards so they apparently scaled a protective fence and climbed onto the metal roof. From a road outside the prison about three hours into the stand-off, armed officers wearing safety vests and helmets could be seen several metres away from the two shirt-less prisoners. The prisoners were well within the perimeter of the jail and there was no chance of them escaping. An ambulance was on stand-by at the prison, built for minimum and medium security inmates. The company that runs the privately operated 750-bed prison for the State Government, the GEO Group, last night was not commenting on the incident, and it was not known if the facility was in general lockdown. Negotiations were still ongoing last night.

October 24, 2008 Daily Advertiser
TOILET paper became the new currency in the Junee jail when a shortage of the product hit the prison, the NSW Ombudsman has said in his latest report. The issue was one of a number of case studies in the Ombudsman’s just-released 2007-08 annual report. “When an inmate called from Junee to complain that their toilet roll ration had been reduced, we made immediate inquiries with the centre,” the case study said. “Reducing or removing basic necessities, such as toilet paper, can spark an easily preventable incident in a correctional centre. “We were told that each inmate usually received two rolls per week, but if they ran out they could get more from the sweepers (inmate domestic workers) in their pod. “The sweepers, however, no longer had a supply and – in the absence of sufficient toilet rolls – they had become jail currency and were being stolen from the cells. “When we called the centre they were not aware of any change to the ration of toilet paper and undertook to investigate and rectify the situation immediately.” The annual report said that in recent years the number of complaints against the jail was significantly higher than from other similar sized correctional centres. There was a slight decrease this year in the number of complaints, down from 360 in 2006-07 to 341, of which there were 83 formal complaints and 258 informal complaints. Only the Metropolitan Special Programs Centre, with 344 complaints, had more complaints than Junee. Junee has one of the largest prison populations in the state and is the only privately-operated jail in NSW. It is run for the government by the GEO Group. A spokesman for the company, Ken Davis, said it had noted the Ombudsman’s remarks and looked forward to working with him to address any issues.

October 23, 2008 ABC News
Junee Correctional Centre has been trialling new staffing arrangements in a bid to address ongoing high complaint rates. The State Ombudsman's annual report, which was released yesterday, says the number of complaints from the Junee Jail in recent years is significantly higher than from other similar sized centres. It says that may be due to physical separation of inmates and staff. The report says the centre's management is trialling placing staff in inmates' accommodation for fixed times each day to handle requests and questions which has resulted in a slight reduction in calls to the Ombudsman's office. Junee Correctional Centre received 341 complaints over the year. The report also includes details of an inmate reporting a reduction in toilet roll rations and says at the time of the complaint the toilet rolls became jail currency and were stolen from cells. It says when management was contacted they acted immediately to investigate and fix the situation. In a statement, the GEO Group, which runs the jail, says it acknowledges the remarks and looks forward to working with the Ombudsman to address any issues.

January 18, 2006 ABC
Junee Jail has restructured its senior management in response to an inmate's escape last year. Three senior staff were suspended when Lon Thomas McAlister walked out of the prison in October, but they have now returned to work. The Geo group's Colin Kelaher says the managers have retained their roles, but some duties have been delegated to other positions. He says management is still implementing the findings from the security review. "One of the recommendations that did come out of it and we've recognised that is ... the importance of restructuring in the staff at the facility to, I guess, more importantly oversee some of the roles of security there and ... we're doing that at the moment," he said.

November 1, 2005 ABC
A prisoner who escaped from Junee jail in south-western New South Wales last week is believed to have walked out the jail's front gate. Forty-six-year-old Lon Thomas McAllister was serving an eight-year term for armed robbery and is considered dangerous. The manager of Junee jail, Derek Bullock, says it appears McAllister was very well organised and left town quickly on Friday, possibly via the jail's main entrance. "Because our perimeter fence was not breached, the anecdotal information is that this prisoner actually managed to get through our front gate," he said. Corrective Services officials travelled to Junee at the weekend to assess security at the jail and its operator, the GEO group, plans another security review tomorrow.

January 14, 2005 Sidney Morning Herald
Longer sentences, tougher bail laws and higher police numbers have boosted NSW's prison population to 9000 for the first time, the Premier, Bob Carr, boasted yesterday. In another development yesterday, the head of a parliamentary committee launched an inquiry into the cost-effectiveness of the state's only private prison, run by the US company GEO Group Australia. Labor MP Matt Brown, the chairman of the NSW Parliament's public accounts committee, said he wanted to inquire into whether the Junee prison really was value for money. Mr Brown said the committee would look into explanations from the Department of Corrective Services that maximum-security jails had higher costs than the medium-security Junee and that housing female prisoners involved special needs and higher costs. As well, publicly owned jails were older and not as cost-efficient to run as Junee, which was built under the Greiner government in the early 1990s. Mr Brown said Labor policy opposed the building of private jails. The review would examine the performance of privately run prisons in other states.

September 13, 2004 ABC
Prison officers are back on duty at Junee jail in southern New South Wales after a seven-day strike. The action by 120 officers ended on Friday night when members of the Miscellaneous Workers Union voted to return to work.Union spokesman Geoff Lawler says he will be seeking a commitment to full staffing levels at talks with GEO Australia on Wednesday.

September 9, 2004 ABC
Striking prison officers at Junee Jail in southern New South Wales are threatening to obstruct entry to the prison unless management responds to their demands soon. About 120 officers walked off the job nearly a week ago, complaining about staffing levels and pay. The private prison operator, GEO Australia, has brought in outside workers to run the medium security facility and says the matter is in the Industrial Relations Commission. Union organiser Geoff Lawler says the striking guards may use force to stop people crossing the picket line.

April 16, 2004 ABC
The operator of Junee private prison has dismissed concerns about the jail's security, after the escape of an inmate yesterday. Police are still searching for Christopher Pritchard, who they say has a history of violence and should not be approached. It is believed the Gosford man was serving out the end of a sentence, which had been re-instated after he breached parole. Police say the 23-year-old escaped on a prison motorbike while working outside the prison grounds and then used a screwdriver to hijack a car. Police suspect he then headed towards Sydney after stealing a second car. Junee prison director Dom Karauria says a review of security will be conducted, but denies the security breach is cause for alarm. "I don't think the community needs to be too concerned about the degree of security in the prison itself," he said. "I mean, when you put things in perspective this inmate has been working out in the community for the last six months and working out in the prison farm. There's been no breach of the prison security itself."

May 24, 2001
A snap strike at the privately run Junee Jail has ended, with the 600 prisoners now free to leave their cells, but the parties remain far from agreement. The jail's managers have told the Industrial Relations Commission they are losing money on a new contract to manage the jail. In a dispute over the introduction of 12 hour shifts, officers picketed the entrance to Junee Jail today, forcing managers to cut a hole in one fence and call in the police to gain alternative access. At a hearing in Wagga Wagga, Commissioner Tabbaa says she was very disappointed Australasian Correctional Management did not adhere to her recommendations on roster changes, sparking the walkout. ACM's representative told the hearing the company is losing money on the current shift arrangements. (ABC News)

Maribyrnoug Detention Centre
Global Solutions (formerly run by GEO Group, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
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.

December 22, 2005 The Age
THE family of a Tongan man who died in controversial circumstances at the Maribyrnong detention centre five years ago has launched a damages action against the Immigration Department and the centre's former operators. In what is believed to be the first such legal action, the department and Australasian Correctional Management are being sued over the death of 53-year-old Viliami Tanginoa five years ago today. Law firm Slater & Gordon has launched the claim on behalf of Mr Tanginoa's widow , Tongi; his sons Viliami jnr and Antonia; daughter Polsapina; and four half brothers. Lawyer Dina Tutungi said Mr Tanginoa's life was treated with "reckless indifference reflecting a culture of contempt towards people held in detention in Australia". The father of seven climbed to the top of a basketball pole to protest at his intended deportation that day. He had come to Australia for work 17 years earlier, overstaying his original visa. He was arrested at Swan Hill in August 2000 and applied for a bridging visa but was refused. He had been on top of the basketball ring for eight hours when he plunged to his death. Detainees claimed he was taunted by guards just before he fell. Ms Tutungi said a video shows staff placing mattresses underneath the pole and then removing them, offering Mr Tanginoa cigarettes to come down while one officer bounced a ball in his vicinity. A coronial inquiry blasted ACM, saying while the immediate cause of Mr Tanginoa's death was his decision to jump "another cause was the inaction of the detention centre's management; a failure to manage". Coroner Phil Byrne said ACM had failed to call in specialist police negotiators: "If expert negotiators had been involved, I am satisfied the tragic event would have been prevented." Slater & Gordon said Mr Tanginoa's family was not initially informed of his death and were distressed at discovering autopsy marks on his body when it was returned to Tonga. There was also a failure to advise the family of the original inquest on January 20 to 24 and they attended a partly reheard inquest six months later.

Lack of resources under a "tight" Federal Government contract influenced the handling of events surrounding the death of a detention centre inmate, a psychiatry expert told an inquest yesterday. Forensic psychiatry professor Paul Mullen also questioned the approach of Maribyrnong Detention Centre staff during a stand-off in 2000. Coroner Phil Byrne is investigating the death of Viliami Tanginoa, 53, who either fell or jumped to his death after spending eight hours on top of a basketball pole on the day he was to be deported to Tonga. Mr Tanginoa, who had been in detention for four months, had overstayed his three-month tourist visa by 17 years. His application for a refugee visa in 1994 was refused and subsequent appeals rejected. Professor Mullen, clinical director of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, criticised the Immigration Department for not providing adequate resources to the centre's operators, Australasian Correctional Management, under a "tight contract". "Where was the plan, where was the structure, where were the people who had the training and the ability to carry out that structured plan?" Professor Mullen also said the self-described "wait and see approach" of staff was bordering on contempt of Mr Tanginoa. (The Age)

Melbourne Custody Centre
Melbourne, Australia
Group 4 (formerly run by GEO Group formerly known as Wackenhut)
February 25, 2010 AAP
CONDITIONS in Melbourne's custody centre breach the Victorian government's own human rights charter, the independent watchdog says. In a wide-ranging report, Ombudsman George Brouwer says holding people at the Melbourne Custody Centre without access to daylight or fresh air is in breach of the charter of human rights. Victoria became the first state to have a human rights charter, which was passed by parliament in July 2006. People arrested by police are being held at the centre for an average of three to four days, despite Mr Brouwer recommending three years ago holding times be limited to overnight or over a weekend. "I remain concerned that persons can still be held at the Melbourne Custody Centre for longer than overnight or over a weekend," Mr Brouwer said in his report tabled to state parliament today. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. .End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. "Detaining people underground, without access to daylight or fresh air, is in my view inappropriate, inhumane and contrary to the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities." The centre is run by private operators GEO Group Australia, contracted by Victoria Police, and receives more than 11,000 people every year. It has a holding capacity of up to 100 people during the day and 67 at night. Corrections Minister Bob Cameron said people should expect their rights to be substantially curtailed in prison. When asked if it was appropriate people were denied access to fresh air and daylight for days he replied: "You know cells are not nice places, let's be very clear about that." Nationals corrections spokesman Peter Ryan said it was unacceptable for anyone to be held in the centre for more than 24 hours. "The conditions are archaic, they are in many senses inhumane," he said. Mr Brouwer has also raised concerns poor infection control in jails is putting the public at risk. "Infection control in prisons is an important public health issue and I am concerned by the time taken to fully implement the Communicable Diseases Policy," he said. "With the large number of prisoners serving short terms of imprisonment, coupled with high levels of re-offending and returns to the prison system, the risks to the health and wellbeing of prisoners and to the wider community are significantly increased." Mr Brouwer noted the department had taken some steps to reduce the transmission of blood-borne viruses and sexually transmitted infections among prisoners. Mr Brouwer's report tracks the progress of implementation of recommendations he made between July 2006 and June 2008. About one quarter of recommendations remain unimplemented.

February 7, 2010 The Sunday Age
THE state government is poised to award a multimillion-dollar prison contract to a private company whose human rights record has been called into question. The Sunday Age can reveal that private prison contractor G4S Australia & New Zealand is the preferred tenderer to take over the Melbourne Custody Centre, a city-based facility that each year processes 11,000 people through cells under the Magistrates Court. The private security firm was last year named in a damning West Australian Coroner's report, which found it had contributed to the ''wholly unnecessary and avoidable death'' of a 46-year-old Aboriginal man in its custody in January 2008. The company's record in Victoria is also marked by a coroner's finding last year that it contributed to the 2005 death of Ian Westcott, who died of an asthma attack in the G4S-run Port Phillip prison. A note found near his body read: ''Asthma attack. buzzed for help. no response.'' In 2000, a coroner found the company had failed to provide a safe environment at Port Phillip when four men hanged themselves in 1997. A 2006 report by the Victorian Ombudsman and the Office of Police Integrity found inadequacies in the way prisoners were transported, with insufficient attention paid to their conditions, including ''basic amenities for long trips''. Charandev Singh, a spokesman for the Centre for the Human Rights of Imprisoned People, said the decision to give G4S preferred tenderer status was shocking. ''The company's lethal record, combined with the circumstances of the horrific death of [the Aboriginal elder], appears to have been totally negated by the Brumby government and Victoria Police in their intention to award a further lucrative contract to this company.'' The Melbourne Custody Centre tender is a sensitive issue for the state government, which was last year criticised by prisoner advocates for renewing G4S's prisoner transport contract despite the WA Coroner's finding. The two companies shortlisted for the Melbourne Custody Centre - G4S and GEO Group Australia - both have blemished records in the eyes of human rights advocates. GEO Group Australia is the existing contractor and has been criticised by the Ombudsman several times for using excessive force on prisoners - most recently in August 2008. GEO, which has run the 30-cell facility for almost 11 years, was recently dropped from the shortlist when the government named G4S as preferred tenderer. Both firms are subsidiaries of multinational outfits specialising in security systems and correctional and detention facilities. The contract for management of the custody centre - which serves the court system but also operates as a holding facility for drug and alcohol-affected people - is yet to be signed with G4S, but is believed to be with Corrections Minister Bob Cameron. A G4s spokesman said he could not comment while the tender was still going. A spokesman for Mr Cameron said he was also unable to comment.

September 27, 2009 The Age
A PRISONER was assaulted and marched naked through the controversial Melbourne Custody Centre in an incident that breached his human rights, the Ombudsman has found. The August 2008 incident, revealed in the Ombudsman's recent annual report, led to the punishment of several officers from the prison's operator, the private company GEO Group Australia. Ombudsman George Brouwer found officers had used excessive force on the prisoner. The inmate, who had soiled himself, was moved naked through the centre to the showers. ''I considered this treatment not to be in accordance with the values enshrined in the Charter [of Human Rights and Responsibilities],'' Mr Brouwer said in his report. The incident is the second use of excessive force against a prisoner in as many years at the custody centre. Victoria Police said GEO had reviewed its operating policies after the incident and implemented new measures to ensure there were no further breaches. The police would not say how the GEO officers were disciplined or if the company was fined, as when officers failed to protect an inmate bashed in 2005. The Sunday Age was unable to contact GEO Group Australia for comment.

December 13, 2007 Herald Sun
MORE than 20 prison guards have been sacked for sleeping on the job, getting too close to inmates and other protocol breaches over the past two years. The firm that runs the troubled Melbourne Custody Centre -- GEO Group Australia -- has sacked or let go 20 guards from its 14 Australian jails since January last year. GEO Group managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout told the Herald Sun that four of those were from Victoria. The company said that two guards had been dismissed for having inappropriate relationships with inmates; two for physically abusing inmates; one for sleeping on the job; one for misusing a prison vending machine; and one for accepting gift vouchers from a supplier. Mr Bezuidenhout said that another five guards had been sacked or resigned after launching vicious physical attacks on inmates in the Melbourne Custody Centre in 2005. One of those was David Eastham, 25, jailed last month for kicking an inmate as he lay handcuffed on the floor. The State Ombudsman found a culture of aggression in the centre, mostly instigated by a thuggish network called "The Family". After the Ombudsman's findings were made public last month, Mr Bezuidenhout told the centre's staff one violent incident was "one too many". Only one guard from Victoria's public prison system was sacked in the same period.

November 24, 2007 The Herald Sun
TORTURING prisoners at the Melbourne Custody Centre was commonplace, former staff claim. Three former MCC prison officers told the Herald Sun yesterday a clique of staff known as "The Family" regularly terrorised inmates. Their claims come as the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission warned the State Government of its responsibility to ensure all prisoners were treated humanely. Chief executive Helen Szoke said the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities comes into effect in January. Dr Szoke said the charter protected all Victorians. "The Government is accountable for the treatment of prisoners, whether they are in state-run institutions or privately run, like the MCC," she said. State Ombudsman George Brouwer this week accused the MCC group known as "The Family" of thriving on aggression and use of excessive force. He made public graphic CCTV footage of an alleged attack on a prisoner that may lead to three MCC staff being sacked and charged. Premier John Brumby yesterday described the footage as disturbing and unacceptable and vowed his Government would move to ensure nothing like it happened again. The MCC is run by private contractors, the GEO Group Australia, on behalf of Victoria Police and is housed in the basement below the Melbourne Magistrates' Court. Dr Szoke said she agreed with Mr Brouwer that the MCC needed a radical overhaul. "It is absolutely unacceptable to mistreat people in this way," she said. "We are appalled at the beating shown on CCTV. "I'd remind everyone that in relation to criminal conduct, detention is the punishment, not being beaten while detained." Former MCC employees Ros Atkinson and Bruna Moressi were among five female prison officers who first complained around 2002 about brutality and bullying at the custody centre. "We told the company, we told the Ombudsman, we told Victoria Police, we told members of Parliament, and others, but the situation didn't improve," Ms Atkinson said. "The Ombudsman ... revealed the torture and brutality we were warning about is still rampant. "It pains me to think of all the people who have been mistreated there in the years since we first raised the issue. "If the authorities had listened to us, then all that suffering could have been avoided." Ms Moressi called the MCC "a hellhole where blood is shed most days". The shocking alleged incidents outlined to the Herald Sun by Ms Atkinson, Ms Moressi and an anonymous third former employee included: THE near death of a prisoner who tried to hang himself after being beaten by staff. They put wet toilet paper over the camera in his cell so their brutality couldn't be seen. A MENTALLY ill prisoner who was refused medical help despite eating and drinking his own faeces and urine for three days. A DEEPLY religious inmate who begged staff not to remove his crucifix saw it ripped from his neck and crushed in front of him before his head was slammed into a desk so hard the walls around him were sprayed with blood. A spokesman for GEO yesterday said in a statement to the Herald Sun that the allegations raised by the former employees were false. He said the women had been dismissed over the past two years for improper conduct and claimed they were raising the allegations as a means of getting back at GEO.

November 22, 2007 The Age
A GROUP of aggressive guards known as "The Family" dominates the Melbourne Custody Centre and often uses excessive force against prisoners, an investigation by the State Ombudsman has been told. In a damning report tabled in Parliament yesterday, Ombudsman George Brouwer concluded that guards had seriously mistreated a remand prisoner being strip-searched on June 13. CCTV footage released yesterday shows the prisoner being grabbed by the throat and pushed to the ground, with several guards then piling on top of him. He received a cut to the head. Following a complaint from the prisoner, Mr Brouwer summonsed guards from the centre, an underground facility in Lonsdale Street below the Melbourne Magistrates Court. Mr Brouwer wrote: "It is of concern that witnesses spoke of a culture that involves staff favouritism; the centre being dominated by a few staff; tolerance of abuse of prisoners; and an environment where speaking out means job loss." The report quotes guards claiming that a clique nicknamed "The Family" instigated violence with prisoners and struck prisoners unnecessarily. "They thrive on aggression," one guard reported. Another claimed that prisoners were "badgered" verbally by guards with "degrading" remarks such as: "'You're a f---ing scumbucket. You deserve to be in here." A third guard said: "There's staff members that want to get at the prisoner that's on the floor simply because the prisoner wouldn't listen in the first instance." Mr Brouwer concluded that some of the staff had inappropriate attitudes, lacked proper training and failed to follow procedure. The centre is supervised by Victoria Police but is privately run by the GEO Group Australia, part of an $830 million international company with 59,000 beds in 68 jails and psychiatric hospitals in countries including the US, Canada and South Africa. The GEO Group runs four correctional facilities in Australia, including Fulham prison in Sale. Managing director Pieter Bezuidenhout said yesterday that the company disagreed with the Ombudsman's report. He said CCTV images showed the prisoner being aggressive towards a guard before he was restrained. The officers involved would face disciplinary action where necessary, he said. "GEO has a policy of zero tolerance for any failure to treat any person in custody appropriately." Victoria Police said it was investigating an alleged assault at the custody centre. Mr Brouwer wrote that oversight of the centre by GEO and Victoria Police was inadequate. The person in charge of reviewing incidents was three months behind in his viewing of CCTV footage, Mr Brouwer wrote. He recommended that: ■GEO comprehensively review the centre and the suitability of the officers involved in the June incident. ■Prisoners be allowed access to phones. ■Victoria Police review its supervision. ■The centre, which lacks fresh air and daylight, should only be used to hold prisoners for short stays (some prisoners are held for up to 28 days). A spokeswoman for Victoria Police said the centre's operations would be reviewed but it was impractical to limit it to being a daytime holding facility. Installing a phone system for prisoners would be almost impossible but the problem would be examined further. Deputy Ombudsman John Taylor told The Age that some previous complaints of violence at the centre could not be investigated properly because CCTV footage had not been available due to "alleged system failure".

November 22, 2007 The Age
Victoria's government watchdog has recommended sweeping changes to conditions at the Melbourne Custody Centre following publication of a report that found excessive force was used against a prisoner earlier this year. Victorian Ombudsman George Brouwer tabled his report on the incident in Parliament today and has made CCTV footage of the incident available on his website. The video shows the prisoner, identified by the ombudsman as Mr A, being subjected to an apparently unprovoked attack by custody officers in the MCC's strip-search room on June 13. The prisoner removes his shoes and shirt before one of two officers appears to suddenly grab him by the throat. Both officers then throw Mr A to the ground before four other officers enter the room. The prisoner, who had not been charged with an offence at the time of the attack, lodged a complaint with the ombudsman about one week after the incident. Mr Brouwer found one officer had "over-reacted" and another, a female officer, had cut the prisoner by striking him to the head. The company that is contracted to run the MCC by the State Government, GEO Group Australia, has agreed to discipline two officers following a recommendation from the ombudsman that their employment be reviewed. A third officer criticised by the ombudsman was overseas when the report was being written. Victoria Police are also investigating whether charges should be laid against any of the officers. GEO Australia has told the ombudsman it will review training programs for all its staff in conjunction with Victoria Police. Mr Brouwer's report is also scathing about MCC prisoners' lack of access to telephones. The custody centre, located beneath the Melbourne Magistrates Court, is used to detain people who have been arrested and are due to appear in court. Mr Brouwer's report says those in custody are unable to contact legal representatives or his office - an anomaly in Victoria's prison system. "The MCC appears to operate with only limited oversight by both GEO and Victoria Police and in my opinion the system in place to monitor incidents is unsatisfactory," Mr Brouwer's report says. In the ombudsman's annual report published in September, Mr Brouwer's office raised concerns about conditions at the MCC and about a lack of video footage of alleged assaults occurring there. The September report said the MCC was holding detainees in unsuitable conditions for periods of up to four weeks. "I have received complaints from prisoners about their treatment by custodial staff, particularly allegations of assault," the report said.

August 15, 2007 The Age
GUARDS did not step in as a prisoner bashed another inmate — at one stage wiping blood from his boots with a towel before continuing to kick his victim in the head as he lay on the ground — in a brutal 14- minute attack at the Melbourne Custody Centre on September 9, 2005. A video recording of the incident was tendered to the County Court yesterday as Jim Giannakoulis, 33, formerly of Altona North, pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally causing serious injury. Prosecutor Paul D'Arcy said the graphic footage showed Giannakoulis punching and kicking the victim, Boak Nguyen, in the head and body, slamming his head on the ground and jumping on it as he lay in the centre's exercise yard. Nguyen, who did not lodge a complaint about the incident, suffered cracked ribs, fractured cheekbones, bruises and cuts. Outside court, a spokeswoman for the GEO Group, which runs the Melbourne Custody Centre, said the company was fined under its contract "as a result of the time it took to respond". She said a figure of $75,000 quoted in court was "way over" the correct amount, which she would not disclose. "The delay was due to the fact that on the day they were installing a new closed-circuit TV system," she said. "The attack happened where they couldn't see, the other prisoners didn't react and there was nothing to suggest there was anything going on. The GEO staff intervened as soon as the incident was detected."

May 28, 2007 The Age
A car-theft suspect who went on the run after a prison mix-up led to her being released in place of another woman has appeared in court. Caroline Musadeq, 31, of Niddrie, this morning faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on a charge of escaping a police jail after being recaptured yesterday. Magistrate William O'Day remanded Musadeq in custody and ordered her to reappear on June 2. She did not apply for bail. Musadeq allegedly escaped from the Melbourne Custody Centre on May 18. Officers arrested and charged her about 3pm yesterday after spotting her in a car in Brighton Road in St Kilda. She and a 25-year-old woman charged with armed robbery were in the cells at the Lonsdale Street centre when the Musadeq was released on bail instead of the other woman. It is believed that the younger woman pretended to be asleep while Musadeq assumed her identity and was released. Police said in a statement last week that the younger woman could be charged with aiding and abetting an escape, and that Musadeq was not considered a risk. "The Melbourne Custody Centre is staffed by private contractors to Victoria Police," the statement said. "An internal inquiry is under way into operational procedures at the centre to avoid similar occurrences in the future." The GEO Group Australia administers the custody centre. Under its previous name of Australasian Correctional Management, it managed the Woomera Detention Centre and was subjected to federal inquiries.

May 22, 2007 Herald Sun
A PRISONER has walked out of the Melbourne Custody Centre after assuming another remanded woman's identity. The escapee tricked staff by swapping clothes with another inmate due to be released on bail, and changing her hairstyle to match hers. Custody centre sources said the woman, who was still free last night, had gone to some effort to escape. She also used the other woman's documents and learned personal details about her. The escapee, whose identity has not been revealed, walked to freedom about 4.30pm last Friday. Police said they would not reveal her details because the escaped woman, facing car-theft charges, was not considered dangerous. The Herald Sun has been told she is a 31-year-old Pacific Islander. "The woman has not been located and is not considered a risk to the community," a police spokeswoman said. Investigators have interviewed the other woman, 25, for allegedly aiding and abetting an escape. It is believed custody centre staff followed correct procedure but were still duped by the escapee, who was said to look similar to the woman whose identity she assumed. "Staff did everything by the book but these two (prisoners) cohorted to do this," a custody centre source alleged. The centre is staffed by private contractors. "An internal inquiry is under way into operational procedures at the centre to avoid similar occurrence in the future," the police spokeswoman said. The custody centre, which is under Melbourne Magistrates' Court in Lonsdale St, is run by the GEO Group Australia, formerly Australasian Correctional Management. GEO operations manager Peter Earnshaw confirmed the group was carrying out its own investigation and changes to procedures would be made if necessary. It is not the first time a person has been let free by mistake from the privately run centre. In July 2001, a man with convictions for aggravated burglary and drug matters was freed, despite having time to serve for breaching parole on a separate crime. Two months earlier, a convicted sex offender was mistakenly released despite having breached parole for a previous crime.

November 18, 2004 Herald Sun
A MELBOURNE police jail has been described as a hellhole and "the Bronx of prisons". The privately-run Melbourne Custody Centre is overcrowded, poorly managed and occasionally dangerous, according to disgruntled staff. Five women custody officers are on long-term stress leave because of what they claim are intolerable working conditions. Their complaints include sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying, victimisation, intimidation and poor treatment of inmates. They say the centre is understaffed and custody officers deal with inmates who are often drunk, violent, drugged or mentally disturbed. The centre, which is beneath Melbourne Magistrates' Court in Lonsdale St, is run by the GEO Group Australia, formerly Australasian Correctional Management. ACM, an offshoot of an American corrections giant, has a troubled history in Australia. There were federal government inquiries and penalties over the way it ran Woomera Detention Centre. The company also runs Fulham Correctional Centre. In May last year, Corrections Minister Andre Haermeyer began a probe into the company's operations. Bruna Moressi, one of the corrections officers on stress leave, said working at the centre became a nightmare. "Melbourne Custody Centre is mismanaged through and through," Ms Moressi said. "None of the staff have training with psych patients and the centre is not properly equipped to deal with these people," Ms Moressi said. Seriously disturbed inmates are often kept in cells with their wrists and ankles in handcuffs because staff have no other way of controlling them. Anne Chiang said she cracked under the pressure of working in the centre. She witnessed the inhumane treatment of a psychiatrically disturbed woman. "I complained. I sent a report up to head office and to the police monitor. I asked for an investigation, but nothing happened," she said.

May 29, 2002
Charges against Victoria's top prison official were dropped yesterday over an incident in which he allegedly threatened to discipline a custody officer. The Victorian WorkCover Authority withdrew a charge of failing to take reasonable care of an employee's health and safety against John Ralph Myers, the state's senior Australasian Correctional Management official. Mr Myers, who pleaded not guilty, was alleged to have threatened custody officer Wayne Rowe when he complained to WorkCover and the Community and Public Sector Union about staff shortages at the Melbourne Custody Centre. A WorkCover spokeswoman said the charges were withdrawn because Mr Myers had been charged as an employee putting another employee at risk, while evidence in court pointed to an employer-employee relationship. Mr Rowe, 47, told the Melbourne Magistrates Court he suffered insomnia and anxiety long after the alleged incident. Mr Myers, 42, of Sale, said that Mr Rowe should have raised his concerns with centre management before contacting outside organisations for advice. (The Age)

May 31, 2001
A man left with permanent brain damage after being bashed in a prison cell has issued a Supreme Court writ seeking damages from the company running the Melbourne Custody centre. Michael Tully, aged 45, was bashed and stomped on by another prisoner, Ali Ali, who was consequently jailed for at least 13 years. The writ's been issued by Mr. Tully's brother Rod, on his behalf and seeks unspecified damages from the prison operator, Australasian Correctional Management. (ABC News)

December 11, 2000
Michael Tully was told by his brother Rod that the man who viciously bashed him while they shared a small cell under the Melbourne Magistrates Court was yesterday sentenced to 16 years in jail. The former prison guard confirmed he would take legal action against Australian Correctional Management, the private managers of the Melbourne Custody Centre. He will allege the managers were negligent in not appropriately classifying his brother, who has schizophrenia, so as to ensure he was separated from the mainstream population. The court told Ali was returned to Cell 28, where he directed a prisoner to place a sticky label from a lunch box over the surveillance camera. He then knocked Mr. Tully to the ground, so that his head rested on a cement bench and stomped on it about five times. Judge Anderson described the incident, which took place last April, as a "cowardly attack on a defenseless man". He also said the overcrowded conditions in the cells were "entirely inappropriate". Judge Anderson said Ali had counted on the prison culture of silence, but the attack was so brutal it had sicken other prisoners although they did not intervene in the assault. (The Age Company Ltd., Dec. 6, 2000)

Metropolitan Women's Correctional Center
Deer Park, Australia
CCA
September 10, 2002
A Melbourne coroner yesterday cleared the former private operators of Deer Park women's prison of wrongdoing over the death of a 23-year-old Aboriginal inmate four years ago. Coroner Jacinta Heffey found that the Corrections Corporation of Australia did not contribute to the death of Paula Rebecca Richardson, who died as a result of a "simulated suicide that went wrong" on September 11, 1998. The inquest heard that Ms. Richardson, who was in jail for breaching parole, hanged herself at the Metropolitan Women's Correctional Centre a day after the State Government launched a review of prison safety. In July, 1998, two male and two female prison officers strip-searched Ms. Richardson and cut her clothes with a knife after she concealed a drink can believed to be used as a water pipe for smoking marijuana. Outside court, Ms. Richardson's father, Barry, said the coroner's decision was "contemptible". "It's beyond my dignity to really get angry about it," he said. "My faith in the system of justice... is just destroyed." Lawyers for Ms. Richardson's family earlier told the inquest that the strip search was inappropriate and insensitive, as Ms. Richardson had been raped five times in the past- the last instance while working as a prostitute shortly before her incarceration in April, 1998. Ms. Richardson's mother, Ruth, said it was "very sad for Victoria" that Ms. Heffey had not recommended changes to strip-search procedures, but said she hoped conditions had improved since the State Government took over the running of the prison in October, 2000. The inquest was told that despite Ms. Richardson buzzing an intercom to prison officers 27 times in 20 minutes before she died, nobody came to her aid. (The Age)

October 3, 2000
The Victorian Government took control of the facility after sacking the jail's private operators. The dramatic action follows a damning report that found prison operators CCA had breached their contract with the government in relation to security and drug protection. Corrections Minister Andre Haermeyer said drug abuse a Deer Park was the worst in the state, with one in four prisoners using illegal drugs. CPSU spokesman Julian Kennelly said staff were "stressed to the max" dealing with 30 inmates to one officer on a daily basis and prisoners were being denied access to basic prison programs as well. Amanda George, of the Federation of Community Legal Centers, said almost 25 percent were in protection units, compared with about 2 percent in prisons in other states. Victorian Uniting Church social justice leader, the Reverend David Pargeter, said the private operators had been "nothing short of disastrous."

Mount Gambier Prison
South Australia
Group 4
August 9, 2004
The South Australian coroner has handed down his findings into the hanging death of a prisoner at Mount Gambier Prison, in the state's south-east, almost three years ago. Troy Phillip Turner was found hanging from the front of the shower stall in his cell on the morning of September 2, 2001. State coroner Wayne Chivell says the 36-year-old's death was "yet another case" where an "easy hanging point" had been available to a prisoner. He criticised the South Australian prison system for its "piecemeal" approach to safe cell design, rather than adopting a comprehensive approach like Victoria. The coroner also described the decision not to cut down Mr Turner and attempt resuscitation as "inappropriate", saying the matter calls for the urgent attention of Group 4. (ABC)

New South Wales Government
March 27, 2009 The Australian
THE research director of a British-based group that is expected to bid for contracts to operate two jails in NSW has backed privatised facilities in which inmates have keys to their cells and are on a first-name basis with their jailers. Gary Sturgess, research director of the Serco Group, will tell a NSW parliamentary inquiry today that decency, not efficiency, is the main reason to privatise jails. He says overseas experience shows that prisoners enjoy more privileges -- including being given the keys to their own cells -- in correctional systems where private and public providers compete. Prisoners in these systems spend more time out of their cells and have far greater interaction with their jailers -- with whom they are frequently on first-name terms -- than in systems where public providers face no competition, Mr Sturgess says. The results are safer jails and lower rates of reoffending. Serco is expected to bid for the contracts to operate Cessnock prison, in the Hunter Valley, and Parklea prison, in western Sydney, when the jails are privatised this year. The company already operates one jail in Victoria and one in Western Australia. The decision by NSW Premier Nathan Rees to privatise the two prisons has aroused heated opposition from public sector unions and the Greens, and is opposed by a minority of MPs in the Labor caucus. The privatisation of the jails is being driven by Prisons Minister John Robertson, who led the campaign against power privatisation as a union leader. Mr Sturgess's submission to the upper house inquiry links private jail services in Britain to the "decency agenda" pursued by former British prime minister Tony Blair. "Contract prisons in the UK are more humane, partly because government demanded a higher standard when writing the original contracts, partly because price was not allowed to dominate the procurement process, and partly because the political and policy environment at the time when the market was first established was focused on the quality of prison life," the submission from Serco argues. As NSW cabinet chief under former Liberal premier Nick Greiner between 1988 and 1992, Mr Sturgess drove a reform agenda that included the corporatisation of government enterprises such as the railways and electricity transmission. He told The Australian yesterday the British experience showed governments could use competition in prison services as a way to set higher standards, not just to get better value for money. "It gives a government an opportunity to say, 'What kind of prisons do we want here?'," Mr Sturgess said. He said the inmates in low- and medium-security prisons in Britain had been allowed to hold duplicate keys to their own cells, which improved both efficiency and decency. "If (the warder) is the only one with a key, then every time a prisoner wants to go in and out of their cell you've got to send somebody to look at it," he said. "This way, the inmate has the dignity of having private space and a greater sense of security." The higher proportion of women officers in private jails had changed the atmosphere. "The difference is that if you've got a prison full of males, with all the testosterone pumping around, people will attempt to man up," he said. "You're not going to get any credit for assaulting a woman." While such arguments will confound critics of prison privatisation on the Left, Mr Sturgess, as a stalwart of NSW politics, knows another obstacle will be the tough-on-crime stand of the major parties. "The objective has got to be to reduce the cycle of reoffending," Mr Sturgess said. "If the consequence of failing to address quality issues is that we do not break the cycle of reoffending, we're actually increasing the crime problem."

January 5, 2004
A security firm shut down by the NSW Government continued to provide armed patrols to the Department of Community Services months after being removed from the industry register. The case of Lismore-based Magnum Armed Escorts & Security raises important questions about the way in which the burgeoning industry is regulated, particularly when some companies appear to have been targeted by gun thieves. Industry sources say private security has ballooned so much that the Government's Security Industry Registry is struggling to keep a grip on those entering the field and those it has already weeded out. Latest figures show that in NSW alone there are 45,000 people employed as guards, 7863 of them armed. And despite the fact that police are already outnumbered three to one by security officers, in the past six months alone 650 applications have been received for master security licences and a further 7500 for individual class 1 and 2 licences. While the NSW Government has announced a raft of changes to weed out the rogues, restrict access to firearms and remove high-powered weapons from use, only 62 security company permits have been revoked by the authorities in the past five years. (Smh.com)

January 5, 2004
A security guard for the NSW Premier Bob Carr threatened to put three bullets in the head of a NSW police officer, a court heard yesterday. Hussam Hussein, 21, of Blakehurst, appeared at Parramatta Bail Court charged with intimidating a police officer and using telecommunications network equipment to commit an offence. The court was told Hussein was employed by Chubb Security as a security guard at the Premier's home. Police alleged acting Inspector Peter Benic, an officer attached to the Premier's Department, spoke to Hussein about sleeping on the job. (Smh.com)

Perth Immigration Centre
Perth, Australia
Group 4
February 19, 2004
A GROUP of 17 detainees at Perth's immigration detention centre have started a hunger strike to protest about the withdrawal of a work program. The Refugee Rights Action Network (RRAN) said the detainees were told by centre manager Group 4 yesterday that jobs normally performed by detainees in exchange for redeemable points would be outsourced. RRAN spokesman Peter Wilkie said Group 4 had wanted to cut the number of points awarded for certain tasks, and when detainees protested, the jobs were withdrawn. The Australian)

Port Hedland
Kimberley, Australia
GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut)
December 11, 2003
A Port Hedland detainee has vowed to take legal action after being placed in isolation and allegedly bashed as punishment for a riot in which he was cleared of involvement. Asylum seeker Babar Iqbal Choudry, 40, said Australasian Correctional Management guards had handcuffed, punched and kicked him and refused him medical treatment in the Port Hedland detention centre's Juliet isolation block. Speaking from the centre yesterday, Mr Choudry said he had been released on Monday after management reviewed a video of the disturbance last Thursday. "They told me I did nothing wrong," he said. He said he would take legal action after "being treated like a criminal and like a terrorist". He called for an inquiry into the treatment of the detainees. ALP president Carmen Lawrence has called for an independent inquiry into the handling of the disturbance, sparked when a schoolgirls' visit was cancelled on the grounds they could be at risk of being raped. Mr Choudry said 24 detainees still in the isolation block had gone on a hunger strike over their treatment. (The Age)

October 17, 2003
A 16-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker has slashed his arms and chest and staged a roof-top protest at the Port Hedland detention centre, saying his brother was tricked into signing papers to return home. Abdullah Kadem and his family gained media attention this year when they attempted to leave Australia but were rejected by Thailand and Vietnam. Abdullah and his father, Abdul, this week began a roof-top protest with five other asylum seekers after older brother, Mohammed, 18, signed an agreement to return home. Adbullah said immigration department officials told Mohammed the papers were for a bridging visa. Mohammed was flown to the Perth detention centre on Wednesday without his family's knowledge. When he arrived, he was told he had signed deportation papers instead, Abdullah said. (The Age)

January 15, 2003
The Federal Government has flagged the closure of the Port Hedland detention centre in the country's remote north-west as numbers in the centre and boats failed to reach Australia. The spokesman said that for Woomera and Port Hedland detention centres to be closed, the residential housing project that accommodates children and women from Woomera would have to be replaced by another residential project. "If we can get a residential housing project at one of the other centres, and possibly Baxter is most likely, or the preferred, that would pave the way for Woomera to be mothballed," he said. (The Age)

January 8, 2003
The recent spate of fires in Australia's detention centres and the government's rejection of calls for an inquiry are symptoms of a fundamental malaise in Australian public policy. The Howard Government, with little political opposition, has been able to build on the policy initiated by its Labor predecessor of mandatory detention combined with remote detention centres in such places as Port Hedland and Woomera. Against this background it should be noted that while European Australia began as a penal colony and advanced to a federation, in many respects it never completely de-colonised. The policy of indefinite mandatory detention, often in remote locations, was inevitably going to lead to serious problems for the inmates and staff. The central problems with privatised prisons is that they lack the accountability of a government-run organisation. Indeed, one of the driving political motives for such privatisations is to distance the government from problems. They can say it is a matter for the contractor. This is to be contrasted with problems in public prisons, where a fire such as the one started by inmates in Jika Jika in 1987 led to the closure of the facility, immediately. Jim Kennan was the attorney-general and minister for corrections who ordered the closure of the Jika Jika maximum security section of Pentridge Prison immediately after the 1987 riot and fatal fire. (The Age)

January 7, 2003
A workplace safety investigation at the Port Hedland detention centre has raised concerns about fire safety, the presence of asbestos in buildings and the security of staff. Fire extinguishers were missing from accommodation blocks, fire hoses were used to water gardens and staff training was inadequate, the report said. Their investigation was conducted in October, two months before the series of fires that caused millions of dollars damage at Port Hedland and other detention centres in the days after Christmas. It was ordered by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission's senior deputy president, Brian Lacy, when he was dealing with an industrial dispute over the safety concerns of officers at Port Hedland. The officers, employed by detention centre operator Australasian Correctional Management, went on strike for 12 days last September. (The Age)

December 29, 2002
A deliberately lit fire has forced the evacuation of a residential block at Port Hedland Detention Centre in Western Australia. Fire broke out in the India residential block at Port Hedland some time before 1.45am (AEDT) today, a spokesman for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) said today. The blaze follows deliberately lit fires which destroyed large parts of the Baxter Detention Centre at Port Augusta in South Australia over the weekend. Some Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) staff were treated for minor smoke inhalation but there were no other reports of injuries, he said. Meanwhile, police were today questioning asylum seekers suspected of starting up to five separate fires which caused $2.25 million damage at the Baxter Detention Centre, opened only in September. (The Age)

December 10, 2002
The international group Human Rights Watch issued a damning report into Australia's treatment of boat people yesterday. The report was released on the same day as Australia's Human Rights and Equal Ppportunity Commission released four critical reports into complaints of mistreatment by asylum seekers. In one report, the commission said a Lebanese citizen, Hassan Ghomwari, who overstayed his visa and was held in Villawood detention centre, had been denied medical treatment which met minimum international standards. Another report, which concerned complaints by five asylum seekers who had been held in the notorious "J block" at the Port Hedland detention centre, said their rights to be treated with "humanity and respect for their inherent dignity" had been breached. (Sidney Morning Herald)

October 1, 2002
The Industrial Relations Commission has backed union claims that alleged weapon stockpiling by inmates at some of Australia's detention centres could endanger staff. The commission, which also sought to inspect the Port Hedland centre in Western Australia, found there was a workplace dispute over the issue. The commission's senior deputy president Brian Lacy yesterday acknowledged claims by the Australian Workers Union that inmates at Port Hedland were "manufacturing and stockpiling weapons", which could threaten the safety of detention officers. Mr Lacy also noted union claims that the company that controls detention centres nationwide, Australasian Correctional Management, was "not taking any or adequate steps to protect its employees from detainee threats and assaults"." The finding comes as Port Hedland staff enter their seventh day of industrial action. Up to 50 officers at Woomera detention centre also stopped work yesterday over similar safety fears. Counsel for ACM, Ian Douglas, QC, told the commission the company did not believe safety was an industrial issue. Mr Lacy wanted to inspect the Port Hedland centre to determine whether staff safety was in jeopardy. However, ACM has said it will appeal against Mr Lacy's finding of a dispute and has refused to take part in the inspection process. Last Tuesday more than 50 Port Hedland officers and staff at the Christmas Island centre stopped work over safety issues, including understaffing and claims that detainees were stockpiling weapons. In his decision, Mr Lacy criticised ACM's attitude to the commission. "If its conduct throughout the course of the matter proves to be as it appears from the record, it might reasonably be regarded that ACM has acted appallingly... It appears from the record that ACM saw the commission as a way to secure a return of its employees to work without any consideration of the merits of their claims about fears for their safety," he said. AWU national president Bill Shorten said it was "outrageous" that ACM had chosen to effectively block the commission's desire to inspect the Port Hedland centre. "They are a law unto themselves. A law within a law." (The Age)

September 25, 2002
A strike by detention centre guards at Port Hedland has widened, with officers walking off the job at the Christmas Island immigration facility. Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten said 14 of a total of 26 guards at the offshore camp walked out over the same safety issues as their colleagues at Port Hedland. Sixty Port Hedland officers began industrial action last night, demanding that the camp's managers, Australasian Correctional Management (ACM), conduct a weapons search. Guards claim detainees have been fashioning weapons from chairs, beds, sticks and other objects, and have been stashing them away inside the compound. The union also wants minimum agreed staffing levels per shift and an assurance that detainees will in future be escorted on any trips out of the centre by more than one officer. He said AWU detention centre officers at Perth, Villawood, Maribyrnong and at the immigration detention centre in Auckland had sent messages of support to staff at Port Hedland and Christmas Island. Mr Shorten said the officers would not return to their duties unless their demands were met. "There is a culture of denial within ACM." The AWU today said the centre manager and operations manager at the newly-opened Baxter had both resigned in the past month. (The Age)

September 24, 2002
Fears that detainees are stockpiling home-made weapons have sparked a walkout by guards at Western Australia's Port Hedland detention centre. Australian Workers Union WA official Paul Asplin said detainees had fashioned weapons from broken-up steel and wooden beds, bookshelves and "anything (they) can get their hands on". He said the 50 workers walked off the job today and would not return until a weapons inspection was carried out by the centre's managers, Australasian Correctional Management (ACM). A skeleton staff of five was left watching the detainees, Mr Asplin said. Mr Asplin said the centre's chief executive officer had denied knowledge of the arms, despite detention centre officers video taping evidence over the past two weeks and passing it to management. "ACM has got to lift its game and acknowledge the Health and Safety Act," Mr Asplin said. "They can't ensure the guards' safety and for budget constraints they don't want to." Mr Asplin said workers also wanted ACM to employ two guards, rather than one, when escorting high-risk detainees outside the centre. The request follows the escape of a detainee on a visit to the dentist last month, when accompanied by a single guard. (Smh.com.au)

August 23, 2002
The Port Hedland immigration detention centre was "a ship that has several holes in the hull and is sinking fast", a report has found. Lives were being risked, with blocked escape routes, combustible material lying in corridors and broken smoke detectors and hydrants posing a fire risk The fire detection system was so bad that "smoke from a fire may not be detected and raise an alarm", according to the report, carried out last year by consultant Steve Broadbelt and obtained by the Herald. Other faults singled out included fire hydrants that were "leaking badly", fire hose reels locked in cabinets to which guards had no keys, no fire extinguishers in the mess kitchen, and emergency lighting systems in disrepair. "It is considered that if the referred deficiencies in the refurbishment are not implemented, and all the other fire safety systems are not immediately reinstated to 100 per cent operational status, the scenario at the [centre] would suggest a real potential for loss of life," it said. There are 138 asylum seekers at the Port Hedland centre. The Broadbelt report classified problems at the centre on a rating of urgency, with P1 - matters that were "a serious direct threat to the occupants" and should be "rectified immediately" - the most urgent. P1 ratings were given to five problems, including a wall that had been built at the top of a stairway preventing escape along a path leading to an emergency exit, and missing or inoperable fire detectors that had been covered in plastic food wrap or filled with toothpaste. "The apparent acceptance of this situation by the staff would suggest that this has continued for some time," the report said. It noted that emergency alarm sounders were out of commission, foam mattresses were stored in corridors and internal stairways, and, according to staff, that there had been no evacuation exercises for "at least the last two years". (Sidney Morning Herald)

August 5, 2002
A detainee from the Port Hedland immigration centre in Western Australia is still at large after escaping on Friday while visiting a dentist in the town. Despite three days of searching, police say they have no idea of the whereabouts of the detainee, a 37-year-old man of Middle Eastern origin who escaped from a security guard assigned to him for the dental trip. "All we know is he had one guard with him and whilst there he took off. As soon as we were advised we dispatched a vehicle to look for him," Sergeant Hush said. "We liaised with ACM (Australian Correctional Management) trying to get a bit of intelligence as to where he could be, who might help him, and came up with a negative result. An immigration department spokeswoman said the department was investigating the circumstances of the escape. (Smh.com.au)

May 15, 2001
Friday's riot at the Port Hedland detention centre was triggered by fears for the safety of handcuffed Iranian asylum-seeker who resisted being taken into isolation. Claims that the man had been beaten by Australasian Correctional Management guards were denied yesterday by the Federal Government. A spokesperson said a misunderstanding by detainees led to the riot. The incident happened when five men were removed from the Port Hedland centre, a converted mining camp in the Kimberley about 220 kilometers from Broome, and taken to police lock-up in Port Hedland. Asem Judeh, chairman of the Palestinian Refugees and Exile Awareness Association in Melbourne, said he was rung twice from the Port Hedland camp by a source who told him one of the men was beaten. In response the riot had broken out, he said. Mr. Judeh said he was told the person was aged 15 or younger and this contributed to the situation. During the riot asylum-seekers threw stones and damaged buildings. The group was brought under control when ACM staff sprayed tear gas. Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said yesterday there was no need for an inquiry into the riot. (The Age)

Port Phillip Prison
Port Phillip, Australia
Group 4/Global Solutions (formerly run by Group 4 formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
August 28, 2009 Herald Sun
A VIOLENT drunken bully who killed his girlfriend's three-year-old son is suing for damages because he caught hepatitis C in jail. Killer Mark Mietto, who escaped with just four years in prison over the 2001 killing of little Jonathan Guiver, has demanded compensation for his "pain and suffering". His plight has attracted little sympathy from the shattered dad of his young victim. A drunken Mietto smashed Jonathan's skull at the boy's mum's Vermont home in June 2001. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, saying he had dropped the young boy on his head accidentally, a claim rejected by the court. Jonathan had complained Mietto had harmed him previously and an autopsy found bruises on his body consistent with previous child abuse. Now Mietto claims he is suffering and deserves to be paid damages. In a writ lodged in the Victorian County Court on Monday, the 34-year-old alleged he had contracted hepatitis C from fellow inmates at Port Phillip Prison. His suffered liver dysfunction, fatigue, abdominal pain, night sweats and pain and suffering, the writ said. The former labourer and painter was also permanently "incapacitated for employments to which he is suited", the writ alleges. Mietto has accused the private prison's operator, G4S Custodial Services, of failing to protect him from the deadly disease. The prison operator should have warned him about the dangers of sharing electric razors and other personal items with other inmates, and should have isolated prisoners with the disease, the writ claims. It is believed Mietto has claimed to the prison he was infected with hepatitis C while using a communal electric razor in the prison's high-security Charlotte Unit, which is designed to manage difficult prisoners.

July 9, 2009 The Age
PRIVATE prison operator G4S is under attack over a prisoner's death — for the third time in nine years — after a coroner found it could have prevented the fatal asthma attack of a prisoner who died after using a faulty emergency intercom. Ian Westcott, 50, was found dead in his Port Phillip Prison cell on the morning of November 26, 2005, about eight hours after he died. On a desk in his cell, police found a note in his handwriting: "Asthma attack. Buzzed for help. No response." In a damning finding, coroner Audrey Jamieson said prison operator GSL — now trading as G4S — failed to take proper measures to ensure the functionality of its "archaic" emergency intercom system. "Mr Westcott's death was not … without sufficient warning as to render his death unpreventable," she said. "I find a direct correlation between the failure of the intercom system and Mr Westcott's death. The technology must be capable of meeting the security needs of the isolated at all times." G4S Australia, a subsidiary of a British-owned multinational security and prisons company, last year was criticised by the WA coroner over the "inhumane" death of Aboriginal prisoner who suffered heatstroke in an unair-conditioned van on a 360-kilometre trip. The company was also found to have contributed to the hanging deaths of three inmates and the drug overdose of another at Port Phillip Prison in 1997-98. In 2004, it was fined $500,000 after refusing immigration detainees food, water and toilet access on a seven-hour trip. Ms Jamieson recommended a statewide review of prison intercom and security systems and independent and Department of Justice audits. Investigators had concluded a single faulty pin on a six-pin telephone plug housed in the jail's central services cupboard was probably to blame for the faulty intercom.

July 9, 2009 Herald Sun
A CORONER has found a prisoner who died of an asthma attack could have survived if an intercom had been working. Ian Thomas Campbell Westcott, 55, was found dead in his Port Phillip Prison cell on November 26, 2005. Prison officers found a note in his cell reading "asthma attack. buzzed for help. no response". Coroner Audrey Jamieson described the intercom as "archaic" and said Mr Westcott's death was totally preventable. "I find that the failure of the intercom system denied Mr Westcott the opportunity to receive medical attention,'' Ms Jamieson said. Ms Jamison said private prison operator GSL, now called G4S, failed to properly maintain the intercom system and recommended a State Government-commissioned overhaul of all communication systems in Victorian prisons. Ms Jamieson's also criticised St Vincent's Correctional Health Services for its medical management of prisoners. She said Mr Westcott's asthma had never been assessed by medical staff and he had never received information on how to manage the condition. A prison doctor told the coroner asthma attacks could cause sudden death, but Ms Jamieson said Mr Westcott had the self-control to write the note before his death which indicated he could have been saved. "I thus find that Mr Westcott's death was not "sudden'' or without warning, or sufficient warning so as to render his death unpreventable,'' she said. It is estimated Mr Westcott, who was on remand for dishonesty charges, died eight hours before being discovered by prison staff. Outside the Coroner's Court, Mr Westcott's daughter Vanessa and wife Lorraine said they were considering further legal action against prison authorities. An emotional Vanessa Westcott said she was devastated by her father's unnecessary death. "I just want to say that this was so preventable, you know, he could be here with me right now,'' she said. "They should be held accountable and I'm going to make sure they are.'' G4S public affairs spokesman Tim Hall said the company had made immediate changes to their intercom system after Mr Westcott's death.

June 8, 2008 The Age
A PRISONER subjected to an obscene practical joke by prison officers has won damages in a case known in prison circles as "Sausagegate". The private operator of Port Phillip Prison has agreed to pay Kirk Steven Ardern a large sum for physical and psychological injuries suffered in May 2005. The Sunday Age understands the payout is less than $100,000, but private prison operator GSL has already been fined almost $200,000 by Corrections Victoria. Ardern had been made to believe he was leaving the prison to buy doughnuts, but was then coerced into inserting what he was told was a package of contraband drugs and cash into 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 subsequent mock interrogation. The sausage was described as being "15 to 20 centimetres long". Three prison officers suspended on full pay for six to nine months over the incident were sacked, and two others were counselled. Ardern was released on parole soon after the incident but is now at Fulham Prison, near Sale, after being jailed in October 2006 for bashing an elderly couple in their Hughesdale home. GSL Australia director of public affairs Tim Hall said the behaviour of the staff involved was inexcusable. GSL is facing a scandal in Western Australia over the death in February of a 46-year-old man who died after a four-hour trip in a sealed compartment of a police van when the outside temperature was 43 degrees. And in March, a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission report found GSL had breached the human rights of five detainees it was taking from Melbourne's Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre to South Australia's Baxter facility in September 2004.

August 5, 2007 The Age
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."

October 22, 2003
The State Government yesterday warned the private operator of Port Phillip Prison that its contract could be terminated if it did not immediately fix several security issues. Corrections Minister Andre Haermeyer served Group 4 Securitas with a default notice, saying it had failed to deal with 24 out of the 39 security obligations identified in a review earlier this year. Group 4 has been given two weeks to present a "cure plan" to Corrections Victoria to demonstrate how it would fix security and honour its contractual obligations. If it fails to come up with a satisfactory plan, it could lose its contract or face financial penalties. The Government could also sue for compensation. Ten per cent of Group 4's performance-linked fee had been held back in relation to a health service requirement in the past year. "The operator is basically on notice," Mr Haermeyer said. "This is not something we are going to give them a great deal of time to remedy." In 2000, the Government took control of the women's prison at Deer Park after the private operator was deemed to have failed its contractual responsibilities after repeated security and drug breaches. The Group 4 default notice comes after a search of the maximum security prison, at Laverton, on May 7 revealed a small handgun loaded with five bullets, a mobile phone and a large stash of drugs. Another search the next day uncovered more mobile phones and a digital camera. Corrections Commissioner Kelvin Anderson said yesterday he could not rule out guards at the prison being responsible for contraband in the jail. There was another security breach in August when a prisoner could not be found for more than seven hours. The decision to issue a default notice was made after Group 4 was found to have rectified only 15 out of 39 issues identified in a review after the May security breaches. Group 4 said in a statement yesterday that it acknowledged the seriousness of the incidents. Security had been enhanced and would be tightened further. Group 4 said it had improved human security at the prison and was looking at ways to boost electronic security to help detect contraband. The company was awarded a 20-year contract to build, own and operate the prison by the Kennett government in 1997. It was issued with a default notice in 1998 after a riot. In its first year of operation, nine inmates died. The State Coroner found that Group 4 and the Victorian Government had contributed to the suicide deaths of four men because Group 4 failed to provide a safe physical environment. Neither Group 4 nor the Government would disclose the value of the prison contract. (The Age)

September 11, 2003
Two Victorian prison officers have been arrested in relation to a drug trafficking matter. Prison squad detectives arrested a man and woman about 6.30am at a home in Melbourne's western suburbs. Police will be making an application to remand the male officer at Melbourne Magistrates Court later today. The female officer is expected to be bailed and appear before court at a later date. The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation by the prison squad with the assistance of Corrections Victoria and Port Phillip Prison management. (The Age)

August 20, 2002
RMIT University yesterday backed out of its bid to team with a private prison operator to run Australia's refugee detention centres after a heated university forum on the issue. The university had proposed to provide education and recreational activities to asylum seekers in detention centres run by Group 4 Falck, which runs Victoria's Port Phillip Prison. The plan has faced mounting opposition from staff, including several academics on the university's 20-member council, and students since it was revealed last month. RMIT Student Union Council president Emily Anderson applauded the decision as a victory for staff and students who had campaigned against the bid. Ms.Anderson said most of the 250 people at the forum were against RMIT's involvement believing it legitimised mandatory detention. "That was quite clear from the reaction speakers got," she said. (The Age)

August 10, 2004
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)

Private security guards
May 14, 2003
About 40,000 private security guards, some of whom are suspected of having links to organised crime, will soon be forced to go to police stations for fingerprinting in a bid to clean up the industry. Because the prints will be cross-checked against the unsolved crimes database, police privately hope some of the state's most baffling cases may soon be cleared. Since the Olympics, the industry has undergone phenomenal growth. After the September 11 attacks and the Bali bombings, security guards have been performing a broader range of roles, including protecting government buildings and icons such as the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Last year, the Police Commissioner, Ken Moroney, revealed that "criminals and their associates have been able to exploit the system to obtain licences and firearms, and inside knowledge of targets, to commit crime". "This is about providing a safe environment and if that means getting rid of cowboys in the industry, I will do it," he said. Apart from fingerprinting and gun checks, all security guards will have to be Australian citizens or permanent residents. Police also have stronger powers to expel rogue guards. In the past five years, nearly 1800 applicants have been refused licenses. More than 830 security personnel have had their authority revoked for some breach during their time of employment. (Smh.com.au)

Victoria Courts
Sydney, Australia
Group 4
September 9, 2009 Australian Associated Press
GUARDS who screen people entering Victoria's courts and providing in-court security are threatening to strike over a long-running pay dispute. The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) says a strike by the guards, employed by security contractor G4S, could shut down Victoria's court system. LHMU assistant state secretary Ben Redford says the guards just want the same pay rates as their peers at other major contractors in Victoria. "These guards keep our courts safe and secure - they ensure the wheels of justice are not derailed by criminals and terrorists," said Mr Redford. "They take their jobs very seriously - they don't want to go on strike but they are trapped on poverty wages and have an employer that won't bargain in good faith. "A strike by these low-paid guards could shut down Victoria's court system." A spokesman for G4S said the company was offering a three-year deal commencing in 2010, with annual pay rises of 4.5 per cent, four per cent and three per cent in succession. "We are very close to reaching agreement. The only sticking point is we want a three-year deal and they want two years," spokesman Tim Hall said. "We believe a three-year agreement will give the company stability in the current economic climate and the pay rises are extremely competitive." While the union is happy with the 4.5 and four per cent rises, it wants the agreement to be renegotiated late in the second year to provide a better deal for 2012. "Our members feel that it's a bit like blackmail - 'we'll give you what you want for two years in return for a dud deal in the third year'," Mr Redford said. "The three per cent for that third year is unlikely to be on a par with inflation." Guards have been in negotiations with G4S since November 2008 and say their employer is not bargaining in good faith. The UK-based G4S operates private prisons, prisoner transport, court security and immigration detention centres across Australia. It has more then 585,000 part-time and full-time employees across 115 countries.

Villawood Detention Centre
Sydney, Australia
Global Solutions (formerly run by Group 4 and Wackenhut Corrections)
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.

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.

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."

September 6, 2005 Sidney Morning Herald
The first harrowing experience for five-year-old Shayan Badraie came with riots. The chanting, the tear gas, and the water cannon that hit the "container" where his family slept at Woomera detention centre in August 2000 frightened him. After that he suffered from a series of broken sleeps and had nightmares. Soon after the riots subsided the Iranian-born child and his father walked by a man who threatened to cut his chest with a broken pane of glass. The colour drained from his face, and he began to speak less and less, his stepmother Zahra Saberi told the NSW Supreme Court through an interpreter yesterday. "He went and sat on his bed and he started crying and was shaking," she said. "His sleep was very bad … in his sleep he would scream. He said something in his sleep … he was scared. He was thinking that person [with the broken glass] would kill him."

September 5, 2005 The Age
An Iranian boy at Woomera detention centre who witnessed a fellow detainee threatening to cut himself feared the same man was going to kill him, a NSW court has been told. Shayan Badraie was only five when he saw another detainee at South Australia's Woomera Detention Centre threaten to cut himself in the chest with a large broken piece of glass. Now aged 10, Shayan is suing the federal government over the two years he spent in immigration detention at Woomera, and Villawood in Sydney, from March 2000. His legal team claims the boy developed post-traumatic stress at the detention centres where he was exposed to violence, riots and acts of self-harm. They are seeking compensation from the government and the detention centre operators, Australasian Correctional Services and its subsidiary Australasian Correctional Management, claiming they are liable for Shayan's psychological suffering.

September 2, 2005 Sidney Morning Herald
Woomera detention centre in the South Australian desert so frightened a little Iranian boy he developed post traumatic stress disorder, the NSW Supreme Court has heard. In the first his five years of his life before arriving in Australia, Shayan Badraie was a normal youngster, who enjoyed playing with other children his age. But within a month of arriving at the Woomera detention centre he was terrified by constant chanting and rioting by other detainees. And he refused to leave the caravan-style accommodation in which he was living. Shayan, now aged 10, is suing the federal government over the two years he spent in immigration detention at Woomera in South Australia, and Villawood in Sydney, from March 2000. The boy is seeking compensation from the government and the detention centre operators, Australasian Correctional Services and its subsidiary Australasian Correctional Management, claiming they are liable for Shayan's psychological suffering. If the test case succeeds, other detainees may sue the government for millions of dollars in damages.

August 29, 2005 Sidney Morning Herald
When former Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock was advised an Iranian family should be released from detention for the welfare of their traumatised son, he apparently said there was "Buckley's" chance, a court has been told. Shayan Badraie, now aged 10, is suing the federal government over the two years he spent in immigration detention at Woomera in South Australia, and Villawood in Sydney, from March 2000. If the test case succeeds, other detainees may sue the government for millions of dollars in damages. Shayan's legal team told the NSW Supreme Court the boy developed post-traumatic stress after being exposed to violence, riots and acts of self-harm at the detention centres. They are seeking compensation from the government and the detention centre operators, Australasian Correctional Services and its subsidiary Australasian Correctional Management, claiming they are liable for Shayan's psychological suffering. Fleeing religious persecution in Iran, Shayan was five years-old when he and his parents were detained at Woomera after arriving by boat in March 2000. Dr Morrison said the defendants should have known that placing a young child in immigration detention might have exposed him to numerous traumatic events and caused him harm. In March 2001, he and his family were transferred to Villawood but this "further aggravated and exacerbated his fragile psychological state", Dr Morrison said. There, the court was told, Shayan was apparently force fed, saw a detainee cut his wrists and was exposed to violence and intimidation from detention officers and other detainees.

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.

February 16, 2004
Three days before Christmas, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone made a call to the Villawood detention centre in Sydney that ended Faezah Askari's four-year ordeal in detention. "It was a big surprise for us," Ms Askari said. "We were given just three hours to pack up our belongings and leave. "When I asked what had happened, I was told the minister had approved our application that I helped write. We were released with permanent visas, not a temporary protection visa as we had expected. It was a shock and a wonderful Christmas present," she said. Ms Askari, 22, said her family, followers of the Sabian Mandaean faith, celebrated for three days. "It was the first time the family had been able to celebrate together in freedom, to walk in community and go where we wanted to. We went to church, it was so nice," she said. But things were not always good for the Askaris. According to evidence at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission inquiry into children in detention, they were harshly treated during their three years at the Port Hedland detention centre. Documents showed the family's special needs were all but ignored. Part of the problem was a protracted dispute between Australasian Correction Management, a private, US-owned company which ran Port Hedland, and the Immigration Department over who should pay for the special care. As a result, it was two years before a definitive diagnosis was made of Ms Askari's brothers Feaz 14, and Ansar 9, who have a rare genetic condition. The strain of caring for the boys overwhelmed their mother, Farah, who had a breakdown. Ms Askari told The Age that her mother told immigration officers about her brothers' mental disabilities two days after the family arrived at Port Hedland. "Through all the three years at Port Hedland, they did not have any friends. They could not go to school because the teachers could not look after them," she said. Attempts to shift the family from Port Hedland to Villawood, where they would be close to relatives and members of the Mandaean community, were also denied on the grounds that the family was classified - wrongfully - as potential runaways. Only after their situation was highlighted during the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission inquiry did it begin to change. Last year, the family was moved to Villawood where specialised care was available for the boys. But Ms Askari said she found the staff in Villawood unfriendly and she felt shut off from the outside community. "I much preferred Port Hedland, it became our home, it was more open, and I had friends. The staff were friendly," she said. "Villawood was closed and shut off. There were excursions." As for the future of her family in Sydney, Ms Askari is positive. "I was always confident that justice would prevail and we would get our visas. I am studying child care at the moment, but my ambition is to study biology at university." (The Age)

October 26, 2003
The family of an Iranian boy said to be severely traumatised by 15 months in an Australian detention centre will today take legal action against the Federal Government and operators of the detention centre. Josh Bornstein, of the law firm Maurice Blackburn Cashman, will seek damages from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and Australasian Correctional Management, which ran the Woomera and Villawood detention centres. A spokeswoman for the law firm said the claim would be for a substantial amount. (The Age)

June 27, 2003
Federal government records show eight people have died in Australian immigration detention in the past five years, including one confirmed suicide. In response to questioning from independent MP Peter Andren, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said five men and three women had died since the introduction of mandatory detention in 1989. No children had died. The details come after last week's Family Court ruling that the detention of children in immigration centres was unlawful. The federal government plans a High Court appeal against the ruling. Coronial investigation had confirmed the cause of death in six of the cases as liver failure, chest infection, gastro-intestinal haemorrhage, suicide by hanging, narcotic withdrawal and head injury caused by a fall. Four of the cases involved detainees at the Villawood Detention Centre, of which two died at the Liverpool Hospital. (The Age)

June 24, 2003
Villawood Refugee Detention Centre management had disciplined employees for speaking to federal politicians about problems in detention centres, a union said today. Three officers from the detention centre, in Sydney's west, went to Canberra last week to speak to Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock and other politicians. On their return to work this week they were handed "ugly" letters from the centre's manager, Australasian Correctional Management (ACM), said Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union (LHMU) assistant secretary Jo-Anne Schofield. "(ACM) obviously doesn't believe that workers should have a democratic voice to speak out about problems because each one of the union members who went to Canberra is now being harassed by their employer," Ms Schofield said. "I think it was important the minister hears from the workers themselves and not just the union or the company." The dispute will be heard by AIRC senior deputy president Anne Harrison in Sydney on Monday. ACM declined to comment. (The Age)

May 16, 2003
A federal investigation is under way into allegations that medical treatment was withheld from people in detention centres. The Commonwealth Ombudsman's office has confirmed it has received several complaints from detainees, particularly those put into detention centres with pre-existing medical conditions, claiming they have been denied access to treatment. This comes as the Immigration Department confirmed Iranian consular officials had gone into Baxter detention centre yesterday to speak to failed asylum seekers. The unprecedented move follows the recent agreement signed between Iran and Australia to repatriate Iranians, involuntarily if necessary. It was seen by refugee advocates as an attempt to pressure asylum seekers into returning home, but the department said no detainee was forced to meet the officials. One case being investigated by the Ombudsman involves a 37-year-old Lebanese man, Samir Abbas, who suffers from a heart condition known as Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. He was put into Villawood in February after overstaying his visa. His lawyer, Stephen Hopper, says Mr Abbas has been refused permission to have a heart operation which doctors say would control his recurring heart palpitations. Mr Abbas has offered to pay for the operation. It is claimed Mr Abbas suffered an "episode" with his heart on Friday, but despite repeated requests to be taken to hospital, Villawood guards refused to act until his lawyer went to the ABC. After media broadcasts, he was taken by ambulance to Bankstown Hospital and kept overnight. Villawood management was rebuked by the deputy state coroner last month over the death of a Thai prostitute in September 2001. Villawood medical staff had refused to take her to hospital. (Sidney Morning News)

March 12, 2003
Puangthong Simaplee arrived in Australia as a 12-year-old sex slave. She died 15 years later in a poll of vomit at the Villawood Detention Centre. She was being held there after immigration officers picked her up when they raided a Sydney brothel. A coroner's inquest into her death has been told the 27-year old Thai woman, who weighed only 38 kilograms died from pneumonia and malnutrition. Michael O'Brien, the counsel assisting the deputy coroner, Carl Milovanovich, said it was a mandatory inquest into a death in custody. "It is not an inquiry into Australian immigration policy...It is an inquiry into the nature of the deceased's detainment...and how that detainment may have contributed to her death," he said. An Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) officer, Laura O'Halloran, said Ms. Simaplee had been placed in an observation room and checked every half hour. Ms. Simaplee had been vomiting continuously, and the detention officers called nursing staff at different times. But, referring to the night of her death, she said: "I didn't think she looked any worse this night than on the previous two nights." A health services manager with ACM, Janell Mulholland, said she had found nursing and medical observation records were incomplete. Under questioning by Edson Pike, counsel for ACM, Ms. Mulholland said the issue of the management footing the costs of outside hospitalization of a detainee had never been an issue. (Smh.au.com)

February 14, 2003
Five escapees bashed a prison guard at Villawood Detention Centre yesterday before cutting a hole in a security fence and escaping. By last night police had recaptured three of the five men in suburban backyards, under a powerboat and in a shed. The guard had been released from hospital. The Minister for Immigration, Philip Ruddock, said the men were not asylum seekers and were awaiting deportation after being connected with crime in NSW. Local residents were woken by four buses from Villawood, dozens of police and sniffer dogs searching the area after the 7am breakout. Jaw Dat Zraika, whose lattice side fence was allegedly smashed by two of the captured men, said he found them huddled in his garage toilet. He was in the shower when his wife alerted him to noise outside. Mr Ruddock said the escape appeared to have been premeditated, with a map of the area found on one escapee. He said would push for the states to consider holding those waiting for criminal deportation in jails rather than in detention centres. (Smh.au.com)

February 14, 2003
Police have recaptured six of the nine asylum seekers who escaped from Sydney 's Villawood detention centre this morning. The nine Asian males broke out of the centre shortly after 7am (AEDT). They were believed to have cut a hole in the perimeter fence. (The Age)

January 5, 2003
There was more violence at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre at the weekend, with at least one man taken to hospital after a knife attack. The spokeswoman said a Vietnamese national, 37, had been taken to Westmead Hospital with a stab wound to his thigh, while a NSW police spokeswoman said a 30-year-old man had been taken to hospital with stab wounds to his upper body, wrist and arms. (Smh.au.com0

January 3, 2003
The first person to be charged over the violence at immigration centres is a 33-year old Scottish man with a 13-page criminal history who has lived in Australia for at least two decades. However, Darren James McCreadie failed to take out Australian citizenship, and when he was jailed for his most recent offence the Immigration Department cancelled his residency. McCreadie was due to be deported after his release from prison in August, but he appealed against the department's action and was being held in villawood's high-security area pending the outcome. (Smh.au.com)

December 31, 2002
Detainees set fire to a building at Villawood last night, continuing the string of deliberately lit blazes at detention centres around Australia. Firefighters said rioting inmates hampered their efforts to control the blaze, which started about 11pm. There was also an attempt by two inmates to break out of the centre by ramming the gates in cars belonging to the detention centre. A demountable aluminium building was destroyed, but there were no reported injuries and it is believed all detainees were accounted for. An inmate who called the Herald denied the fires at the centres were connected. "This was not a riot, this was a statement. It's been on the cards for a long time. We can't live in these conditions." But a fire brigade spokeswoman said they were "having a lot of trouble with security at the site" and that 10 fire crews were at the scene. The fire is the latest in a string of detention centre blazes which have caused $8 million damage. Only hours after the Prime Minister, John Howard, dismissed claims of a crisis, the detention centre at Christmas Island was on fire yesterday. Detainees armed with pipes took over a compound, the Immigration Department said. (Smh.au.com)

Woodford Correctional Centre
Queensland, Australia
Management and Training Corporation
August 14, 2001
Drugs and illegal 'home brew' have been discovered during random searches in Queensland's prisons. Four prisoners have also lost open security classification after testing positive to drugs. Two prisoners already in custody are facing charges after random searches uncovered drugs at Borallon Correctional Centre and illegal brew at Borallon and Woodford Correctional Centres. (ABC News)

Woomera Detention Center
South Australia
Group 4 (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections)
September 19, 2008 The Age
LARGE numbers of asylum seekers were deliberately held in detention far longer than need be, and subjected to mistreatment and gruelling conditions, according to a new report. Others were wrongfully denied asylum as a result of detention centre staff who saw their role as "gatekeepers", keeping people out of Australia, and blocked detainees' access to lawyers. This "culture of obstruction" was reflected in appeals to the Refugee Review Tribunal which, over a three-year period, overturned 30% or more of asylum applications rejected by department officers. Most Australians had no idea what was going on behind the walls of the country's detention centres, nor of the lingering damage inflicted on detainees, later found to be refugees and released, according to the Human Rights Overboard report. The report stems from a "people's inquiry" into detention, set up in February 2005 after the discovery of the wrongful detention of Australian resident Cornelia Rau. As reported by The Age, it was set up by the heads of social work departments at universities around Australia, as an alternative to the Government's Palmer Inquiry. It held hearings around Australia for over two years, taking around 400 oral and written submissions from former detainees, former detention centre workers, refugees advocates and lawyers. Former staff and medical professionals testified to abuses including bashings, and the wrongful use of medication and isolation units to "manage" disruptive or grieving detainees. A former Woomera worker described how, with no appropriate training, she had to counsel up to 12 people a day who had self-harmed over their indefinite detention. "I was dealing with people tying razor wire around their throats, using razor blades, knitting needles that they would sharpen, rope … overdosing on Panadol, detergent, chemicals, gravel," she said. Another former worker spoke about how up to six asylum seekers were crammed into Besser-block buildings designed for one person, with no air-conditioning and temperatures in the high 40s. "There were eight toilets for 1800 people," the worker said. "There were two washing machines. There were two taps in the compound. One would often break down so there was limited access to drinking water. There was hardly any staff. They (detainees) used to line up for four or five hours in the heat just to get a Panadol." The inquiry was told of one man denied medical treatment who had to be rushed to hospital with a burst appendix; a child who had to wait six weeks for a doctor after catching her finger in a door; a man with a broken ankle who had to wait 13 days for treatment; symptoms of a 60-year-old woman "diagnosed" by management as "psychosomatic", when she had actually suffered a stroke; and a woman and a minor who lost partial sight because specialist care was withheld. The report also says that on release, detainees faced a new burden; bills of up to $200,000 for their "upkeep" in detention.

September 13, 2008 Sidney Morning Herald
About 10 o'clock one evening in January 2003, Mary Rohde got out of her four-wheel-drive to lock the gate to the visitor carpark at the Baxter immigration detention facility near Port Augusta, where she was a detention officer. She felt a presence but saw no one, and returned to the car to radio the control room. Suddenly an arm was round her neck, a blade at her throat. Terror and incomprehension overwhelmed her. Eventually the arm loosened and she looked round; in the back seat was her boss. It had been a security drill. "That'll teach her to lock the car door," a supervisor later remarked. Rhode was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and, five years later, has not recovered, despite psychiatric treatment. Her symptoms are typical. She suffers from nightmares and insomnia. She cannot manage social situations, cannot sit in a doctor's waiting room; even visits from her adult children are too much to cope with. Half an hour after they arrive she finds herself weeping in her bedroom. "I'm now the shell of the person I was. I drink and take drugs; for me to cope, that's what I have to do," she says. Rohde is one of many former officers who developed post-traumatic stress disorder and other stress-related disorders while working in detention centres around Australia. Statistics from WorkCover South Australia record 62 claims for post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental disorders made by guards at Woomera and Baxter. Many are unlikely to work again. We have been told a lot about the impact of detention on asylum seekers, but not about the impact on those who worked there. By 1999 leaky vessels were making their way to Australia carrying mostly asylum seekers from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. Arrival numbers overwhelmed detention centres at Curtin and Port Hedland, both in northern Western Australia. The overflow shifted to a makeshift camp near Woomera, South Australia, where they languished in desert heat until given visas or sent home. Five hundred kilometres from Adelaide, with access to the detention centre barred to almost all, it was impossible for outsiders to know what happened within. Woomera's carrying capacity was 400. By April 2000 it held more than 1400 detainees, and officers were needed to keep order. Detention services were privatised by the Howard government in 1997. The successful tenderer was Australasian Correctional Management, or ACM, a subsidiary of the US giant Wackenhut corporation, which ran private jails in Australia and overseas. Many ACM detention centre officers had been jail staff but the company also advertised for them. With free accommodation and the minimum requirement of five 12-hour shifts a week, the conditions seemed excellent - about $1200 a week. For Rohde, recently separated from her husband and experiencing financial difficulties, the job seemed a godsend. Many officers believed they were on important duty. In 2000 Australians got the message they were under siege; that the boatloads surely included terrorists. Still others thought this was a chance to show kindness. Within weeks, the new recruits would find themselves kitted up in riot gear and wielding batons, extinguishing fires, or cutting down would-be suicides. Trevor Robertson signed up to Woomera in June 2000. He had recently completed training as a prison officer in Brisbane. His partner, Kendall Jones, expecting their first child, urged him to apply. As with Rohde, the move would be the mistake of their lives. An imposing figure, Robertson was respected by colleagues and soon became a supervisor. When Woomera closed and the operation transferred to the Baxter centre near Port Augusta, Robertson went too. One former colleague remembers him as even-tempered, fair and good in a crisis - "the best operator at Woomera". Robertson has been unable to work, his marriage teeters in the balance, and he rarely leaves the loungeroom of his modest Port Augusta home. He does not socialise, and spends his time bent over the computer, poring over state and federal law, or on the phone to any bureaucrat or politician who will talk to him about immigration detention. It is an obsession. He has reflected long and hard about why it all went so wrong in immigration detention centres. All the officers interviewed for this story said training was inadequate. In an intensive four- to six-week course, new recruits practised restraint and riot drills, became familiar with the Migration Act, and were encouraged to treat detainees with respect. Robertson does not think any training could have prepared officers for the dire daily situations. He told ABC TV's Four Corners program that three days after training he was at Woomera when 500 detainees attempted to escape. The job was close to impossible. Detention centres became violent; chaos reigned. These desert prisons held people who were distressed and traumatised for months or years on end, waiting for news on their visa applications. Many eventually became deranged. Riots, hunger strikes, self-harm and suicide attempts were common. Officers became the focus of detainee anger and resentment, and threats were made against them and their families. It angers Robertson that he and colleagues were denied help. "We were the police; we were the mental health-care workers; we were the social workers," he recalls bitterly. Detention centres had rules, and most detainees obeyed them. A core group, however, was troublesome and the only consequence of their behaviour was incarceration in the "management unit", a form of solitary confinement where detainees frequently became so unmanageable it was easier to return them to their compounds. Troublemakers lit fires, smashed windows, stood over and bullied others and assaulted officers with relative impunity. Experts argue that incarceration in detention centres induces mental illness. According to ACM statistics for October 2001, three psychologists saw 764 residents at Woomera. A psychiatrist visited every few weeks, but daily care of people with mental illness was left to untrained officers. Rod Gigney, a kindly officer, would bribe Anna with fruit, trying to curb her behaviour. The young woman wandered around naked at Baxter and defecated on the floor. To officers less sympathetic, Anna was just a heroin-addicted, damned nuisance. She turned out to be the schizophrenic German-born Australian Cornelia Rau. Gigney made many reports about Anna to management, without effect. Carol Wiltshire was deeply concerned about a woman who had not left her room for 10 months. She was catatonic, covered in bedsores and unable to tend to her small child. Wiltshire's supervisor suggested she "poke her with a stick and see if she's still alive". It was another month before she was transferred to Adelaide's Glenside mental health facility. Understaffing was significant and chronic. Often an officer as young as 20 would be left alone in a compound where three officers were required, leaving them vulnerable and insecure. Sean Ferris was alone at Baxter when a riot broke out. He locked himself in the office, which was pounded with stones and set alight. Simon Forsyth, then 21, faced a fire on his first shift at Baxter. He did not know how to use the extinguisher. An October 2005 report recounts the incident that ended Robertson's career. By then, Baxter detainees were predominantly visa overstayers and criminals awaiting deportation. There was a fight, Robertson was assaulted and "suddenly I lost control". "I was really trying to hurt people; I had my hands around their throats." And that was that. The once solid and reliable officer, mentor to fellow workers, finally cracked. Battered, bruised and hysterical, he was driven home. When he said he was fit to return to work three weeks later, he broke down, was subsequently diagnosed with an adjustment disorder and has not worked since. Clive Skinn, a Port Augusta local who worked at Woomera and Baxter, loathes all detainees. Sitting uncomfortably on the couch in Robertson's lounge room, he is tense with anger. "My body is full of hatred," Skinn says. He had not given refugees a thought before he went to Woomera; he knew nothing about Muslims. On his second day on the job, a detainee head-butted him. Another spat at him soon after. Wiltshire says Skinn was never the same after having to cut down a man who attempted to hang himself. Life became unmanageable. Skinn was quick to anger, could not get on with his children, could not sleep. He awoke suddenly one morning convinced that there were Muslims in his house. He seized a chair and trashed the place, smashed windows and the TV, broke holes in the walls. He was diagnosed with anxiety and depression and spent 18 months on workers' compensation. While still profoundly affected, he holds down a job in an underground mine at Roxby Downs, but the past catches up with him. "I'd like to kill them all," Skinn says of detainees. "And I feel the same way about the children. They were as bad as the parents." Gigney's breakdown was a consequence of concern for detainees. He listened to their despair, smuggled extra milk rations for children, and watched helplessly as they suffered physically and mentally. A boy, 12, was among the three would-be suicides he cut down. Officers who displayed compassion were held in contempt by many co-workers, and became known as "care bears". The diminutive and softly spoken Annie Brown (not her real name), 55, thought working at Baxter would be an opportunity to help the unfortunate. Each day she would say to herself, "I've got 12 hours to make these people's lives better." For this she was taunted and ridiculed by fellow officers; for Annie, the worst part of work at Baxter was the attitude of many co-workers. Annie's husband is also a former Baxter officer. "We were people who had normal lives," Annie says through tears. "We don't have them any more." After being ignored by superiors, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and agoraphobia, and for a year could not leave her house. Many people with post-traumatic stress disorder have to confront the fact that what was normality is not likely to return. This is Rohde's reality. "I want my life back," she says. "But the psychiatrist has said that I will never be the person I was before. I have to try to learn to live with the person I am now." Three years since his diagnosis, Robertson shows no sign of improvement. For Kendall, life with Trevor is close to unbearable. She says he is distant, obnoxious and arrogant. He gets angry with the children, impatient, distracted. He does not go to bed until 3am, and rises late. As Jones and Robertson do seemingly fruitless battle with bureaucrats, they are frustrated that former detainees can pursue compensation for psychological damage but former officers cannot. Gigney continues to try to find work. In his home town of Whyalla the mining boom is in full swing, but being sound of body is not enough for him to take advantage of it. He has just made his second attempt to get a truck driver's licence. He would pulled over to answer his phone when a water truck went past, triggering a flashback to the water cannon used during riots at Woomera, and an incident involving children. He sat in the cabin and wept. In the suburban Adelaide pub where she works as a kitchenhand, Wiltshire shares a drink with another former officer, Barbara Zillner. The camaraderie among former officers is akin to that between Vietnam War veterans - no one else comprehends what they went through. In 2000 Wiltshire, a single mother doing it tough, saw Woomera as a chance to escape the poverty trap. Like others, she broke down, diagnosed with an adjustment disorder. Her road to recovery has been hard, but she now holds down a job and a relationship. Having recovered a measure of equilibrium in her life, she looks back and wonders at what she went through. "I was proud to be a detention centre officer, protecting Australia's borders. Then I changed. I became a monster, a cowboy, like all the other officers. They were all driven crazy. When I look back, I just think - what the hell did I do that for? To end up hating people for no reason."

October 10, 2005 The Age
Two asylum seekers who escaped from South Australia's Woomera detention centre during a mass breakout in 2002 have been recaptured after more than three years on the run. But nine asylum seekers who also escaped from outback Woomera during the 2002 Easter riots remain on the loose, the immigration department said. Dozens of other people were injured in violent clashes at the detention facility during the breakout when protesters and detainees clashed with police and the centre's security staff. Up to 20 detainees escaped the centre, including the two young Bakhtiari boys, who later unsuccessfully sought asylum in Melbourne's British Consulate.

October 22, 2004 Sidney Morning Herald
An Iranian asylum seeker was provoked into escaping from the Woomera detention centre because of the misery of captivity, a court heard today. Lawyers for detainee Mahran Behrooz today urged the Adelaide Magistrates Court not to record a conviction for the escape, for fear it would hamper his application for a temporary protection visa. Behrooz, who fled his "fanatical" Muslim family in Iran after expressing an interest in becoming a Catholic, escaped from the detention centre because of taunts from Muslim detainees that he should be beheaded because of his Christian belief, Mr Manetta said. Mr Manetta said several hours after Behrooz escaped, he realised he had done the wrong thing and sat on a road to wait for guards to find him. "He said ... 'I wanted the pain to stop so I just ran away. After five kilometres, I decided this was not a good thing. "The pain he refers to is the conditions at Woomera and, in particular, the regular persecution because of his religion by other inmates who were Muslims."

August 6, 2004
The High Court today rejected an asylum seeker's claim that harsh conditions justified his escape from the Woomera Detention Centre. The court ruled 6-1 to dismiss an appeal lodged by Mahran Behrooz, an Iranian national and one of six who escaped from the detention centre in South Australia's outback in November 2001. Three of the six - Mr Behrooz, Mahmood Gholani Moggaddam and Davood Amiri - were subsequently charged under the Migration Act with escaping from immigration detention when they appeared in the Port Augusta Magistrates Court. Mr Behrooz had been held at Woomera for a year before escaping. In court, he and his colleagues argued that conditions there were so unpleasant that detention was punitive and not authorised by the Migration Act. The respondents, among them the Department of Immigration and the operators of the Woomera centre Australasian Correctional Management (ACM), unsuccessfully argued that this was an abuse of process and the summonses should be set aside. The Department, ACM and other respondents then turned to the SA Supreme Court which ruled in their favour. The Full Court of the SA Supreme Court then refused Mr Behrooz and his compatriots leave to appeal, concluding that even if documents were to show that conditions at Woomera were harsh, this was no defence to charges of escaping. The three then appealed to the High Court. But it was only Mr Behrooz who saw the case through to the end as Mr Moggaddam and Mr Amiri have since been deported. The High Court held that he had no right to escape from Woomera even if he could show that conditions of detention were harsh. The court did say he would be entitled to seek legal redress for any civil wrong or criminal offence and information yielded by the summonses might have assisted to demonstrate that conditions of detention gave him a case for redress. But it would not assist his argument that he was not in immigration detention, or that he was entitled to escape. Therefore the summonses did not have a legitimate forensic purpose. In a dissenting decision, Justice Michael Kirby said there was a substantial body of disturbing evidence to indicate detention centre conditions were inhumane and intolerable. That involved gross overcrowding, broken toilets plus a lack of privacy, medical and dental facilities. Justice Kirby said Mr Behrooz should have been allowed to make his case of inhumane detention. (The Age)

July 19, 2004
Two teenage boys refused asylum by British diplomats in Melbourne after escaping from the Woomera detention centre will open a legal challenge against the British Foreign Secretary in London later today. The boys joined a mass break from the Woomera centre in June 2002 to escape what the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission called the inhuman and degrading treatment of child detainees there. (The Age)

July 10, 2003
An Iranian detainee at Woomera during the riots at Easter last year says she was sprayed with tear gas and her son beaten as women and children tried to stop a fight between guards and detainees. The woman, who is now being held at South Australia's Baxter detention centre and cannot be identified, was called to give evidence yesterday over a complaint lodged last August with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Appearing without legal representation, the woman said she could have escaped with 50 others during a breakout last year, but chose not to. "Where would I escape to?" she asked the hearing chaired by Stephen Roder, delegate for Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski. "I do not want to live in this country illegally." The woman - who was separated from her husband at the time - said she was one of 12 women and children who tried to stop a fight on March 29 in Woomera's Oscar compound between detainees armed with sticks and stones and guards in full riot gear. When ordered to leave by an Australasian Correctional Management field commander - who she said was "very, very angry" - she refused, hoping the presence of women and children would end the confrontation. "We wanted to stop them with our children," she said. "Every time in our opinion they respected women and children and I was a woman with my child." Instead, she says she was gassed without warning, twice from one side and once from the other, and as she retreated, her son, then seven, was beaten across the legs. "It was very quick and then I heard a sound, hiss, hiss," she said. "He (the ACM field commander) didn't say he wanted us to stop. I heard a sound and I could feel it in my face and I understood what was happening." Overcome with pepper spray burning her eyes and face, she half-carried her son towards an accommodation hut, demonstrating to the hearing how she tried to protect him with her body as a guard hit him across the legs. A medical report issued four days later when her son was seen by a doctor at Woomera found bruising across his right shin and the inside of his left knee. During cross-examination, counsel for ACM, Michael Evans, questioned the detainee about what was known in advance about the likely presence of protesters and media at Woomera during Easter last year. The woman, who was then the female delegate for November compound at Woomera, said she was very upset and felt hopeless after being rejected by the Refugee Review Tribunal and wanted to highlight that women and children were in detention. "I thought even the Australian people did not know Woomera was here and I wanted to show we were women and children and there were many families in there," she said. "It was the end of the world for myself... I came here for protection but they didn't care about that." Mr Evans told the hearing nothing supported the woman's complaint that medical care at the centre was inadequate. In evidence to be heard today, ACM will deny the gassing and beating occurred and is expected to call witnesses. Among those to be called will be former Woomera detention centre manager Peter McIntosh. (The Age)

June 23, 2003
Australian detention centres are having to deal with an unexpected consequence of keeping young Afghan, Iranian and Iraqi asylum seekers in long-term detention - they are marrying Australian women. There have been four weddings in South Australian detention centres this year, including two in the past two weeks. An Adelaide woman married an Iranian detainee inside Woomera in March and since then there have been three weddings at the Baxter detention centre near Port Augusta. In the most recent wedding at Baxter last Monday a Melbourne woman married an Iranian detainee in the company of a small party of family and friends. Another Melbourne woman married an Iranian detainee at Baxter a fortnight ago, in late April a young Afghan detainee married a woman from Canada, and more weddings are said to be planned. In another highly unusual relationship, a former Australasian Correctional Management guard at the Woomera detention centre, Liz, had a clandestine 12-month love affair with an Iranian detainee whom she met in the centre's high-security Oscar compound. Liz resigned from ACM in February this year over the affair. "I ended up telling a supervisor, I had so much guilt," she says. Liz returned to Canberra following the relocation of her Iranian boyfriend to the Baxter centre at Port Augusta just before Easter. "I'd sneak in to see him. It was really sad because most of the time we just talked and held fingers through a fence. It shouldn't be like that." The detention centre marriages will not provide the detainees with access to Australian visas, at least in the short term. A South Australian migration agent, Libby Hogarth, says marriage will not advance a refugee claim but could provide humanitarian grounds for a visa at a later date. She says this will be strictly screened to weed out abuse of the spouse system. "The [Immigration] minister would be wanting to really make sure that people had not just married to get a visa ," Hogarth says. "So if they had only been married for a few months in detention and they had never been living together, I don't think they would have much chance. There would be no real evidence of a genuine marriage as such except for a marriage certificate." A Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs spokeswoman who confirmed the weddings says they would have no impact on refugee claims. She says detainees are free to marry and that conjugal visits had been requested but not agreed to. A guest at the Woomera wedding says the compound had been decorated by asylum seekers and staff although restrictions were placed on wedding photographs. "It was a joyful occasion, there was dancing and a banquet with a lot of traditional Iranian dishes cooked and served by detainees," the visitor says. "The centre did all it could within the limits to make it as joyful as possible." A second wedding, at the Baxter detention centre 12 kilometres from Port Augusta, took place in late April between a young Afghan man and a Canadian woman who heard about him from a Canadian friend. The bride, who was born in Tanzania, told the Herald by phone from Canada that she would not discuss their marriage. "We are nowhere near bringing him home and I would hate to jeopardise anything for him," she says. Guests at her weddings say it was a joyous affair, held on a lawned area of the detention centre where a cellist played from Bach's Cello Suites. Community groups and refugee visitors together provided four wedding cakes iced with marzipan and figures of the bride and groom on top. "There was real joy in the air," a guest reports. "There were particular moments where you actually forgot you were incarcerated." The former ACM guard says it was "love at first sight" for her at Woomera. "Of course I was an officer and this had to be something that was under wraps; I mean nobody knew about this," she says. "We were sneaking letters to each other and I was trying to see him as much as I could." Liz, 47, says she will wait to marry her boyfriend because she wanted a beautiful wedding. "I would [marry him] tomorrow but I want it to be nice," she says. "I want a romantic wedding set somewhere beautiful, not inside Baxter where everything is controlled." The marriage celebrant who performed last Monday's service declined to comment on the service: "I have performed a lot of marriages and they are all different." (Smh.au.com)

May 27, 2003
The Australian Federal Police has agreed to launch a formal investigation into claims of mismanagement at the now defunct Woomera detention centre, Greens Senator Bob Brown said today. On the program former staff at Woomera accused Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) of ignoring warnings of a mass breakout, covering up child sexual abuse and lying to the government about staff numbers to boost profits. Senator Brown said he had obtained a legal opinion from Melbourne lawyer Brian Walters, SC, on the program. "He was looking at the evidence, potential criminal behaviour in the doctoring of documents about the staff levels and the service delivery levels," Senator Brown said. Senator Brown said anyone who defrauded the government may face up to five years in prison and the federal police would investigate all the allegations made in the program about criminal offences taking place at Woomera. A Senate estimates committee was told yesterday the Commonwealth Ombudsman's office was investigating conditions at immigration detention centres. "There have been more than 25 reports and investigations just in the last few years revealing the huge damage being done to children and adults in detention centres," Senator Bartlett said in a statement. "The inhumane treatment they are receiving must stop," he said. (Smh.au.com)

May 27, 2003
The Australian Federal Police say they are considering a formal investigation into claims of mismanagement at the former Woomera detention centre. The AFP has disputed Greens Senator Bob Brown's earlier claim that it had begun an investigation into the claims. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) was still considering today whether to launch a formal investigation into claims of mismanagement at the now defunct Woomera detention centre. Senator Brown last week handed a tape of an ABC Four Corners Program to federal police commissioner Mick Keelty. On the program former staff at Woomera accused Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) of ignoring warnings of a mass breakout, covering up child sexual abuse and lying to the government about staff numbers to boost profits. Senator Brown said the police had agreed the allegations should be investigated. (The Age)

May 21, 2003
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock revealed yesterday that ACM, the private company contracted to run Australia's immigration detention centres, had previously been forced to pay financial penalties to the Commonwealth for failing to meet its contractual obligations. Mr Ruddock said he had instructed his department to investigate the allegations made by a former Woomera operations manager, Allan Clifton, that ACM defrauded the Government of millions of dollars by misrepresenting staff levels and health and education programs provided to detainees. ACM management last night rejected claims that it had defrauded the Commonwealth, with the company's managing director, Ross Millican, accusing the ABC's Four Corners of putting to air "serious factual errors and half-truths". Mr Ruddock said that if there had been a breach of contract it would be pursued to ensure that the interests of the Commonwealth were protected. The minister said ACM was required to detain and manage people humanely under its contract by providing a full range of services to detainees. "In some circumstances they (ACM) did not do this. When they didn't, there were sanctions," he said. The Federal Opposition, refugee advocacy groups, includ-ing the Refugee Council of Australia, and the Greens, yesterday called for an independent inquiry into the administration of Woomera after claims of fraud, a cover-up of child abuse allegations and general mismanagement made on Four Corners on Monday. (The Age)

May 20, 2003
Allegations of a systematic cover-up of child abuse, ignoring warnings of a mass breakout and lying to the government about staff numbers to boost profits at the former Woomera have prompted calls for a royal commission into Australia's refugee detention centres. The allegations concerned a 12-year-old boy who some staff feared was being forced to work as a prostitute. Nurse Rowena Henson claimed she was p