PRISON ACTION IN NSW
s c re w s in c ite riot
bob jewson
After months of stirring the prisoners
Central Industrial Prison,
in Long Bay's
the screws finally succeeded in
inciting the prisoners into rioting on Tuesday,
After the screws ha d quelled the riot with guns,
and batons,
August
22.
tear gas
they went about flogging prisoners and then they
went from cell to cell smashing the p r i s o n e r s ’ private
property.
The prisoners had copped the screws 1 intimidation for
as long as they could,
but on that Tuesday it became too much.
In one of the most blatant admissions of intimidation
we've ever heard,
spokesperson for the screws' union,
Hickie,
told the media just after the riot that he and his screw
mates had been making things more difficult for the p r i s o n ­
ers in the weeks before the riot by increasing discipline
and making it more difficult for prisoners to move around
the jail.
This is extra discipline
in a jail where 4 months
before 265 prisoners had signed a petition stating:
"Prison officers in the CIP are indulging in a programme of
unjust and unlawful harrassment of prisoners,
endeavouring -
unsuccessfully - to increase tension with the object to
incite a riot to gain their own ends.
"This situation has worsened
(and for obvious reasons)
since the Royal Commission Report on 4/4/78.
9
"We urgently request lawful advice and representation so as
to halt this undesirable situation - food and facilities
ard already deplorable."
When the PAG received the pet i t i o n it passed it on
to Wran.
Of course,
nothing was done about it.
Lead up to the Riot
On the Sunday before the riot,
the prisoners had a
meeting where they resolved to remove their numbers until
such time as their grievances were heard.
On the Monday the screws generally harassed the
prisoners without numbers and refused to allow them to
have visits or receive medical treatment.
On Monday afternoon,
assistant commissioner Barrier,
director of special security units Sanders and director of
establishments and ex-Grafton basher Nash arrived in the
jail,
not to talk to the prisoners but to arrange s h anghais
and formulate tactics.
On the Monday night,
out of the jail.
50 prisoners were shanghaied
On Tuesday morning,
the screws i n c r e a s e d
their intimidation which resulted in the prisoners rioting
around 11 am.
The riot lasted about an hour.
After the riot had been over for three hours the
media were allowed into the jail.
This is h o w the M e l b o u r n e
Age reporters saw it:
"A prisoner yelled:
'Tell it like it is.
We were
provoked and have had just about e n o u g h ! 1
Others in Cell Block 6 ...
started banging on doors
and windows.
'What they didn't smash in our cells they knocked off.
What about my television
... my radio
... everything',
one convict said.
'They have --- everything.
Tell them about the ones
who were kicked while they were d o w n . 1
One way or another the jail was wrecked.
Nobody was prepared to estimate the damage
... but it
will be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
1C
E a r lier a prisoner had thrown two match boxes containing
n otes to journalists waiting outside the jail.
said:
'They smashed about 20 crims,
w e r e down.
One
even w h e n they
Everything in their cells.
The riot was
c a u s e d because we had a silent protest about things
t hey had promised us which we have never seen.
Guys
w h o h a d nothing to do with the riot were bashed.
cells were wrecked,
Their
and televisions and cassettes smashed.
Their cells were ripped apart.'
The other note said:
'They took 50 prisoners away in
only what they were wearing.
Then this morning,
they
s too d in the yards p r ovoking us until the crims became
agitated enough to have a go back.
Do not tell anyone
where you got this n o t e . '"
The Sydney press mainly handled it from the screws'
side of things.
What the prisoners have to say about what really
h a p p e n e d is contained in the following two reports smuggled
out of the C.I.P.
Report No.
This morning
(20/8/78)
P r i s o n at 8 am in 17 Yard,
1
in the Central
Industrial
there was a mass meeting of all
p r i s o n e r s of the CIP to discuss the worsening situation
here.
1.
The main points raised at the meeting w e r e :
That Lyn Tasman Jones,
the 5 Wing delegate,
was shanghaied earlier by the
squad'
to Maitland
who
"non-existent SOD
jail be brought back.
The
p r i s o n officials refused to give a reason for
L y n 's disappearance.
It is widely believed that Lyn was shanghaied
because of his attacks
on the lies constantly
spread by the prison officials concerning the
"wonderful" treatment and "benefits" now given
to N S W prisoners.
2.
That the hold up of the mail cease forthwith.
Again the prisoners in the CIP didn't receive
mail because the officers
censor it".
"didn't have time to
Mail is being held up for days,
u
3.
Yesterday
(19/8/78) pris o n e r s and their visitors
were made to stand around the gate to have their
visits in the p o u ring rain,
had umbrellas,
the skin.
some of the visitors
those that didn't were soaked to
All the priso n e r s were drenched.
The officers on duty thought this was very funny.
The prisoners want to k n o w why the new visiting
area is being used as a storeroom and wh y it isn't
open as it should be.
4.
That since the new takeover here in the CIP,
rate of charges laid against prisoners has
the
jumped
from 5/10 a week to 30/40 a week.
The screws are verballing
(putting false statements)
nearly everyone charged like the good old days at
Bathurst.
5.
That since the new regime's takeover, prisoners who
are not employed - which accounts for 80% of all
prisoners at the CIP - are herded like cattle into
17 Yard without any form of recreation,
proper seating facilities,
without
and are subjected to all
weather conditions.
6.
That the present number of prisoners in the CIP is
467 while the
7.
jail was built to hold 300.
That the CIP has no industry whatsoever and hundreds
of prisoners are locked in yards where they are
expected to become bored PEACEFULLY.
At the conclusion of the meeting,
there were two
recommendations put forward and carried unanimously.
1.
That until some action by the officials is forth­
coming,
all prisoners will not wear their numbers.
NB - All prisoners in the CIP removed their numbers
before
leaving the yard and will not put them back
until their grievances are acted upon.
2.
That at the next meeting on Sunday
action is forthcoming,
day cease work.
(27/8/78),
if no
the prisoners will from that
All prisoners will stop work
indefinitely.
It was also noted that the prisoners in the CIP are
aware of what is happening in other jails throughout the
S t a t e ^ n d call on all prisoners to stand up for their
rights.
Be peaceful,
but firm for your rights or Bathurst will
again become a r e a l i t y .
We are all aware of the bashings that are still taking
place m
Grafton and Goulburn jails.
You have a voice,
Monday
use it.
(21/8/78)
This morning the screws co-ordinated
the prisoners by refusing
m
harassing
them visits and medical treatment
until they wear their numbers.
The prisoners
stuck solid.
Screws on the posts were abusing prisoners and not
allowing them through gates.
The saga continues.
Report No.
2
No prisoners were allowed out of their cells,
to Mr H a i g h 's news release.
contrary
This morning at 9.20 am the
p r i s o n e r s were moved from their cells to the yards where
they stayed until 11.40 am when they were
lunch.
locked back
in for
It was the screws who cleaned up.
The prisoners have since 8.00 am Sunday morning refused
to w ear their numbers in a peaceful protest
set out
in Report No.
for the reasons
1.
This morning the screws started harassing many of the
p r i s o n e r s into confrontations by not allowing them to have
their
visits without their numbers on, many of the prisoners
e l e c t e d not to have their visits.
A little later the female nurses in the gaol's clinic
refused to give any treatment or medication to any prisoner
not w e a r i n g his number,
the prisoners
left the clinic area
and returned to their yards.
We might add here that the news releases the night
b e f o r e and that morning saying that the trouble began when
a p r i s o n officer had been assaulted is rubbish,
who was the
screw who was allegedly attacked, who was the crim,
anyone charged for that kind of offence on that day?
Haigh
and was
Mr
knows all the answers maybe he can tell us?
13
5 .15 p .m .
Shanghais begin,
about ten or twelve from 4 Wing and
many more from the other wings.
screws armed with shotguns,
About
30 SOD Squad
mace, pistols,
and
handcuffs,
batons raced in and out of the wings dragging prisoners to
the vans parked on the main square,
about 9.45 pm.
this continued until
Although the list attached is accurate in
respect to the names and amount of prisoners who were moved
the places they were supposed to have gone are fictional.
!".s this the normal way of transferring prisoners.
Prisoners were handcuffed both hands and feet.
prisoner,
aim.
Dennis Watkins,
' One
yelled out that they were bashing
This was followed by thumps and screams of pain from
Dennis.
It was like living a nightmare,
a night of fear
-ind terror at the hands of these bastards who do as they
release.
next.
Everyone seemed to be waiting to see who would go
We could hear them run in the wing,
roll door and drag someone off.
throw open a
Anyone who tried to take
any personal property with them was immediately flogged.
'Tuesday 21/8/78 - 8.35 a m .
Prisoners who were prepared to wear their numbers were
allowed out into the
up.
a few decided to stay locked
If you wore your number you could go to the yard,
you wouldn't,
10 . 0 0
yards,
if
then you were locked up and charged.
a . m.
Screws started arriving on the lawn in front of 16 &
i'7 yards taunting the prisoners who were locked in the
y ards.
11.00 a .m.
It was as if a screw gave a signal,
sudden a screw yelled out,
what was happening,
1 he front gate,
because all of a
all the prisoners
looked to see
then all the screws took off towards
somewhere between 50 - 60 of them.
seemed to put panic
into everyone,
This
that's when the prisoners
scar ted climbing over the gates from the yards,
and running
everywhere.
That's when the first shots were fired,
the reports from the tear gas as it was fired.
followed by
We w ould
estimate that there were 40 - 50 gas canisters fired and
numerous rounds of ammunition.
Prisoners were told not to
mo/e by screws carrying baseball bats with helmets and
shields.
Outside the yard there was a large number of
screws belting their shields with their batons
the Zulus do before going into battle.
just like
It was hair raising.
We were then told to keep our hands on our heads,
heads down and run to the front yards.
us in the yard.
At about 11.30 am,
There were 15 of
five prisoners were
brought out to the yard who h ad been injured.
broken arm,
and bruises.
two had split heads,
One had a
the other two had cuts
We asked them what had h a ppened and ho w
they were injured.
They told us that the screws were
going berserk and flogging anyone they could get hold of.
The guys with the worst injuries were the ones who weren't
even in the trouble.
One of the injured prisoners said
that he was standing next to another prisoner on the water
tower at the side of the picture theatre and the guy with
h i m got shot in the head,
the last he saw of the shot
prisoner was the screws dragging h i m away.
45
The whole situation was unbelievable.
While we were
in the front yards there were screws running in all direc­
tions.
At one stage,
new screws'
training
the chief officer
(he's tall,
in charge of the
skinny and wears a crown)
ran past the yards screaming out to the screws on the tower
'Shoot the b a s t a r d s '.
Then he disappeared around the
corner out of sight.
3.40 p .m.
We were marched from the yards to our cells with our
hands on our heads.
T.V.
sets,
When we got to our cells we found our
cassettes etc.
on the floor smashed.
We have
since found out that the screws went from cell to cell
smashing the tele's before bringing us back to our cells.
The power was not turned back on until Wednesday
evening.
Most of Tuesday night we could hear groans
coming from the cells around us.
Five screws came to one prisoner's door and told him
to step out onto the landing.
They then went into his
cell and threw most of his property out into the water
that was six inches deep outside his door.
They tore
pictures of his family from the wall and destroyed them.
All his food stuff went out the door along with a lot of
h is wife's letters.
This was typical of what was happening.
That's b a sically ho w it happened.
We would like to
add that it was three days that we'll never forget.
screws were
The
just ho w you'd picture the nazis to be, powerful
and a law unto themselves,
a law unto themselves because
they are out of the public's view and can screen any action
they take.
An interesting sideline to it all - on Monday,
P r i s o n e r s ' Committee sat around all day waiting to speak
with the superintendent.
Prisoners'
Committee.
But no-one w ould speak with the
But during that day Mr. Nash, Mr. Barrier
Mr Sanders and three other heavies were here from head
office.
Maybe they started the shanghais on Monday night.
Anyway,
today,
Friday,
their old tactics - yelling,
the screws are again starting
threatening,
slamming doors,
anything to make the atmosphere stay tense.
/6