BY: Josh Robertson
Source: couriermail.com.au
Australia - WELCOME to solitary confinement, Queensland style.
Prison authorities refuse to release images of the cells being used to
hold bikies in solitary confinement, citing "safety and security
considerations".
The Sunday Mail, however, has used sworn statements from lawyers who represent the bikies to paint a picture of what is going on behind closed doors in our prisons.
According to those statements, prisoners are forbidden from wearing underpants and, in the bikies-only facility at Woodford prison, are clothed in pink uniforms.
They are held in lockdown for 23 hours each day in cells "the size of a large dining table", with only a mattress and a toilet.
According to some affidavits, the cells have been infested with cockroaches, ants and mites. There are surveillance cameras above the toilet, and above the shower in an adjoining cell, where inmates are given an hour a day "outside time".
That cell is the same size but with a "caged area to allow for natural light"
Cells are searched daily while inmates are forced to stand with their heads against the wall with arms raised.
Inmates are strip-searched before and after visits from their lawyers, and given half the standard daily food rations, their lawyers claim.
A government spokesman yesterday said the cells were "very different" than the picture painted. They all had a shower, a window, a sink, desk and chair, and bookshelves.
But Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said he made no apologies for being tough on members of organised crime gangs – and it was working.
"They used their notoriety to be top dogs in the prison population and they actually continued their illegal activities by dealing drugs and intimidating prison staff," Mr Bleijie said.
"Keeping them away from the general prison population has disrupted all of that and jail is now a real deterrent for them.
The prison regime is doing what it's meant to do: We now have gang members resigning from their clubs and turning over a new leaf and some have had their restrictions lifted."
There are about 50 "Criminal Motorcycle Gang" prisoners held in Queensland jails.
The government says "health and psychological services" are offered to inmates, and gang members were able – like other prisoners – to participate "in meaningful activities."
The Sunday Mail, however, has used sworn statements from lawyers who represent the bikies to paint a picture of what is going on behind closed doors in our prisons.
According to those statements, prisoners are forbidden from wearing underpants and, in the bikies-only facility at Woodford prison, are clothed in pink uniforms.
They are held in lockdown for 23 hours each day in cells "the size of a large dining table", with only a mattress and a toilet.
According to some affidavits, the cells have been infested with cockroaches, ants and mites. There are surveillance cameras above the toilet, and above the shower in an adjoining cell, where inmates are given an hour a day "outside time".
That cell is the same size but with a "caged area to allow for natural light"
Cells are searched daily while inmates are forced to stand with their heads against the wall with arms raised.
Inmates are strip-searched before and after visits from their lawyers, and given half the standard daily food rations, their lawyers claim.
A government spokesman yesterday said the cells were "very different" than the picture painted. They all had a shower, a window, a sink, desk and chair, and bookshelves.
But Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said he made no apologies for being tough on members of organised crime gangs – and it was working.
"They used their notoriety to be top dogs in the prison population and they actually continued their illegal activities by dealing drugs and intimidating prison staff," Mr Bleijie said.
"Keeping them away from the general prison population has disrupted all of that and jail is now a real deterrent for them.
The prison regime is doing what it's meant to do: We now have gang members resigning from their clubs and turning over a new leaf and some have had their restrictions lifted."
There are about 50 "Criminal Motorcycle Gang" prisoners held in Queensland jails.
The government says "health and psychological services" are offered to inmates, and gang members were able – like other prisoners – to participate "in meaningful activities."
