The Desert Rat can remember when in Opposition Jim McGinty railed against the privatisation of prisons and prisoner transport. Since being in Government this practice has been embraced by McGinty and his comrade in the Labor Government. The private Acacia Prison contract near Wooroloo has been renewed and Court and prison transport services are still being run by multinational private security firms whose contracts have also been renewed.
The death of Aboriginal Mr Ward this week in the back of a prison transport vehicle during the first leg of a long Central Desert trip focussed attention on the private contractor Global Solutions Pty Ltd which has been embraced by McGinty and his "anti-privatisation" Labor Government mates. What are the boundaries to this Labor Government hypocrisy?
Read here the story in The Australian about this tragic death and the embarrassing history of Global Solutions Ltd. What Grumpy Jack has to say about Mr Ward’s lonely death in the back of an overheated, privatised outback prisoner transport vehicle can be read here.
For years now private prison transport vehicles have been ferrying Aboriginal offenders and remand prisoners from Kununurra to Broome an 2200 kilometre round trip in searing summer temperatures and freezing night temperatures during June July when inland temperature through Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing can be below zero. Other long prisoner transport trips are undertaken from Warburton in the Central Desert, Laverton and Wiluna, etc to Kalgoorlie and the coastal towns.
Once upon a time Aboriginal offenders stayed at police lock-ups at Wyndham, Derby, Wiluna and many other towns where they did community work under the eyes of police officers. This was considered more humane than forced travel over long distances in chain. Now they use suffocating metal vans instead. Prisoners were close to family and support and if kept away from alcohol were generally no threat or problem to townsfolk. The police (or their wives) made a few dollars cooking meals for the offenders and this was described as a rort by Leftist agitators and the practice was eventually stopped.
The cops we were told, had the temerity to feed Aboriginal offenders kangaroo meat which was shot locally. This was thought to be unhygienic and also another police rort. No consideration was given to the possibility that the Aboriginal offenders preferred kangaroo meat and it was healthier for them.
Now Aboriginal offenders such as the deceased are put in a much higher risk situation, at phenomenal expense, and trucked 1100 km to Broome or Kalgoorlie while on remand for a drunkenness offence. Many are released on bail in a town far away from home where they get into more trouble. If they are not convicted, they have to find their own way home.
This is the justice that McGinty and his mates preside over. McGinty now seems to need expensive court processes and a human right act to tell him what he should and should not do.
Stupid costly solutions are McGinty’s Ministerial trademark. The Desert Rat thinks that McGinty must believe that common sense doesn't cost enough. The great pity is not many of McGinty's initiatives are practical and therefore rarely work.
Professor Richard Harding the Inspector of Custodial Services made this indicting comment after this most recent custodial death.
"Recent media coverage has understandably tended to speculate about individual fault and failures. In that regard, the Inspector deplores the way in which Government gencies hide behind the fiction that the matter is subjudice until the Coroner has dealt with it, so that basic information of genuine public interest is suppressed.
At present the Coroner's Court has a delay of about two years before a custodial death can be heard, but identification of problems and the implementation of remedial action must commence before then."
"The present system falls short of international minimum standards (the UN Convention on Torture and other forms of Cruel, Unusual and Degrading Punishment and Treatment)."
So much for social justice of McGinty's ALP Socialist Left.
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