As I watch another “special news report” or read an article about how easily prisoners are doing their time (in any prison around Australia), I get the distinct feeling that the media are trying to hard-sell a narrative: that we prisoners live in some kind of holiday camp/caravan park environment, with all the freedoms that narrative conjures.
A blacked-out figure in a chair is labelled “Joe Public”, a supposedly disgruntled ex-prison officer who claims that prisoners are “getting away with” these said freedoms and that they felt in danger the whole time they were employed at the prison.
I don’t know which prison this officer came from, but in my current location, if you so much as look at an officer the wrong way or say anything threatening or derogatory, you will be slotted – a clear message of “don’t do it again”. I’m not saying that there aren’t situations where officers may feel threatened or in harm’s way; but this would depend on the security rating of the prisons – i.e. maximum (A), medium (B) and low-level (C). So, if they’re feeling threatened or in danger as a prison officer (in any of those security levels), they have either been put into the wrong security level/position or chosen the wrong profession.
The narrative being pushed is that we, the prisoners, are not being punished as harshly as we deserve – that “Joe Public” should shout from the rafters, “They should all be put in the stocks! Throw human and animal excrement at them! Lock ’em all in dark, dark caves, and let the rats and disease kill ‘em slowly! I want my pound of flesh, god damn it!”
Then out trots the opposition “Minister for Prisons” (let’s call it that, because “Corrections” is so far from what the system actually is) like a diva being trolleyed out stage right for his or her aria, claiming the current government is not doing enough to protect the public. “They’re soft on crime!” and “Under an opposition government the public and all officers will be better off!”
Deep down we all know nothing will ever change unless “Joe Public” is given the correct and honest information about the prison system so they can make an informed decision. Hatred and distrust of others will only increase the number of offenders in society. And that will produce terrible outcomes for all involved.
Prisoner, in any prison in Australia
