Spartan Regime Ends For Prisoners

Sydney Morning Herald

Sunday August 29, 1993

By ELIZABETH JURMAN

NSW prisoners will be given back their rosary beads, prayer mats and thongs, and will be allowed more books and laptop computers in their cells in the next few weeks.

The Minister for Justice, Mr Hannaford, will release today the State Government's new prison property policy, which has been substantially liberalised since the then Minister for Corrective Services, Mr Michael Yabsley, imposed a spartan regime on all NSW prisoners in 1989.

Under the new scheme, a prisoner's entitlement to possessions in addition to the standard items, such as clothes, four books, six to 10 photographs and religious items, will be determined on a points system.

Those who have earned a lower security classification will be entitled to more points and so more property.

Mr Hannaford said the new policy would balance security considerations while providing for the physical development and spiritual needs of inmates.

"For the first time, each inmate in NSW will have in writing exactly what property they are allowed to possess while they are in jail," he said.

The former policy simply specified what prisoners were not entitled to have, he said.

In a submission to Mr Hannaford, the Commissioner for Corrective Services, Major-General Neville Smethurst, said it was recognised that a review of the policy on inmates' private property was necessary in mid-1992, because it was"considered to be ineffective and unworkable".

However, Mr Hannaford gave a backhanded defence of Mr Yabsley's policy, saying it was "completely necessary for the time it was introduced".

"But the correctional system is now moving towards area management, case management of inmates and structured days for inmates. We need to look at changes for the new policies to succeed."

All prisoners will receive a minimum set of possessions, which includes clothing, a hat, a reading lamp and an electric fan. Their entitlement to additional property will be determined by the points system.

Minimum security prisoners will be given 120 points, which they can use to obtain items such as a laptop computer or typewriter (20 points), a Walkman(10 points), a television set (20 points), hobby and craft materials (20 points), legal papers (10 points), and additional books, magazines and notebooks at one point each.

Medium security inmates are entitled to 90 points and those held in maximum security to 75.

Only minimum security inmates will be allowed to use computers and typewriters for educational purposes. Printers and modems are banned.

Mr Hannaford said the new policy had the support of the Prison Officers Vocational Branch and the Commissioned Officers Vocational Branch and would come into force within weeks.