APPEAL AGAINST GUILTY FINDING AT HEARING ON 20 DEC 05 AT DCC

PRISONER'S NAME: Stuart Highway

IJIS No: 40664

OFFENCE ALLEGED: Against Prisons (Correctional Services) Regulation 3(1)sb

Within 3 hours after being asked to do so, refused to supply a sample of urine to a person authorised to take the sample under section 95A of the act.

I believe the guilty finding at the abovementioned hearing was incorrect. I am not a lawyer and am unable to mount a legal challenge to the finding.

My argument is a moral one. I am not guilty. I have done nothing wrong. My conscience is clear. I did not damage property. I did not disrupt the routine and good order of the prison.

On the contrary, it was the prison officers who disrupted the routine and good order of M block for 4 hours by conducting the drug test.

Not only that. The taking of the urine samples was a completely useless and futile exercise. In actual fact it was worse than useless. It was a criminal and irresponsible waste of taxpayers' dollars.

Informed adults of sound mind have the right to ingest whatever substances they choose. No other person has the right to interfere. I refused to participate in the taking of the urine samples because it was a wronglful act.

Therefore the guilty finding was incorrect.

Stuart Highway, 20 Dec. 05

Note: A handwritten copy of this appeal reached NAPNT on Friday, 23rd December 2005.