APPEAL TO DARWIN CORRECTIONAL CENTRE SUPERINTENDENT AGAINST GUILTY FINDING OF 17 NOV 2005

This is the final of a series of documents/letters that Stuart wrote while incarcerated.

OFFENCE: Prisoner ignored the instruction to return to his block.


OFFENDER NAME: Stuart HIGHWAY. IJIS Id: 40664

DATE OF ALLEGED OFFENCE: Tuesday, 8 November 2005.

I believe the finding made by officers on Thursday 17 November 2005 was not correct.

I accept the version of events detailed by the witnesses at the hearing. I agree that I did ignore the instruction given by officers to return to M Block.

However, I assert that, under the circumstances, my conduct was justified because there was no other option left open to me.

I felt that I could no longer cope with the noisy and overcrowded living conditions of the M Block dorms. The combined noise of the TVs, especially but not exclusively in B Wing, made rest, relaxation and sleep difficult if not impossible, particularly when the TVs were tuned to different channels, blaring out simultaneously from different directions.

Privacy and personal space were reduced to levels of almost zero.

My personal level of comfort improved temporarily when the occupants of our dorm were switched with those of another. Dorm 5 prisoners were moved to Dorm 10, and vice versa. It was an improvement for us, who had been in Dorm 5, which is in B Wing, but not for the prisoners who had been in Dorm 10, because there were more of them, and now they had to suffer the noise levels we had been putting up with.

B Wing is particularly noisy, especially Dorms 5 and 6, which are closest to the Muster Room, because it has to suffer not only the noise of the TVs in that wing, but also the noise of the wings on both sides, A and C Wings.

The open plan design of the Block allows noise to travel easily between the dorms. Each of the 12 dorms in M Block has its own TV. Together, those TVs can make a terrible, unbearable racket, when tuned to different channels.

When we were moved to Dorm 10, I noticed that it was slightly quieter than Dorm 5. Also, it seemed slightly larger in area, although I’m not sure that it was so in reality.

At that stage there were only 4, then 5, prisoners in the dorm and it didn’t feel too overcrowded. Then it started filling up again. There were 6, then 7 prisoners, in a confined area the size of my single bedroom Territory Housing unit in Nightcliff. A prisoner who was deliberately causing problems with others in a dorm could make things even more stressful. Dorm 9 across the corridor went from containing 7 to containing 9 prisoners. I realised that our dorm could be filled with up to 10 prisoners, or even 12 if another bunk bed were to be moved into the dorm.
Prisoners have no say as to how many people are accommodated in their dorms.

It was not that prisoners weren’t making the effort to get on with each other. Prisoners were extremely considerate of each other, friendly and respectful of each other’s rights, careful not to tread on each other’s toes, so to speak.

It was at this time that I felt my stress level rising again to an uncontrollable level, after an improvement following the move from B Wing.

I do not like this style of accommodation. I did not ask for it and don’t feel at all comfortable with it. Some people seem to like, or at least tolerate it. Unfortunately that is not the case with me, and probably other prisoners too.

Having said that, I do acknowledge that I am being kept here as punishment, that a prison sentence is not meant to be an enjoyable experience, and that, as Mr Cope stated during the hearing, NT Correctional Services is not geared to catering to the personal whims of prisoners (or words to that effect.)

Nevertheless, the different needs and wishes of prisoners do need to be taken into consideration. Just as some prisoners have special medical or dietary needs, so some need more space or time to themselves than others. Some would prefer dormitory accommodation, others cells.

Imprisonment is punishment enough in itself. The individual’s freedom of movement and activity is severely limited, access to the outside world is curtailed, we are separated from the people and places that we love, we are forcibly subjected to an alien, hostile, violent and intimidating environment.

If punishment is taken to the level of torture, whether physical or psychological, it becomes counter-productive, destructive of the individual, so that people become dysfunctional, or perhaps more so if they were that way before, unable to cope with the wider society, so that they might end up returning to prison, at great cost to the taxpayer.

Soon after arriving in M Block I asked for single cell accommodation, because I could see I wouldn’t be able to cope well with the noisy, overcrowded conditions.

I wanted to put my head down and keep busy with reading, writing and some physical exercise, as well as interacting with other prisoners, so that my time would pass as quickly as possible.

I was told that no single cells were available, but that I could put my name down on the waiting list for one, and I’d get one when it was available, which could be the next day or in several months time.

I was prepared and willing to wait for a bit. I made lots of friends amongst the prisoners, and gradually adjusted to the daily routine. I kept myself busy writing letters to friends, playing various sports and games, and getting to know other prisoners. I read a book whenever there was enough light (normally the lights were off in the dorms after dark, and most prisoners wanted to watch TV and/or play cards or other games, or sleep.) I didn’t get to read much because I found it too hard to concentrate even if there was enough light. That was frustrating.

Unfortunately I could not get used to the living conditions in the dorms. Some days were better, if there was a good DVD movie on the TV for example, or interesting people to talk with. Other days were not so good and I’d be asking myself how much longer I could stand it.

Therefore, I kept asking different officers whether there was a cell available. As requested, I put my wish in writing, several times. Over and over and over again I asked, politely, respectfully. I even asked officers doing their rounds, late at night, in the early hours of the morning, whether there was a cell available somewhere. Perhaps in B Block? Because I had noticed that there were quite a few cells up there.

I told them I wanted to get out of M Block as soon as possible. All I wanted was a cell on my own and some peace and quiet.

Some nights in Dorm 5 I felt as though I hadn’t slept a wink (even though I must have) because I was so stressed out and tense from the TVs and the overcrowding.

I used to try putting my thumbs or fingers in my ears to block out the noise, but it wasn’t enough to block it out completely, and in any case, you can’t stay in that position for long. It’s not exactly comfortable.

Requests for foam earplugs, available at chemists for $1.10 a pair, were turned down as impractical, although apparently they had been available in the prison at some stage previously. Being a light sleeper and having suffered a lot from insomnia, over the last 20 years or so I’ve used these to help me sleep.

Some prisoners take medication, handed out by a nurse on her rounds, to help them relax and/or sleep. I wouldn’t want to do this, as I’m concerned about possible harmful side effects or long-term effects of this type of medication manufactured by large pharmaceutical corporations.

I don’t worry too much about lack of sleep any more. I tell myself the body will fall asleep by itself when it’s tired enough.

Since arriving in M Block on Friday 21st October I’d become more and more angry and frustrated at seeing the other prisoners and myself locked up for 18 hours every day in these cages called dorms, like animals at a zoo.

All the more so the more prisoners I talked to. I realised that most prisoners shouldn’t even be in prison! They seemed basically decent human beings, no worse, and perhaps a lot better, than people on the outside.

Prison officers treated my request for a cell with a contemptuous and dismissive attitude. By and large this seemed to be their attitude to prisoners and prisoners’ rights, i.e. that we had NO rights, that prisoners’ requests and wishes were to be merely fobbed off, dismissed, ignored. One officer in fact shooed me away like an animal from inside the office. Another’s smile seemed to me to indicate that he thought that the idea of a prisoner having any rights or any say within the prison system was hilarious and ridiculous.

Yet another officer responded to my request with words to the effect of, “Do you notice any spare cells around here?” Of course I didn’t. I knew M Block was all dorms. But I thought there had to be a spare cell somewhere. If not, why not?

Prisoners should not be made to suffer because of lack of funding, or failures of the prison system.

The NT Government keeps a lot of people in prison. It’s cheaper to do this with dorms than with cells. Even then the cost to taxpayers averages out at $63000 per prisoner per year.

If prisoners don’t mind staying in dorms, then fine. But if they need or want cells, then there need to be more cells available too.

After 2 ½ weeks in M Block, by Tuesday 8th November I’d had enough. I felt I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I’d been patient, I’d waited, hoping day after day that a cell would come up, things would change, that something would happen.

I’d been getting more and more restless, stressed out. I didn’t know what to do but I couldn’t just go on waiting. I was losing control of my emotions. My anger and frustration had reached boiling point. I wondered whether I’d ‘lose the plot,’ pick up a chair and attack something or someone, even though I’m not a violent person. But then I could be hurt by an officer and put back in the dorm by force anyway.

My repeated requests had fallen on deaf ears, ignored.

I thought that if I had to spend yet another 18 hours cooped up in that dorm, I really would end up going crazy and smashing my way out, or something else violent.

I’d grown to dread the long hours after the 3pm lock-up when basically there wasn’t much to do other than watch TV or put up with the sound of it when trying to rest or sleep, not to mention the sound of the other TV in the dorm across the corridor which often drowned out the sound of ours.

I thought that if I got out to the Visiting Area and refused to go back to M Block from there, I’d have more chance of making my point, i.e. that I really, seriously, couldn’t stand it there any more.

Anywhere I got moved to had to be better than M Block.

I felt sad and regretful having to leave behind all the friends I’d made there, so many top blokes, without saying goodbye. But I really couldn’t stand it any more, those living conditions.

In view of the circumstances I had no other option. That is why I disobeyed the order. I do not believe I am guilty.

Stuart Highway

17 November 2005