Stuart's uncensored letter

“PRISON WORK’s” soapbox letter of 3^rd May misses the point. Chain gangs and forced labour are not the answer. Sure, there’s work to be done, and prisoners can be given work to keep them busy. This is already the practice in many prisons.

However, the letter-writer fails to address the issue of WHO is in prison and WHY. In the Territory the answers to those questions are 1) indigenous Territorians, for the most part; and 2) poverty, and dispossession of land, culture and way of life.

Closer examination of the situation reveals that indigenous Territorians are likely to be imprisoned for offences that non-indigenous Territorians are not gaoled or even charged for.

Let’s face it, there aren’t many well off people going to prison. Politicians, for example, can cheat, lie, steal and cause the deaths of thousands with their policies of war and destruction but are unlikely to ever be locked up.

Giving prisoners self-esteem is good, but it’s not much use really if the factors and conditions which put them in prison are not addressed.

Every day there are stories of drug-related crime.

The best way to reduce the prison population would be to re-legalise all currently illicit drugs and regulate them with a system of controlled availability, as we do with alcohol and tobacco.

It’s futile and ridiculous trying to stop people buying, selling and using drugs. It’s a matter of supply and demand. Prohibition policy hasn’t worked. Instead of eradicating drug use it’s driven it underground and made it more dangerous, not just for the drug users but for the community as a whole.

Resources should be spent on education and information about drugs, instead of being wasted on policing and incarceration. European countries such as the Netherlands, Switzerland and Portugal have shown the way forward. How about some common sense thinking for the Territory?