5 years fighting the stupidity of drug prohibition

The handing down of his decision on the Parliament case sentence by ‘Justice’ Steve Southwood at the Supreme Court on Monday, 26 February 2007, was in a way the culmination of almost 5 years’ work and struggle by Darwin-based community organisation Network Against Prohibition, or NAP.

NAP is a revolutionary class war-orientated group dedicated to using direct action to end the War on Drugs. It seems to have been a pioneer in its field. We know of no other organisation in the world that’s been so militant and forward in taking the fight up to the capitalists. Northern Territory capitalists in the form of the Northern Territory government with its police state apparatus have been using the US-based War on Drugs as a pretext to commit human rights violations such as harassment, raids and imprisonment, mainly against working class sections of the community.

They have used the spectre of illicit use of substances such as cannabis, and more recently, ice, to create fear in the community. Compliant media outlets are happy to provide sensationalist coverage of the issue.

The result is that human rights and civil liberties concerns are discounted as people get hammered with repressive drug laws. The government and its bootboys can pretend they’re doing something positive with their ‘tough on drugs, tough on crime’ approach. They believe this will stand them in good stead for the next election campaign.

It’s nothing new really. A look at history reveals that while the words change, the deeds remain much the same. The working class gets kicked in the guts. Poor people are made to suffer. It doesn’t matter what pretexts are given – drugs, terrorism, communism, take your pick – as long as the job gets done. Keep the rich in power. Capitalism MUST prevail.

The make-up of the NT prison population – according to the latest figures 81% of prisoners are Aboriginal – shows us the main targets. Superficially the NT Labor government appears non-racist, with its six indigenous members of parliament. However, the reality is that most Aboriginal people STILL live in poverty, with the worst health, lowest life expectancy and the highest incarceration rates of any group in the community.

Instead of working to change this deplorable situation, too often the response of the authorities has been to blame the victims of their policies, to place the blame for sniffing petrol, abusing alcohol and cannabis, solely on the people themselves. While these things are significant issues in themselves, really they are symptoms of the underlying problems of poverty, racism and the dispossession and despair of Aboriginal people.

When things look grim, it’s not surprising that people look to wiping themselves out with whatever substances they can get their hands on. Some of these substances, like petrol, are more dangerous than others.

Using its drug house laws the government has spent a lot of resources hounding Territorians such as the so-called ganja granny Margot Laughton. Margot is a member of the Stolen Generation of Aboriginal people taken from their parents by the government. Instead of doing something to help her overcome her trauma, the government imprisoned her twice because she persisted in selling cannabis. The second time the police drug squad went to a lot of trouble to set her up. She ended up doing 5 months gaol for that one. Former Attorney-General Peter Toyne made an example of her, saying that people like Margot had to be taken off the streets.

NAP’s position is that regulation, following re-legalisation of currently illicit drugs, would be a better system of distribution than the current one. Under prohibition, distribution of drugs still occurs in spite of law enforcement efforts, but without proper regulation. The black market drugs business is in many cases under the control of criminals and unscrupulous people, out to maximise their profits regardless of the harm done to the community.

Re-legalisation and regulation would be the commonsense way of minimising the harm done to the community by these currently illicit drugs.

Over the last 5 years NAP has held 30 community smoke-ins in Raintree Park in Darwin, with speakers and an open mike, to highlight the stupidity of drugs prohibition.

On top of that, we carried out a series of non-violent direct actions throughout 2002. Chief among these was the NT Parliament walk-in of 14 May 2002, when 10 Napatistas entered Parliament through an unlocked door to publicise concerns with the draconian drug house legislation.

NAP was founded on 7^th March 2002 at an evening meeting at the Railway Club in Parap. Its principal driving force was Gary Meyerhoff. Gary had spirit and passion, coupled with an amazing ability to connect with and inspire people. His energy was intensified by the knowledge that his days were numbered because of an HIV infection. That disease was to claim his life on 8^th October 2006.

The first NAP action took place on 22^nd March at the Department of Justice building in Mitchell Street, Darwin. Five people sat in front of a line of police, making a racket with pots and pans and spruiking on a megaphone about the perils of the War on Drugs. The five of us were eventually arrested.

Not long after that, a bunch of us handed ourselves in at the city police station for the crime of self-administration of a dangerous drug, cannabis. We were in fancy dress costumes: Batman, Robin, Santa Claus, Ned Kelly and a gorilla. Even the police couldn’t help raising a smile. No charges were laid.

The first community smoke-in on 20 April 2002 met with a zero tolerance response by the police. They moved in to arrest Gary at noon, after having warned him not to speak in Raintree Park. The community responded with spirited resistance that saw 5 people arrested. In spite of the police intervention the smoke-in continued afterwards!

A drug users’ tent embassy was established on the lawns in front of Parliament House following the Mayday march on 1 May. It was violently evicted by the police after only 24 hours. This prompted NAP to address the politicians directly with our concerns about the War on Drugs.

Organisation was minimal on 14 May. We made our point non-violently but firmly. We hurt no-one and damaged no property. We only occupied Parliament for 5 minutes, but the NT government never forgave us for invading their precious little sacred place. Parliament is supposed to be the House of the People, but the people had better watch out if they insist on having their say directly! Democracy and free speech are OK in theory but you’re not allowed to actually put these principles into practice. The meaning of the word parliament is to do with speech. [‘Parlare’ means ‘to speak’ in Italian, ‘parler’ means the same in French.] But if you go in there you’d better keep your mouth shut and let your ‘elected representatives’ do the talking. Otherwise you’re likely to be dragged through the courts for years, as NAP was, for the ‘crime’ of exercising your right to speak out against injustice.

We continued with our actions for the rest of 2002 and beyond, refusing to be silenced by the forces of authority and their lackeys in the media.

We have no regrets. We know that truth and real justice will prevail eventually and the drug laws will be repealed. However, capitalism and its partner in crime, government, which has been responsible for the drug laws, will take a little longer to get rid of.

Rob Inder-Smith will commence a 28-day prison sentence soon for the part he played in the Parliament walk-in. People are urged to send letters of support to:

Robert Inder-Smith
PO Box 1407
Darwin NT 0801

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?

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

PRISON JOURNAL OF A HIGHWAYMAN

Friday, 25th November 2005
Written by Stuart Highway
whilst incarcerated at Berrimah Prison, N.T.

The guy in the cell next door said his name’s ----- and was brought up here from M Block for fighting, though he wasn’t the aggressor. He said that he was loath to defend himself as he didn’t want to get more time to serve. He said that he wanted a cell over in the other wing, meaning that section where I’ve been, I think. (I hope that I’ll be back there after tonight!) I told him my story. We agreed that M
Block’s no good.

I was going to post this letter but I changed my mind. It’d be a waste if it didn’t make it out, destroyed or lost in the system because somebody didn’t like what I’d written.

Just then I thought I heard a sound like a door being unlocked but when I looked outside there was nobody there. Joe Toscano did suggest keeping a daily journal in here, but before I thought I don’t have time to do that because I’m too busy writing letters. (I’ve written about 65 so far.)

Gaz said over the phone the other day that it’d be good to just keep writing, that that would keep me sane. Yeah, I had been depressed about some of my letters not making it out of the prison, being stopped. It’s frustrating being censored. Why CAN’T I write what I think? The prison has no right to censor prisoners. What are they afraid of? What are they hiding and covering up? The murder of Douglas Scott in 1985 for a start!

Anyway, what else can I do in this cell but write? There’s not exactly a huge range of activities to choose from! Anyway... I've just been brought my tea, and now there’s another guard outside (not the one who brought the meal) talking to the prisoner next door.

Yes, it’s a good idea to keep a prison journal. Especially in this cell, if only to retain my sanity! Whether these words one day end up on the internet, in a book, or unpublished just as my private record, or whether prison officers find them and destroy them, doesn’t really matter at this moment. Just keep writing. This is reality happening now!

I know that at least some of my letters have been getting out. That’s encouraging. It’s a trial and error process. Finding out what you can get away with and what you can’t. I don’t mind censoring myself a LITTLE bit. Leaving a few things unsaid, that’s OK. You can’t just write, or say, anything that comes into your head. You have to think first. Is that really worth writing, or saying? Will it hurt someone unnecessarily? Will it reflect badly on me? Is that a stupid thing to think or write? Will it bring trouble on someone?

However, I don’t like censoring myself to any GREAT degree, just because something might offend the prison censor or go against prison policy.

I’m applying for approval to write to another prisoner: Wayne Langtree in Alice Springs. I posted him a letter, that a few other blokes put their names to, but it came back marked No Permission to write. So I’ve filled in the Application For Approval form and plan to submit it tomorrow morning.

It’s evening, getting dark. I guess the time as 7pm. Finished my tea a while ago. I’m alone with my thoughts. What to do now? Exercise! Walk back and forth across the cell, diagonally, from one corner to the other, then sometimes around the perimeter, close to the wall, first in one direction, then in the other. Now I’ve stopped that and started writing again. Funny, this cell is better in some ways than my cell in the other wing. More room to move around. Less cluttered without a desk, shelves and the chair. The light’s brighter, and I didn’t have to ask the officer to leave it on. Maybe they’ll leave it on all night so that they can see me with their camera.

I reckon I’ll ring N---- tomorrow morning, as soon as I can. I’ll ask to borrow a library book too. I hope it’ll be library day!

One guard just came in to have a look at us. I didn’t think they’d bother coming in to check on us, given the camera in the corner.

Bugger, the light’s just been turned down, though not off. The officer asked whether we were all right, or something like that, then marched out again.

Officers came in to check on us on their rounds periodically through the night, just as they do in the other wing. Why do they bother? They can see me with the camera in the corner of the cell.

Sat. 26 Nov.

The 7 am siren just sounded. “Attention. Attention. It’s 7 o’clock. Time to get up, make your bed, tidy your cell and prepare for unlock.” They say that every morning. Except for one morning when I was in M Block. There was no siren or announcement. Maybe someone forgot. Good, they’re fallible. I hate that siren. It reminds you where you are, horribly, intrusively.

Perhaps the real reason they put me in this cell is not that I’ve pissed off the officers with my general ‘bad attitude’ or have annoyed them in little ways, but because of what I wrote in those 2 letters, one to P----, M------- and L--- R----, the other to Joe Toscano. I remember that I wrote, among plenty of things that they wouldn’t have liked, something saying that they could hang me in here just as they hanged Douglas Scott in 1985. Of course that wouldn’t have gone down well, and that’s the most likely reason for this form I got about those 2 letters, stating that they were removed from the mail pending legal advice.

Particularly since one of the officers involved in that 1985 incident apparently still works here. Stands to reason they’d want me singled out for special punishment.

You can still hear the birds from within this cell. I heard a gecko before. It’s not that cut off from outside. I knew from the sound of the birds that dawn was approaching. Saw a mosquito at the washbasin before. I wanted to get it, squash it, but it disappeared. I was amazed it got into this cell. There might be swarms of them around, with all the rain we’ve had.

That toilet bowl a metre from where I’m sitting (on the end of the bed) is pretty sturdy, the stainless steel bowl encased in concrete. But still, someone’s managed to bash in the front of it with something. Some people must get pretty wild and angry in here. I’m placid. I’m lucky I’ve got so many great friends supporting me. I hope I can help to change things in here.

It’s ridiculous when you think of it, all this thick concrete and metal designed to punish people harshly and destroy the human spirit. But they can never succeed completely, though they try their damnedest to break people.

When one of the officers came in to check on us during his rounds overnight I asked him the time. He said 3 o’clock. The sound of the door being unlocked woke me a few times and I got up to have a look. It wasn’t always the same officer. In fact, there might have been a few different ones. There must be HUNDREDS of officers working here. I keep seeing ones I’ve never seen before.

The door to the yard is of a type I’ve never seen before. The top half of it is a sort of grilled cage reaching into the yard. Presumably so that the officer can see the whole of the yard before opening the door, in case there’s a prisoner hiding beside the door right up against the wall, waiting to attack the officer when he enters.

OK, I shaved, and after a while I got unlocked. I thought I was going back over. I got to walk around the yard for a bit.

Christ, what am I writing this for? The screws might read it and make life even more miserable for me, the sick sadistic bastards. They expect to be considered as nice people, normal human beings, yet what they do to people is just horrible beyond belief.

Yet, I WILL have my say. I WILL not censor myself. What have I ever done to deserve this? I have to keep writing or I’ll go insane. All I did was write, in a PRIVATE letter, that we prisoners are at their mercy, that they can do what they want to us, that they could hang me, as Douglas Scott was murdered in this prison in 1985. They told me today that I’d written things that weren’t true, that they would never do that, they would never come into my cell at night. Well, I hope they wouldn’t! I’m sorry if I hurt their feelings, but I’m just stating a fact. What I meant was, and I’ll still say it, was that they have power over us, behind the forbidding walls of this prison.

Gracey said before that I wouldn’t be sent ‘down the back,’ because it was my first offence. Then he said that I’d go in the dorm for just one night, so that the paint would dry in my cell. [Another prisoner and I had painted my cell that day, as ordered by the senior officer Gracey. It was to be left empty, with the door left open overnight, to allow the paint job to dry.] That was yesterday morning. Then in the afternoon, he’d changed his mind. I was to be put in one of the punishment cells instead of the dorm, BECAUSE I WAS A NON-SMOKER. OK, I was even willing to accept that. But now, I'M IN THE PUNISHMENT BLOCK FOR A SECOND NIGHT. The other block supervisor, who was on today instead of Gracey, Mr Schroeder I think his name is, expects me to be grateful that he’s putting me down here just for tonight, rather than tomorrow night as well. When BEFORE, Gracey had told me that I wasn’t even going to be put down here at all! Gracey, you evil, sadistic bastard. I suppose if you read this as well, you’re going to take offence again. You might as well keep me down here for the remaining 51 days of my sentence.

I wouldn’t take offence at something you’d written in a private letter to a friend, something about me, because I would’ve had no business knowing what you said in the first place. Another prisoner told me today that in another prison he knew of, the staff never even bothered to read the letters the prisoners wrote, the outgoing mail, only the incoming. So is it really necessary that they read our PRIVATE letters here?

Why have I got this rash on my forearms? I feel feverish…

Honey, I Shot The President

They gave me 3 months gaol for smashing the windscreen of a police wagon. The filth disrupted one of our community smoke-ins in Darwin on Saturday 12 October 2002 and there was a bit of a riot. I didn't mean to smash the windscreen. I was just going to the aid of my mates, hammering on the bonnet of the police vehicle, then on the windscreen, while shouting, "Let them go! Let them go!"

I was prepared to go to gaol on principle rather than give in to the racist Northern Territory police state by pleading guilty. I spent most of my time in Maximum Security, where I had a cell to myself most of the time. For years I'd prepared myself psychologically for the possibility of going to prison. I had read as much as I could on the subject.

What I found hardest was the Medium Security dorms. Getting locked into a cage with up to 10 or 12 bunk beds i! n it, for 18 hours every day, from around 3pm to around 9am. There are 12 dorms in the block, which contains sometimes well over a hundred men. Dozens of working class blokes packed in together like sardines. Talk about a riot waiting to happen.

I've lived by myself in a place sort of like a council flat for the last 9 years, so I found the lack of personal space and privacy in gaol hard to deal with, even though I kind of got used to it. You've got your bunk bed, and a small locker if you're lucky, and that's it. In the US all the new prisons being built are dorm-style accommodation, to maximize the profits of the prison industrial complex.

I kept asking for a single cell, to no avail. So one day after a visit I refused to leave the visiting area. They put me back in Maximum Security for about a month, and most of that time I had a cell to myself. There is one dorm in that block, but it's not as b! ad as the Medium Security ones because it's not as overcrowded and noisy.

The screws took pleasure in sending me back to Medium Security M Block because they knew I didn't want to go. Nevertheless, being in the dorms had its compensations. I met a lot of blokes and made some good friends. From Medium Security you're allowed access to the prison library once a week. There was an exercise bike in one of the yards, that I used to work off my anger and frustration. You could also play basketball, pool and sometimes volleyball, whereas in the main wing of Maximum Security B Block there was only table tennis, chess and draughts, and improvised cricket. Access to things generally was a bit easier in the Medium Security block.

One ridiculous thing about the Darwin Correctional Centre is that prisoners aren't allowed to receive any books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, internet downloads or posters from friends or supporters outside. On top of t! hat, if anybody sent you any of these things with a letter, the screws would often withhold the letter too, so that you wouldn't get it until your release. When I got out there was a whole stack of things waiting for me.

I spent 28 days in the punishment cells 'down the back' on LOP (Loss Of Privileges.) This means no phone calls except legal ones, no TV, no buying things on the weekly buy up, no tobacco, and 'closed' visits (no physical contact with visitors.) Most of that 28 days was for refusing to provide a urine sample for a drug test.

Most prisoners smoke tobacco, and like watching TV and DVD movies and buying confectionery, extra drinks and stuff on buy-up day, so find it really difficult being sent 'down the back.' There are also more surveillance cameras there. For me personally though, it wasn't so hard because I don't smoke and I didn't miss the TV and buy-ups. Once I'd learnt how to deal with the punishment cells they didn'! t bother me that much!

There was strong solidarity amongst all the prisoners. On 28 November a prisoner got bashed by a screw. The incident was witnessed by other prisoners and there was talk of a riot, but nothing eventuated.

Prisoners feel frustrated because they're powerless and helpless against the overwhelming violence and cruelty of the State. The screws claimed that the prisoner had attacked the officer, or that the victim had sustained his head wound by falling over and hitting the back of his head on a toilet.

The screws told me off when they discovered I'd leaked news of the bashing during phone calls to friends. One friend had informed ABC News and the other had logged the incident on the internet. A senior screw threatened to stop my phone calls and visits, but I didn't give a fuck. I was just glad I'd got the word out.

I got heaps of solidarity from friends and supporters outside. People sent in hundreds of! letters, postcards and Xmas cards. I had plenty of visitors. FREE STUART HIGHWAY was spraypainted around Darwin, posters were pasted up and there were text messages to the newspaper calling for my release.

When I was in Medium Security M Block there was a so-called riot. In actual fact it was an orderly stand up protest in one of the exercise yards, followed up by a written list of grievances. There was no violence, it was really tame and restrained. The screws reacted with alarm because they can't handle anything less than 100% obedience. They isolated 3 'ringleaders' and sent them to Maximum Security. One ended up getting shanghaied to the other Northern Territory prison in Alice Springs, 1500km/900miles from Darwin in central Australia.

The Darwin Murdoch rag, to my surprise, did report the 'riot' but, typically, got the facts wrong, saying it was over the prison food and lack of activities.

The 3 months was an interesting learn! ing experience. We started another branch of our working class class war-based organisation Network Against Prohibition. The new branch is called Network Against Prisons and we're maintaining contact with prisoners by mail. Several NAP members have 5 month sentences outstanding, so we'll go back in if our appeals fail.

See our website at www.napnt.org

Note: Stuart wrote this piece for London Class War.

Another journal sort of piece from the inside

This is another journal sort of piece that I wrote in prison but hung onto until I got out rather than run the risk of it disappearing in the system if I’d posted it…

25th December 2005. 68 days done, only 23 still to go.

Merry Christmas from the Bowels of the Devil, also known as Darwin Correctional Centre. It must be about 3.30pm. We’ve just been locked up for the night. The day’s been overcast but we haven’t had any rain. At about 1pm I had a visit from 3 friends. Rob Inder-Smith, Diana Rickard and Justin Tutty. Justin mentioned that he’d tried to give the prison officers an Xmas present but they wouldn’t accept it. A packet of biscuits. They might have thought it was a bribe, or maybe they thought there might be poison in them! Anyway it was great to see the three of them. Rob had his Xmas necktie on, to go with his usual get-up of shorts and loud shirt. I could only talk to one person at a time on the phone, even though we could all see each other through the windows. It was a ‘closed visit,’ no physical contact. A hell of a lot better than no visits at all, which I was expecting as part of the LOP (Loss Of Privileges) penalty now that I’m ‘down the back’ in the punishment block.

This is my second night in Cell 3, B Block (Maximum Security.) Next door is Jeffrey Wanambi from Oenpelli in Cell 4. We share a small exercise yard but we are never allowed out of our cells at the same time. As usual I had a shower under the outside shower in the yard, the concrete exercise yard, before the 3pm lock-up.

Locked in my cell for Xmas lunch, which I ate in the dark as the screw didn’t turn on the cell light as I requested. So at first I couldn’t see what I was eating, until my eyes gradually got used to the dark. Slices of 3 different types of meat, a pineapple ring from a tin, and salad. I’ll remember this Xmas for the rest of my life all right! Thought they’d let us eat our lunch in the yard down the end, as has been the case the last 2 days. But no. Those styrofoam disposable meal trays the lunch was in, and yesterday’s evening meal too, were something new too. I’d never seen those before. Still aren’t getting my breakfast bran since moving from M Block. I hope the kitchen gets the message soon that I’m in B Block again now. I keep mentioning that bran to the officers. Damien Hillen’s in Cell 1 and Ben in Cell 2. Khan went back up to the main B Block wing after finishing his 21 days in the Punishment Cells yesterday morning.

I’ve filled in a Request form to be allowed to visit Matty Rourke in C Block. There’s doubt as to whether I’ll be allowed to see him, as I’m on Loss of Privileges. Saw him on Thursday though. Twice! By chance, with Fiona, in the Visiting Area in the afternoon. Serendipity. Is that the word? A happy coincidence? We got a chance to exchange a few words. Filled in a medical request form too, asking for a blood test to make sure my liver’s doing OK, holding up all right under the regime of daily anti-fungal medication for the fingernail fungal infection. I’ll give both those forms to an officer tomorrow morning…

New Year’s Day, 2006. Happy New Year, Ha!Ha!Ha!

Thoughts of the Day

The strength of us all could demolish the wall. But you chose to walk through the door. You chose to walk through the door. Darwin Correctional Centre. Murderous bastards. Who killed Douglas Scott? In 1985 in Darwin Prison? Why no justice after 20 years? Fuck, I can’t wait to get out of here. I am sick to death of seeing people, myself included, being treated like animals inside this evil, horrible place of death, misery and suffering.

26 days gone, 65 to go.

I wrote this letter in November in prison but realised as I was writing it that it probably wouldn’t make it past the prison censor. So instead of posting it, and taking the risk it would end up in the screws’ wastepaper basket, I hung onto it for later. So I’m now typing it onto my blog more than two months later.


Sunday, 13th November 2005. 26 days gone, 65 to go.

Stuart Highway
Darwin Correctional Centre
PO Box 1407
Darwin 0801

Dear Gaz,

What a nice surprise! Got your letter, the 9th one, just before lock-up for the day at 3pm. In this block you never know what time you’re going to get mail! In M Block it was always at the morning muster at around 9am.

Yeah, I’ve been stressed out. That comes from being constantly being at the mercy of other people’s authority. I’m constantly being told off by stern-faced prison officers for minor infractions, and told that I should know the routine by now. There’s always the implicit threat of being sent to the dreaded punishment block. Everything must be done exactly as it’s supposed to be, at exactly the right time.

I can see how places like this do people’s heads in. Some people turn to Christianity to try to make sense of the authoritarian nightmare their lives have been turned into.

This prison is one huge joke. Sometimes I feel like laughing about it, only it’s PEOPLE’S LIVES they’re joking with. The joke wears thin after a while. The idea is to break the individual’s spirit and make people into passive robots who don’t think for themselves any more. They only know how to take orders. Obey or else! The system is stronger than you, therefore it is right and you must have done something bad to end up in here.

That’s funny, I don’t remember doing anything wrong. I remember making a stand for human rights and fighting some morons in uniforms. I remember telling a cretin of a judge that the government with its police was the guilty party, not the Network Against Prohibition. I remember accusing uniformed morons of lying. It wasn’t so much a matter of a shattered windscreen, which they never proved beyond reasonable doubt that I was responsible for anyway, as they are supposed to according to their own system of law.

It was a matter of taking a stand against the stupidity and the hypocrisy, the racism and the capitalist hierarchy that the Northern Territory Government’s drug laws are a part of.

If I’d told that judge I was remorseful, that I sincerely regretted my actions on 12 October 2002, that I was sorry for the trouble I’d caused, and pleaded guilty, I wouldn’t be sitting here in this cell now.

But why should I cave into fascism? Why should I ‘repent’ and say, like Winston Smith in Orwell’s 1984, that now I know I love Big Sister Clare Martin, and Big Brother Peter Toyne? Do they think they’re teaching me a lesson by keeping me in here for 3 months? The only lesson I’m learning is what a bunch of fools they are, what a colossal waste of taxpayers’ dollars and natural resources this whole prison system is, and how they are even more evil and corrupt than I thought.

Other prisoners know this too, even if they don’t say so. It makes me sad, and angry, to see people’s lives being ruined, by being kept, not just for a month or three like me, but for YEARS, in this horrible, depressing institution.

Stuart Highway

Stuart Highway's release from prison

WOO-HOO!!! I'M OUT OF PRISON!!! I can't believe it. My body's at the NAP House, but my mind hasn't caught up yet. It's still in Punishment Cell No.3 'down the back' in B Block. I'm all fired up and ready to go. Thanks, everyone, for your amazing support. You've all been terrific! Love, Stuart

Stuart Leaves Berrimah Prison...

Stuart Highway will leave Berrimah Prison tomorrow, Tuesday, January 17, 2006 at 9am.

Stuart has served 3 months for his part in the 6th Smoke-In in Raintree Park where a police vehicle was damaged.

Stuart has spent much of his imprisonment in a punishment cell for refusing to give a urine sample for a random drug test.

When asked why he refused to submit to a test, particualrly as he is not an IV drug user, Stuart replied, "No one has the right to my bodily fluids."

Failing to provide a sample means that Stuart was labelled an "Identified Drug User" (IDU) and as such lost all his priveliges.

He had his visits cut back to half an hour per week and was not allowed phone calls.

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.

Insider's plea for clemency

Mr Ted Egan AO
The Administrator
GPO Box 497
Darwin NT 0801

Dear Sir

I write to you as prisoner serving a 3-month sentence in Darwin Correctional Centre at Berrimah. I respectfully ask you to grant me a pardon by setting aside my conviction, or, failing that, to show clemency by granting me an immediate release.

I believe that I have paid my debt to society for the offence I was found guilty of on 18 October by being made to suffer for nearly 2 months in the deplorable conditions of this prison, and that nothing will be gained by squandering further taxpayers' dollars on my continued incarceration.

In addition, I invite you, or a representative, to experience for yourself the conditions that we, as NT prisoners, are forced to endure for months, or years, by spending a night with inmates in a dorm in Medium Security M Block.

I also invite a representative of the NT Government to spend a night in one of the notorious punishment cells 'down the back', in order to see for himself the contempt in which prisoners' rights, which are of course human rights, are held in this prison.

In both of these blocks prisoners are locked in every day, from 3pm until 9am.

I await your reply in anticipation.

Yours Faithfully

Stuart Highway.
Darwin Correctional Centre
PO Box 1407
Darwin NT 0801

Letter written and posted December 14, 2005, checked and stamped by "prison intentelligence officer" on December 15, and received by the Network Against Prohibition on December 21.

Stuart Highway prepares to ‘go off the air’

By Rob Inder-Smith

Legendary Darwin human rights activist Stuart Highway is preparing to go “off the air” 62 days into his imprisonment at Berrimah jail.

Stuart has been telephoning friends in anticipation of being found guilty at a “hearing” tomorrow morning, which will try him for being an identified drug user (IDU).

If found guilty, Stuart will spend 28 days – almost the entirety of the rest of his three-month sentence – in a punishment cell.

He will lose all privileges, including visits and possibly the right to receive letters.

”I’m expecting to go off the air,” he said by phone early this afternoon.

“The hearing is a kangaroo court. Even the guards say that.”

Stuart was found guilty of being an IDU early last week for refusing to provide a urine sample, which determines whether inmates have been using drugs.

Inmates knew something was about to happen when a large group of prison officers “swarmed” (Stui’s word) into the compound and began calling names, apparently at random, and informing them that they were to be drug-tested.

The tests demand that prisoners strip naked and piss into a jar while being watched by two officers.

Stuart refused. Asked why, he said:

”Because I’m in NAP (the Network Against Prohibition). Because it’s the state. I wasn’t going to co-operate.”

He said the drug-tests were a “totally stupid waste of tax payers’ money”, and added that he expected to be called to step up to the “white line” tomorrow.

“That’s the line you have to step up to when they’ve got something planned,” he said.

" ‘Highway! Up to the white line, fully dressed with all your gear. You’re going up the back (to the punishment cells)’."

Stuart talked of how he had come to be in jail, saying that chance had played its hand during his Supreme Court trial.

“Gaz (fellow Nap member Gary Meyerhoff) was ill, you were in Perth and I found myself talking and talking,” he said, joking about his self-represented appearance before Justice Trevor Riley.

“Riley sentenced Nicolette and Mickey (Burrows and Barry, the co-accused who faced the same charge of criminal damage) and highlighted the contrast between us (Barry and Burrows pleaded guilty, Stui not-guilty).

“Then he came to me and said that I had shown no remorse and blamed the police and the government.”

Stuart was philosophical about his predicament, describing the boredom of prison life and pointing out that some men had been locked up in Berrimah for years. He called jail life “hell” and said that sometimes he thought the inmates would “just explode” with frustration.

”People have wondered why I should have gone to jail for smashing a windscreen,” he said, referring to the alleged act that resulted in him being charged.

“They say a fine would have been sufficient, not a jail term.”

On the evil done by Riley, Stuart said:

“It’s the whole system that is evil, from the prison guards who need their uniforms, to the judges and magistrates, court officials, the police, security guards . . . it’s their job.

“They pray on us. They suck our blood. They need fresh flesh to feed the maggots.”

Stuart said that people “on the outside” did not protest because they had been “conditioned to be passive”.

“They (our governors) convince people they can do nothing,” he said.

“We have to break that mindset. We’ve got to get our shit together. I’ve had a gutful. Things would really change if more people said, ‘Right, we’re not going to take this anymore’.

“But they’ve been conditioned to be passive, with their TVs and videos. Things would really change (if we stood up).

“If NAP had more members, we could take the town by storm.

“Imagine what we could do with hundreds of members. It’s just a question of getting organised.”

Please pardon Stuart Highway

Letter by NAPNT member Gary Meyerhoff to the NT Administrator, Mr Ted Egan AO requesting a pardon for Stuart Highway. Posted snail mail on Monday 05th December 2005. Please send your own version of this letter to:

Mr Ted Egan AO
The Administrator of the NT
GPO Box 497
Darwin NT 0801


Re: Stuart Highway


Dear Sir

I’m writing to you in regard to my friend and comrade Stuart Highway. Stuart was imprisoned on Tuesday 18 October for an offence related to the drug law reform campaign of the Network Against Prohibition.

I have known Stuart for many years, and have found him to be an intelligent and serious man, committed to the struggle to uphold the human rights of those people in our society who have little if any power. He is a dedicated social justice activist and has contributed much to the community.

I am concerned about the harm Stuart could suffer from incarceration. Imprisonment should be used as an absolute last resort, in cases where an individual is violent or dangerous or some kind of serious threat to the community. Stuart does not fall into this category by any means.

He has been under enormous pressure and stress over the last three years, largely because of the tough NT Government response to the ongoing campaign by the Network Against Prohibition. He has already suffered enough and paid the price for whatever transgressions he may have committed.

Stuart poses no danger whatsoever to anybody or anything. His continued incarceration is a burden on taxpayers to no end.

I respectfully ask that you end Stuart’s suffering by pardoning him unconditionally and releasing him from prison forthwith.

Yours Sincerely


Gary Meyerhoff

45 days down, 46 to go

Transcript of Stuart’s comments during his three-minute telephone call Friday, December 2, 2005, 11.15am, to the Network Against Prohibition (calls are monitored and cut off the moment the three minutes is up):

Sorry, about the noise, they’re hosing down the exercise yard with high-pressure hoses.

I saw legal aid yesterday (by video link) and Lorenzo told me he would get back to me next week to see if an appeal had any merit. They don’t seem too concerned. During the conference a prisoner hit me across the eye with an open palm. He’s a nutcase. He’s crazy. He commits acts of random violence. I could have pressed charges but won’t because he’s crazy . . . he sings to himself and there’s a book in the library with the word “the” crossed out throughout the book. They think it’s the same guy. I am OK though.

I’ve just finished being put in the punishment cells for minor infractions of the rules. There’s a waiting list of people to go in them, there’s a back log (but) there’s only six cells.

(Stuart talks about Nguyen Tuong Van, the Australian who was executed in Singapore that morning, then moves on to Ronald Ryan):

(Ryan) was the last man executed in Australia, in 1967 . . . the last state execution in Australia, That was the end of the death penalty in Australia, so maybe we can force Singapore and other countries to end the death penalty, too . . . There’s so much stuff to tell, you can’t say it all in a letter . . . (letters are read) by the guards. You can’t write any private stuff or say anything about the other prisoners.

There are so many human rights abuses, its systemic callousness. Somebody has to expose it. I saw the ABC van (yesterday) and I think they recognised me, so maybe watch the 7.30 Report tonight? You have to be in this place to experience it. It’s not just one individual (guard), it’s the whole system, the whole place is evil. We’re prisoners but we are suffering human rights abuses all the time. I’ve been here 45 days, I’ve got 46 to go.

I still haven’t been granted my special diet of prunes and bran. It doesn’t matter how many times (I) ask, we don’t have rights. The only people who have human rights in here, are the prison guards.

We got locked down yesterday. We were allowed out of our cells for three hours. There had been a fight between two prisoners. Outside people are on edge, let alone in here . . . It was a Code Three (fight) and the siren goes off. The other day there were two (fights) within an hour.

I received a letter from Thomas Meyer-Falk (a prisoner in Germany who Stuart corresponds with) and he received a letter from Schapelle Corby! I wrote to him and gave her Schapelle’s address, and he wrote to her, and she wrote back, so that’s good. I (also) received a letter from Shane (a prisoner in Casuarina, Perth). He seems to have it easier down there. He works in the print shop.

I’m expecting a visit from Vaughan and my Godson Kevy.

Stuart writes to Rob

Letter from Stuart Highway to NAPNT member Rob Inder-Smith written by Stuart at Darwin Prison between Friday the 25th of November and Monday the 28th.

Received by Rob on Thursday 01st December 2005.

Dear Rob

Thanks for your latest letter.

I enjoy your colourful and entertaining language, and the description of everyday life in Darwin. The experience of a trip into town on the No.4 bus is something which is starting to fade from my memory, even though I’ve only been in here for a month and a week. It’s interesting to be reminded.

Well, I got my cell painted today! I didn’t even do most of it. A fellow prisoner by the name of Brad volunteered to do job because he wanted something to do. He offered to do it on his own, and have me just sit back and take it easy. But I didn’t want to bludge, even though I wasn’t too keen on the work. I didn’t even think the cell was due for a paint job. I thought it could’ve waited another few years. The decision wasn’t up to me though, it was up to the supervising officer of the block.

This bloke Brad did such a top job, and really quickly, too. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw he’d finished it already, by the time I got back from a quick interview with Legal Aid. Such a nice bloke. I reckon I owe him a favour. I’ll buy him a drink or something one day. I just did a bit of painting. I’d thought it would take forever. Probably would’ve been done if I’d done it on my own! This guy was a professional house painter. The last time I did any house painting was about 25 years ago when I helped my dad, I think.

Anyway, the Legal Aid Appeal, against my conviction and sentence, doesn’t look like it’ll happen for a while. The NTLAC worker, Anastasia (I’m not sure whether she’s a lawyer) asked me in the video link interview what my grounds for appeal were. I had an idea I’d already given them that information, but maybe I hadn’t. So I just said:-
1. I was unrepresented
2. I didn’t get my 2 witnesses to court. (This was due at least partly to poor organisation and preparation on my part.)
3. It was a political trial, as NAP had been attacking NT Govt. policy since its (NAP’s) founding in March, 2002.
4. The sentence was manifestly excessive.

I realise now I could be left to rot in here for the full 91 days of the sentence. They might not grant me leave to appeal. Even if they do, I’ll be out of here having served the sentence already. Who knows what’ll happen? We can’t put too much faith in NTLAC, given that they’re part of the same government that we’ve been attacking for the past 3 years 8 months.

This morning the officers said they were going to put me back in the dorm for tonight, while the paint dried in my normal cell, with the door left open. But at 2.30pm, they put me in a single cell instead. I think this is one of those punishment cells, ‘up the back’ that I keep hearing about. They said this afternoon they couldn’t put me in the dorm (where you, Gaz and I were in November last year ) because I’m a non-smoker. Funny, that’s where they put me for 2 nights before, when I first came back up here from M Block. This section, or wing, has only 2 cells side by side, opening on to a small, square concrete exercise yard with walls over 3 metres high. Concrete walls on 2 sides, Besser blocks on the third. In the corners, high up, surveillance cameras behind triangular perspex panels.

The outdoor shower is not in the middle the yard, but a little to one side. It’s a black nozzle affixed [Ah, here comes the rain. It must be 3.30 or 4pm] to the densely gridded steel-meshed ‘ceiling’ about 3m above your head, fed by a black plastic irrigation tube or hose. The shower is turned on and off by an officer outside somewhere,

Today I received a letter from Gema Beggs, Legal Officer in the NT Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, stating that the summary charges relating to the 6th
Smoke-in had been withdrawn and dismissed on Wednesday, 23rd, when they were due for hearing in the Maggots Court, in light of my conviction in the Supreme Court for Criminal Damage.

This cell has minimal ventilation and a surveillance camera in the corner behind a triangular perspex panel. It has been repainted recently, except for the floor. Even the small window in the cell door has thick bars on it inside and outside. The stainless steel toilet in the corner is encased in a concrete block and has no seat or lid.

It is so quiet in here, no noise apart from the rumble of thunder outside and the grilled air blower in the centre of the ceiling. I can see why prisoners talk about the danger of losing your mind in one of these cells. One bloke did 72 days here apparently. Maybe that was a record. I remember Frank Panaia telling me 12 or 13 years ago about spending 3 months sleeping on a bare concrete floor with a toilet roll for a pillow because he refused to lick the screws’ boots. Was that in here, I wonder?

I wonder whether the guards have decided that I’ve got a bad attitude! Maybe they think I’m cheeky or disrespectful. I don’t think I’m that bad! They said I’ll only be here for 1 night. They said they can’t risk putting me in the dorm with smokers. (Lest I sue the NT Govt. for 1 night’s passive smoking, I suppose) Ho! Ho! Ho! Hilarious.

The other prisoners called out, as the guards brought me up here, that I was allowed to have a library book to read in here. When I asked for a book I was told it wasn’t library day. What day IS library day? Whenever they say it is?

Sat, 26th Nov.

I finally got a book to read (an oceanography encyclopaedia). They put me in a different punishment cell for tonight. Tomorrow, I go back to my usual cell in the other wing of B.Block

Solidarity
Stuart


PS: A new branch of NAP, called Network Against Prisons, has sprung up in here. We’re a human rights prisoners’ organisation. Watch this space. On you mob for keeping up the fight out there. We’re in here for you, you’re out there for us.

40 days down, 51 to go

Note: NAPNT members are concerned for Stuart's welfare, please ring the Darwin Correctional Centre on (08) 8922 0111 (+61 8 8922 0111 from outside Australia`) to ensure that Stuart’s human rights are being respected. Please write to Stuart and let him know that he (and the other prisoners) is supported on the outside.

For more information about Stuart’s case and what you can do to help Free Stuart Highway click here.


Letter from Stuart Highway to Gary Meyerhoff (received today)


Written on Sunday 27th November 2005 at Darwin Prison

Stuart Highway
Darwin Correctional Centre
PO Box 1407
Darwin 0801

40 days down, 51 to go

Dear Gaz,

Got your letter of 24th Nov. this arvo, at muster just before 3pm lock-up. Thanks. I was surprised to hear you were walking around in Adelaide with Fi and Wendy when I rang earlier today. I’d forgotten about that AIVL meet (AGM, isn’t it?)

Jesus, what a nightmare of a time I’ve had these last couple of days. It’s a relief to be back in my own cell, the usual one. What’s so hyper-stressful about prison life is that arrangements can be changed around on you at a moment’s notice. Just when you get settled and start to feel a bit comfortable, for example, I’ve got my own cell now, I’ve been here a couple of weeks now. I’ve got accustomed to the routine. I’ve a pretty good idea of how things work around here (although there’s a lot more to learn) and I’m getting to know most of the people, both prisoners and prison officers. Then: you’re painting your cell tomorrow! – Oh no, how am I going to go with that? I’ve never done it before. You’re sleeping in the dorm tonight, just for 1 night, while the paint dries. Later: no, you’re not going in the dorm tonight, you’ll be in one of those cells ‘down the back’ instead, but only for one night. – Oh, ok. Next morning I’m expecting to go back to my usual cell. But no! You have to stay in the punishment block. Only one more night, though, instead of 2 more. What !? I wasn’t even supposed to be put in the punishment block at all! Now I’m supposed to be grateful that I’m only going to be there 2 nights instead of 3? – ok, ok, so I have to go back in that cell for another night. Right, it’s reasonably clean, I know what to expect, having spent last night in there.

But no, you’re going in a different punishment cell tonight. Christ!!! What the hell’s going on??? This one’s not quite as clean…

And once I’m locked in there, there’s another problem… I won’t go into details…FUCK! I feel like I’m really going to lose it now. Especially when the penny drops. The REAL reason for all this performance sinks into my mind. Stress overload…

What can I do about it though, really? Stuck here by myself in this stinking hot cell where there’s hardly any ventilation. It looks like it hasn’t been cleaned properly since the last person was in here… It’s a real PHYSICAL EFFORT to get water out of the ‘tap’ (read: metal hole on the wall) above the washbasin.

And that stainless steel toilet bowl, a metre from where I’m sitting on the end of the bed. It’s ENCASED in solid concrete block. (There’s no toilet seat or lid.) That toilet bowl has a pretty big dent in the front of the rim, it’s bent out of shape there. Now that would have taken some doing. The bloke that did that must’ve been pretty damn ANGRY. And what did he use? What tool? There’s nothing here but thick, solid concrete and metal. Nothing breakable, nothing that could’ve been broken off. Did he use his foot, or fist,… or what?

Somehow I get through this. Fall asleep early, then wake up and can’t get back to sleep. It’s hot and uncomfortable. Insomnia. I take off the King Gee work shorts and t-shirt, soak them in the washbasin. Put them back on dripping wet. That feels better. Keeps my body temperature down. They drip and dry off gradually as I pace the cell diagonally for a couple of hours to use up energy. I hear a bird outside somewhere. That must mean it’s close to daybreak.

But when I ask the officer, who comes to check on me on his rounds, the time, he says it’s only just gone 3. The shorts aren’t as wet anymore, the t-shirts only damp. Even the small window in the middle of the metal cell door has thick metal bars inside and outside. The officer on his rounds peers through it and shines his torch on me to make sure I am still alive.

I feel tired enough to grab a few more hours of fitful interrupted sleep. It gets light and the 7am. Wake-up siren sounds.

I ask the prison officer on his rounds the time. His answer: “Time to buy a watch!” Ha ha. Funny man. I’m not in the mood for a laugh at the moment, given the circumstances. (He does tell me the time after that though.)

I’ve got a watch but I’m not allowed to have it. They strip us of everything in here. It’s like being back at school, only worse. What do they achieve by putting people in these punishment cells, with the appalling conditions? Obedience? Yes, for a while. Respect for authority? No. It only makes people disrespect and hate it even more. Authority that goes to such lengths to enforce respect is not worth respect. It’s worthy only of contempt and ridicule. There are 6 of those punishment cells, 2 with observation cameras in them.

A new branch of NAP has sprouted here in the bowels of the devil. Its name is Network Against Prisons.

The loss of control I’ve experienced in my life has been parallelled by loss of control experienced by working class people on the outside. It’s no picnic out there either. John Howard and his crew have got people insecure and fearful. Afraid of terrorist attacks and bird flu. They don’t know whether they’ll have a job next year. A lot of people don’t even know where their next meal’s coming from. It’s all pretty stressful. The stress comes from the lack of control over our own lives. We’re in the process of fixing this by getting organised.

Well done on the Van case. I’ve been telling people in here, while he’s alive there’s still hope to save him, still a chance.

I got a bunch of letters today, one from Jodie Wilson in Parap (remember her?), others from Pete ABC, Ruth (QLD), Peter McGregor (NSW), Thomas Meyer-Falk (Germany) and a beautiful card with 2 tigers on it from a Lionel Williams (no return address) as well as yours. 7 in all.

Solidarity


Stuart

N.B. Any or all of this is bloggable, netable, Gaz.

Letter to PM re: Nguyen Tuong Van

Written by Stuart Highway in Darwin Prison on Friday the 11th November 2005

Dear Prime Minister

I am writing to you in this eleventh hour in the hope that you will intervene to save the life of Australian citizen Nguyen Tuong Van.

As Prime Minister of Australia you are in a position of power to influence the Singapore Government to stay his execution.

Australia and Singapore are allies and have strong military and trade links. You could use these to work out a deal whereby Nguyen Tuong Van could be brought home to serve out a life sentence in Melbourne, close to his family.

The death penalty is abhorrent. I once read of an American boy of 16 or so who murdered both his parents after a fierce argument on a camping trip. It was probably his youth that saved him from the death penalty. After serving years in prison he was released and studied medicine. He became a doctor. He devoted the rest of his life to helping the underprivileged and disadvantaged. He became a model citizen.

Similarly, I believe Nguyen Tuong Van deserves to live.

Please consider this option.

Yours Sincerely

Stuart Highway

Letter to Nguyen Tuong Van

Written by Stuart Highway in Darwin Prison on Thursday the 10th November 2005

Dear Nguyen Tuong Van

I am a member of a Darwin-based drug law reform organisation called Network Against Prohibition. Since March 2002 we have been campaigning for the repeal of all laws against drugs. Our goal is the relegalisation of all drugs which are currently illicit, in order to reduce to a minimum drug-related harm in communities worldwide. We believe that far more harm is done to drug users and society in general by the drug laws than by the drugs themselves.

I am currently serving a 3 month sentence for a conviction of Unlawfully Damage Property as a result of damage done to police vehicles at one of our community rallies in Darwin in October 2002.

I have seen the media coverage of the campaign to save you from execution, and seen your mother plead for your life to be spared.

I feel that the intervention of powerful figures such as John Howard could result in you being brought back home to serve a life sentence in Melbourne, leaving the way open for other options. However, the political will has been lacking.

Therefore, I'm going to write to John Howard asking him to make further, more serious representations to the Singapore Government on your behalf. As you are an Australian citizen that's the least he could do.

As well, I extend a hand of solidarity, as one prisoner of the war on drugs (POWD) to another, through the bars and across the sea.

Solidarity, brother.

Stuart Highway

You can send messages of solidarity and support to Nguyen Tuong Van at the following address:

Condemned Prisoner C856 Nguyen Tuong Van
Cluster Registry, Changi Prison
982 Upper Changi Road
Singapore 507709

For more information about Van's case, click here.

Letter from Stuart Highway to Gary Meyerhoff (received today)

Wed 25th October 2005

Stuart Highway
Darwin Prison
PO Box 1407
Darwin NT 0801


Hi Gary-O from the Barrio!!

Just got your letter at the morning muster. Great to hear from you! I’ve been wondering how you’ve been out there. No, I didn’t get your letter, probably because of the magazines and newspapers you sent with it. Prisoners here aren’t allowed magazines and newspapers, we don’t even get the NT News! Ema told me in her letter the they confiscated the Just Us I sent her. Joe Toscano’s Anarchist Age Weekly Review, 2 copies of the same issue, got through somehow, though.

I was going to ring you this morning, as I got a receipt saying that $15 had gone into my account, but it seems you need another piece of paper as well before you can make any calls. There is so much I want to talk to you about. How’s your 6th smoke-in case going? And how is Rob going with his C M’s office? On Saturday afternoon I had a visit from Nilva, her partner Christine, Rebecca and Kathy Newman, which was terrific.

Thanks for the support work you’re doing for me – that gives me a huge boost. I feel my sanity is hanging by a thread stuck out here in Clare Martin’s gulag, with big mobs of people, mainly indigenous, of course, who shouldn’t even be here either. I’ve heard plenty of people’s horror stories but I’ll have tot sae them for later because they’d probably censor them if I tried to tell you now. I don’t think I’ve ever been this stressed out in al my 42 years as I’ve been the last few days. Things are too bad in this hole. I feellike I didn’t sleep a wink last night.

B Block was OK but my classification (class) was downgraded last Friday and I’ve been in M Block, Medium Security. It’s horrible here. They lock \us up in cages like animals. There are 3 wings made up of 4 doms each. Guantamono Bay must be something like this. Now I think I know what Vicki Rosepiler feels. Each dorm is the size of my flat and contains 8 to 12 bunk beds. Remember B Block and Remand? LUXURY compared to here. I asked for a cell to myself, but the guards just smiled as if it’s all a great joke. So I’m on the waiting list for a single cell but that could take months, apparently.

I’ve had STACKS of letters, more than everyone else in the block put together maybe. (There must be about 100 blokes in this block.) When I came in, with another bloke who was lucky enough to get only 28 days for 4 kilos of cannabis, over from B Block last week, there were 7 of us in this 8 bunk dorm, but now there are only 5, and I think one gets out of prison tomorrow, lucky bloke.

I’ve met 3 Indonesian fishermen in this block and made firm friends with one. I’ve made some good friends. A couple of blokes have asked about you, at least one of whom remembered you from B Block last year. Oh yeah, Nilva told me that she spun out to find NAP on Wikipedia. She’s amazed at the work you’ve done.

After reading your letter this morning I filed out a form (there are forms to fill out for every bloody thing in here) asking Legal Aid to help me lodge an appeal urgently, against this latest thing, unlawfully damage property. I was so depressed and stressed out and assumed an appeal was hopeless because my defiant stance had made the judge so angry. But maybe just an appeal against sentence? Maybe I could even get out of here on bail pending that? Do you reckon that’s a possibility? I filled out another copy of the same yellow, yesterday, I think, asking Legal AID to help me seek leave ASAP to withdraw the Full Bench Parliament appeal on Monday 31st because there’s no way I can prepare for it in here. I asked for them to just do an appeal against the sentence. Maybe they can help us (or me) knock out the 5 month sentence. I’ve had letters from Shane Dexter from Priestly regarding the Victims of Crime case. The hearing was set down for 16 November, I think. Priestleys says I’ve got little or no chance of success in it and are threatening to do me for costs if I lose. So I asked Legal Aid on the yellow form yesterday to get that withdrawn too, because I just can’t be bothered trying to deal with that shit from in here. I think that D’Souza would’ve learned a lesson by now and will think twice before pulling a mean trick like that on anyone again. Not that I’ve necessarily finished with that campaign yet!

It gets noisy in here, particularly after we get locked into the cages (dorms) after 3pm, although we’re getting locked up at 1.30pm instead today. The TV is going in each dorm, the dorms are close together, so often you get 3 or 4 different TV channels blaring at you from different directions and it drives you crazy. It’s 5 to 1 now (12.55pm) so I’ll get this finished off to be posted before lock-up in 35 minutes. Yeah, when the TVs are going sometimes you can’t hear yourself think. I’d find it impossible to concentrate on complicated legal stuff. It’s not so bad when the TVs are on the same channel, like for example when they put the movie on throughout the complex in afternoon, and again in the evening. Sometime’s it’s the same DVD movie, arvo and evening.

We just received our buy-up goods, and this is the first page of my new pad. I just ordered 25 envelopes, this writing pad and 2 black ballpoint pens. I didn’t bother with any of the other crap like munchies, thongs or the ‘anti-cancer sunglasses.’

Christ, I’m feeling dizzy or like I’m about to black out or something but I’ve got to get this finished and posted.

So, no need to send any magazines or newspapers, Gaz, because they won’t let me have them. In any case I don’t have much time to read. There’s not much peace and quiet. I have to watch about 10 hours of garbage on TV every day. It’s frustrating when there are so many other things I want to do. Oh well, the news isn’t so bad. At least we get to see a bit of what’s going on in the world. Nguyen Tuong Van’s written a farewell letter to his family and is expected to be executed within weeks. Why is this execution necessary? What a cruel, sick world we live in. ALL IT TAKES FOR EVIL TO TRIUMPH IS FOR GOOD PEOPLE TO DO NOTHING.

I feel like Vicki R. I can’t believe this nightmare is happening to me. I thought there was a DVD movie on now, but it’s only the TV.

OK, that’s about it for now. Afternoon clean-up is in progress. Please keep me posted with developments. You mob are out there for us, us mob are in here for you.

Solidarity

Stuart Highway

Abridged version of Stuart Highway’s statement before the Full Bench of the Northern Territory Supreme Court on Monday, October 31, 2005

I would like to remind you today that it is not possible for me . . . to prepare for the appeal*. I seek an adjournment (because) I am in prison in the bowels of the devil, the bowels being Clare Martin’s+ police state (where there is) excessive noise . . . stress and tension. I have managed to arrange a video interview . . . with legal representation on Thursday.

It is possible that I won’t be able to appeal this appeal against conviction at all. I apologise for this your Honours. It is . . . impossible to prepare for the appeal. I was jailed on the 18th of October. I was sent a CD Rom on Friday (October 28). Time is not adequate . . . and I’m unable to communicate with my co-appellants.

* The Full Bench Appeal is NAP's attempt to overturn the decision by Justice David Angel who dismissed NAP’s appeal against conviction in the Magistrate’s Court for invading Parliament in May, 2002.

+ Clare Martin is the NT’s Chief Minister and leader of its Labor Government.

THE REPORT TO MR. COPE

The following is a copy of the statement by prisoners involved in last week's prison protest. Stuart Highway was able to get this copy to NAP members at his Supreme Court appearance this morning. He has now served 13 days on prison.

Free Stuart Highway!

THIS REPORT TO MR. COPE

All prisoners in M block do not like Mr Williams.

We don’t like the way he treats us, he talks down to us, and creates tension.

We want him removed from the block.

We are not allowed to swear at the officers, therefore they should not be allowed to swear at us.

We want another phone for the 120 prisoners in the block. One phone for all of us is ridiculous.

The pool tables must be fixed up.

We want Perspex screens installed on the dorm walls to reduce the noise levels.

More fans, pedestal fans, fans bolted to the walls to reduce the heat.

Mattress covers must be changed fortnightly.

We want free shaving sticks as provided at Alice Springs.

Vending machines in Visiting Area must be checked and maintained in good order, not left out of order.

There were more points in the letter but Stuart wasn't able to get them all down in time. This document was transcribed by NAP member Fiona Clarke.

Stuart is in prison

On Wednesday 19th October 2005, veteran human rights and social justice campaigner Stuart Highway was sentenced to 8 months’ jail (suspended after 3 months) for his involvement in a Community Smoke-In held at Darwin in October 2002. Stuart is currently in Berrimah jail. Click here to read more.

Regina v Stuart Highway begins!

When they came for the indigenous people and put them in their prisons I said nothing because I wasn't an indigenous person.

When they locked up the asylum seekers and the refugees I said nothing because I wasn't an asylum seeker or refugee.

When they came for the political activists I said nothing because I wasn't one of those ratbags!

When they came for the illicit drug users I said nothing because I wasn't an illicit drug user.

When they came for me there was no-one left to speak out for me...

Stuart Highway - NT Supreme Court, 17th October 2005