Geelong Advertiser 2 September 2000
S11 JAIL OUTRAGE Alarm sparked as Barwon Prison officials make inspection
tour in lead-up to World Economic Forum
Tony Prytz and Mary Papadakis
Geelong jail could be reopened to house the flood of prisoners expected
from S11 protests at the World Economic Forum starting on Monday week.
Barwon Prison officials yesterday toured the prison to assess its
suitability for the task. The jail in Myers Street held about 130 prisoners
when it closed in 1991. It is believe at least one other former prison in
Ararat has also been inspected.
Police expect up to 10,000 protesters to take to the streets of Melbourne
as world economic leaders gather for the three-day forum. A witness told
the Geelong Advertiser the Barwon Prison officials visited some tenants at
the jail yesterday afternoon and then toured the cells, kitchen and
recreation areas.
The officials told tenants they had been requested to assess the prison in
case it was needed to hold people arrested in the protests. The prison is
owned by the City of Greater Geelong but is run on a day-to-day basis by
the Rotary Club of Geelong.
Club president Andrew Lawson said the club had been approached "by a
government department" regarding the jail. He said a club member had taken
officials through the prison, but no formal plans had been put. "We are
only the lessee, any decision would have to come from the city council," he
said.
The idea was criticised by former Victorian Catholic prison chaplain Father
Peter Norden and the S11 protest movement. Fr Norden, who campaigned for
the closure of Geelong jail during the 1980s, said putting protesters in
the jail would be an "absolute disgrace". Fr Norden, who will take part in
the S11 protests, said the prison was not suitable to hold people in the
1980s and it was even less suitable now. The prison was built in the 1850s
and conditions in 1980 were little changed from early days. Prisoners used
a bucket for toilet and cells were tiny, damp and cold.
"Geelong was one of the most drug-infested prisons in the state," Fr Norden
said. "The physical design makes it impossible to supervise adequately. To
bring in any form of detainees would be totally inappropriate." Fr Norden
said it was not possible to hold people in the jail in a sane or sensible
way. He said the State Government could be opening itself to a raft of
legal writs if it used the prison. He said they should be thinking more
about negotiating with the organisers rather than taking the dysfunctional
approach that was taken in Seattle, were police and protesters clashed
during a World Trade Organization conference.
Geelong S11 member Kate Ferguson was disturbed at the report. "It is
alarming that they are looking at that much space to hold people," she
said. "It seems to me that they are expecting to make an awful lot of
arrests. "I want to stress we are not promoting violence … from the
beginning we have promoted a non-violent blockade." The City of Greater
Geelong yesterday expressed surprise at the reports.
A spokesperson said the council had not been informed about any plans to
open the jail during the forum. "We have no knowledge of any such proposal
and as owners of the building one would think we would have been the first
to be consulted," he said.
Both State Government and Police media spokespeople also refused to comment
on any plans to use the jail during the forum, citing security concerns as
the reason. A government spokesman said it would be "inappropriate" to
comment on the matter. But the spokesperson did not rule out the
possibility of temporarily reopening the jail during the forum. A police
media spokeswoman similarly would not confirm or deny the reports.
--
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