As best I can describe it, the AMC is a bullies’ paradise. There’s a tight-knit, small group of staff who manage everybody and everything. If you suck up to them, life is sweet. Stand in their way, then bad things happen to you. HUGH SELBY looks at the good, the bad and the ugly at the AMC.

Before you read a word below, click here for Ennio Morricone’s theme for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. 

To colour in the background while the music creates the right mood for a discussion of the bad and the ugly (there not being much good), let’s review the CityNews articles about the problems with the dismal offerings for imprisoned adults and youth here in the ACT, and the lack of any response from the government or Corrections. 

Granted, this story is not nearly so evocative as desert plains with solitary riders, a hissing steam train stopping unexpectedly in a western hellhole with a rowdy tavern, or a slouch-hatted Clint Eastwood (as Blondie) with a roll-your-own dropping from his mouth and a poncho covering his shoulders, torso, and guns. 

But keep all that in mind because we are talking about the good, the bad, and the ugly, what can be done with a few dollars or a few dollars more, and why what’s going on now here in the ACT cannot be forgotten or forgiven.

The first article was a mid-December explanation of the failure of Bimberi, our youth detention place. We are paying a lot of money for a “locked in” classroom for training in re-offending. Response: silence. 

The second, also before Christmas, discussed the unjustified violence meted out by prison staff to prisoner Paul Palmer. He was successful in a compensation claim in our Supreme Court. Response: silence.

The third, in early February, set out why a formal inquiry, akin to the Sofronoff Inquiry into the former DPP’s allegations surrounding the Higgins/Lehrmann case, is needed into the AMC and Corrections’ management and policies. Response: silence.

The fourth, in late February, was about the long overdue need for a deep clean of AMC and Corrections, to deal with the endemic corruption illustrated by the contraband trade, drug use by staff, and unjustified force incidents. Response: silence.

The fifth, in early March, focused on prisoners’ mental health, job training and getting ready for release, otherwise known as rehabilitation. That’s a non-word in the AMC. Response: silence

That unbroken silence, and it’s as eerily silent as the immediate aftermath of a gun fight in Leone’s films, is evidence that neither Corrections nor the government has any rebuttal. If they did it would have been in one or more triumphant press releases.

Alternatively, if they had enough material to go on the offensive, then there is no better place to peddle spin than from the floor of the Assembly, because that provides protection from being sued for defamation. That hasn’t happened. Ergo, their rebuttal cupboard is bare.

All of which would make it a great political opportunity for an opposition if there was one.

Let me add a new complaint. For years the laundry powder in the AMC cottages has carried hazard warning notices. It is not what our readers buy in the local supermarket. It needs gloves, protective clothing, eyewear etcetera. None of that has ever been provided. Clearly a dangerous health and safety issue. Action please, someone.

The bullies’ paradise

As best I can describe it, the AMC is a bullies’ paradise. There’s a tight-knit, small group of staff who manage everybody and everything. If you suck up to them, life is sweet.

But if you stand in their way then bad things happen to you, but not to them or their hangers on. You can be assaulted by a fellow officer, stalked by a fellow officer, have your personal details disclosed by a fellow officer, forced on to stress leave by abuse from fellow officers – there will be no action taken against them. Any action will be against you – the victim.

For those involved in contraband supply, the deliberate failure to use obvious security measures is telling. What we take as routine at every airport by way of security screening and sniffer dogs is not used at the AMC for staff.

Given the repeated allegations of staff drug use (backed up by phone screenshots and photos) the failure to introduce random drug testing is explicable – as are most failures to do the obvious – as being that it would cause “undue restraint of trade in contraband”.

Options to put things right

It would be nice to see the ATO having a close look at how the declared taxable incomes of some staff matches with their lifestyle. 

There should be a full-ranging public Inquiry, but all that silence means no stomach for it. I understand. Inquiries can go feral and damage the government.

If there’s to be no inquiry there’s another way to clean up the mess.

How about a private prison operator? There’d be changes in staff, in procedures, in programs. There would be some measurable performance targets and clear budget purpose allocations.

Best of all there’d be some good news stories coming out of the AMC, stories about people who’d taken the chances now offered to them to replace the bad and the ugly in their lives with some good.

Hugh Selby is a former barrister and the CityNews legal columnist.