Garra "Col's line of thought rarely makes sense, except perhaps to those who share his extreme right views of society."

I love it - "extreme right" - just the other day I was called a "leftie libertarian" and in The Age forum to boot (- in that case regarding my view on abortion) - keep it coming - it is easier for the trough feeders to throw out their snide remarks without a clue as to the origins or experiences of other writers.

Maybe, if you asked "What does Col Rouge know about prisons and if he has or does work within or for one" you might be surprised by what you would find - but it is so much easier for you judgemental dullards to throw out cheap lines whilst simultaneously forgetting the criminals incarcerated within prison walls (including Bernie Matthews) are or were their for a reason - in his case armer robbery - others of us have always managed to avoid such violent and anti-social behaviour in our daily pursuits.

Whilst you do not appreciate my view - let me assure you - it is commonly held one and is backed up by a right to exercise a vote - whether you like it or not!

I'm sure that nobody who is familiar with Col's rantings in this forum would be at all surprised if he worked as a screw in a prison.

Supporting abortion doesn't make Col any more of a "leftie" (whatever that means) than supporting cultural and religious tolerance makes others of us Muslim.

Ah Garra – think what you like about me – write what you want – I will take comfort in the words of my heroine, Margaret Thatcher, who said "I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left."

And No – I do not work as a "screw" in a prison – but I do presently have a consulting contract to help in the management of one (sorry to be obtuse but I do not want to identify which one) –
As for ‘Screws’ they are the people the state pays to keep the "barbarians" inside the wire.

That you have no greater regard for their dangerous and difficult job indicates the paucity of your knowledge – a shortfall supported by every wannabe fruitcake expression which you repeatedly humiliate yourself with by bringing to this forum.

Sorry Col but you are way off this time. If we allow the brutalisation of prisoners we make the bad worse. It's that simple. The choice is this. Do we just want to punish those who commit crimes or make sure they won't do so again. If it's the second then, in the majority of cases, prison is the last place we want to send these guys. It is a FACT that prisoners learn how to be more successful criminals in jail. How? By comparing their techniques with those around them.
I prefer something that was tried in the USA. A convicted thief had a tracker secured to his wrist. At the sound of it beeping he had to report in within 5 minutes or be sent to a maximum security prison. Trouble was he was only allowed to be in one of two places, home or work & they could tell from the phone & the tracker exactly where he was calling from. Not only that but a portion of his pay was deducted to be given to his victim. Result: He was detered from reoffending & was spared brutalisation. Makes sense to Me.

Home detention is a good idea and is available in Australia to some who have already been convicted and meet certain crirteria - community safety issues. Whilst it does remove the prison brutalization problem and is certainly cheaper it doesn’t take account of homeless people who make up a significant proportion of prison populations – you need a home and family or friends to act as sponsor – if not it’s back to the big house.

Even if you could get around this with hostels and the like there is a danger in making it a wholesale alternative: it provides an unlimited resource for the warehousing of prisoners!

Ok, I’ll accept your invitation - “What does Col Rouge know about prisons…?”

Without asking you to defend the whole prison system, I am interested in your comment: “better it is a closed system - without journalistic oversight…” Clearly, if the allegations in this article are at all to be taken seriously, then the “system of review and inspectorates overseeing the process…”, has failed.

The publicity circus possibility you point to is valid, and nobody would consider it reasonable for example to give A Current Affair their own studio within one of our jails or hospitals for a reality television / news / doco / ratings bonanza but the other extreme of little or no transparency, and in the circumstances of alleged murders, seems a particularly difficult position to defend.

The fact that prison staff have understandably a “dangerous and difficult job” seems to me to be a further reason for transparency. Surely their welfare, safety and state of mind in an environment that is widely recognized as brutal, depressing and extremely stressful is a concern in itself in addition to the way it impacts on prisoners and should also not be hidden from public scrutiny.