VIC: Prisoners complaints "ridiculous", says minister

AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-1999
VIC: Prisoners complaints "ridiculous", says minister

MELBOURNE, Aug 23 AAP - Prisoners' complaints that they had not been consulted over plans
to squeeze more inmates into a Victorian jail were ridiculous, state Corrections Minister Bill
McGrath said today.

Officers at Fulham Prison, in the state's east, were last week forced to use tear gas on
prisoners who refused to go back to their cells.

The inmates were angry because the jail had agreed to take 60 prisoners over capacity.

But Mr McGrath said transferring 150 prisoners from police cells to prisons was the only
way to ease overcrowding at police stations and inmates had no right to complain.

"This is a bit ridiculous, isn't it? - when you have prisoners saying 'we need to be
consulted before you put any new prisoners in'," he told reporters.

"You just wonder what the world is coming to."

Mr McGrath said a new prison was inevitable given the prison population was nudging the
3,000 mark, but the government's commitment to fund 300 extra beds over three years would
suffice in the meantime.

He denied double-bunking was a recipe for tension, as claimed by the state Opposition,
saying that so-called "buddy" cells had long been suggested as a way to help prisoners with
suicidal tendencies.

"I cannot see any harm at all in double-bunking - I think it is a proper and sensible way
to go in the short term," he said.

AAP kmh/er/trm

KEYWORD: CELLS

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