Duty of Care !

A prison is not a nice place and it is not intended to be anything else than a punishment, but when the authorities incarcerate someone they have an obligation to provide a duty of care.   There is the expectation that the prisoner will be housed, fed and suitably clothed during the length of the sentence to be served and that on release they will not be physically impaired.

When Britain sent the first fleet to Australia in 1788 it deliberately created a harsh prison colony with the intention of creating fear of transportation to reduce crime in England.  Flogging was a common punishment and the regime was unbelievably cruel by todays standards.  We have since evolved a rule of law that is supposed to reform prisoners and return them to society when their sentence is served.

We now have a mix of prisons to suit the security classification of individual prisoners.  They range from the Supermax at Goulburn which houses our most violent and dangerous inmates to prison farms where supervision is relaxed to prepare those soon to be released with the need to adjust to a civilian lifestyle.   Prisoners are steadily reclassified and moved as they journey towards work release and freedom under the care of a parole officer.

There has always been a trend to violence within the prison system. Enmities between individual prisoners surface and gangs try and protect their turf.  Prison culture and currency do a constant battle with the warders and a trade in prohibited items such as mobile phone is rife.  What we are now seeing is the raising of the risk factor to a degree that is unacceptable.

The Islamic State phenomenon which has been carving out a "caliphate " in Iraq and Syria has  adherents in Australia and some have been convicted of terrorism charges.  They are religious fanatics and they are using brutal coercion to force other prisoners to convert to Islam.   In one instance at Kempsey prison, boiling water was poured on an inmate who refused their advance and the symbol EYE was carved into his head, denoting the IS "an eye for an eye " motto.

Unfortunately, our prison system is under overcrowding stress and as a consequence some cells designed to hold a single occupant now house three people.   This allows these fanatics to bring intensive pressure to bear on their victims and recently this led to a prison yard riot at the Supermax that required warning shots to be fired and tear gas to be used.   Prison authorities are concerned that this conversion tactic can quickly advance out of hand and create a vicious "cell " within prisons that will be almost impossible to control.

Groups of Muslim fanatics can instill fear in other prisoners and this is a form of gang warfare.   It also opens a recruiting base that will be valuable to IS.  The fact that IS is losing ground in the Middle East seems to have intensified terror actions in western cities to keep the IS image alive in the media.   It is quite possible that the IS presence in Australian prisons will continue to expand in number as these actions escalate.

All prisoners have a right to serve their sentence free of religious indoctrination by force.  Just as those prisoners who fight and assault others find themselves removed and placed in a prison with tougher rules and more spartan facilities, those imposing their religion on others require similar treatment.

Religious fear can quickly become a festering sore that make prisons unworkable and it clearly violates the duty of care which is an entitlement for all those sentenced by our courts.  Forcing an inmate who can not avoid the presence of an inquisitor to convert to a different religion is a form of tyranny little different than the horrors imposed at Macquarie Harbour and Port Arthur centuries ago.

Those who use force to impose their religion on others can not be mixed in the general prison population, nor should they be allowed to congregate in a single prison.   They need to be widely dispersed and if that requires expanded prison accommodation - that would be money well spent.

Allowing unfettered religious conversions in prisons is probably equal in danger to the risk posed by religious fanatics recruiting followers in the wider community.   The end result is usually the death of innocent people !