Prisoner Talk, Jika Jika re-visited!
This was written by anonymous inmates in '88', this covers alot
of nasty stuff but truth i believed, also i feel the public should be aware of this magazine. Doing Time-The Magazine!
*I Have Got Permission To Have This Artical On My site*
Editorial
Victoria is no different from other states. Each has its own High Security Prison's - they are
nothing more than torture chambers - some more sophisticated of all.
Jim Kennan called it an inhuman & a  electronic zoo, but these glib words concealed the truth.

Jika was run by Officers who became totally depraved by the prison enviroment. It was nothing unusual
for a Chief Prison Officer to ask one prisoner to bash another in return for a favour. It was no more
unusual for a Governor to place known enemies together in an exercise yard or day room and then sit
back and watch the 'Gladitators' at work on his closed circuit TV.
The same people who built and ran Jika and 'H' Division are now building new prison's Lara, the
Remand Centre, and Castlemaine.

How can we trust them? Clearly we cannot! Lara is to be believed to be five times the size of Jika and
with its location, 12 kms from the town in a splendid isolation of farmland, it will be five times worse.
The design of 'suicide' proof toilet bowls is a proof that planners expect the horrors of Jika to continue.

The Deaths in suspicious circumstance, attempted suicides, self mutilations, assaults, threats of
violence, isolation and deprivation were an everyday occurance in Jika.
These outrages occur throughout all our prisons.
The only thing difference is that Jika exaggerated all the wrongs perpetrated against the prison
community, wrongs committed in the name of every one of us.
The last protest in Jika, in which " Aurthur Gallagher, Robert Wright, David McGauley, Jim Loughnan and
Ricky morris" died and others were injured, occured because they could not wait for the outside
community to act to stop and correct a prison system which is out of control.

If we who know, and those who have a duty to investigate and report, do not act now, then it can only be
a matter of time before others can wait no longer for 'due process' to take its course.
Violent protests by prisoners are bought about by an uncaring prison system and an uncaring society.
Prisoners are rapidly running out of peaceful ways to have their grievances heard and acted upon.
The man and the woman in the street is kept in a blissful ignorance of how our prisons contribute to the
cycle of crime which affects us all. It is said that there are no votes in prison reform. The propaganda is
maintained by those who dont want prison reform.

If the outside community knew what happens in our prisons, if they knew of the outrage and bitterness felt
at the wrongs which daily occur behind the bluestone walls, if they new that thousands of prisoners are
released each year with little behind them or ahead of them to build upon them for a law abiding existance
on the outside, then they would rise up and force our parliment to institute immediate and meaningful prison
reform-not out of sympathy for the 'crim' but rather in order to safeguard their own livelihood.

A Royal Commision into Victoria's prison system is the only way ahead. A Royale Commision
into Australia's riminal justice system is just as desperately needed.
In the meantime, the P.R.G will continue to push to obtain the official papers which document the
corruption and mal-administration of victoria's prisons.

This magazine ia a compilation of prisoner's letters written from their exoeriences in Jika and the
life in prison. These letters are highly emotive.
They indicate the anguish and despair of imprisonment and the varying perspective of what
prisons means to each idividual.
None of these letters can be truly representive for what prison means to one may not be the
same way to another. However they clearly spell out that prisons are not the motel room or the
holiday resorts the media has made them out to be.

JIKA, 1983:
The following is an edited extract from a submission to the legal and Constitutional Committee of
the parliment of Victoria in its hearing to consider the merits of a bill of rights for the citizens of
the state of Victoria.

"I was removed from Jika Jika ('K' Div) in 1983, and i lost all my rights as a remand prisoner, as both 'H'
Division and Jika access to Leagql Advisors was by appointment only and in some cases cut short because
of staff shortages in those Divisions. I found that my leagal advisors were visiting me less due to the
problem of getting into visit me and all leagal papers were heavily censored thereby making the police
aware of any defence plans.

In Jika all prisoners are subjected to spot searches and often during my trial my leagal documents were
taken from my cell on orders from the governor, denying me access to my legal papers. A check of the
incident book of Jika would give the public an idea just what damage that Divison is doing to prisoners
kept there.
In this divison the following occurs:
a, Prisoners are only allowed to associate with six other prisoners,year in year out.
b, Prisoners are limited in to the time allowed in the fresh air to two hours a day at the most, due to staff
shortages,some times not at all, at other times, for less than two hours.
c, Prisoners spend 22 hours plus (per day) in an air conditioned controlled atmosphere.
d, Movement is restricted to a very small area
e, Violence is away of life, and i was personally witness to bashings by officers in that division
f,*Mind Games* played by prison officers are standard practice, officers trying to get prisoners to "bash"
each other
g, Prison officers play one prisoner 'off' against each other.
h, Mail is interfered with by certain officers.
i, Visits are censored.
j, All prisoners are under the camera (observation) at all times except for in cells.
k, Prisoners have no rights in that Division even though there are regulations stating they do. These are up
for interpretation by the governor or officer in charge in any way they want.

Whilst in that Division, Officers in conversation with me discussed my mail and described it word for
word, causing me to revise my contact with the outside. Mail should not be censored as its a violation of a
basic human right. Sometimes mail just dissapear's.

I know understand that the standard pratice for the Victorian Authorities is to charge a person with an
offence and then make it hard for him to defend himself by putting him in either 'H' Divison or 'K' Division
(jika).

This makes access to legal advisers harder and puts prison authorities in a position to censor these legal
visits. My belief is that the police have some form of control to move people around the prison.

I was witness to a serious assault in jika, Unit 4, side 1, two officers being assaulted and stabbed by a
prisoner. The policy in Jika is to punish without a messy court apperances where the outside world can get
a look at the pratices and happenings of that division.

It is far easier to punish internally and look at the incident book of that Division might be very educational.
Most violence in that Division happens when a prisoner reaches the end of his tether and decides to take
no more.  
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