Latest news with #prisonconditions
ABC News
2 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
Inside a Victorian prison where an inmate recorded seven suicide attempts in four weeks
A former prisoner says she documented seven suicide attempts in just four weeks inside Victoria's maximum security women's prison, amid a wave of lockdowns triggered by staff shortages. Warning: This story contains references to self-harm and suicide attempts. Kelly Flanagan was released on parole from Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in late March, she had been incarcerated for 42 months after being found guilty of armed robbery, kidnapping and false imprisonment. She described her crimes as a "drug deal gone wrong". Since July last year, the prison faced unprecedented rolling lockdowns disrupting legal, health and welfare services, as well as cutting off visits and phone calls. Lockdowns are usually reserved for emergencies like riots or other security breaches. However, at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, they've been routinely implemented due to a lack of staff. With each prisoner sealed in a small individual cell, Ms Flanagan likened the conditions to solitary confinement. She says she and her fellow prisoners were locked away with no interaction or support or sometimes even meals for days and nights on end. "You'd normally get unlocked at 8:30 in the morning, they would count everyone … and then the next thing you know, you're not getting let out. So you're required to stay in your cell," she told 7.30. Her diary documents a suicide attempt by a fellow inmate on March 13, the attending nurse said the inmate had slashed her own throat and wrists. Just two days later, another attempt was recorded in her documents. Ms Flanagan wrote notes about five further attempts involving Indigenous women in a separate unit. "This is what happens when you put us in a space with no connection," she told 7.30. Two years before Waradjari woman Ms Flanagan was incarcerated, another Indigenous woman, Veronica Nelson, died in custody at the same prison. An inquest into her death prompted major reforms, but Ms Flanagan says she fears the widespread lockdowns could lead to another death in custody. "Enough is enough. How many more people need to die for someone to listen, for someone to take accountability?" Ms Flanagan asked. "I feel like I owe it to the other women to give them a voice." The Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS) told 7.30 in a statement "lockdowns are sometimes required to ensure the safety of staff and prisoners". Confidential government correspondence obtained by 7.30 reveals there have been at least 106 lockdowns at the prison since July last year. One letter, signed by the Department of Justice and Community Safety's acting secretary, Ryan Phillips, insists meals and legal visits have continued as usual and denies any rise in self-harm incidents. It also states no unit was locked down for more than one consecutive day. However, a log of legal and other services also obtained by 7.30 contradicts these assurances. On February 18, a 43-hour lockdown was recorded. 'No access out of cell', the entry states. On November 8 and 11, 'no dinner' is catalogued. Former prisoner Kelly Flanagan also noted 'no dinner' in her diary on those days. The same activity log documents seven missed legal appointments and the cancellation of 28 housing-related appointments, a critical requirement for prisoners nearing release. Without secured housing, inmates cannot be paroled. Adriana Mackay from the support service Flat Out says multiple women they've supported were held in prison months beyond their release dates because lockdowns prevented them from attending key housing appointments. "Housing offers will be rescinded and taken off the table, and we're left really scrambling, trying to advocate for the housing offer to remain whilst there is an uncertainty," Ms Mackay said. She recalls supporting Kelly Flanagan while she was still inside, noting Ms Flanagan missed most of her appointments due to lockdowns and remained in custody months past her release date. A number of support services, including Flat Out, have raised concerns about the impact of the lockdowns, but Ms Mackay says government officials continue to dismiss them. "What we're seeing on the ground versus what's being told to us … they don't match up," Ms Mackay. "We're just all at a loss." A spokesperson for the DJCS told 7.30 prisoners "continue to have their healthcare needs met if a lockdown occurs and arrangements are also made to ensure access to legal services and rehabilitation". Earlier this month, more than 1,000 prison officers cast a no-confidence vote in the state's Corrections Commissioner Larissa Strong. The CPSU, which conducted the vote, cited soaring violence, a string of assaults against staff across the prison system and chronic staff shortages, problems expected to get even worse under the state's tougher bail laws, which were introduced in March and are likely to increase the prison population. To address this, the Victorian government announced a $727 million cash injection, which will go towards securing 1,000 more prison beds. The government has also launched an aggressive recruitment drive for prison guards, which includes an $8,000 sign-on sweetener for recruits. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said more than 640 new prison officers have already signed on. However, the state's Shadow Corrections Minister David Southwick said the new measures are not enough to transform what he calls a system in crisis. "It's just crazy, the fact that this government has allowed it to get this bad," Mr Southwick said. He says prison guards have been contacting him directly, expressing their unwillingness to turn up to work due to safety concerns and a lack of support from management. "Four staff were injured yesterday due to non-compliant prisoners," one text read. "Two more of my colleagues have been assaulted. One sustained a punch to the face, and the other was spat on." another read. He says some guards are now refusing to show up for work, while others are quitting the service altogether, worsening staff shortages and creating further lockdowns. "It's just a vicious cycle," Mr Southwick said. The Minister for Corrections Enver Erdogan told 7.30 in a statement he has asked the Commissioner to review "how handcuffs and other measures are used to make sure staff safety is put first." "We are continuing to recruit hundreds of new corrections staff … with new recruits starting at DPFC (Dame Phyllis Frost Centre) soon." Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
The Sun
4 days ago
- General
- The Sun
Peru Two's Michaella McCollum ‘couldn't survive prison horrors' Brit ‘smugglers' Bella Culley & Charlotte Lee may face
MICHAELLA McCollum of the notorious Peru Two has warned that accused Brit drug smugglers Bella Culley and Charlotte Lee will go through unbearable prison horrors. The infamous drug smuggler turned influencer branded the pair "victims", and said she could not endure the conditions Culley and Lee may have to face. 14 14 14 As one half of the notorious Peru Two, McCollum, 31, served three years in a hardcore prison near Lima when she was convicted of drug smuggling in 2013. Alongside Melissa Reid, the two were arrested at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru, after it was discovered that their suitcases contained a shocking £1.5million of cocaine between them. Mule turned author McCollum also detailed how she was forced to survive on maggot-infested paella and flick away cockroaches approaching her on the dining tables. The now mum-of-two said of Culley and Lee: "I could not do 20 years in a prison like that. I just couldn't. And that's what those girls are facing." Culley, 18, and Lee, 21, are facing similar but unrelated drug smuggling charges and have both been locked up far away from home with little hope of getting out. Culley was arrested on May 11 in Tbilisi airport, Georgia, with a suitcase packed with 31lb of cannabis and hashish after flying from Thailand via Sharjah in the UAE. She faces 15 years to life in jail in the eastern European former Soviet state. She is being held in watchtower-ringed Penitentiary No 5 near Tbilisi while prosecutors probe how she came to have the £200,000 stash and who she planned to hand it to. Meanwhile, Lee was arrested earlier this month in Sri Lanka after cops found two suitcases stuffed with 46kg of synthetic drug kush — which is 25 times more potent than opioid fentanyl. If found guilty, the South Londoner could face a 25-year sentence. The Brit claimed that she didn't know she was smuggling drugs into Sri Lanka before she was detained - and called her allegations 'made up'. Her friends revealed that she has been struggling behind bars since her arrest due to the shocking conditions. The part-time nail technician told pals she has not been allowed medication, and detailed how her cleaning regime consists of 'having a glass of water poured over her head'. McCollum, who has endured similar hardship in foreign prisons, was also a very young adult when she made the "greatest mistake of my life". She was 19 at the time of her arrest, alongside her pal who she had recently met Reid, who was 20. The mum compared her story to those of Lee and Culley. She said: "The situation was almost exactly the same. Her mum had reported her missing, then it emerged that she'd been arrested. "There were such parallels with my case – except it was just in a different country." 14 14 14 She added: "I couldn't help but feel bad for them. "They are 19 and 21. Whatever they have done, it's so young to be caught up in something like this, and I know what they are going to go through. "And their families. It's the worst thing anybody can have to face." Culley's situation also took a nightmare twist, after she told a Tbilisi court that she was pregnant. McCollum said: "As a mum, I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to give birth in that sort of place, and to potentially have the child taken from you and put into care. How might the cases of Bella Culley and Charlotte May be connected? Within a single day of Bella Culley's arrest, Charlotte May, 21, was arrested in Sri Lanka after allegedly being caught trying to smuggle drugs worth £1.2m While the two arrests took place over 3,000 miles apart, people immediately noted striking similarities It is believed to be likely that Georgian and Sri Lankan authorities will launch a joint investigation Both women are said to have departed from the same airport - Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport - allegedly with the drugs on them In both cases, the drugs were stashed in airtight packages that suggest a level of professionalism Both women had told their loved ones that they planned on meeting a mystery man during their travels in Thailand: Bella's grandad said she mentioned a man called "Ross or Russ", while Charlotte's friends said she made vague comments about meeting a man "That adds a whole new, terrifying, dimension. It's just incredibly sad." The smuggler turned public speaker also said the accused pair need more public sympathy, but cautioned that she also understands they may have made mistakes, as she did. "It's easy to look at girls like this and think 'how could you be so stupid?' but I look back at myself and think exactly that," she said. "I don't know the circumstances in detail here, but I do know that of all the women I came across who had been involved in drug smuggling, only about 10 per cent were doing it as a business, who knew the risks and accepted them." She continued: "The vast majority were the victims of some sort of coercion, usually by men. 14 14 14 14 "Prisons all over the world are full of women who have been caught up in something like this." Lee has already told cops about a mysterious Brit man called "Dan". She claims to have met him on a beach in Thailand before he bought her a ticket to Colombo, promised to join her but then suddenly vanished. McCollum said she was only regarded as a "victim" after a 2022 Netflix documentary exploring the Peru Two case. She said: "It was when I was watching an actress do some of the re-enactments of my story that I realised there had been exploitation and coercion going on here. "At the time I was so high (on cocaine) that I could barely walk. Yet the men around me were all sober. "I thought they were my friends, but actually they didn't give a s**t about me." McCollum was offered a mere £5,000 to smuggle the drugs she was caught with. "I mean who would risk spending 20 years of your life in prison for £3,000 or £4,000 or even £10,000," she reflected. "Even £50,000 isn't enough. No amount of money is worth your freedom." The 31-year-old has also written a book detailing her experience, and worked with police to tell her story to impressionable teens. More than a decade on from her harrowing story, the former drug mule is now a public speaker, wife and author who's estimated net worth nearly £1million. 14 14
BBC News
7 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
'Ageing' HMP Gartree unsafe for inmates, watchdog says
Inspectors have said a prison in Leicestershire is struggling to provide a "safe and decent" environment for Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) said on Wednesday the "ageing" HMP Gartree, near Market Harborough, had "deteriorating infrastructure", while repairs and maintenance were "inadequate".As well as issues including the heating, leaking roofs and broken showers, the watchdog raised concerns with healthcare provision, access to mental health services, an "influx" of drugs and illicit items, and support for Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said it acknowledged "the challenges at HMP Gartree" and added that work was under way to address the IMB's concerns. In a report into its monitoring from December 2023 to November last year, the IMB said the building was "ageing" and the infrastructure "crumbling".It cited the example of legionellosis - a lung infection - being suspected in some showers, which resulted in the closure of an entire shower IMB also said kitchens were "unhygienic" due to essential repairs not taking place and equipment not being replaced. Inspectors said a range of "improvised" weapons continue to be discovered in cells, communal areas and areas outside the wing report said there had been an increase in drugs and illicit items in the prison fuelling "debt, bullying and violence" among April 2024, private firm Practice Plus Group (PPG) took over healthcare provision inside the IMB said the service was "understaffed", "inadequate" and noted a rise in complaints since the change of provider - but PPG told the BBC that the "transparent" way complaints and concerns are recorded had led to the change.A PPG spokesperson added it had "reduced reliance on agency staff" and "increased the number of patients with urgent mental health needs who are seen within 48 hours". 'Nothing gets done' IMB Gartree chair Steve Martin said: "The board is concerned that drug use is widespread, and drone activity continues to be reported, particularly at night."Additionally, despite claims by the Prison Service 12 months ago that the majority of the heating issues had been resolved, we remain dismayed at the lack of progress on necessary repairs to the fabric and infrastructure at HMP Gartree, which impacts on prisoners and staff alike."We raise the issue of a crumbling prison and inadequate healthcare every year, but nothing gets done."The IMB said funding had been secured for an incentivised drug-free unit, which will offer support to prisoners actively wishing to recover and desist from using also said it recognised the "hard work and professionalism" of staff and acknowledged a "continued drive" to provide a "consistent regime" at the MoJ spokesperson said: "This government inherited a prison system in crisis – overcrowded, with drugs and violence rife – and we fully acknowledge the challenges at HMP Gartree."Work is already under way to address the concerns raised, including improving the infrastructure by replacing the heating system and installing new systems to enhance water quality."The MoJ told the BBC that £500,000 had been invested in the prison's heating and extra staff had been hired to support the management of violent and self-harming added 400m drone no-fly zones had been introduced at all closed prisons in England and Wales.A new prison to house more than 1,700 prisoners is currently under construction on land near to HMP Gartree.
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on young offenders: amid rising violence, they need support to change
The recent deterioration of conditions for young offenders has been overshadowed by the wider crisis engulfing prisons in England and Wales. But the accounts given to the Guardian by three mothers of sons who are currently in HMP Swinfen Hall, in Staffordshire, offer a disturbing insight into the exceptionally high levels of violence that have become normalised. Their descriptions of 'constant fear', casual knifings and 'drugs and knives everywhere' are chilling. Two of the women said that they agreed with the decision to jail their sons. But reading their testimony, which echoes the findings of a recent prison inspectorate survey, it is impossible to believe that any rehabilitative purpose is being served. The suggestion by one of the women that her son is becoming more violent rather than less due to the conditions rings alarmingly true, and is in line with the conclusion of David Gauke's independent review of sentencing that prisons are failing to reduce reoffending. Men's prisons are often dangerous places, with last month's attack on prison officers by Hashem Abedi at HMP Frankland just one example of the risks faced by staff as well as inmates. In parts of the youth justice estate – which holds those aged up to 21 in young offender institutions (YOIs), secure training centres and council-run secure children's homes – the problem is particularly acute. The state's special responsibility towards children, and the importance of providing second chances to those convicted when young, means this failing system requires an action plan of its own. Of the current youth custody population, 53% are minority ethnic and 63% have spent time in care. Ministers agreed in March that girls would no longer be held in YOIs, following another report. But as 97% of young people in jail are male, they are the bigger problem. Overcrowding is not an issue in youth prisons as it is in adult ones. But the lack of suitable educational provision for a group of young men who desperately need it, more than half of whom have special needs, is nothing short of tragic. So is the amount of time that many spend locked in their cells. Staff shortages are one reason why violence is so out of control that ministers recently agreed to the use of pepper spray in some circumstances. The rate of assaults on staff, which is 14 times higher than in men's prisons, can partly be explained by the fact that more than two-thirds of those in YOIs are there for violent offences. But it is clear from recent inspection reports that the number of 'keep-aparts', who are not allowed to mix due to the risk of fights, is unsustainable. The youth custody population is less than a quarter of what it was 15 years ago, so there has been progress as well as decline. Since the threshold for custody has been significantly raised, these institutions are bound to be challenging places. But Mr Gauke's review noted that young people's impressionable natures mean that they have both a higher rate of reoffending than adults and also higher potential to desist. As ministers plan their sentencing reforms, boys in custody must not be written off.
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Australian Ian Muldoon spent nine months in a Cambodian prison after making a simple mistake at a bar… his experience was the stuff of nightmares
An Australian father who visited Cambodia has spoken of the horrific conditions inside one of the country's prisons after he was arrested for vandalising an ATM. Queensland man Ian Muldoon said he was beaten, stabbed, extorted and repeatedly gang-raped during the nine months he was detained at Prey Sar Prison after he was arrested at the tail-end of his holiday in July 2023. The prison is the country's largest, located in the capital Phnom Penh, and is notorious for overcrowding, with Amnesty International calling the conditions there 'squalid' and 'inhumane'. Mr Muldoon was stopped by customs officers at Siem Reap International Airport on July 23, right before he was about to board a flight out of the country. He was detained and and accused of damaging an ATM at Smile Mini Mart in Sangkat Boeung Keng Kang Khan Chamkar Mon, Phnom Penh, on July 10. Mr Muldoon said he had planned a holiday to Thailand as he needed to reassess his life after his mother passed away and his relationship fell apart. He explained going to Cambodia was not part of his original plan as he was supposed to fly to Vietnam but made a last minute decision to travel to Angkor. On the second day of his 18-day trip, Mr Muldoon went to a bar down the road from his hotel and ordered a beer. He explained the biggest mistake of his life was ringing a cow bell inside the bar, which he did not realise signalled that he would buy the whole bar a round of drinks. He said ringing the cow bell had unwittingly earmarked him as a Westerner who had money. 'I rang the cow bell and that means you pay for all the drinks for the people in the bar. A couple of the people in the bar must have thought that this Australian guy's got money,' he told documentary maker Ali Tabrizi. Mr Muldoon said his second error was ordering a Jack Daniels and coke and leaving the drink unattended on the bar while he went to the toilet. He said when he returned he had a few sips before experiencing an intense migraine, blurred vision, slurred speech and he could not walk properly. He suspects the drink was spiked. When he went to pay the tab, the bartender informed him that he did not have enough local currency and directed him to a nearby convenience store which had an ATM. Two men followed him out of the bar and to the ATM, but when he arrived he could hardly stand and struggled to use the machine. 'I was unstable on my feet and then got in and tried to put my card into the ATM a fair few times,' Mr Muldoon said. 'I was that unsteady that I fell forward. I protected my face with one hand an then fell forward and my other hand hit the glass.' Mr Muldoon stumbled back to his hotel and was followed by the two men - who he assumed drugged him with the intention to rob him - but they did not enter his room. He woke up with an intense headache and patchy recollection of the day before but remembered he had to pay his tab. He went back to the bar and settled up before he continued on his holiday, unaware the CCTV from the ATM made local papers. About two weeks later, when he tried to board his flight to Bangkok he was stopped by a customs agent who told him there was a black flag against his name. They took him into a holding room where they spoke to him and showed him papers that were in the local language Khmer. From there Mr Muldoon was taken from police cells, then court rooms, denied access to English translators before he was imprisoned in Prey Sar for months. He said he was only actually charged a month before he was released. Mr Muldoon explained there were about 400 inmates in his cell and the conditions were disgusting with stifling heat, horrid smells, toilet buckets overflowing and disease rife. On his second night he saw two big inmates raping a Cambodian man and has been haunted by his screams ever since. 'No one cares and pays attention to any of that. There's a room captain who just turned a blind eye. The police did not care. It continued until they were finished with him,' Mr Muldoon said. 'It was a horrific experience and something you're not prepared to see. Very traumatic. It's something you can't forget.' Mr Muldoon said he also saw another inmate handcuffed to the back of the cell because he was sick and would not stop using the toilet bucket. A group of men took it in turns to beat the man and the next morning, the sick inmate was dead. He also tried to revive a man who stopped breathing during the night but he was beaten until he was unconscious for trying to help. He said he witnessed 11 inmates who died in the prison, most after being beaten. However, his most horrifying moments in prison were when he was gang raped on four separate occasions. On one occasion, five inmates rushed into the shower and beat Mr Muldoon before they grabbed his arms and legs and forced him faced down onto the fifthly wet floor of the toilet. You just feel worthless, powerless, a used up piece of meat. Just wishing I could have done more to fight but I couldn't,' Mr Muldoon said. On another occasion, drunk prison guards 'plucked' him out of his cell - which he said the guards commonly did to other prisoners - before taking him back to their quarters and assaulting him. He was beaten with sticks and a set of keys while three of the guards raped him before he was 'thrown back into his cell like it was nothing'. 'I have to speak to people every week including sexual trauma counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists, you name it to try and process this,' Mr Muldoon said. 'Talking about it I can clearly see what happened. I can smell the smells still, I can feel the wetness on my face, the numbness, It's just something that I'll never be able to fully forget. Never. 'They have taken something away from me that can never be returned. I just feel like damaged goods ever since I got back.' Mr Muldoon said his saving grace was his ex-partner in Australia, who maintained contact with local lawyers and the Australian Embassy. She was able to transfer him money, via the embassy, which he used for phone calls, clean water and food and to sit up against a wall in a cell. He claimed the prison was corrupt and the guards charged money for even the smallest of privileges. The penalty for intentionally damaging an ATM also kept changing from $12,500 to $23,000 to $39,000. He was eventually sentenced to seven months in prison and he estimates that he spent about $155,000 on phone calls, legal feels, penalties, bribes, food and water. He claimed some inmates would give the 'generals' who ran the prisons tens of thousands of dollars to be 'released' but it was understood amongst the prisoners they would not get far. He claimed they were taken somewhere outside the prison and shot or that they were beaten, taken to hospitals and their organs were harvested. Mr Muldoon was released in March 2024 and has been trying to raise awareness of corruption and the human rights violations in Cambodia.
