prisoners – DISACCORDS

Melbourne: Riot police quell another disturbance at Parkville youth justice centre

Police say several of the teens were involved in an overnight robbery.

8 Jan – Police say they have quelled a disturbance at the youth justice centre at Parkville in Melbourne overnight.

A police spokeswoman said officers were called to the centre on Park Street about 8:00pm on Saturday.

She said a number of units had remained at the scene overnight, including the critical incident response team, riot police and the dog squad.

A State Government spokesman said he was unable to comment on the operation.

No further information was available.

The incident is the latest in a series of disturbances at the facility.

In November, the State Government moved more than a dozen juvenile inmates to a maximum security adult prison after a riot caused up to $1 million in damages.

The decision to send the juveniles to the Barwon Prison was found to be unlawful, leading the state to re-gazette a unit within the prison as a youth justice facility.

NSW: Violent riot at Wellington Correctional Centre

11 March – Teargas was used to quell a fresh wave of violence that erupted yesterday in the state’s prisons, including a deliberate ambush of guards after two cells were set on fire.

The chaos occurred as the Baird government revealed it is considering new measures to ease prison overcrowding crisis including reopening the 580-bed Parramatta jail, which was shut in 2011.

“The government is considering a number of options to respond to the growth of the prison population,” Prisons Minister David Elliott said.

Public Service Union prisons boss Steve McMahon welcomed the idea: “Reopening Parramatta would bring some much-needed bed space and take pressure off other jails.”

The latest violence erupted at Wellington Correctional Centre yesterday afternoon as fires were set inside two cells. Guards who responded to fire alarms were assaulted by four prisoners who “came out swinging” as the doors opened.

The prisoners involved in the violence are said to be part of a Pacific Islander gang called the Outkasts, who have known links to bikies.

“The guards suffered some cuts and bruises but I’m told one of the guards gave as good as he got,” one source said.

Teargas was used to quell the violence, amid fears the four inmates may try to release other prisoners from cells.

“There was a further disturbance when staff were moving inmates due to smoke,” a Corrections spokesman said.

“Some staff and inmates were treated at the scene by Justice Health.’’

The violence at Wellington Correctional Centre is said to have involved a group of inmates moved to the jail after violence at Goulburn prison. Guards used tear gas and live bullets, ‘as a warning’, to stop a brawl at Goulburn on January 26.

The state’s prison population rocketed above capacity to about 12,300 inmates last year, causing major backlogs in courts and police stations.

Melbourne: Teenagers riot at juvenile detention centre

Teenagers rioted on the roof of the Youth Justice Centre in Melbourne (pictured) after climbing up there with metal poles on 2.30pm on Monday

7 March – A group of six boys have surrendered to police after rioting on the roof of the Youth Justice Centre in Melbourne for almost seven hours on Monday.

The inmates at the justice centre in Parkville climbed on its roof while wielding metal bars around 2.30pm, a Victoria police spokeswoman told journalists.

The unruly group then began to smash windows, swing from the roof, kick in sheets of glass, and rip air conditioning units to shreds with their hands, according to Nine News.

Just before 10pm, the group voluntarily surrendered to the heavily armed officers at the scene.

The group began to immediately smash windows with their poles, fists and feet

They also began ripping air conditioning units apart and whacking the poles onto the tin roof

Police wearing heavy armour and shields and the Department of Human Services search team negotiated with the juveniles until they agreed to step down, police said.

It is the second time in less than six months a group of inmates has climbed onto the roof, according to Nine News.

Last October, six people climbed onto the green roof with tennis rackets.

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Malaysia: Solidarity with Khalid Ismath, imprisoned for criticizing the government on Facebook

18 Oct – Solidarity with Khalid Ismath from Indonesian comrades

Statement of PEMBEBASAN (Pusat Perjuangan Mahasiswa untuk Pembebasan Nasional—Center of Student Struggle for National Liberation).

Free Khalid Ismath! Destroy Militarism! Eliminate the Sedition Act!

For Liberation and Solidarity!

Democracy and capitalism will not be able to walk along because capitalism does not need democracy. For capitalism, democracy will only disrupt the process of capital accumulation, so, even if democracy must exist, then it must be limited, controlled, dwarfed—so it can do no harm to the capital accumulation process. That kind of democracy is always inherent in any capitalist power, anti-criticism and repressive.

It is also endemic in the constitutional monarchy in Malaysia. Efforts to shut the criticism down is done by using the legislation instruments. We know Khalid Ismeth, that since October 7, 2015 has been imprisoned by the police in Ayer Molek, Johor, Malaysia.

The arrest of Khalid Ismath is just because he wrote his criticism against the government and the Sultan in Malaysia on his facebook status. Khalid criticized over the arrest of Kamal Hisham Jaafar through social media. Kamal Hisham try to uncover the truth behind the Sultanate evil empire, and he had been in Singapore since hunted by the government (Sultanate of Johor).

That is where Khalid Ismath expressed his support for Kamal Hisham, while criticizing the Sultanate of Johor. Soon, Khalid was arrested by the police with two charges; violating the section 233 of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia (Section 233 Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Act 1998) and Sedition Act 1948 as he encourage others to join in solidarity. Although two days after the arrest Khalid were released, he has been arrested again with sedition act.

Next, Khalid was brought to the court on October 13, 2015 for trial. Johor Baru Sessions Court charged him with 11 counts under the section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and 3 counts under the Sedition Act 1948.

Repression and anti-democratic act as practiced by the Sultanate of Johor provide a conclusion that there is no democracy for the majority of the people. For Sultanate of Johor, the meaning of democracy is exactly the same as the capitalistic democracy, it never give space for the people.

Capitalism does not object to dictators and dictatorships while they are in conformity with the interests of the accumulated profits. In his book, State and Revolution, Lenin, one of the leaders of the Russian Revolution in 1917, said that democracy in capitalism is democratic to investors that its economic position is free from the control of the people. It is enough to give them a councils, without the right to fire the representatives of their own choosing; enough to give them the ‘democratic’ institutions as a representative functions for their aspirations, without the urge to directly engage and understand it. That artificial democracy was built to keep people from politics, because the politics that is desirable by the capitalist is politics that serve the interests of the investment and the capital accumulation. It consequences on the need of political stability that leave the process of capital accumulation undisrupted. The political stability that is desired by capitalism and capitalist government agencies is enforced through the instrument of legislation and mobilization (military repression). These character appears in capitalist government around the world. Also practiced by the Sultanate of Johor when responding to the criticism issued by Khalid Ismath, and probably also will befall to anyone who dares to criticize the Sultanate of Johor in Malaysia.

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NSW: Calm restored after prison unrest

3 Sept – Prison authorities say they have regained control following unrest at a maximum-security prison in NSW.

About 35 male inmates refused orders to return to their cells from a day room at the Lithgow Correctional Centre about 3.15pm, Correction Services NSW says.

The prisoners jammed open the door to the day centre, set a small fire and threw a television and garbage.

The segregation of a prisoner on Wednesday was the source of the unrest, Corrective Services NSW Assistant Commissioner Kevin Corcoran said in a statement.

The inmates were forced back to their cells shortly before 4pm as prison guards used tear gas to quell the unrest, he said.

“The unit where the disturbance occurred will be locked down for the next few days while disciplinary action and possible charges are considered.

Melbourne prison riot: Heavily armed police confront masked prisoners at maximum security facility in Ravenhall

Victoria Police Special Operations Group (SOG) members are seen outside the Metropolitan Remand Centre in Ravenhall.

1 July – Heavily armed police carrying shields have stormed Melbourne’s maximum security prison in a bid to quell rioting prisoners.

Chaotic scenes erupted inside the Metropolitan Remand Centre in Ravenhall as masked inmates brandishing sticks, bashed in doors and windows, and lit fires. The prisoners also reportedly commandeered a tractor and thrown a golf cart on a fire.

Shouts and raucous laughter could be heard at one point as police, corrections officers and firefighters milled outside.

Cell fires also broke out at the nearby Port Phillip prison and the Dame Phyllis Frost women’s prison on Tuesday afternoon, but both were quickly contained.

Police at the scene said about 300 prisoners were involved in the demonstration which began at 12:20pm inside the prison on Tuesday.

Shots were heard coming from the facility just before 6:00pm but it was unclear whether it was tear gas being used or gunfire.

An estimated 200 staff were evacuated from the prison and all of the state’s prisons went into lockdown as a precaution.

A drone was sent up to monitor the yard, with a police helicopter and a heavily armoured vehicle also on the scene.

Dozens of police officers were seen marching through the main entrance of the prison with riot gear.

Fires burned well into the evening inside the maximum security prison complex.

Corrections commissioner Jan Shuard said “a very large group” of prisoners had “created a big disturbance” at the facility.

She said the riot may have been related to a state-wide smoking ban in Victorian prisons, which is due to begin on Wednesday, but said that had not yet been confirmed.

“The situation is still being managed, until we can have a full debrief on it, we won’t know how it got to this stage,” she said.

“Until I get a full debrief, I can’t speculate about how it all came about.”

Earlier a group of prisoners breached a secure inner perimeter of the remand centre, but Ms Shuard said most prisoners had been brought under control.

“We’ve got a large proportion of the prison locked down now, but we still have too many out and until we have them under control the number [involved] is too hard to be determined.”

Critical incident response team at prison riot

She said the perimeter of the prison had been secured by police and there was no threat to public safety.

Continue reading “Melbourne prison riot: Heavily armed police confront masked prisoners at maximum security facility in Ravenhall”

Melbourne: Solidarity with the Ravenhall Remand Centre rioters!

1 July – Hundreds of prisoners at the Metropolitan Remand Centre in Ravenhall have rioted in response to a state-wide ban on smoking in all of the state of Victoria’s prison hell-holes. The prisoners attacked screws, lit fires, rammed an exit door, torched prison vehicles and stormed a control room during what the cops are describing as one of the biggest prison riots in recent history. All prison staff were evacuated from the prison and heavily armed police goon squads entered the prison deploying tear gas in an attempt to suppress the riot. The riot began at around 12:20PM on 30.06.15 and continued until 03:00AM on 01:07:15 when the cops finally suppressed the uprising. There are reports from the corporate scum media that several prisoners were injured in the riot and that at least 2 screws got battered. As a result of the riot the entire prison system in Victoria is now on complete lockdown.

In response to the riot a snap action was held at a traditional First Nations meeting spot in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Collingwood by First Nations Liberation (FNL) and their supporters in solidarity with the rioting prisoners. In the state of Victoria, First Nations peoples only make up 1% of the population but make up 30% of Victoria’s prison population – this over-representation of First Nations people in the prison system is a direct result of the unceasing genocide that has been waged against First Nations people since the arrival of the colonists in the territories now commonly referred to as Australia in 1788. Afterwards a small group of anarchists painted graffiti on a nearby wall in solidarity with the rioters.

Solidarity and strength to the Ravenhall rioters who kept the screws and heavily armed cops at bay for almost 15 hours armed only with makeshift weapons, their fists and a fierce will to resist!

Fire To The Prisons! Destroy The Prison Society!