prisoners – DISACCORDS

Malmsbury: Staff members assaulted in Youth Detention Centre riot

15 May – Three staff members have been assaulted after inmates began rioting at the Malmsbury Youth Detention Centre in Victoria.

Emergency services remain at the facility after a group of youths began causing trouble about 2.45pm, police said.

Three staff members were assaulted, and two were treated by paramedics.

One male staff member, aged in his 30s, has been taken to Bendigo Hospital in a serious but stable condition.

Police said damage has been done to the centre.

Investigations are ongoing.

The riot is the latest in a string of violent incidents at Malmsbury this year.

In January, a group of six inmates escaped the facility and stole three cars before being arrested by police.

Pekanbaru: 200 prisoners at large after Indonesian mass jailbreak

Prison buildings seen through a broken window at Sialang Bungkuk prison in Pekanbaru, Riau province.

7 May – Indonesian authorities have said about 200 inmates remain at large two days after a mass escape from an overcrowded prison on Sumatra island.

The breakout at Sialang Bungkuk prison in Pekanbaru on Friday occurred when prisoners were let out of their cells to perform prayers. They broke through a prison door, overwhelming the few guards on duty.

Police said 242 men had been recaptured by Sunday morning, leaving about 200 still at large.

Authorities were initially uncertain how many prisoners had escaped, estimating the numbers at between 100 and 300.

Police said some of the men surrendered or were returned by their families and others were captured by local residents, police and soldiers.

Various officials have said the prisoners were angry about poor conditions and treatment. The prison has a capacity of about 360 but was holding more than 1,870 men, according to a local police spokesman, Guntur Aryo Tejo.

Tejo said four of the escaped inmates were apprehended by police late on Friday about 60 miles from the prison, on a bus heading for West Sumatra province.

Hundreds of police and soldiers have been deployed in the hunt for the prisoners.

Jailbreaks are common in Indonesia, where overcrowding has become a significant problem in prisons that are struggling to cope with poor funding and an influx of people arrested under a “war on drugs”.

Friday’s escape was the biggest since July 2013 when about 240 prisoners, escaped after a deadly riot at a prison in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province.

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.

Continue reading “Malaysia: Solidarity with Khalid Ismath, imprisoned for criticizing the government on Facebook”

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.