When you blog it seems to me that your posts become like buses. In particular they tend to come in clusters of posts that have a similar topic. Well I could not let the piece from the Sydney Morning Herald go with out notation here because it does demonstrate that our prisons are not filled with naughty schoolboys who some times get up to some jolly japes.
Many of them claim after they are assaulted by prisoners, others for the psychological injuries sustained because of it.
In the past three financial years 216 prison officers have been assaulted, one fatally.
But the union that represents them fears the number of assaults could rise as staffing numbers decline.
Matt Bindley, the chairman of the prison officers’ branch of the Public Service Association, said he had grave concerns about the consequences of staff cuts.
Officers have to be constantly on their guard and aware that tension can suddenly spill over, he said. ”It’s really hard to gauge … you could be having a really quiet day and all of a sudden there’s a situation there to start fights.”
Our Prisons are generally populated by some rather nasty individuals who see their time inside as an opportunity to hone their criminal skills and a never ending chook yard battle to maintain and enhance their status as “hard men”. I have the greatest respect for the men and women who have to keep the peace within our prisons and I just wish that the bleeding hearts would take a step back and consider the calibre of the inmates before going off half cocked about how hard done by they are.
Cheers Comrades
