LL:PR: port phillip prison inquest begin

[[EMAIL PROTECTED]:Peoples Justice Alliance]

PORT PHILLIP PRISON: ELEVEN DEAD - WHY?


Port Phillip Prison, the victorian Government's flagship private 
prison has claimed eleven lives in the 20 months since its grand 
opening in August 1997.

This is the equivalent of one death in custody every seven and a half 
weeks.

Only six weeks after the Prison's opening. George Drinken, a 28 year 
old man on remand, was found hanging from one of the numerous obvious 
hanging points which were built into the vast majority of cells. three 
more men died by hanging before the State Government and the private 
operator, Group 4 Correction Services Pty Ltd, finally agreed, after 
protracted negotiations, to remove these hanging points.

The families and friends of the men who have died at the Port Phillip 
Prison have so far been denied access to the facts and reasons as to 
why their sons, partners and fathers have died. Each's families grief 
is overwhelming and they are forced to relive their tragic experiences 
after each subsequent death at the Prison.

Instread of acting quickly to end the mounting death toll at the 
Prison, the Corrections Minister, Bill McGrath, the Department of 
Justice and Group 4 have all sought to normalise, trivilise and hide 
this ongoing, profoundly shameful and negligent situation. After five 
deaths at the prison, numerous attempted suicides, overdoses, fires 
and a major riot; Group 4 was only fined the equivalent of 2% of its 
annual contract payments for substandard performance (Victorian 
Auditor-General, 1999). What price human life?

20 months after the first fatality; the Coronial Inquests into the 
first five "unnatural deaths" at the Prison are due to commence on 7 
JUNE 1999. These inquests will be held consecutively and will run for 
four weeks. Group 4, a multi-national corporation with annual revenues 
of $1.2billion and the State Government have deployed unlimited 
financial and legal resources to aggressively defend their actions and 
inactions a the Inquests. The Victorian Deaths in Custody Watch 
Committee requests that all concerned Victorians attend the Inquests 
in support and solidarity with the families of the men who have died 
at Port Phillip Prison.

PRISON DEATHS IN VICTORIA HAVE REACHED A TEN YEAR HIGH. THE COMMUNITY 
DESERVES TO KNOW WHY?


                CORONIAL INQUESTS BEGIN ON MONDAY 7 JUNE 1999
                AT: 10AM MELBOURNE MAGISTRATES COURT (CNR. WILLIAM AND LONSDALE STS)


Victorian Deaths in Custody Watch Committee
P. O. Box 1467, Collingwood 3066




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