QLD: Maximum security inmates score a win over prisons

AAP General News (Australia)
04-21-1999
QLD: Maximum security inmates score a win over prisons

BRISBANE, April 21 AAP - Prison authorities have no right to punish maximum security
prisoners by taking away televisions and other privileges, a judge ruled today.

The decision was a win for seven maximum security inmates who went to court to change the
solitary confinement conditions under which they were being held.

The seven inmates being segregated in the Maximum Security Unit at Woodford Correctional
Centre, north-west of Brisbane, launched the Supreme Court challenge alleging their
incarceration was unlawful.

Justice Martin Moynihan ruled today they had successfully argued that under the special act
governing the already strictly controlled unit, the withdrawal of privileges such as
televisions and books as punishment was illegal.

However, he said he refrained from ruling that their incarceration from June 1, 1998 until
March 16, 1999 was unlawful because it would involve retrospectivity.

Justice Moynihan said he would not grant injunctions forcing the Queensland Corrective
Services Commission to alter their rules on maximum security incarceration as he expected them
to act according to law in the future.

The seven inmates, who were represented by the Prisoners Legal Service, included convicted
murderers Glen Patrick Farr and Oliver Alincic.

Alincic grabbed national headlines when he was one of three other Sir David Longland
inmates who escaped with notorious armed robber Brendon Abbott on November 5, 1998, sparking a
national manhunt.

AAP smk/cjh/was/de

KEYWORD: PRISONERS LEAD

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