Culture and Life

by Rob Gowland

Prisons and punishment

In post-Civil War Russia, in the early '20s, the streets 
swarmed with waifs and gangs of homeless children living on their 
wits. So serious was the problem that Lenin gave the task of 
rounding up these "wild" children to Felix Dzerzhinsky and the 
Cheka (forerunner of the KGB).

To the amazement of foreign observers, who saw the Cheka in terms 
of their own anti-Soviet propaganda, Dzerzhinsky's men and women 
did a splendid job of rescuing kids off the streets. But what to 
do with them then?

The answer was revealed in what became a Soviet classic, Road to 
Life by Makarenko. It is the story of how he founded and ran 
for many years a labour camp for juvenile delinquents or "young 
offenders".

Makarenko's approach was not to punish but to build up — in 
often very hostile youngsters whom life had treated harshly — a 
sense of their known worth and a pride in their own contribution 
to the advancement of their society.

No small achievement in the circumstances. Like the rest of the 
population, while being educated they also constructed, applying 
the skills they were learning and in the process completing 
projects for which they themselves were responsible.

Such a program is by no means an easy task and requires a great 
deal of sympathy and understanding — and resilience — on the 
part of the person administering it. Makarenko certainly had 
those qualities to spare, but he was also operating in a society 
that was conscious that it was building a new life for everyone.

Housing, working conditions, education, farming methods were all 
undergoing revolutionary changes that were altering fundamentally 
people's way of life and the way they perceived their society and 
their own place in it. In these conditions, Makarenko's approach 
was very much a product of his time and his (socialist) society.

I was reminded of Makarenko and his pioneering efforts by the 
transfer on November 10 of management of the Kariong Juvenile 
Justice Centre near Gosford from the NSW Department of Juvenile 
Justice to the Department of Corrective Services. The latter 
Department promptly demonstrated its enlightened approach to 
juvenile detention and rehabilitation by filling the Centre's 
swimming pool with sand!

NSW Justice Minister John Hatzistergos told the Parliamentary 
Press Gallery that by filling the pool with sand "we are sending 
a very clear message to the inmates and the public that the 
centre is being operated in a very different way".

Not content with this bloody-minded act, Hatzistergos announced a 
whole raft of punitive measures for the Kariong facility, 
including the extraordinarily petty and vindictive removal of the 
barbecue from the visitors' area with food only available in 
future from vending machines.

Other "reforms" announced by the NSW minister include daily 
musters and daily "hygiene checks" (a euphemism for intrusive 
harassment of inmates). In future, visitors will have to book 
their visits in advance and inmates receiving visitors will be 
searched and made to wear pocketless overalls.

A graduated system of "rewards and sanctions" is expected to be 
introduced shortly. This will allow guards to punish inmates who 
show spirit or defiance and to reward those who metaphorically 
touch their forelock (however insincerely).

Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz", showed years ago how 
ineffective and counterproductive such prison regimes were, but 
it seems that with nothing positive to offer young people, 
punishment is the best capitalism can do.

Opposition Liberal Party MP from Gosford Chris Hartcher fully 
supports the government's harsh new regime at Kariong, 
demonstrating in the process his belief that "corrective centre" 
is synonymous with "punishment centre".

"We have long argued", he told the press, "that Kariong was run 
more as a holiday camp than a corrective centre and it's taken 
the Government five years and innumerable riots to accept this".

Leaving aside the considerable exaggeration of "innumerable 
riots", it has been known for decades that prison riots are the 
result of intolerable situations and conditions. Removing the 
causes, not harsher, more punitive conditions is the solution.

The ruling class sits atop a system of inequality and 
exploitation that blatantly robs the poor to make the rich even 
richer. They hold that position with the help of misinformation 
and fear.

As the people overcome (and see through) the misinformation, the 
ruling class will have to rely more and more on fear — and 
outright repression. Prisons, and prison camps as used for the 
refugees, are going to become much better known to a much wider 
section of the populace.

As we move towards neo-fascist conditions in Australia, we can 
expect to see the steady abandonment of the last vestiges of 
progressive prison administration and its replacement by the same 
cruel and brutal methods that already distinguish the prisons of 
the United States.

After all, under Howard and co, the USA is now our role model for 
everything else, isn't it?