Tour protesters did not enjoy Addington Prison’s ‘concrete tombs’

Press, 25 November 1981, Page 25

Tour protesters did not enjoy Addington Prison’s ‘concrete tombs’

By

GARRY ARTHUR

Four protesters charged with breaches of the law during the Springbok tour chose to go to jail rather than be released on bail pending their court hearings. They were kept at Addington Remand Prison — and they did not like it a bit. The four — who went on a hunger strike while in jail — have told the Canterbury Council for Civil Liberties that Addington’s cells are like ‘ concrete tombs” where

prisoners can be locked in for more than 20 hours on a wet day. They describe the system there as both oppressive and restrictive. “As men innocent before the law, they and fellow inmates were subjected to discomforts and privations only arguably appropriate to a programme of punishment for convicted prisoners,” says a report on their experience, compiled by Jenny Gunby, a member

of the Council for Civil Liberties. Her principal concern is that unconvicted prisoners remanded in custody are traditionally assumed to be innocent, and yet their innocence “appeared to be regarded as nothing more than an irrelevant technicality.” “The punitive conditions under which they and others were held certainly have no place in a system intended

merely to confine suspected offenders until a trial can establish guilt or innocence,” Mrs Gunby says. She questions whether the conditions under which untried prisoners are confined at Addington reflect an acceptable level of respect for the human rights and dignities of inmates, whether convicted or untried.

She says the four hunger strikers were left with the impression that the experience of a remand in custody was intended to be harsh and intimidating — “perhaps on the assumption that it would serve as a warning to those who would not return to custody after sentence, and as an initiation for those who would.

“They felt that the manner and content of officers’ communications with inmates (bawled instructions, abusive language, unreasonable and unexplained orders), together with the zoo-like qualities of prison organisation (tigercages, catwalks, locked pens) gravely damaged the already precarious self-esteem of many inmates.” Far from encouraging a sense of personal responsibility in prisoners, as called for in the Penal Institutions Regulations, she says the four felt that the prison regime left inmates with a reinforced sense of their own powerlessness, and a reinforced scepticism about the impartiality and reasonableness of the justice system. Although remand prisoners had special privileges such as more frequent letters and visits, telephone calls, etc, these rights often prove either illusory or of dubious advantage. They could not be forced to work, but this rule “condemned” them to long stretches of time in cells or exercise yards. The prison rules were not sufficiently publicised, and most rights were conditional, giving officers wide discretion. An Addington Prison cell was likened to a concrete

tomb, lift long by 6ft wide, with a draughty louvre window at one end and an illfitting door at the other, “so that paper left on the floor is whisked out through the gap under the door in a constant and bitter through-draught.”

Prisoners were not told that extra blankets and clothing were available, the hunger strikers said, and the tiny 12in by Sin pillows, stuffed with unyielding pellets of foam plastic, were comfortless.

They complained, too, of the “bleak, depressing” washroom, no toilet paper in the exercise yard lavatory, “inadequate” medical facilities, no recreational facilities except for one tennis ball, and long waits for visitors while guards fetched prisoners. Mr H. S. Stroud, superintendent of Paparua Prison, who is also responsible for Addington Remand Prison, says he agrees that conditions for those on remand are not as good as conditions for other prisoners. “It’s an old, old building,” Mr Stroud says, “but for the last 12 months we’ve had a work force renovating it. We are providing three dayrooms where prisoners can play cards on wet days — one for those on pre-release work schemes, one for boys up to 20, and one for adults.” He says that vast improvements have been made at Paparua Prison in recent years, but remand centres have been left behind because of the problem of their status. Conditions are slowly being updated. It depends on the money available.

Mr Stroud thinks it ironic that prisoners should complain about the cell windows. “We fitted louvre windows at Addington and Paparua because the prisoners complained about the previous fixed windows with an opening shutter. Cells were draughty when the shutter was open and there was a lack- of air when it was closed. ■ 1 ‘

“This is the first complaint we’ve had since the louvres were put in.

“We’re dealing here with four who are different from our run of people,” Mr Stroud says. “They found conditions at Addington not what they were used to, but a lot of the conditions are the result of the people who are there.”

Every prisoner received a set of five laundered blankets on admission (“You wouldn’t get that in a motel”), and the cells were centrally heated.” Mr Stroud says the medical care and facilities are adequate. All prisoners are medically examined on admission, there is a “nurse’s parade” every morning, and the doctor calls twice a week.

Mr Stroud says the hunger strikers’ description of their pillows is “entirely false.” He produced two kinds of pillows in use, each about 18 inches by 12 inches, and one filled with kapoc and the other of foam rubber.

If toilet paper was missing in the exercise yard lavatory, it must simply have run out. “You have to. sing out,” he says. He adds that plumbers often have to open up the toilets and take out entire rolls that had been stuffed down them.

The exercise yard is surrounded by high concrete walls and covered with netting,, as described by the

prisoners, but this is because security has to meet the worst possible case.

“If all the inmates were like those four — nice people with no thoughts of running away — we would have open-air camps. But our security has got to be for the worst fellow.”

Mr Stroud says that Addington has only a small visiting room, and recalls that he had asked the hunger strikers to voluntarily restrict the number of visitors they received. “I told them the other prisoners might retaliate if they hogged the visiting room,” he says. Although regulations provided that remand inmates could be permitted to work, there was no work available. Prisoners . from Paparua Prison already worked at Addington as cooks, cleaners, carpenters, and painters. It is difficult to offer some of Paparua's “attractions” — education, hobbies, sports — at a remand prison, where prisoners were to be held for only a week or two. Remand prisoners come into a variety of different categories, some of which had to be kept apart from each other — people involved in the same case, young prisoners from adults, members of rival gangs.

Mr Stroud points out that many prisoners held at Addington cannot be considered technically innocent because they have already had their hearings and been found guilty, and have been remanded in custody pending sentence.

He denies that conditions at Addington are intended to be punitive. “It’s a disciplinary situation,” he says. “It’s restrictive, but for a remand setting I can’t see how you can change things. It’s a busy place with people coming and going all the time, like a railway station, and it has to have a stricter routine.”