Inmate’s views presented

Press, 13 September 1988, Page 3

Inmate’s views presented

A folder containing more than 300 typed sheets of paper testified to one former inmate’s views on the need for reform of the penal system.

Mr John Sharnock’s five-page submission was backed by a folder brimming with background and resource material. Mr Sharnock told committee members he was jailed for six years for armed robbery at a time when he was a “junkie.” He tried to escape and was transferred to Auckland’s Paremoremo maximum security prison. “It was more like walking into a psychiatric unit — being surrounded by hundreds of nuts.”

Mr Sharnock said he hated Paremoremo but nevertheless was jailed again. He received 18 months for

possessing a firearm. He said he was scared of Paremoremo when he left the prison after his first sentence. “Two months later I was an angry young man trying to survive in a society I had forgotten. I was back out being a criminal.” Mr Sharnock said prison had certainly removed him from society. “That was the aim but the system just managed to confuse me and screw me up. I’m still sorting myself out.” Mr Sharnock said he began his research when he realised first hand the effects of prison. His submission covered the “forced mixing” of inmates stemming from the basic prison structure, with cells aligned in rows.

“Here the inmate, on a day-to-day basis, is ‘forced’ to cope with a bewildering array of circumstances.”

Apart from imprisonment, inmates were forced to cope with assaults, “stand-over tactics,” thefts by other inmates, sexual assaults and advances from other inmates. “The human being, especially our youth, simply cannot function with anywhere near a totally ‘rational’ state of mind under our present penal design and policy.”

Mr Sharnock told committee members he had been out of jail about two years and had overcome his drug problem.“I don’t think I’ll go back to playing a criminal. There seems to be a lot more to life.”