I watched a 1995 movie, “Dead man walking”. I remembered a quote from a victim’s father played by Ronald Lee Emery, he said, "It is the only way (death penalty) we can be sure that they will not kill again. Life without parole. Oh, sure! How many prison guards and prisoners do they have to kill before it's over?"
Some might argue that this quote is only from a movie but in reality it is true. That is why I support the death penalty for violent criminals, they are a danger to everyone, even those in prison. There are even prison murders in Australia. Here are a few examples:
Bashed prison guard dies in hospital
Dylan Welch
January 26, 2007
Guards at Silverwater Correctional Facility have locked down the jail today in a mark of respect for colleague Wayne Smith, who died from his injuries yesterday after being bashed in prison.
Mr Smith, a father-of-two and a prison officer of 17 years, was allegedly attacked by Carl Edward Little, 37, on December 11.
Little is also accused of assaulting another person, Rashmi Goel, around the same time.
Mr Smith died in Westmead Hospital after suffering a broken jaw and serious head injuries.
Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham wrote to the Smith family, saying he was "deeply saddened to hear new of the tragic death of senior correctional officer Mr Wayne Smith".
“... the thoughts and prayers of the Commissioner, of the officers who served with Mr Smith and all departmental staff are with the Smith family, who have been maintaining a constant vigil by his bedside.
"Wayne Smith was a highly regarded officer and he will be sadly missed by his colleagues at Silverwater Correctional Facility."
An internal investigation is underway into the incident. In December, a spokesman for the union, Greg O'Donoghue, said the attack was in part due to overcrowding in the NSW prison system, which meant some inmates were being reclassified to lower security levels too early.
"We are concerned that [Little's minimum security classification] may have been on the basis of classifying an inmate to a bed rather than classifying an inmate in terms of the actual risk assessment," he said.
In a written statement Minister for Correctional Services Tony Kelly denied the claim.
"I am advised there are more than 100 [beds] available across the State," he wrote.
Little is serving a term for parole violations, and had been due for release in April. Since the attack he has been moved to the high risk unit of Goulburn jail, known as "SuperMax".
He was due to face Burwood Local Court on February 21, charged with grievous bodily harm. It is expected the charge will now be upgraded to murder.
The last time an officer died as a result of a prisoner attack was in 1998, when Geoffrey Pearce succumbed to the AIDS virus after being stabbed with an HIV infected needle eight years before.
Pearce, a probationary officer, had been on the job for only three months when he was attacked by prisoner Graham Farlow in July 1990.
NSW Correctional officers killed in the line of duty
2007: Wayne Smith, Silverwater. Allegedly bashed by Carl Edward Little while escorting him to a new cell. Succumbed to his injuries six weeks later.
1997: Geoffrey Pearce, Long Bay. Stabbed with a HIV-positive needle by Graham Farlow in 1990 and died from AIDS eight years later.
1979: John Mewburn, Long Bay. Bashed to death by convicted murderer Peter Schneidas. Prison officers still hold a yearly memorial for Mewburn.
1978: Carl Faber, Parramatta. Bashed to death by a group of prisoners during an unsuccessful escape bid.
1959: Cecil Mills, Emu Plains. Bashed to death by prisoners during an attempted escape.
1959: Albert Hedges, Berrima. Bashed and locked in a shed during an escape attempt. He survived and after rehabilitation returned to work. However he injuries were so severe he was medically retired and passed away several years later.
1958: Alan Cooper, Bathurst. Bashed to death by two prisoners at the front gate of the jail during a failed escape.
1908: John Sutherland Brown, Cootamundra. Killed by an axe blow to the head from a prisoner.
Guards protest bashing death of prison officer
January 27, 2007
INMATES at Sydney's Silverwater prison were confined to cells yesterday in a silent protest by guards over the death of a fellow officer who died from wounds received in a bashing in the jail.
Police are expected to charge convicted armed robber Carl Edward Little, 37, on Monday over the death of a senior prison officer, Wayne Smith, 57, who died on Thursday.
Little, who was serving the balance of a breach of parole sentence and was due for release on Anzac Day, allegedly assaulted the father of two on December 15.
Mr Smith suffered a broken jaw and serious head injuries in the assault in which Little is also alleged to have bashed another inmate, Rashmi Goel.
After the attack Little was transferred to the high security Supermax prison at Goulburn where he has been kept in isolation pending his appearance in Burwood Local Court on February 21, charged with grievous bodily harm.
Mr Smith, a prison officer of 17 years' service, died on Thursday afternoon in Westmead Hospital.
The NSW Corrective Services Commissioner, Ron Woodham, wrote to the family, saying he was deeply saddened. "Wayne Smith was a highly regarded officer and he will be sadly missed by his colleagues at Silverwater Correctional Facility," he said.
An internal investigation is underway. In December a spokesman for the prison officers' union, Greg O'Donoghue, said the attack was in part due to overcrowding in the NSW prison system.
Les Kennedy, Dylan Welch
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/guards-protest-bashing-death-of-prison-officer/2007/01/26/1169788693344.html
1500 pay tribute to fallen prison guard
Dylan Welch
February 9, 2007 - 2:44PM
NSW prisons were locked down today as 1500 NSW prison officers attended a Sydney memorial service for Wayne Smith, the guard bashed to death by an inmate at Silverwater jail last month.
Held at the Brush Farm Corrective Services Academy at Eastwood in Sydney's northwest, the service was also attended by Mr Smith's wife Rhonda, mother Kathleen and his two sons Nigel and Gavin.
They all laid wreaths at a memorial for the nine prison officers who have died from incidents at work.
Mr Smith's family also accepted the Exemplary Conduct Cross on his behalf - the first time the honour has between awarded posthumously.
Mr Smith, a 57-year-old father-of-two and prison officer of 17 years, was allegedly attacked by Carl Edward Little, 37, on December 11.
Little is also accused of assaulting another person, Rashmi Goel, around the same time.
Mr Smith died in Westmead Hospital two weeks after the attack, which had left him with a broken jaw and serious head injuries.
Today the memorial service opened with an eight-man honour guard, led by Department of Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham.
Mr Woodham then addressed the audience, including representatives of corrective services from Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT.
"Senior Corrective Officer Wayne Smith paid the ultimate price for the people of NSW," he said.
Today's service was also the annual ceremony to commemorate prison officers who died as a result of their jobs. Normally the ceremony was in November, but had to be brought forward because of Mr Smith's death, the Commissioner said.
"It's most unfortunate and saddening to realise that we have had to come early this year."
Mr Woodham described Mr Smith as a man of conviction who loved a joke and "always had a smile on his face".
"He strove to make a difference and the attendance here today proves that he did," he said.
Prayers were read by Reverend Rodney Moore and then wreaths were laid by COmmissioner Woodham, Mr Smith's mother, wife and two sons, and about 100 corrective services officers, administrators and union representatives.
By the end the memorial, containing plaques of all nine men who have died during their work as prison officers, was covered with wreaths, small notes and single wrapped roses.
The Last Post was played and then Mr Woodham lead the honour guard away.
A private funeral for Mr Smith was held last week, at Rookwood cemetery.
The man charged with Mr White's murder, Little, is serving a term for parole violations, and had been due for release in April. Since the attack he has been moved to the high risk unit of Goulburn jail, known as "SuperMax".
He was due to face Burwood Local Court on February 21, charged with grievous bodily harm. It is expected the charge will now be upgraded to murder.
The last time an officer died as a result of a prisoner attack was in 1998, when Geoffrey Pearce succumbed to the AIDS virus after being stabbed with an HIV infected needle eight years before.
Pearce, a probationary officer, had been on the job for only three months when he was attacked by prisoner Graham Farlow in July 1990.
NSW Correctional officers killed in the line of duty
2007: Wayne Smith, Silverwater. Allegedly bashed by Carl Edward Little while escorting him to a new cell. Succumbed to his injuries six weeks later.
1997: Geoffrey Pearce, Long Bay. Stabbed with a HIV-positive needle by Graham Farlow in 1990 and died from AIDS eight years later.
1979: John Mewburn, Long Bay. Bashed to death by convicted murderer Peter Schneidas. Prison officers still hold a yearly memorial for Mewburn.
1974: Carl Faber, Parramatta. Bashed to death by a group of prisoners during an unsuccessful escape bid. Died from his injuries four years later.
1959: Cecil Mills, Emu Plains. Bashed to death by prisoners during an attempted escape.
1959: Albert Hedges, Berrima. Bashed and locked in a shed during an escape attempt. He survived and after rehabilitation returned to work. However his injuries were so severe he was medically retired and passed away several years later.
1958: Alan Cooper, Bathurst. Bashed to death by two prisoners at the front gate of the jail during a failed escape.
1908: John Sutherland Brown, Cootamundra. Killed by an axe blow to the head from a prisoner.
1869: George Spinks, Windsor Jail. Attacked by a prisoner.
Bashed to death...Nigel Smith holding a photograph of his father Wayne. Photo: Ben Rushton
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/family-feels-left-in-the-dark-over-jail-guards-death-20100325-qzzw.html
Family feels left in the dark over jail guard's death
Geesche Jacobsen CRIME EDITOR
March 26, 2010
''IT WAS hard to imagine a worse example of a determined effort to kill a man for no real reason'', a judge once said of the horrific attack on Wayne Smith, a prison guard, by an angry inmate.
The inmate, whose assault left Mr Smith with severe brain damage and head injuries, has long pleaded guilty.
Last week, more than three years after the attack and Mr Smith's subsequent death - prison authorities finally took some responsibility for allowing it to happen, acknowledging they failed to provide a safe workplace for the experienced prison officer. But his family is still waiting for an explanation and an apology.
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His son Nigel says they have been left in the dark. No-one has explained to him, his mother or brother how the inmate, Carl Edward Little, a convicted armed robber, came to be at Silverwater, the minimum security jail where the attack occurred.
Little, who had a history of violence and drug use, had been reclassified from a maximum to a minimum security prison in one step - something so extreme it now requires the signature of the commissioner or a deputy.
A prison officer has been disciplined over her role in the reclassification, but the family has not been given any details.
Once at Silverwater, Little was allegedly standing over and assaulting other inmates, and authorities decided to return him to a medium security prison.
It was Mr Smith's job to tell him of the decision. Straight afterwards, when the escorts which were to return him to his cell failed to show up, Little snapped, king-hit Mr Smith, before punching and kicking the unconscious officer and repeatedly stomping on his head.
Guards at Silverwater do not have firearms, batons or capsicum spray.
Mr Smith, a fit 57 year old who had to be revived on the way to hospital, was unrecognisable, so swollen was his face. He clung to life for six weeks before dying in January 2007. While his neurosurgeon believed it was the 80 per cent brain injury that killed him, the post mortem said his death ''may'' have been related to a pre-existing heart condition.
The family insists he had no heart problems.
The Department of Corrective Services pleaded guilty before the Industrial Relations Commission to breaches of occupational health and safety laws, exposing officers to injury, and failing to handcuff Little and to provide two escorts.
The Public Service Association, which represents prison officers, had instigated the private prosecution after WorkCover had decided not to act; but by then, time to prosecute over Little's reclassification had run out.
''WorkCover should explain to the family how it is they saw nothing wrong and the department has now turned around and pleaded guilty,'' said the union's senior industrial officer, Stewart Little. But Nigel Smith blames the union for failing to prevent the delay.
In a plea bargain the Public Service Association last week withdrew charges the department had also breached its obligations when reclassifying Little as a minimum security inmate, failing to segregate him, failing to have a rapid response team available and to have security cameras at the centre.
Mr Little says that Mr Smith's death is a reminder of the dangerous job that prison officers do, and that lessons have been learnt. There have been changes to reclassifications and segregations, and restraint of dangerous inmates, and the setting up of armed immediate response teams.
When the case returns to court for sentencing this month, the question of whether the department's failures - or a mysterious heart condition - caused Mr Smith's death will be examined further.
The department's plea, while welcomed by the union, caused dismay to Nigel Smith. He just wanted the witnesses to explain what happened.
Already the convict's plea - to a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to murder, after charges of attempted murder were dropped - has deprived the family of finding out the truth.
''I don't feel justice has been done,'' Mr Smith said. He said he felt angry and betrayed by the union, the department and the criminal justice system. ''Had there been a trial there would have been a lot more things revealed.''
And their wait for closure continues as Little is plan to appeal against his minimum 15 year sentence. An inquest into Mr Smith's death is still to be held.
gjacobsen@smh.com.au
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Qld Nats criticise security after prison murder
Posted Fri Oct 10, 2003 9:02am AEST
The Queensland Opposition says it is hard to believe a man was killed in what is supposed to be the state's most secure prison.
Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg's comments follow the murder of 30-year-old violent career criminal Mark Walter Day.
Day was found bashed to death inside the Maximum Security Unit of the Sir David Longland Correctional Centre on Wednesday.
Police say a 33-year-old prisoner is expected to appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court this morning via video link charged with murder.
Mr Springborg says Day's murder raises serious questions.
"Well I think that it is absolutely astounding that this should happen in the first place," he said.
"Now as the minister himself admitted today they only go out to exercise in pairs, they are generally the most dangerous of criminals and one would have thought they should be supervised better than what happened in this case."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2003/10/10/963917.htm
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AAP General News (Australia)
01-05-2004
Vic: Former inmates charged over Barwon Prison murder
MELBOURNE, Jan 5 AAP - Two former inmates appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court
today charged over the 1998 stabbing murder of a fellow prisoner at Victoria's Barwon
Prison.
Brian Edwards died from injuries after a stabbing at Geelong's Barwon Prison on March 2, 1998.
Nathan Daniel Berry and Stephen Mathew Wenitong made a brief appearance in Melbourne
Magistrates Court today, after they were both charged with one count of murder on January
2.
Berry, 25, of Mt Eliza, is also charged with possessing a firearm …
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-89084615.html
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The evolution of the Queensland prison serial killer had its beginnings on March 24, 1993 when 29-year-old armed robber and prison enforcer, Bart Hans Vosmaer, was murdered inside the gym at the Sir David Longland Correctional Centre.
Rumours of Vasmaer’s impending demise had been circulating within the prison days before his murder. Those rumours compelled the SDL CC prison guard in charge of the gym to take sick leave on the day of the murder and inadvertently allow the murder to occur in an area where there should have been custodial supervision and presence. There was none on March 24, 1993 and the murder occurred free of any intervention by prison guards.
Vosmaer’s death spawned the “Angry Gang”, a prison gang of young men who had graduated through Queensland’s juvenile institutions and banded together for self preservation within Queensland’s maximum security prisons.
Two members of the gang, Lee Garrett and Jason “Waxy” Nixon, pleaded guilty to Vosmaer’s murder and received life sentences. Garrett and Nixon were previously catapulted into public prominence in 1991 when they escaped with Harry McSweeney after crashing a garbage truck through the main gates at Boggo Road Jail. Nixon did a repeat performance in 1997 when he and three others escaped with Brenden Abbott from SDL CC. He was recaptured a short time later and was confined with the Maximum Security Unit at Woodford prison.
The Angry Gang multiplied and gradually took control of the drug, gambling and extortion rackets inside Queensland prisons. Young prisoners eager to enhance their prison reputations and cloak themselves with the prison gang’s protective mantle queued for membership. Among those were Mark Day and Andrew “Mugwah” Kranz. Both men had graduated through the Queensland juvenile justice system and were imprisoned for crimes of violence. They were the first of the Queensland prison serial killers.
Day earned admission to the gang with his 1994 conviction for the prison murder of Dung Van Nguyen at Mareeba CC. Nguyen was stabbed with a screwdriver and a pitchfork blade after he failed to pay nine packets of White Ox tobacco for a gambling debt.
In 1997, Day was convicted for unlawfully wounding another prisoner and the following year he was convicted of strangling 22-year-old Scott Topping at Woodford prison. Topping, imprisoned for $1,200 worth of unpaid traffic fines, had three weeks left to serve when Day raped and murdered him.
On October 8, 2003, Day was murdered by Jason “Waxy” Nixon inside the MSU at SDL CC. At the time of that prison murder a guard assigned to monitor the 24-hour CCTV surveillance cameras failed to alert other guards that a murder was occurring because he was reading a book and making personal phone calls. Another disturbing aspect of the Day murder emerged when it was reported that two staff from the Queensland State Ombudsman’s Office were leaving the MSU when they saw Day pinned to the ground by Nixon but they left without telling MSU guards. That uncaring attitude reinforces the restrictive legislation that prevents media access to Queensland prisons.
It was September 28, 1994 when 21-year-old David Smith begged prison guards to place him in protective custody because he feared for his life. Prison guards refused Smith’s request and then revealed his intentions to other prisoners. Smith’s body was found a short time later in his B5 cell with multiple stab wounds. For the next 10 years Smith’s murder remained unsolved.
On September 12, 1997 Michael James “Micky” Adams, 23, was found hanging in his B7 cell at SDL CC. There was no indication Adams had been contemplating suicide but prison authorities listed his death as suicide anyway.
Prison deaths fall into two categories - natural and unnatural death. An unnatural death can be defined as murder, suicide or drug overdose. All deaths by drug overdose and suicide by hanging remain questionable because prison murders can be staged to look like suicides or drug overdoses. The term “unnatural death” is more appropriate than the official version of suicide or drug overdose.
The “sleeper hold” which cuts off blood to the brain by exerting pressure on the carotid artery is a legacy that resulted from practices employed by guards to control unruly children in Queensland juvenile institutions.
The products of state-run juvenile institutions carried the practice into the adult prison system where it is now used as a weapon for murder - a technique employed to render victims helpless before they are strung up to give the appearance of suicide by hanging.
Andrew “Mugwah” Kranz was a product of the Queensland juvenile justice system where he, and others like him, became conversant with the qualities of the sleeper hold. Kranz was also one of the first prison serial killers released back into the community after completing his sentence without being detected for committing at least two prison murders. Another suspected prison serial killer, Wayne “Spider” Fyfe, was also released from prison but died from a heroin overdose shortly after his release.
Kranz was returned to prison for rape and kidnapping. In 2004 he stabbed two prison guards at Townsville prison in an effort to remain there and not be transferred to a Brisbane metropolitan prison, where he feared members of the Angry Gang would kill him after hearing he had raped one of their women.
Shortly after the Townsville stabbing Kranz confessed to the murder of Smith and Adams. In June 2005, Andrew “Mugwah” Kranz was sentenced to double life. Without Kranz’s confession, Adams’ death would have remained listed as suicide and Smith’s death would have remained unsolved.
It is a combination of the current legislation that restricts media access and transparency of the Queensland prison system, in conjunction with the capacity for prison murders to remain undetected, that has fostered the evolving phenomenon of the prison serial killer in Queensland.
The Queensland Department of Corrective Services and its minister have an ethical responsibility that is subverted by continuing cover-ups of unexplained deaths and unsolved prison murders.
If the Queensland prison system remains shrouded in secrecy and continues to produce serial killers like Day, Nixon, Kranz and Fyfe, then it also has the capacity to create many more who could remain undetected until they are back on the street. It is that capacity that makes society a far greater killing field than those killing fields already contained within the Queensland prison system.
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4505&page=1
