playing the system

I suspect some of you are going to agree with some of what I say today and will disagree with other things I put forward. Then again, there are some who disagree with everything I say on principle. But that’s another story.

I want to talk about one of Australia’s most notorious, most violent, most cunning criminals. Gregory John Brazel.  He has murdered at least three people. He has nearly forty convictions. They include armed robberies, assaulting prison guards, assaulting other prisoners and taking a prison guard hostage.

He is in the news, he is front page news today, because Brazel has just been awarded $12,000 in compensation after he was assaulted by other  prisoners in the privately-run Port Phillip Prison. That’s more than what some of his victims and their families have received.

And, judging by his track record, he will now probably try to get his hands on taxpayers’ money by suing the state of Victoria.

I have never been accused of being soft on criminals but even a roach like Brazel is entitled to apply for compensation. His punishment by the courts was incarceration. The deprivation of his freedom. It did not, and should not, include bush justice inside prison.

Reportedly, three prisoners spent 45 minutes smashing through a barred window with a rowing machine to get at him. Where were the guards? It would have made a lot of noise. Brazel argues that prison officers deliberately or negligently exposed him to the risk of assault.

As distasteful as it seems Brazel was entitled to use the system. Some would say abuse the system. But the story raises other questions.

He once boasted he paid a corrupt prison officer more than $25,000 over two years for a weekly supply of alcohol and for a mobile phone. Was that crime ever investigated?  He’s been caught with illegal mobile phones in his cell. They were confiscated. His cell should be searched weekly if necessary. If illegal alcohol is found there he should be charged. He should be punished with deprivation of privileges fort other indiscretions. Apparently he uses a phone account to bet on the TAB. That privilege should be revoked.

Brazel is eligible for parole in 2020. That’s fourteen years away. For every transgression inside he should be made to serve each year as a ‘no frills’ year. Withdraw gym privileges, withdraw library privileges, withdraw computer and TV privileges.

Show this thug that the system can play the game as tough as he plays the system. Then his $12,000 compo victory will look like a pyrrhic victory at best.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2006