The Canberra bushfires a Symonston remand centre perspective.
First published – Feb 2 2007.
Back again people,
I recently wrote a blog about a mate setting his cell on fire at the remand centre in Symonston ACT as a bit of a prank on the staff at the facility.
I had someone comment on this blog and say that by putting on this prank we somehow wasted tax payers dollars which could have been better served being spent on the Canberra bushfires.
Now considering no extra staff were required during that prank there was no extra cost.
I think a more cost effective solution would be to stop locking guys in prison that offer no threat to society anyway!(Not to mention that we were on remand and were not yet found guilty, many turn out to be innocent so should not be treated as criminals...INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY!!)
And just to give you an idea of why we would play such a prank I will let everyone know about the handling of the Canberra bushfires by ACT corrective services since it has been brought up!
It was appalling!
I recall it was just before lunch when the first signs of how close the fires were to the prison became clear.
The sky was a deep dark orange and filled with smoke and bits of burnt leaves were raining into our small yard at the remand centre from the sky above.
Shortly after this all the tv stations stopped running tv shows and began running emergency flashes with a list of the most in danger suburbs.
The local radio stations dropped the playlists and followed suit.
We sat about the yard for a few hours while everyone in the prison called there loved ones to confirm there safety, many including my mate Pete could not get in touch with their loved ones.
It turned out Pete‟s elderly mother had been evacuated to a shelter as her whole suburb of Duffy was under attack from the fires, he would not find this out until the following day.
Talk about a long night!
Many of the inmates suspected there loved ones were also at shelters around Canberra but the screws in most cases refused to ring the hotline to confirm this.
As the afternoon went on and the fires came closer more and more burnt cinders came pouring into our little concrete yard and the air became hotter and more filled with smoke.
As things started to become a bit surreal and spooky the screws entered the yard and informed us that we had to return to our cells for a short period of time until a change of shift had occurred, this sounded like a lie and turned out to be one.
Once back inside the cells it became apparent just how hot it was and so I lay near the crack under the cell door to catch the draft of incoming air flowing in and I wet my head every ten minutes.
My cell mate Pete flicked through tv stations and the radio trying to find out if his mothers house had been burned down.
Poor bastard was in a panic.
As the evening came along there was an eerie orange tinged darkness falling over the yard and the air became much thicker with smoke making breathing a bit difficult.
By 6pm we were all sweating profusely and breathing as best we could, the screws came past every half hour and we asked to be allowed into the yard but they continued to refuse.
Gaol cells have very little airflow and at the Symonston remand centre the only real fresh air enters the cells by way of an electric exhaust fan.
The water and flushing of the toilet are also run on electricity at that remand centre.
By 7pm all power to the cells had failed due to the close proximity of the fires so there we sat in the dark with no water, no toilet and our cells slowly filling with smoke.
We began to call out to the screws but they ignored us.
We begged to just be able to lay in the yard and have some water but still no response.
As breathing became more difficult we all began calling out to be moved to the other remand centre in Belconnen which was further from the fires.
Still no response.
By 10pm we were beginning to become extremely concerned for our safety especially since the screws offered no help at all.
We began banging plates and cups against the walls and started kicking our doors demanding to be released from these cells and taken somewhere safe.
This went on for at least an hour but the screws still refused to concern themselves with our welfare!
Suddenly somehow two lads that had been kicking there door relentlessly for some time managed to kick it open and they got out into the yard running to the office window banging on it and demanding safety for us all.
The screws left the office and we assumed that finally they would get us out of here.
Unfortunately we thought wrong as they returned with a riot squad in there full gear with shields and batons at the ready grabbing the two guys that got out and taking them away with a few well placed hits.
As time dragged on it became increasingly hard to breath and we got louder and louder until finally around 1 am the screws came into the yard and began putting us all in cuffs, a sure sign we were finally about to be moved.
We were put into waiting vehicles and moved to the remand centre at Belconnen, it felt so good to be able to breath properly again and the drink of water I had when we got to Belco was one of the best I‟ve tasted.
We remained at Belco for a couple of weeks before returning to Symonston.
We were treated as animals actually I think I would treat my pets better during a time of danger!