Inside one in all Australia’s hardest prisons: Inmates open up about what life’s REALLY like behind bars – and what it means to be a jail ‘ostrich’

The doorway to Mid North Coast Correctional Centre seems extra like a boutique vineyard or regional wedding ceremony venue than a most safety jail.

Kangaroos decide at lush grass on the opposite aspect of a post-and-rail fence, whereas horses graze on pasture behind an indication throughout the street providing ‘contemporary pleased chook eggs’.

Aa brief drive by gum timber results in a walled advanced and fences topped with coils of razor wire constructed to include a few of Australia’s most harmful males.

MNCCC is within the hamlet of Aldavilla, 14km west of Kempsey and 455km north of Sydney. Itopened in 2004 and at present holds about 1,000 prisoners. 

Inmates make hand indicators on the most safety Mid North Coast Correctional Centre which homes a few of the most severe offenders in New South Wales  

The doorway to the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre seems extra like a boutique vineyard or regional wedding ceremony venue than a most safety jail

A member of the Rapid Motion Crew at Mid North Coast Correctional Centre is pictured with tools together with a tear gasoline gun

It has minimal safety sections for female and male inmates on its fringes and holds medium-classified offenders however a lot of the prisoners are males housed in two most safety sectors.

It’s house to killers, gangsters, drug bosses and rapists. There are girls who will spend solely weeks awaiting a court docket listening to and males who won’t ever be launched. 

Weak inmates are stored on safety and segregation cells are stuffed with felons who’ve brought on hassle behind bars right here or in different jails round NSW.

Governor Jack Reynolds has a saying to sum up prisoners despatched to MNCCC who’ve dedicated additional offences in different jails.  

‘We take everybody’s damaged birds,’ he says. ‘However some individuals are an emu or a cassowary or an ostrich. They’re going to by no means fly.’   

The subsequent cease for inmates who commit severe offences in MNCCC is Goulburn’s Supermax, the nation’s most safe jail.

That’s the place Islamic extremist Bourhan Hraichie discovered himself after utilizing a razor to carve ‘E4E’ (eye for an eye fixed) into the brow of his new cellmate, former soldier Michael O’Keefe, in April 2016.

Kangaroos graze on grassland exterior the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre (MNCCC)

The MNCCC at Aldavilla, 14km west of Kempsey and 455km north of Sydney, opened in 2004 and at present holds about 1,000 inmates

Inmates stay in pods which include cells throughout two landings surrounding a communal space

Two-time killer Vester Fernando, who had already hung out in Supermax, was returned there after attempting to homicide one other inmate he tried to stab to loss of life in April 2020. 

In December that 12 months, two inmates armed with makeshift weapons held an officer hostage for 5 hours as they demanded buprenorphine, a drug used to deal with opioid habit.

The officer was stabbed, punched till he misplaced imaginative and prescient, and doused with cleansing fluid which the inmates threatened to ignite. Each these inmates are actually n Supermax.

Day by day Mail Australia was given an unique tour of MNCCC on Tuesday and located a jail the place inmates are given each alternative to assist themselves, however no quarter in the event that they play up.

Upon arrival at 9.30am prisoners had been nonetheless locked of their cells after receiving a shock go to from members of the elite Safety Operations Group.

The SOG had performed a focused early-morning search and whereas they did not discover what they had been searching for, nonetheless situated three shivs, one syringe and a tattoo gun.

One of many shivs was long-established from a part of a tennis racket and hidden inside a material softener container. The tattoo gun, produced from a set of hair clippers, was present in an inmate’s jacket. 

The identical crew searched one other part of the jail on Wednesday and situated 4 extra shivs, a cell phone and charger, 101 bupe strips, a syringe, 92g of hashish, 12g of ice and .8g of white powder.

MNCCC has minimal safety sections for female and male inmates on its fringes however a lot of the prisoners are males housed in two most safety sectors

The jail homes killers, gangsters, rapists and armed robbers. There are girls who will spend solely weeks awaiting a court docket listening to and males who won’t ever be launched

Weak inmates are stored on safety and segregation cells (above) are stuffed with inmates who’ve brought on hassle behind bars right here or in different jails round NSW

Probably the most generally smuggled drug at MNCCC remains to be buprenorphine, or ‘bupe’, which is available in orange, paper-thin squares in regards to the dimension of a 5c coin.

One strip of bupe is value $600 to $800 in jail, down from a excessive of $1,500 in the course of the top of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prior to now, when bupe was administered intravenously, inmates would squeeze the injection web site till the jelly-like substance got here to the floor after which suck it out.

Greater than 600 bupe strips have been seized by MNCCC employees up to now three months, in contrast with about 3g of heroin up to now 12 months. 

Throughout Day by day Mail Australia’s go to a part of the jail was locked down after an inmate-on-inmate assault in a cell however there appeared to be much less pressure than in some most safety jails. 

For a jail this massive, the place was comparatively quiet. The loudest sounds got here from a basketball court docket overtaken by a flock of screeching rainbow lorikeets. 

Whereas lots of MNCCC’s inmates are repeat guests, some are experiencing jail for the primary time and have to regulate to a brand new approach of doing issues. 

Governor Jack Reynolds (above) says inmates are given each alternative to raised themselves behind bars. In the event that they need to act up, they’ll face the results

Troublesome inmates from different jails may be transferred to MNCCC in the event that they commit offences in different amenities together with assaulting employees

Most inmates at MNCCC are engaged in work for Corrective Providers Industries or attend lessons on the Intensive Studying Centre

‘On this setting, you have to attempt to do your individual factor and never become involved in that stereotypical jail politics,’ Reynolds says.

‘It is like on the skin, you are in a procuring centre and somebody bumps into you coming down the escalator. You have obtained two selections. 

‘You’ll be able to arc up, you’ll be able to punch on – or you’ll be able to stroll away. You have to weigh up the results. You have obtained that alternative.’

Most inmates at MNCCC are engaged in work for Corrective Providers Industries or attend lessons on the Intensive Studying Centre.

There are two kitchens, three furnishings retailers and others for upholstery and textiles,  in addition to a packing facility which providers the weekly jail grocery buying system often called buy-ups.

When Day by day Mail Australia visited MNCCC on Tuesday prisoners had been nonetheless locked of their cells after receiving a shock go to from members of the elite Safety Operations Group (above)

Safety Operations Group officers discovered a shiv produced from a tennis racket hid inside a material softener container on Tuesday morning

This jail-made tattoo gun was long-established from a set of hair clippers and seized at MNCCC

Within the buy-ups part three employees oversee 45 inmates, solely eight of whom have been sentenced. 

About 60 per cent of MNCCC’s inhabitants are on remand and subsequently do not must work however most do.

‘The fellows right here need to do the correct factor,’ Reynolds says. ‘If they do not, they’re out.’

The industries serve different jails in NSW and inmates who work or be taught collectively are additionally housed in the identical pod of cells. 

Working or studying makes the time cross extra rapidly. If inmates weren’t in a workshop or classroom they might be spending about six extra hours a day of their pods.

The buy-up system permits inmates to spend as much as $120 every week on meals and fundamental gadgets equivalent to toiletries. Like most different Australians, prisoners really feel the rise in the price of dwelling and $120 doesn’t purchase as a lot because it did a number of years in the past. 

Regardless of that budgetary chunk, inmates at MNCCC have simply accomplished a meals drive to donate items to the Kempsey neighborhood by Dunghetti Elders Council.

Greater than 40 per cent of inmates are Indigenous and plenty of are from the mid north coast. That may trigger issues when disputes within the exterior world are continued throughout the jail partitions, and vice versa.  

However it additionally means there are robust ties between the jail and the broader neighborhood, as was apparent on Tuesday when inmates handed over two pallets of groceries for deprived households.

These inmates work in a packing facility which providers the weekly jail grocery buying system often called buy-ups 

Prisoners not too long ago donated two pallets of meals purchased by the buy-up scheme to be donated to households round Kempsey

Feminine inmates in minimal safety are pictured making ready to enter their cells on the afternoon muster 

Whereas prisoners are given three meals a day and have a roof over their heads their companions could be struggling to pay hire and their youngsters not being correctly fed. 

Inmate Peter, who was one of many driving forces behind the meals drive, has spent a lot of the previous quarter century in custody. He obtained the nickname Triple 0 after burning down homes when he was 10.

‘I had a tough life rising up,’ Peter says. 

‘I grew up round medication and alcohol. Mum and pa had been in jail and I grew up with my grandmother. It wasn’t simple for me and undoubtedly not for her.

‘In the present day, wanting again on the life I had, I need to give again to the neighborhood one of the simplest ways I can. It additionally helps myself on the similar time.’

The 35-year-old is aware of his three youngsters endure in his absence. ‘Twenty-five years of doing this, it isn’t good,’ he says. ‘I am lastly altering my methods.’

Lisa Brown (left) and her sister Nala Hayes (proper) have been recognised for his or her devoted service at MNCCC as a part of Nationwide Corrections Day

Working or studying makes the time cross extra rapidly. If inmates weren’t in a workshop or classroom they might be spending about seven hours extra a day of their pods

Partitions and fences hold inmates safe however MNCCC has digital surveillance monitoring nearly each inch of the jail 

Serving to change the methods of those inmates are devoted employees equivalent to sisters Lisa Brown, a providers and packages officer, and Nala Hayes, a instructor within the Intensive Studying Centre.

Each are being recognised for his or her work on this 12 months’s Nationwide Corrections Day, marked on January 19.

Brown joined Corrective Providers in 2008 as a custodial officer however ditched the uniform to focus on making ready inmates for his or her launch or parole.

Hayes was a major college instructor who adopted her youthful sibling into Corrective Providers six years in the past. 

5 days every week she teaches inmates English, maths and expertise they’ll use after they return to the neighborhood, equivalent to organising their funds and the best way to register a automobile.

Inmates bear assessments which go in direction of gaining certificates certifying their competency. All have volunteered for this system.

In April 2016, Islamic extremist Bourhan Hraichie discovered himself after utilizing a razor to carve ‘E4E’ (eye for an eye fixed) into the brow of his new cellmate

Throughout Day by day Mail Australia’s go to a part of the jail was locked down after an inmate-on-inmate assault in a cell 

For a jail as massive as MNCCC the place is comparatively quiet. The loudest sound got here from rainbow lorikeets screeching on a basketball court docket

When Day by day Mail Australia visited the classroom inmates had accomplished a undertaking which required them to make use of grocery store catalogues to finances for a ‘romantic’ three-course meal.

One prisoner spent $98.50 on an entree of brie, crackers and dip, a important course of salmon, polenta chips, peas and a baguette, with ice cream and cholates for desert, washed down with a four-pack of vodka and grape juice.

One other allotted $10 to a ready package deal of beef stroganoff adopted by rump steak value $23 and a $2.75 block of chocolate – with a $63 bottle of black label Johnnie Walker bringing his complete to $98.75. 

Inmate Jai, whose formal schooling resulted in sixth class, has a two-year-old daughter and desires to be taught ‘the best way to stay a traditional life’.

‘All of us right here have a household exterior of this,’ he says. ‘When my daughter comes house with homework if I do not know the best way to do it it isn’t going to be actual good.’

John has spent the previous 15 years in custody and earlier than he got here to the Intensive Studying Centre couldn’t learn or write.

‘We need to do properly for the academics,’ he says. ‘They present that they need to assist us.’

Privateness just isn’t at all times a prime precedence in most safety prisons. This bathroom is on a busy hall

Contemporary inmates are given a ‘welcome pack’ together with bathroom paper, plates and a cup, two small toothbrushes and cleaning soap

Whereas prisoners are being given three meals a day and have a roof over their head their households could be struggling to pay hire and their youngsters not being fed

Inmate Chris says inmates on the centre are well-behaved as a result of they’re handled with respect and need to be there.

‘In the event that they deal with us like animals that is how we act – like animals,’ he says. 

‘We take pleasure in coming right here, it passes our day. This can be a good jail as a result of we make it good.’

Hayes – ‘Miss’ to her college students – spends her days surrounded by males who’ve dedicated crimes together with homicide however by no means feels unsafe of their firm.

‘When it comes to their crimes I can solely gauge them on their attitudes and behaviours after they’re in school,’ she says.

‘We would like them to look past their complete id being a prison. This place permits them to see one thing else.’

These inmates are participating within the education schemes provided on the Intensive Studying Centre

Two-time killer Vester Fernando tried to homicide one other inmate he repeatedly stabbed within the neck, chest and again inside C pod (above) in April 2020

‘Everybody’s a bit completely different,’ says Governor Jack Reynolds. ‘We give them every part they’re entitled to and it is less than us to take it off them. It is as much as them to stuff it up’

Reynolds has been a jail officer since 1990 and MNCCC is his thirteenth jail.

‘I at all times comply with the philosophy that everybody can have a nasty hair day,’ he says. ‘However if you happen to’re having a nasty hair week, what’s taking place?’

In accordance with Reynolds, the important thing to managing a most safety jail is nice communication.

‘That is what retains you secure on this setting,’ he says. ‘And this centre has a superb bunch of employees who do a spectacular job.

‘The minute you’ll be able to’t talk with folks otherwise you’re abrasive and you’ll’t learn what is going on on you are in hassle.  

‘Everybody’s a bit completely different. We give them every part they’re entitled to and it is less than us to take it off them. It is as much as them to stuff it up. 

‘Like I at all times say, the journey just isn’t the place you have been. It is the place you are going.’