Editor, The Age: Phil Lynch`s call for the independent oversight of places of detention, such as prisons, police cells and immigration detention centres (‘Sign up to prevent jail deaths’, The Age, 19/9/2012) should be heeded by all government authorities.
One looks in vain for public reports by those, if any, who are provided with visitation rights and inspection powers. One wonders if there are official prison visitors in the State of Victoria and, if so, to whom they report and what is the content of their findings? While there is always publicity about ‘law and order’ and the building of more jails, what happens inside places of correction remains a mystery to most people. Yet it is the happenings and procedures in such places that have a vital bearing on public safety and well-being.
The UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment must be adhered to in all places of detention. When, as citizens, we hand over to the State the awesome powers of the incarceration of our fellow citizens, we have the right to demand that humane practices are rigorously upheld.
– Keith McEwan, CLA member, Castlemaine, Vic