By Russell McGilton
MELBOURNE — Twice in the three months to October, the private operators of the Women's Metropolitan Correction Centre in Deer Park have used chemical weapons to quell prisoners' demands. CS gas (often misleadingly called "tear gas") was used when prisoners refused to return to their cells in protest at the lack of protection from violent inmates.
In one melee, a prisoner suffering from asthma was hospitalised, and the health of a pregnant woman's foetus was put at risk by the gas. Prisoners attempted to block the pregnant woman's cell with wet towels to prevent the gas from entering.
In another private prison in Victoria, the Fulham Men's Correctional Centre, prisoners declared a "stand-in" and refused to return to their cells in protest at overcrowding. Their demands were met with an onslaught of tear gas. A leaked video tape of the event showed that gas blocked the windows of the locked recreation room while some prisoners gagged on the floor and others were beaten by riot police.
CS gas has become a way of dealing with the dwindling numbers of warders in a prison system bent on returning a profit to its shareholders.
Although largely used to control riots, CS gas has been extensively used in wars and colonial uprisings. At low levels it can cause severe irritation of the mucus membranes, eyes, skin and lungs and cause some people to vomit. At higher doses, it can have dangerous effects such as fatal pulmonary oedema, blistering of skin that can lead to dermatitis, perforation of the stomach wall, permanent damage to the cornea and lungs and absorption of cyanide into the peripheral tissues.
It has been suggested that long-term damage from exposure to CS gas could include tumour formation, birth defects and pulmonary disease.
There have already been deaths from the use of CS gas. In Britain, a man in police custody died after being sprayed in the face with CS gas while his arms were handcuffed behind his back. In another incident, a detective suffered a heart attack when training with the gas.
Australia now has one of the world's highest proportions of prisoners in private prisons. Since privatisation was introduced, the use of chemical weapons to subdue prisoners has increased and has put prisoners at considerable risk.
Damian Lawson, a community legal education worker for the Western Suburbs Legal Service who has been assisting prisoners at Deer Park for the past six years, sees the use of tear gas as "a symptom of the privatisation problem".
Longer sentences, removal of rehabilitation programs, lack of staff numbers to ensure adequate care of prisoners, poor negotiation skills of managers and the geographic isolation of prisons exacerbate problems in the correction system.
"They are warehousing the problem instead of dealing with marginalised and disaffected social groups", Lawson said. He argued that the extensive use of CS gas in US prisons and the use of body restraints and body belts that give prisoners electric shocks were only the beginning of things to come.
The Federation of Community Legal Centres is currently raising CS gas use with the new Labor state government, which has also agreed to review contracts with private prison operators.