Tas:Stand-off continues as guards try to negotiate with inmates

AAP General News (Australia)
04-16-2006
Tas:Stand-off continues as guards try to negotiate with inmates

HOBART, April 16 AAP - A tense stand-off continues inside Hobart's Risdon Prison, where
a group of inmates is holed up in an accommodation unit after overpowering a guard.

Up to 28 prisoners took control of Division 4 accommodation unit at 10am (AEST) today
after several inmates struggled with a female guard and stole her keys.

Director of Corrective Services Peter Hoult said the guard managed to escape uninjured.

The rest of the prison was locked down and the group posed no risk to other staff or inmates.

He said the Tasmania Prison Service Tactical Response group was on stand-by at the prison.

The latest incident comes less than a year after a siege in which a prison officer
at the maximum security jail was taken hostage.

The jail also holds gunman Martin Bryant, who killed 35 people at Port Arthur almost
10 years ago.

A spokesman for Corrective Services said negotiations were continuing.

"Negotiations are being done by custodial officers at the prison ... people who generally
work with the prisoners day to day," he said.

"They're (the inmates) in their division ... which is in their accommodation area,
which is Division 4," he said.

"All that they've got with them are the contents of their cells."

"I believe they have asked for some takeaway food, I think it was pizza."

He said Corrective Services still had no idea what had motivated the stand-off.

"We have no indication at this stage to what is driving it," he said.

"It has been non-violent. The report I have had is that the inmates are standing around
not doing very much."

Tony Bull, a former prisoner at Risdon prison said inmates have been forced to take
the drastic action because of substandard conditions.

Mr Bull, released from Division 4 earlier this year, said a lack of rehabilitation
opportunities, substandard conditions and prisoner mistreatment had forced inmates to
act.

"You have to understand how badly these guys are being treated," he said.

"If it was a refugee camp or anywhere else, everyone would be jumping up and down and screaming."

Mr Bull said prison management had failed to improve conditions following a siege last
May in which 20 prisoners held a prison officer hostage.

Frustration among prisoners was now "worse than ever", he said.

The ringleader of last year's siege, Conway Wayne Richardson, was jailed for three
years in February this year.

Richardson pleaded guilty to assault and unlawfully destroying property.

A group of inmates kept prison officer Ken Hannah hostage for 33 hours because they
were dissatisfied with conditions in the jail.

They eventually agreed to release him in exchange for pizza.

They caused $65,000 damage to the reception area of the jail during the standoff.

AAP sam/cjh/de

KEYWORD: PRISON NIGHTLEAD

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