CHANGING OF GUARD
Prison officers no longer turn a blind eye to child-sex offenders being targeted by inmates in new approach
THEY were once the most despised people in jail, subjected to frequent attacks from inmates.
But child-sex offenders now have a fierce ring of protection from those least expected – the wardens employed to guard them.
A former inmate has revealed so-called “prison justice” has been overtaken by a “duty of care” for all approach to prisoners.
Russell Manser, who spent 23 years locked up for armed bank robberies, said the change that had occurred inside jails was mindblowing. “I started in jail in 1984 – in the early days, they (child-sex offenders) would get set up,” Manser said.
Now, he said, a new wave of guards no longer turned a blind eye. “The prison officers will jump in front of them these days because they don’t want to have to write reports to sort of, say, ‘I took my eye off this guy’ and old mate jumped the fence and f--king belted him’.”
Manser, himself a childabuse survivor, speaks ahead of the fourth episode of former NSW detective Gary Jubelin and actor Madeleine West’s Predatory podcast. “That is a big misconception that is the case, but it’s not any more,” he said. “I did my last time in jail in 2017 and from, say, about 1995, I never saw a sex offender get bashed up for that.”
John Heffernan, the former boss of one of the toughest NSW jails, said in his experience guards did not leave sex offenders unprotected because they took their responsibilities seriously. “The officers may not like the inmates they are assigned to protect or what they have done, but the overwhelming majority will do their utmost to ensure the inmate’s safety,” the last governor of Grafton jail said. “Some inmates in protection may tend to stand over weaker inmates, but they are dealt with very quickly.”
When Mr Heffernan began working in prisons in the 1970s, it was a different story, with “very little” protection offered to inmates, specifically sex offenders and murderers.
“I can remember when the Virginia Morse murderers (Allan Baker and Kevin Crump) came into Long Bay (prison in Sydney),” he said. “They were despised by officers and prisoners alike. They had done horrific things to Mrs Morse (rape and murder). I was aware that inmates who had access to them, such as wing sweepers and inmates in the reception area (who) tampered with their food and generally took any and every chance to make their life miserable.” He said that would not be tolerated now, with dedicated protection areas the norm.
“Officers are there to carry out the directions of the court, they are not there to be self-appointed judge, jury and executioner,” Mr Heffernan said.
Manser said during one of his last jail stints, a 17-person taskforce was established to investigate false claims he had attacked a sex offender “who got severely mangled”. “I said to the cop,
To listen to episode four of Predatory, go to PREDATORY.COM. AU ‘did you have a big taskforce for when this bloke was doing all this freaky shit?’,” he said.
Manser estimates more than half of inmates have been involved in some form of abuse in their life, usually sexual.
“I reckon it’s about 65 per cent,” he said.
“My take on it is (we need to) work on the underlying issue of someone’s offending behaviour and it’s normally drug addiction. Well, what’s the underlying issue of drug addiction? It’s normally trauma.”
Manser, who was first sent to an adult prison at 17, founded The Voice of a Sur
vivor to help victims achieve justice through the legal system – and ensure they are not treated like “a commodity”.
“They’re not like carcrash victims or anything like that,” he said. “They’re people that are severely broken and have no trust in the system. They don’t trust lawyers. They don’t trust judges. They don’t trust the judiciary system because often the judicial system played a big part in getting the abuse they did.”
Manser does not believe pedophiles can be cured and thinks precious prison resources are being wasted trying to do that in prison.