Graffiti vandal would be 'sport' for jail rapists: Magistrate Aja Styles

Sydney Morning Herald - Graffiti vandal would be 'sport' for jail rapists: Magistrate
Aja Styles
September 21, 2011 - 7:37AM

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The state government has denied that WA prisons are unsafe after a serial graffiti vandal escaped an immediate jail term after a Perth Magistrate found that the 20-year-old would become "sport" for rapists and murderers.

During a week in which Sean Robert Taylor had a 12-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months because of a judge's concern about his safety in jail, Minister for Corrective Service Terry Redman said serious assaults, including rapes, in WA prisons had significantly dropped in the past three years.

But those sentiments appear not to have been shared by Magistrate Stephen Malley when he reportedly suspended Taylor's sentence for 124 counts of criminal damage because of concerns that he would be targeted in jail that was "full of rapists and murderers."
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"I'm afraid you are to be sport with no one to look after you," the West Australian reported Magistrate Malley as telling Taylor.

Taylor was ordered to pay $23,750 and do 100 hours community service for separate charges.

University of WA Crime Research Centre's clinical psychologist David Indermaur said it would not be the first time the issue over prison safety was raised in court.

He said while there was much debate on whether these crimes were being committed in jail, his own experience from working in men's prisons during the 1970s and '80s was that it did occur.

"It has been something known to go on since prisons first came on the scene here in Western Australia," Associate Professor Indermaur said.

He said he used to counsel a number of young men who were raped but he believed they only represented a fraction of those affected since it was considered a crime of "deep shame" for men.

He said despite the efforts to sometimes separate the more vulnerable, it did not always prevent it.

Making our prisons safer

A 2009 report, Predator or Prey? by Dr Brian Steels and Dr Dot Goulding of Murdoch University's Centre for Social and Community Research, found that out of 150 male prisoners they spoke to, 116 of them had knowledge of a sexual assault and experienced some pressure to perform a sexual act.

Those who admitted to being raped in prison accounted for 21 out of the 150, the majority of which said the act occurred within the first part of their sentence.

"Thirteen of these men [all aged 25 years or younger] were serving a sentence of 24 months or less, and all had been sexually assaulted within the first nine months of their sentence," the report said.

"Two were on remand [without sentence] at the time of their assaults."

It said that two of the 13 men had been under protective custody when they were raped.

"[Of the 21,] four spoke of being coerced into a relationship that provided them with either a sanctuary away from other predators or a degree of support," the report said.

"In three cases it was reported by the victim that the perpetrator sought them out and encouraged them to consider becoming possible cellmates, situations that deteriorated into sexual abuse within days.

"Only eight of these sexual assaults were officially reported to the prison authorities."

The report found that of the 35 men who had come under pressure to provide unwanted sexual acts, including masturbation and oral sex, was "largely ignored by prison staff".

"Several men among this group spoke about being groomed for sexual favours," the report said. "They mentioned feeling uncomfortable or even trapped in particular situations."

A further six men acknowledged their own predatory behaviour and of those, four said they had been previously assaulted in prison themselves.

Report author Dr Steels said while prisoners did not deserve sympathy they did deserve "justice and fairness".

The report was commissioned by the Uniting Church in WA and the church's Reverend Ron Larkin said the core of state government policy should focus on building communities rather than more prisons.

"Prisons are full of people whose circumstances have led them to make bad decisions and bad choices," he said.

"People with mental illness, drug addiction, low levels of education and unsettled childhoods are over-represented in WA prisons.

"Many people who, before becoming offenders, were also victims of crime themselves.

"Those in prison should not be further victimised. Our report made recommendations about making prisons safer.

"To date we don't have any indication that the recommendations from the report have been implemented."

Yet Mr Redman said that the number of serious assaults, including rapes, had reduced since the Liberal Party came to government.

"Most people would be concerned about the comments that have been reported today. However it is not for me to comment or pass judgement on the Magistrate's decision," Mr Redman said.

"It is my role, however, to ensure that our prisons are as safe and secure as possible.

"On that front, we have almost halved the rate of prisoner-on-prisoner serious assaults and we currently have far more officers patrolling the prisons.

"Prison is not to be a fun place; but it is to be a safe place. And it would be wrong for anyone to have a view that our prisons are somehow not safe; or that the environment somehow mirrors that seen on television shows out of America."

Statistics provided by the Department of Corrective Services showed the number of serious assaults between prisoners, which included rapes, had dropped from 25 in 2007/08 to 16 this year.

The number of prison officers had also increased by 356 since 2007/08, up to 1825 total this year.

The government was also planning to convert Rangeview Remand Centre from a juvenile detention centre into a prison for 18 to 25 year olds, while Banksia Hill Detention Centre will be expanded to become the main juvenile centre.

Appropriate punishment for graffiti vandals

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of RE/MAX WA says the government should consider a different approach to graffiti vandals.

The real estate group's Geoff Baldwin said there had been a clear resurgence in graffiti vandalism throughout many suburbs in recent months, representing a major threat to current property values.

It was fairly obvious that the current response to graffiti vandals was not working and the first step in attacking the problem was to take time to understand what was important to these vandals, Mr Baldwin said.

"Graffiti vandals seem to be driven on by each other in a quest to 'tag' as many spaces as possible in a particular area and this is compounded where no attempt is made to remove the graffiti quickly," he said.

"As soon as one tag appears it is only matter of days before three or four more accompany it and this scourge then quickly expands to other walls and fences in an area.

"Currently the courts are hog-tied by the politically correct minority who defend the vandal's rights while ignoring the rights of the community, so it's time to look for alternatives.

"With this in mind, one of the most important days for any young person is when they are old enough to qualify for a driver's license so an affective and appropriate punishment would be to delay that date based on a demerit system, for any offence including graffiti.

"Currently the courts are finding it harder to allocate appropriate punishment to graffiti offenders, however if these young people knew they would either have to wait another year before they could qualify to drive a car or if they are already licensed, lose that license for a year perhaps they would think twice about pushing the button on that spray can.

"If we are going to stop this problem we need to, as a community, look well outside the box and hit these vandals where it will have the most effect."

The Attorney General Christian Porter would not comment about the case, however Premier Colin Barnett said that many in the community would be dismayed with the outcome.