Welcome to 3AW. Skip directly to: Search Box, Section Navigation, Content.

3AW - Fairfax Radio Network

Friday September 3, 2010

What we're talking about

  • DORA mirsodelis on Hinch sends off Irvin Rockman DERRYN DISGRACE HAVE YOU NO SHAME ON THE DAY OF IRVIN ROCKMANS FUNERAL OF ALL DAYS I AGREE WITH LISA.SHAME SHAME SHAME. more
  • Paddt on 'Whatever it takes' Richo - is this the same Richo involved with the tax evasion case with Rene Rivkin an Swiss bank accounts, where the Swiss ... more
  • Greg on Hinch sends off Irvin Rockman Re: Irvin RockmanTypical Hinch - He waits until the day the poor guy dies before spewing out what would have been ... more
  • Mylene on 'Drug addiction is not a disease' Derryn, Is any medical condition that occurs because of a lifestyle choice and ends up involving medication the same as drug ... more
  • Dave on Hinch sends off Irvin Rockman On the day Darren Hinch dies he will be remembered as someone who took delight in dancing of the graves of people the day ... more
  • Robert Sands on Hinch sends off Irvin Rockman My friend Irvin passed. He was a funny fellow. And good for Melbourne. I was a friend of his for about 25 years. My favorite ... more
  • Lisa French on Hinch sends off Irvin Rockman Yet another example of the twisted mind of Derryn Hinch.......not while Irvin is alive and able to respond, but on the day ... more
  • Sandra & Graeme Brown on 'Drug addiction is not a disease' Hi Derryn, my husband and I agree with you 100%, drug addiction is not a disease, it is a choice that a person makes, just ... more
  • Sandra on When is enough enough? I still believe in one vote for one person, note one vote for you and if you don't win I will give my vote to someone else. ... more
  • Ashley Brown on When is enough enough? Enough is enough isn't a strong enough term. We need to go back to the polls for another election ASAP and lets see who ... more
  • Terry on 'Three Amigos' not that independent? Most primary votes. Most two party preferred votes. Democracy?What's that?Forget it. It's the Three Amigos 15 minutes of ... more
  • Steve - Traralgon on 'The crowd just kept swarming' I agree Dave you are hard pressed to find someone who isn't either Asian or Indian in the city these days. Anyway the CBD ... more
  • Terry on When is enough enough? Three political minnows have managed to make a national election all about. Democracy at its finest. more
  • John on 'Our voting system is a joke' Why would ben cousin get away taking drug and still in the Sport?? Any sport other than AFL would have the player ... more
  • Dave on 'The crowd just kept swarming' feels like we are visitors in their city these days...this overseas student business has become absurd more
  • Tony on 'Our voting system is a joke' Dear Darryn,Are you really this stupid or just pretending.Lets have a an unbiased look at the vote.The last three candidates ... more
  • Jack on 'The crowd just kept swarming' 20 Minutes for an officer to be on scene in central Melbourne.And thats what is called a fast response to a job.You can get ... more
  • Timothy Vukomanovic on 'Three Amigos' not that independent? Enough is enough, do these independents have no principals that they stand for, do they have no political phylosophy that ... more
  • Kcory on Hinch doesn't let up on pedophiles *Janelle Wednesday 11 August, 2010 - 8:33 AM I agree with you. I hope you find some peace. I am also a victim that suffers ... more
  • Joseph Le Gall on Julia Gillard will regret this forever Cutting the immigration of non caucasians is not the answer.Caucasians are not the God chosen people they think they ... more

Hinch Blog: Conjugal rights sham

Posted by: Derryn Hinch | 13 August, 2009 - 5:35 PM
There was an outrageous, but typical, story that went to air on the Rumour File this morning.  Reportedly a prisoner was allowed to sleep in even though he had a jail order requesting his presence at court. He told the prison officer ‘it's too cold, I don't want to go to court, I want to stay in bed today' ...  so he did!

Everybody else associated with the case turned up but it had to be adjourned.

Now, the Corrections Department won’t confirm or deny the story because, as usual, they hide behind that ‘we don’t comment on individual cases’ defense which covers a multitude of sins and gets the department off the hook whenever embarrassing questions are asked.

And apparently there are two categories involving prisoners and court orders. Mandatory orders and ‘by request’. We don’t know which category this prisoner came under. But you can be assured of one thing:  If you or I failed to appear in court there’d be hell to pay.

I’m due in both Supreme and Magistrate’s Court later this year. And you can bet if I pull a cockamamie stunt and decline respect the court and refuse to stand up (as happened last week) I’d be charged with contempt.

Prisoners’ rights, and their obligations, are in the news again with the ACT government announcing recently that it will begin a program of ‘private family visits’, conjugal rights, for couples, including same sex couples, who have been together for six months.

In Victoria already has such a program although no other states do.  Coincidentally there’s an article in the latest issue of Spectator Australia on conjugal rights in jail and it’s worth debating.

When you commit a crime, and are sentenced to jail, your punishment is deprivation of freedom. Sure, rehabilitation is part of it but the loss of personal freedom, the loss of liberty is the punishment.

You are no longer permitted to do things available in the outside world. Can’t go to the pub, or the footy, or stay out late, or go home and have sex.

Sorry, sunshine, that’s part of your punishment. And if a married prisoner can argue that he should be able to enforce his conjugal rights (which aren’t legally enforceable at home) and have sexual visits from his wife – why shouldn’t a single man be allowed to phone a friend? Or hire a hooker.

Prison is prison. It shouldn’t to be a dungeon where prisoners are shackled and fed bread and water. But it also shouldn’t be Club Med.

Blog comments Your Say

  • Derryn, I totally agree with you about so many inadequacies in THIS government and many before it, and probably the standard of bureaucracy in general. One example: DHS has long been ruled by the 'men haters'. They ran Child Protection and did everything in their power to discourage male participation, so they really have no-one else but themselves to blame for an inability to recruit staff. I spent years in the 'system' trying to 'normalize' adolescent males, particularly trying to demonstrate to them the futility of a 'life of crime'. The problem is - YOU never hear about the successes, just the failures. DHS encompasses a huge area of the population, as in Child Care, Adolescence, Intellectual Disability, Psychiatry, Geriatrics etc. It covers a huge range of people and it is by its very nature extremely intensive and demanding on available resources. There are no quick and easy fixes, particularly when in some cases it involves multiple disabilities. Corrections are basically the end of the road. I am 100% supportive of appropriate sentencing, but at the same time you have to be realistic. You can't lock people up and throw away the key. There has to be light at the end of the tunnel. Someone has to manage this percentage of the population, and you use whatever options are available, including Conjugal Rights if necessary, to achieve a balance of managing prisoners and hopefully long-term, achieving some form of positive outcome. Prisons ARE a true reflection of system failures. By this stage YOUR immediate priority becomes just getting through the day, with the least amount of drama and you use whatever options are available to achieve that goal. Decisions have already been made - it's too late to turn back the clock~!

    Lenny Friday 14 August, 2009 - 4:21 PM

  • Derryn, I totally understand your feelings relating to 'conjugal rights', but on this issue I have to agree with Corrections. It's two issues - long-term control and trying to maintain significant relationships outside of prison. You can lock em up & throw away the key, but the problem is someone actually has to deal with the daily problems it creates over the next 1/5/10 years, whatever. Prisons survive only through a system of punishment/reward. Prisoners are far more manageable when they are encouraged to maintain external relationships. You can treat a prisoner like an animal (as in old-school Coburg College), but at the end of their sentence, that's exactly what you get - an ANIMAL with 5/10/15 years of built-up anger/frustration, ready to inflict it on the community the moment they are released~! That's not smart management, that's DUMB~! A 'civilized' approach is (long-term) far better for everyone. The purpose of prison is to try to "break the cycle of offending", NOT encourage it. As far as the jail order (depending on whether his/her appearance was optional or not), unless there are justified medical grounds, he/she gets transported to court - END OF STORY~!

    Lenny Friday 14 August, 2009 - 9:48 AM

  • I don't see why the spouse needs to be punished as well. If a husband is jailed for 5 years, but the wife would like to start a family, why shouldn't she be able to do that? I think this could see the breakdown of marriages which would only make it harder for prisoners to integrate back into the community after release.

    Mel Friday 14 August, 2009 - 8:55 AM

Post a comment * Mandatory fields