Recent entries
- Voters may switch off at election time
- Hinch details the OPI mess
- Hinch Blog: Has Overland given up?
- P-platers spared demerit points
- Hinch's message: 'Do something!'
- Do we have a 'boat people' policy'?
- Penalty for 'train wreck' mum slammed
- How to remember Black Saturday?
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What we're talking about
- jason on Hinch gives murderer a call in cell What a joke as if we did'nt know that was mehmet on the other end of the phone.Does this scumbag actually realizes the ... more
- Stephanie Joanne Fenton on Hinch Blog: Has Overland given up? No Overland has not given up. He is an intelligent man with many attractions. One however is not as the police commissioner ... more
- Gaetan on Hinch tackles Brivis horror stories had a Brivis aircon,3 phase large unit (model 38cda15-9) feeding ducts into 12 rooms, installed before xmas, Has not worked ... more
- Bryan on Dr Sabi Lal - why is he still allowed ... As I'm sure none of you have read the case or the judgements, the 'rape' was a pap smear test. There was no sexual ... more
- Bozo on Hinch's message: 'Do something!' Hull's is a pathetic soft lefty moron that is far more concerned for the criminal than the victim. His record over the last ... more
- Alison Dennehy on Penalty for 'train wreck' mum slammed Any time a judge disregards right and wrong like this, I always wonder why. Makes you wonder what sort of person that ... more
- andrew on Do we have a 'boat people' policy'? Rufus you are a complete clown and I suggest you have never run a business and employed staff. You probably are employed by ... more
- Pam Crosbie on Do we have a 'boat people' policy'? Derryn how can these refugees afford to pay $16,533 each after travelling by air from jaffna to Malaysia, costing more ... more
- Rufus Wollon on Do we have a 'boat people' policy'? When you use the phrase "labor shortage" or "skills shortage" you're speaking in a sentence fragment. What you actually mean ... more
- Sandy on Hinch on '80 being the new 60' No need to personally attack one another. All circumstances are different for everyone. I think all of us are going to ... more
- Bert on Penalty for 'train wreck' mum slammed I know precisely why they hand out suspended sentences like lollies, its all to do with MONEY yes MONEY to keep a moron like ... more
- Lynne on Hinch on '80 being the new 60' Good on you Nick !! Feb 2nd We baby boomers are not working because of greed ....most of us have had to hand feed you ' ... more
- John on Hinch tackles Brivis horror stories I have a 2004 Brevis coutour with, a dual controler, which has never worked properly. It turns on cools for five minutes ... more
- Broken on Hinch on '80 being the new 60' All us tradesman can't wait to be still laying bricks at 80 years of age. Really for us younger folk starting out in the ... more
- Dan on When will Brumby address real issues? Neil, Why did you let Mr Brumby off the hook when he was quite clearly talking garbage, or didn't you realise? Mr Brumby ... more
- peter on Hinch tackles Brivis horror stories to joe wed 27th jan they were probably looking at an elbow on the water feed system.mine let go the second time we used it ... more
- Nick on Hinch on '80 being the new 60' Here we go again, baby boomers not wanting to give up working because of greed. On eproblem that is not being talked about ... more
- Leanne Di Tondo on When will Brumby address real issues? Yet another day wasted trying to get myki working and Mr Brumby thinks he has a chance at the next election.I dont think so! more
- Stephanie Fenton on When will Brumby address real issues? I wonder if Victorian's are better off now than they were when Bracks and Brumby were elected? So many promises; so many ... more
- Lenny on When will Brumby address real issues? Luke, back in about 2006, I was probably the most outspoken person (in the biggest live chat room) regarding the war in ... more
Hinch Blog: Conjugal rights sham
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
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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





