FOLLOWING on from last week’s story ‘Stanley prisoners’ video celebrates the good life’ this week Penguin News can reveal that a prisoner has said he was attacked by one of the San Aspiring prisoners and that the prison staff would not assist him in taking it further. The man claims he was told it would ‘go against him’ in court if he pursued it.

Image shows San Aspiring prisoners with goods including a mobile phone and a tattoo gun and smoking weed.

Penguin News has seen a signed letter from the prisoner (who was also racially abused by his attacker) who outlines the details of the attack and the feeble response from authorities. The same prisoner said the man who assaulted him also assaulted another prisoner before he was released.
Part of the attack was caught on CCTV in the prison.
Roger Edwards, a Member of Legislative Assembly at the time, had been told about the problems outlined last week and had contacted the then Director of Emergency Services, Pam Trevillion, who had told him there were rules in place to prevent this happening. A letter from Roger Edwards on the subject can be found in this week’s edition of Penguin News.
A very reliable source has outlined to Penguin News that numerous rules were broken during the time that the San Aspiring three were in the prison and when PN sent an extensive list of questions on the rule-breaking that was allowed to occur, to the Director of Emergency Services, PN received the following response:
“As previously stated, these matters have been thoroughly investigated. The investigation is now closed. All of the matters referred to in your email and in the document you attached were considered as part of those investigations. The FIG disciplinary procedure was engaged, and it would be inappropriate to comment further. We would repeat that we believe the prison is now operating in accordance with the law and good practice. In order to provide further assurance that this is the case, we are engaging with the UK Ministry of Justice to arrange an independent review of HMP Stanley later in the year.”
In the email referred to above, PN referenced the alleged attack and outlined in greater detail the following:

• Requests by staff for rules to be enforced and searches to be conducted were said to be ignored.
• No searches, routine or intelligence led, were regularly conducted while the San Aspiring prisoners were in prison.
• The prison manager applied laws, regulations and policies “to his own whims” and showed “double standards and disregard for justice.”
• If staff committed an act of misconduct it was handled in-house
• Reports that staff would engage in various preferential treatments to the San Aspiring prisoners such as run errands, give extra phone cards, allow emails and video calls beyond what was prescribed, and allow purchase of a SIM card for use in the prison phone for extra call
• Prisoners allegedly engaged in various behaviours which were not punished in any way. Verbally abusing other prisoners, the physical assault of another prisoner, the threats toward and verbal abuse of staff
• Prisoners smuggled a mobile phone into the prison
• As many as three phones made their way from stored property into the possession of inmates.
• Prisoners engaged in a process of calling contacts outside of the prison to hide items at ‘The Bunker Project’ which they would pick up while working there, and then take them back to the prison, either making use of the items or later selling/exchanging the items for cash, drugs or alcohol.