Policy on Prisons
Australian prisons are expensive to run, costing about $90,000 per prisoner per year. American prisons cost only about $25,000 per prisoner per year. One of the reasons for this is that Australia is a party to unreasonable United Nations conventions. The Labor Party implements some United Nations conventions which greatly add to costs, while ignoring other United Nations conventions which wouldn’t cost much at all. The most inconvenient aspect of the United Nations convention on prisoners prevents prisoners being in chains. This means Australian prisoners need many times more guards than if prisoners were in chains all the time.
It is our policy that prisoners should be punished for all but the last two years of their sentences. For the last two years of their sentences, they should be rehabilitated. The punishment should take the form of hard labour, and loss of contact with friends and family. One suitable punishment would be working on a chain gang in a hot and humid part of the State. Part of the punishment should be having to wear so-called “high visibility” clothing like that worn by some blue-collar workers. Remember, these punishments are nothing compared to what the prisoners have done to their victims.
A suitable punishment in States with temperate climates would be to make Roman-style galleys, and have prisoners rowing the galleys out at sea for twelve hours a day. The interior of the galley could be kept at 40°C. Prison officers could have electric cattle prods. Surely this would be more appropriate for someone like Ivan Milat than having him watching television all day, like he did before he was arrested.
While what we are suggesting might seem very hard, we actually advocate that prisons should have certain rights. These rights are in the nature of “animal rights”. One right is not to be raped. Another right is to have access to doctors of their own choice, at the expense of their friends or relatives, if they will pay. The last right is to have their estates managed by an attorney whom they have chosen, and not by the Public Trustee.
Accordingly, male prisoners should be segregated from female prisoners. Prison officers should be the same gender as the prisoners. Prisoners of each gender should be divided into four categories, that is, Aborigines, Catholics, Protestants, and homosexuals. Each group should be prevented from coming in contact with the other groups. Homosexuals should never be in touching distance of other homosexuals, except when they are chained up and performing hard labour.
During the rehabilitation part of their sentences, for prisoners who are not serving life sentences, we would have prisoners studying a technical institute course so that they can get a job when they are released. Also, we see no reason why they should not have conjugal visits from a spouse or de facto during the last two years of imprisonment. After prisoners are released, they should be able to get a job at a state owned enterprise.