Images from this afternoon’s press conference by Aboriginal representatives, who gave context to Monday’s Parklea Prison rooftop protest. Yesterday, the prison’s heavily armed Immediate Response Team fired tear gas on inmates who were protesting against racism and other conditions inside the jail. The protesters spelt out ‘BLM’ (Black Lives Matter) with bed sheets on the prison’s roof and ‘took a knee’ to underscore the claims of their protest, as helicopters circled overhead. The protest was eventually put down after dramatic scenes.
Wangkangurru man, Raymond Finn, whose son was detained inside Parklea at the time, reiterated that yesterday’s disturbance was a protest, rather than a riot, as characterised by the prison authorities and some media outlets.
The COVID-19 lockdown has compounded the severe conditions inside the prison, where families’ visiting rights have been restricted. Finn claimed that inmates, many of whom are Aboriginal, are brutalised as victims of racism by prison officers, and by the prison system in general. He demanded that Parklea - a private prison - stop operating for a profit from the misery of inmates, and urged for conditions to be improved. He saluted the inmates’ actions.
Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, a Gadigal-Dhurg-Yuin Elder, also spoke at today’s press conference. She expressed deep concern about Aboriginal deaths in custody and the need to understand the systemic reasons why Aboriginal people are the most incarcerated people in the world.
Researcher and activist Paddy Gibson and State Greens MP, David Shoebridge, also spoke, both decrying past and ongoing complaints about racism and conditions that they say have been emerging from the Parklea Correctional Centre for some time. Yesterday’s rooftop action, it was suggested, was a result of the prison’s lack of response and accountability to these complaints.
Today’s press conference was held outside the offices of NSW Corrective Services in Sydney’s CBD.
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