Allegations of a long-standing culture of misogyny and bullying at prisons near Ballarat by Corrections Victoria officers have been made by former staff, who have spoken exclusively to The Courier.
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'Alice' has chosen not be identified by her real name at this time because of continuing legal action over her compensation case.
Her story begins in the early 2000s when she was working at Langi Kal Kal. She describes how her career unravelled.
She was working in a observation room with another female officer, when they were joined by a male colleague.
"One of the male officers came in a bit late from muster, and you could smell the alcohol on him," Alice says.
"He said 'Oh, I'm so sick,' so I told him to go home sick.
"He started calling us 'f**king c**ts', 'f**king moles', 'f**king sluts' and stormed off.
"A manager came and told us to call the officer back, as he wasn't answering his radio because he was so drunk. The prisoners were waking him up to answer his radio."
The officer was placed in a reception area away from the public and prisoners while he recovered. He returned to work in the afternoon, still suffering the effects of his drinking. Alice says she told the officer she would expect him to apologise for his behaviour when he had recovered.
He replied, she says, with: 'You stupid f**king c**t, you're lucky I didn't knock your f**king head off your shoulders and stick it up your arse.'
"I said, 'If that's where we're at, I'm going to go upstairs and complain.' And he said, 'Well you do, and see what f**king happens.' And he knew more than me."
Alice then made a complaint over the incident to a manager.
"I went to see him," Alice says, "and he was sitting in his chair with his hands behind his head and his feet on the desk and he said, 'So you can complain if you like, but you'll be in more trouble than (name of the officer)."
The case was sent to mediation where, Alice says, her confidential file of allegations was left unsealed. She took a year off employment before being asked to return. She says serious bullying of her at the prison began before she had a chance to go back to work.
This bullying included her being referred to in her absence as a 'f**king lapdog' by male staff in front of a lineup of prisoners. (The term 'dog' in prison parlance refers to someone who has informed on someone else, and is a dangerous reference.)
A fellow staff member warned her of what had been said in front of prisoners, and she received a call from WorkCover advising her not to return to work as Corrections Victoria could not provide her with a safe work place. This led to another year away from her job.
"Part of the mediation settlement was, if I requested a transfer from Langi Kal Kal for any reason, they would provide a review, look at all jobs available across the board in the Ballarat region, and any qualifications that I needed to get they would pay for," Alice says.
She asked for reviews, but they never eventuated.
"Eventually they asked me to return to work (at Langi Kal Kal) and I did. The fight had just about gone out of me," she says.
"Your bucket is never as big as their bucket."
Alice says senior management at the prison refused to speak to her directly from the day she returned to Langi Kal Kal, sending her messages through other guards and looking in the opposite direction when confronted with her presence.
She was forced to return to sharing shifts with the guard who had abused her originally.
"I had to manage it. I would walk into a room and every other officer would walk out. Eventually I worked out who the bullies were and who wasn't, and I gave them a wide berth. I was self-managing, but I was so busy trying to survive that I wasn't aware of it."
READ OUR OTHER STORIES ON THIS ISSUE HERE: Corrections Victoria's toxic culture near Ballarat - staff speak out
Around this time, there was an increase in both the numbers of prisoners and a corresponding number of guards. Alice says she was approached by female staff who, knowing she had made an EEO complaint, were looking for advice for their own situations. She realised how widespread and deep the culture of bullying and sexual harassment had become, Alice says.
"It raised my anxiety considerably," she says.
"There were women sidling up to me, saying they were being harassed, could they talk to me.
"I was living vicariously - and I didn't know who the bullies were anymore! I knew some of them - I was there when Lindy (Cook) was threatened by (one of them); I was there that day."
Despite the agreements reached in the original mediation, reviews were denied repeatedly.
Alice applied to be moved to stores, not because she felt she was a good administrative officer, but simply because she felt she was no longer safe in a custodial position. It also meant a significant drop in income.
She asked for basic rights, outlined in her EBA, to given to her, such as working public holidays in lieu of days off during the week. These were denied. Identification lanyards, which prisoners were required to wear for stores to be issued to them, were a cause resentment among inmates towards staff.
When Alice wrote to management regarding the lanyard issue, she was castigated for 'opening Pandora's Box' and told she should not have emailed her managers with the problem, and that 'the matter was being dealt with.'
"It was not," says Alice.
"Of course it continued. One member of the maintenance crew continually refused to display his lanyard, and it made me wonder if management had instructed him to do it."
Despite having three medical certificates saying she was unfit for custodial work, Alice was told to return to duties managing prisoners. She made a WorkCover claim and used up her annual, sick and long-service leave taking 11 months away from her job; she was given another 12 months' leave without pay.
Alice says despite medical reports saying she was still unfit for custodial work, prison managers insisted she return to that. They then sent a letter saying that, as she was unfit for work, she needed to show reason why she should not be dismissed.
Her case continues.
The Courier acknowledges that the majority of staff working in our prisons, male and female, do an outstanding job in some of the most fraught situations imaginable. They are confronted daily with the extremes of human behaviour, and with offenders who have may have committed atrocious crimes. The staff of our prisons deserve a workplace that supports them fully and makes no allowance for bullying, harassment, or any form of sexual abuse.
- Lifeline: 13 11 14; Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636
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